My journal of learning blender, as a reference sheet for endeavors into blender
This article is from the point of view of a map maker who designs maps for fast paced fps games that have fast movement, teleporters, jump pads and explosive jumping, but can probably apply to anyone who wants to make maps with emphasis on gameplay.
setting up
Download blender, if you'll be working with blender in various locations which may not have an internet connection, download the manual to your computer, extract the zip and open index.html. Now pick up a shortcut pdf
When creating maps with blender, this is mainly referred to as modelling so start with that section first at least understand object and edit mode. Next read through the mesh section and tool section. At this point you should have the bare minimum to get started
tool explanations
extrude: pull the side of a 3d shape out while creating a new shape at the same time
3d cursor: a point in space which is denoted by the white and red dashed circle, it is used as a reference point when you use various tools, use ctrl+c to recenter it at the origin of the space
rip region: allows you to break geometry such as disconnecting edges
must know shortcuts
ctrl+tab a quickswitcher for the different modes
common tasks
camera
focusing the camera origin
If you've created an object and you want the camera to rotate about the cneter point of the object, then in object mode click view and then frame selected.
rectangular prisms
These are quite useful for basic floors and walls, and are a building block to various other shapes.
creating one
dimension setting
create a cube
select it in object mode
press n to open the transform tab
in the transform tab set dimensions near the bottom
this may change the scale of your objects transform, in that case we can apply the objects transform using ctrl+a and then selecting scale
face moving
enable snapping
create a cube
enter edit mode and face select
choose the face or faces you wish to extend
select the move tool and drag
changing dimensions of a rectangular prism
If you have a rectangular prism and you want to change it's size in one of the axis aligned directions, select a face and move it.
Gotcha: The extrude tool is not for this purpose, it always creates a new section of the shape instead of modifying the existing one
bad ways
circular n-gons
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23018/how-can-i-add-a-vertex-at-the-center-of-a-circle
applying a transform
Suppose that you've moved an object to a new location, rotated it or scaled the object, in any case if you'd like to consider the new position as (0, 0, 0) or the rotation as no-rotation or make this version of the object's scaling (1, 1, 1), then we can use ctrl+a to do this.
duplicate and mirror object
select your object and use a mirror modifer on it
subtracting one object from another
select the object you'd like to subtract something from and add a boolean modifier, then use set difference and select the subtracting object, click apply and it will remove it
arch
wedge
3d cursor
The 3d cursor is a point in space which is denoted by the white and red dashed circle, it is used as a reference point when you use various tools, use ctrl+c to recenter it at the origin of the space
centering in 3d center of object
select your object in object mode
shift-s then "cursor to selected"
iteration how to do it
create a cube
go to the cubes properties panel and the modifiers tab add an array modifier with a count of m and apply it
do the same thing again with n
these objects are all grouped together so that we can't modify any singular one, let's fix that:
with the array selected go into edit mode and then press p > separate by loose parts
each object is separated but their origin is set to the original objects center, let's fix this:
in object mode select all created elements and run Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C > Origin to Geometry
reducing cognitive load
As your map becomes more detailed, doing basic things gets slower and slower because your mind has to visually process everything around it even though it may be extranous information, use the forward slash key to toggle isolation mode on selected objects
Texturing
Low Poly Texturing
Our goal is to add textures to things in a way such that one pixel on a texture always appears as the same size in the game, this concept is also known as a constant texel density. In this set-up I'll be assuming that you're using a low resolution square images which you want to tile your maps with.
how to do it
The [Magic UV add-on][1] can be used to accomplish this. Enable the add-on through *Edit > Preferences > Add-ons*, then search for Magic UV and enable it by clicking the checkbox.
Start by splitting the window with a uv editing window and make sure to switch on Material Preview Mode so you can see textures in the other modelling window, make a 1x1 plane.
Select your plane in object mode and select material properties in the right hand pane, create a new material and set it's base color to the image you'd like to use.
In edit mode select the face of the plane and press U > World Scale UV > Measure , this sets the texel density within the Magic UV add-on so that you can apply it to other faces.
Now create any mesh that you'd like to add a texture to for my example, I've made a simple rectuangular prism, making sure that any scalings have been applied. Next unwrap it so that the uv shells are proportional, I used smart UV Project for that.
Now back in the modelling window select all faces and use U > World Scale UV > Apply (Same Density) to apply the texel density you measured, feel free to move all of the faces in your UV editor to make the texture line up as desired