one very powerful modeling tool in blender is the loop cut and slide tool.
To use it simply go to the quick tools menu on the left while in edit mode and selected,
then hover over your mesh with your cursor and you'll notice a
yellow indicator that seems to loop around your mesh in various ways.
If you left click,
you'll notice that the loop cut has created a new
loop of edges around your mesh where the indicator was
inserting new vertex is wherever necessary.
This is very handy for manually increasing the number of polygons
in certain parts of your mesh for modeling.
So that's the loop cut part of the tool. But what about the slide part of the tool?
Well for that, all you have to do is the left click drag. Instead
you'll notice that instead of immediately creating the loop cut in the middle,
it allows you to slide the loop along your mesh before letting go of left click.
The placement of your loop cut will then correspond
to wherever you dragged it along the mesh.
If you happen to start dragging the Luca on accident and
would prefer to cut your mesh along the middle after all,
simply right click before letting go of left click to cancel the slide.
If you notice in the bottom left hand corner, after you've created a loop cut,
an operator panel will appear that you can expand
this panel will include settings that will affect what you're recently performed.
Loop cut will do.
For example, you can increase or decrease the number of cuts along your mesh,
smooth your mesh based on a fall off or slide to
adjust your loop cut along your mesh with the factor value
for hockey users simply press control R.
However I should mention that if you already have the loop cut tool selected
control our will simply act as a left click action
entering the tool into slide mode.
So I recommend using the hockey without the tool selected.
Now there are a few key differences between hotkey
users and toolbar users for this particular tool,
assuming you do not have the loop cut tool selected and you press control R.
You will also be able to very easily change the
number of cuts you make by using the scroll wheel.
This bypasses the need to open the operator panel to change the number of cuts
when left clicking with the control our hotkey,
you'll also notice that it automatically enters slide mode instead
of creating a loop cut immediately like the toolbar tool does
simply right click.
To default the loop cut back to the middle of the
section you cut or left click to confirm your slide position
real quick. Let's take a look at the practical application of the loop cut tool
for this. We're gonna go ahead and make a chair.
First thing I'll do is take my cube and scale it down so it's flatter.
Then I can take the loop cut tool and cut my mesh in a few places that
will give me more faces in particular areas of the mesh that I want to work with.
For example,
we're going to have to add the back of the chair as well as the legs of the chair.
So let's make sure we have four faces.
We can choose from for the legs as well as a row of faces for the back.
From here, I can use the extrude tool,
which will be covered in its own video to add geometry to my mesh along my selection.
I hope this demonstrates how useful the loop cut tool can be
for modeling.