New to Blender

[Turinu]

I've been modeling in Sketchup for awhile now, making models like mecha and various weapons. Well, I decided to start making models for weapons to be put into Skyrim, and I've been using Blender in order to export them from Sketchup and save them as OBJ files.

 

Now, this is where my mind is practically blown by Blender, and not in a good way. Blender's interface is so cluttered and confusing, I can't make heads or tails out of it. Sketchup was so simple of a program on how to do things like erasing unnecessary edges, that looking at Blender makes me white out.

 

I pretty much need help on three things, and would be greatly appreciative to any modeler out there who can help me out on these three points.

 

1. Unnecessary edges on faces - When I import the .DAE file I create through Sketchup into Blender (It's the only way I find to keep the smooth edges the way I want them), a bunch of unnecessary lines appear across all the faces; I'd be grateful for information on a way to clear up this "clutter".

 

2. Merging layers/scenes/meshes - Collada .DAE files seem to break apart my model into various parts (Viewable through the Active Scene Selector), and this makes it almost impossible to properly UV Map. They appear labeled as Mesh.001, Mesh.002, etc. Pretty much, I wanted to know how to merge all these parts together, so I just have a single model in the file for UV Mapping.

 

3. UV Mapping! - Never done this before, so I have no clue how to properly do it. I see the option in Blender and have played around with it, but I don't know if I'm choosing the right options, or how to even export the UV Map it creates after unwrapping the model. Any and all help on this would be appreciated (As I'd love to provide UV Maps along with my models, in case anyone ever wants to make textures for them; heck, if even I want to try and make textures!).

 

Sorry for the long post, but again any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I want to start churning out some nice weapon models for Skyrim!

[Werne]

Well, you haven't specified which blender version you're using but I guess you use 2.49.

 

1. Unnecessary edges on faces - When I import the .DAE file I create through Sketchup into Blender (It's the only way I find to keep the smooth edges the way I want them), a bunch of unnecessary lines appear across all the faces; I'd be grateful for information on a way to clear up this "clutter".

 

Select "Edge select mode", select the edges you want to delete, press delete and select edges in the drop-down menu that appears. Here's a pic showing you where the buttons to switch between vertex/edge/face select modes are:

 

2. Merging layers/scenes/meshes - Collada .DAE files seem to break apart my model into various parts (Viewable through the Active Scene Selector), and this makes it almost impossible to properly UV Map. They appear labeled as Mesh.001, Mesh.002, etc. Pretty much, I wanted to know how to merge all these parts together, so I just have a single model in the file for UV Mapping.

 

Go to Object mode, select the objects you want to join, press Ctrl+J and select "Join selected meshes in the menu that appears. You can click "B" to select multiple objects at once or you can select them one by one while holding Shift. Here's a pic:

 

3. UV Mapping! - Never done this before, so I have no clue how to properly do it. I see the option in Blender and have played around with it, but I don't know if I'm choosing the right options, or how to even export the UV Map it creates after unwrapping the model. Any and all help on this would be appreciated (As I'd love to provide UV Maps along with my models, in case anyone ever wants to make textures for them; heck, if even I want to try and make textures!).

 

UV unwrapping is a b*tch, especially when you're new to modeling but I'll do my best to explain the basics to you.

 

The first thing you need to do is to split the 3D View window into 2 seperate ones (by clicking on the border between 3D view and Buttons window and selecting Split area) and switch one of them into a UV/Image editor window (by clicking the grid icon next to "View" and selecting UV/Image editor), like this for example:

 

After that you'll need to mark the edges where you want the UV to be split. Go to Edit mode, Edge select mode and select the edges, press Ctrl+E and select Mark Seam in the menu that popped up. To select more than one edge hold Shift while selecting. You can see the marked edges as thick orange lines, you can see it on the pic above. Oh, and unlike Sketchup, you select with the right mouse button. Then press "A" a couple of time untill everything is selected, press "U" and select Unwrap in the menu that popped up. Like this:

 

To export the UV Layout for texturing, go to edit mode, press "A" in the 3D View Window untill everything is selected and in UV/Image editor window go to UVs/Scripts/Save UV face layout.

 

I explaned you the basics, now it's up to you to figure out the rest. And if you need any help or maybe you have no idea what I just wrote, ask.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Werne

[Turinu]

Thanks oh so very much. I shall put to use what you've explained here, and hopefully begin producing some nicely made models and UV Maps for Skyrim. :D