How to build an object with fine angles
polycounter lvl 12
I've started trying to learn 3D modeling/texturing this past month and there's a problem I keep running into. I'm using blender but I get the feeling that this is a hurdle that's universal to 3D modeling.
I'm working super low poly at the moment, often extruding each face by hand and haven't really even touched surface division yet. When I build an object I often want to add some fine details into it but am continually running into the issue of having to choose to either keep the verts on the grid, or try and hand position them in 3D space. I've yet to find an easy way to get a series of verts to follow a line when the points are suppose to take positions on that line, but off of the grid between the start and end point.
As an example I'm building a circular style generator with copper wrapped motor coils. I'd like to get a nice continuous angle from the outer edge of the coil to the inside so the whole assembly tapers. This would be easy if it was just one line but I'm trying to break it up with a series of ridges that also need to follow the same broad silhouette angle. every additional loop I add in creates more lines that cause more and more verts to stray from the angle I'm trying to build and snapping them to the grid just destroys the object's silhouette.
I hope I'm describing this in a way that makes sense. Half the problem of learning blender (and 3D modeling itself) seems to be learning what the names of the operations you're trying to perform are...
I'm working super low poly at the moment, often extruding each face by hand and haven't really even touched surface division yet. When I build an object I often want to add some fine details into it but am continually running into the issue of having to choose to either keep the verts on the grid, or try and hand position them in 3D space. I've yet to find an easy way to get a series of verts to follow a line when the points are suppose to take positions on that line, but off of the grid between the start and end point.
As an example I'm building a circular style generator with copper wrapped motor coils. I'd like to get a nice continuous angle from the outer edge of the coil to the inside so the whole assembly tapers. This would be easy if it was just one line but I'm trying to break it up with a series of ridges that also need to follow the same broad silhouette angle. every additional loop I add in creates more lines that cause more and more verts to stray from the angle I'm trying to build and snapping them to the grid just destroys the object's silhouette.
I hope I'm describing this in a way that makes sense. Half the problem of learning blender (and 3D modeling itself) seems to be learning what the names of the operations you're trying to perform are...
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