Getting Started Part 4: Duplicating and Subdividing.

This is where things get interesting, so far we have learned how to manipulate single points, but when we mix in subdividing or duplicating points, edges or polygons we can really start to modify out objects shape.

For this start with a Cube and set its U/V/Base subdivisions in the primitive properties window to 1/1/1 (make all faces of the cube only one polygon face). For the duration of this tutorial I am going to have my camera in “shaded” mode.

First we will do duplication, with your cube created in the scene go into point selection mode (either by going to the selection menu on the main shelf or simply by pressing the “T” key). Select any point and press ctrl+d. This will duplicate the point, your cube should now look like the picture below.

duplicating is that simple, Now try to select any of those 4 points and translate them (move them around) see what kinds of shapes you can get. duplication of points is extremely useful for things like rounding cubed corners.

Next switch into edge selection mode (either by going to your main shelf and clicking the edge selection tool or simply by pressing the “E” key) select any edge, I would recommend selecting an edge away from the points we just duplicated so we can see how edge duplication works on a fresh edge. Once you select your edge simply press ctrl+d to duplicate the edge. If you worked from a fresh side you should see something like the picture below.

With your new edges duplicated try moving things around with the translation too again to see how the object manipulates now.

Now we will look at the polygon duplication, select any face on your cube with the raycast polygon tool (either by going to the main shelf or simply by pressing the “U” key). Once selected press ctrl+D, now this is where things get a little weird, you will see nothing out of the ordinary at this point, we have duplicated our poly face and effectively have duplicated all edges and point around it. If at this point you go into your translation tool and move the face you just duplicated you can get a better visual of what has happened. Try also moving a non duplicated Face and then duplicate it so you can really see the difference.

The final part of duplication will be out full object. Go to object selection mode (either by using the main shelf or by simply pressing the “spacebar”). with your cube selected press ctrl+d, this will duplicate the entire object. move this new cube around and you will be able to see your brand new second cube.

Next is subdividing. We will only focus on subdividing in polygon mode, (you can use this in edge mode as well, it will create new point, but you have to swap from edge mode to point mode to even see the new subdivided points and it just not something your really ever going to do) For this example I started with a new cube, feel free to use your current cube if you want. You will mostly be using this to experiment with shaping. Once you have your cube simply select a polygon face in raycast polygon mode (“U” key) and then press shift+D. this will open the new subdivision menu, feel free to experiment with the different type of subdivision, and move your points, edges, and polyfaces around to see how the model reacts. below are images of the 4 types of subdivisions.

At this point believe it or not, you now have the knowledge to make most prop like models (or buildings) almost everything you build will be done simply by duplicating or subdividing a face, edge or point and simply moving things around, scaling things or rotating things til we get our desired shape. Fiddle around with this on different primitive (the cylinder, cube and sphere are usually the most used primitives so experiment on those, see what kind of shapes you can make). In our next section we will cover adding new edges manually and welding points.