1. First, if it is not in your default scene create a mesh cube by selecting – Add Mesh – Cube. Once the cube is created select 7 then 5 on the number keypad. This will put your viewport in the “Front Ortho mode”
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Now you will need to choose Edit mode and select the limit selection button These allow you to edit the cube easily and make multiple vertex selections. Once these are on, hit A until nothing is selected, then (Ctrl R). Move your mouse over the cube and use your mouse wheel to roll up. If you don't have a wheel on your mouse use the “Page Up” key instead. This will divide your cube with pink lines. When you have 2 lines hit the left mouse button then A. Do this again to get 2 more dividers in the opposite direction.
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b
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Once you have the shape you like, hit 1 on the number keypad to put the veiwport in Front Ortho mode. Hit A until nothing is selected and then (Ctrl R ) for a third time to add 6 divisions like those in the image to the right. Then hit the left mouse button, then A to deselect all.
Hit A until nothing is selected. Then hit B and drag the mouse over the 2 far left and middle vertex. Drag them to the left some more. This process needs to be repeated in order to shape the cube to look like the object in the image below. This will form the torso of your characters body. Think of it as the shape made if you sliced the torso in half.
5. Now hit N. A panel will apear in the viewport. At the base of this panel is a checkbox called “Background Images”. Select this and the small black arrow to its left. An “Add Image” button will appear. Click it. As we are going to add an image to two viewports you will need to do the following for the Front and Right Viewports.
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After hitting “Add Image” you will see a panel group open up. You will need to select the viewport and the image you wish as a background for each. You do this by selecting the small arrow next to the words “Not Set” then for the port, click and search the popup box for the viewport name. Then hit the open button and find the image file you want as a guide.
7. You should have an image similar to the one here on the left. Next hit A to select the whole cube. Manouver it so that the far right is on the blue center line of the veiwport. Try to be as acurate as you can for this. Now chose the modifier panel tag. Select the Mirror Modifier.
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You will now have a duplicate version of your cube in the viewport. Don't apply the modifier yet.
9. Once you have positioned and mirrored your cube you should now resize and reposition your image so that the center line is center of the mirrored cubes and the crotch is at the base. You do this by using the image Size and X and Y position values.
A is to deselect or select “All” B is to “Box” select objects Ctrl + R is to slice objects
10. Hit A again to deselect. From this point, use B and A to select, move and deselect vertex until the shape corelates to the images torso.
12. Select A, B, move and use R for rotate. Position all your vertex to match your image.
11. Using the A and B keys select and move the vertex to match the image.
13. By now you should have the hang of this. You need to move each individual vetex to corelate to your images edge loops.
14. For the next part you will need to delete the inside faces of your models torso. To do this, click off the eye icon in the mirror modifier. This will give you a better view of the faces you need to delete. This will also be easier if you are in solid shade view.
15. Switch to User Ortho mode by holding down the middle mouse button and click and drag to rotate the view to show the inner faces of the torso. You will need to change the edit mode to edit faces by clicking on the faces icon.Hold the shift key down and select all the inner faces by clicking the center black marker on each face. Once you ar sure you have them all, hit delete. A dialogue box will pop up and you will need to select faces.
16. You will now have a hollow cavity in your mesh. Hit 3 and return to the Right Ortho view. Change the edit mode back to vertex edit and change the shade view back to wire frame.
17. From this point use the A and B keys to continue the matching of the vertex to the edge loop image. This process can be a little tricky. Push on as the results are worth the frustration.
18. Continue using the A and B key and moving each vertex to the right positions..
I noticed a slight issue while creating my character. Blender 2.5 seems to have a right view that should be called a left view instead. I am sure that there must be somewhere I can change the view name. Its ok the model will still turn out fine.
19. You can check your progress in the user view by hitting 6 on the num pad. If you get the hang of it you can use this view to move the vertex into a better shaped torso.
20. While in User Ortho view use the 4, 6, 2 and 8 kys to position the botom of your torso so that the leg stups are facing to the front. Change the edit mode to face edit.
21. Now holding the “Shift� key down select the stump faces. While keeping the selected hit 3 and switch to the front view.
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By now you have used the A and the B key. Also previously you should have checked out the tutorial at TFAS: Your first extruded cube model. The guys at katsbits will have shown you the power ofl E key. Of course this stands for extrude and it will alow you to grow selected faces into new meshes. So from here you will need to use E, R and the move tool to roughly position your edge loops for the leg.
23. Finish the foot off as a stump. Use the S key to scale where needed. Next you will move between the front with the 1 key on the num pad and right with the 3 key. Slowly repositioning the vertex to correlate to the drawing, remembering to change to the vertex edit mode and use A and B keys.
24. Once you have finished the leg.Its time to work on the arm. At the top of the torso there should be a grouping of vertex that are roughly octagonal in shape. Try to reposition each of these to get a better shape something closer to a circle. Once you are happy switch to face mode and select the faces inside the octagonal group. Again use the E key to extrude, The R key to rotate and the S key to scale until you are happy with the result up to the wrist.
25. Once at the wrist its best to go back and check the alignment of each of your edge loops. Even though you will make tweaks to the character later if you need to. Its always good to fix as you go.
26. Zoom out and check the model against the reference image. Don't worry about weird “Right view is Left view' issue. This may be sorted out in later versions of Blender. The version I am doing this tute in, was still in Beta stage.
27. For the end of the arm and the hand zoom in as close as you need and repeat the process. End the hand with a final extrude, scale and rotate.
28. To make the hand look more like a hand you will need to scale and tweak each edge loop one at a time. A neat set of tools to help with this are located at the bottom of the 3D view. These are a set of transform, rotate and scale tools. A great thing to know about these tools is that you can change the transform orientation the tool works too. It can be Global, Local, Gimbal Normal or View. Ths will give you a lot of flexabilty when in tight corners. For now change the setting to normal and choose the scale tool. Now use A and B to select groups of vertex and use the scale tool to spread the hand shape out.
29. To get the cupping of the hand, navigat the user view to look in just under the hand and with the transform move tool push individual vertex into position until you are happy with the result.
30. For the thumb, switch to face mode and select the edge two faces. Then E to extrude and use the scale rotate and transform tools to put the faces where you would like them.
31. This will take some tweaking so be patient. The model you are making can be tweaked again later but if you go slow and carefuly you will get a result that requires little work later.
32. What you are looking at achieving is similar results to mine. A thumb that curves out of the wrist and adjacent to the hand. In a future tutorial I plan on creating a more realistic hand. For now this cupped hand will be fine.
33. Now the only thing missing for the body is a neck.
34. To create a neck you just need to select the top set of faces between the shoulders. Once selected change the transform orientation to global value and hit E for each extrusion. Use the image as a guide. I have added one extra extrusion to this as an aid to connecting the head later.
35. You need to do the same as before and move the vertex to match the drawing.
36. Do this for both the front and the side views.
37. For this next bit you need to turn off the mirror modifier by deselecting the eye buton on the modifiers panel. Once you do that navigate in the user view until you can see the inner faces that where created in your neck extrude. These need to be deleted so select them and hit delete.
38. There will be some residue faces that are a little harder to select.You still need to delete these so select them all and hit delete.
39. The last few things to do is tweak places that don't look right. I worked on the neck, the back and the thumb. As I said before you can tweak later but it helps to get it right early.
40. Just a few small steps to go. As we have to make a whole body mesh that we can put bones into later. We need to apply the modifier and weld loose vertex together.
41. So to do this hit the apply button on the modifier.This should turn the mirrored version of the work you have been doing into a mesh that you can deform later with bones.
42. For this last bit you will need to stitch each mirrored body section together through the center. To do this be sure you are in Edit mode and that the vertex select option is on. Then use A and B keys and select each pair of verte. Hit Alt + M and select at center. The vertex will weld together. Use the mouse wheel or 4, 6, 8 and 2 number pad keys to rotate to a better selection vantage. You will need to travel around the center line and weld each of these together.
43. Hit A till all the torso is selected. In the panel to the left of the viewport hit the Recalculate button under normals I will tell more about this button in future tutorials. Then hit the smooth button under shading.
44. The very last thing is to add a Subdivision Surface modfier. We are done. Next we will build a head and then add bones to our character.
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