Introduction to Hard Surface Modeling

Model hard-surface objects with smooth curves and sharp details

Hello and welcome to this CG Cookie tutorial series on hard-surface modeling in Blender. Through this series I’ll be giving you a complete introduction to modeling hard-surface objects with subdivision surfaces, allowing you to create anything from vehicles, to weapons, to environment props. For this Blender tutorial I’ve chosen a small, stylized airplane as the subject matter as it provides a great example of hard-surfaces that is fairly simple but also easy to learn. The plane design is based on artwork and modeling sheets created by Tim Von Rueden.

I’ll be walking you through the complete process of how to model in blender, demonstrating a variety of techniques and tools along the way. First we will set our artwork as a blender background image, then among other things, I’ll be showing you box and edge modeling techniques, how to use various modifiers for non-destructive modeling, and multiple techniques for creating sharp edges with optimal geometry. In this series, even though it's a Blender tutorial for beginners and we dive into the Blender basics, we won't be getting into UV Unwrapping, since we won't be using any cg textures, nor will we touch upon retopology or compositing, it will all be centered at hard surface modeling. Finally, this series is presented in real-time, giving you a complete picture of my modeling process.

Extra add-ons and themes

During this series I make frequent use of a custom add-on I developed that helps to speed up the workflow for common tasks. You can download the add-on, along with the custom them I use for Blender’s interface below: Jay Tools (now known as Quick Tools)CG Cookie Blender UI Theme CC Music: "H20 Instrumental" by Airtone