Sculpting Multiple Objects

In this lesson we'll dive a bit deeper and go over tools to give you control over creating more complex shapes. We'll create a garden gnome to get practical insights into these shaping workflows:

• Blocking a sculpt before going into details
• Different ways to create base meshes for sculpting
• Sculpting with multiple objects
• Sculpting with Modifiers

Instead of continuing with the elephant sculpt we will start a brand new model: A garden gnome. This will be base for the upcoming lessons as well, as we keep working on this sculpt.

You don't have to match this example gnome. Look up garden gnomes online and sculpt yours in your own way. The lesson will just guide you through the process and techniques to create one. You can make changes to make yours look unique.

By the end of this lesson you'll have a good understanding of how to work with multiple objects and meshes at the same time.

Blocking the Gnome

At first it's always a good idea to "block out" the sculpt. That means, creating the general proportions out of basic shapes. It also prevents us from putting too much detail into the sculpt before we see it all together.

This is the drawing I used as a reference for the sculpt, but you may use any other photo or reference you find online.

Let's add a bunch of primitive objects (Shift A) to put together a body and a head. We move, rotate and scale them to roughly make up the characters shapes. Duplicate existing objects when needed (Shift D). These are just placeholders for now. We will refine the shapes later on.

Tip

There are many ways to start a sculpt and many ways to get to the end result. Which primitive object you start with and which brushes you use is up to you. There can be an ideal one to use that will get you there the fastest. But ultimately the sculpting toolset is enabling you to shape your objects so freely that it doesn't matter too much. Pick whatever feels right to you and get a feel for the tools and when it makes sense to use which.

Non-destructive Mirroring

For the blocking stage it's actually very useful to use Modifiers. The Mirror Modifier was introduced in the modeling chapter, but here it's useful for a different case: To non-destructively mirror the limbs to the other side.

1. Select one of the leg objects.
2. Add a Mirror modifier in the Properties Editor.
3. Click on the Sample Icon in the "Mirror Object" field.
4. Pick an object that is at the center of the gnome, like the hat or body.

Tip

If you tend to do this a lot with many objects it's best to add an Empty object and call it for example "Center". This object can then be used any time you want to mirror an object along the center. The advantage of doing it that way, is that the “Center” object is less likely to be change or replaced than let’s say the torso mesh object of the gnome.

Now the leg object is mirrored exactly around this other object as a center. To quickly copy this modifier to other objects you want mirrored in the same way you can do the following:

1. Select all objects that should get the modifier.
2. Select the object that already has the modifier last (so that it is "active").
3. Use "Copy to Selected" in the modifier popover, to add a copy of that modifier to the other objects.

Alternatively you can use the shortcut Ctrl L to "Link/Transfer Data" -> Copy Modifiers. This will completely replace the modifier stack on the selected objects with an exact copy of the modifiers on the active object.

Modeling a Base Mesh

Some gnome parts might not match any of the available primitive shapes. Using the modeling tools from the previous chapter is a good choice to for example create the hat fairly quickly. These kinds of pre-modeled meshes for further sculpting are called Base Meshes.

Let's model a simple base mesh for the hat of the gnome:

1. Add a cone as a primitive object
2. Use 12 Vertices in the bottom left panel, so that we have to manage fewer vertices
3. Set the "Base Fill Type" to "None"
4. Add a Subdivision Surface modifier
5. Then add a Solidify for extra thickness
6. Apply the Scale (Ctrl A), which will have an effect on the thickness

Important

While creating a blocking in Object Mode it's very useful to scale objects. But be aware that this will cause various features in Blender to not work as they should! Blender will let you know whenever you enter Sculpt Mode with a warning message in the Status Bar:

You might also notice that your brush cursor will be scaled just like the object is. To make sure that all tools and even modifiers work correctly, regularly use Ctrl A -> Apply Scale!

Now it's time for the extra bit of modeling:

1. Go into Edit Mode
2. Select the top vertex of the cone
3. Bevel that that vertex with Ctrl Shift B to get another ring at the top of the cone
4. Extrude the top face to create the long tip of the hat
5. Select and extrude the bottom ring to create the brim of the hat

From here you can apply the Subdivision Surface modifier to get more resolution to work with. Feel free to go into Sculpt Mode to give the hat the shape that you like. Try to get a feel for using the sculpting brushes on a low poly base mesh.

Trimming Shapes

We could start a shoe with a simple sphere, but let's use this chance to learn another useful sculpting tool.

We only need the top half of the sphere. Instead of going into Edit Mode to delete the bottom half and fill the hole it leaves, we can use the handy Trim Tools.

1. Add a Sphere (Shift A)
2. Enter Sculpt Mode (Ctrl Tab)
3. Use the Trim Tool in the Toolbar (or in the Header "Sculpt" -> "Trim/Add" -> "Box Trim")
4. Trim away the bottom half of the sphere

1. Click & drag on the Trim Tool to use a different shape (Or another shape in the Header under "Sculpt" -> "Trim/Add")
2. Trim away a bit of a cube profile on the sole from the side

Now we can shape the silhouette of the mesh from the orthographic views with the Grab brush. Simply use the "View" pie menu (Tilde) or Numpad 1/3/7. Make sure to have X Mirror enabled!

What if my view is not Orthographic?

If the View pie menu or shortcuts do not put you into Orthographic view, use Numpad 5 or the grid icon in the Navigation Gizmos.

Afterwards, you just need to place the shoe at the right spot and copy the Mirror modifier from the other limbs, if you haven't yet.

Switching Objects

This is already a lot of blocking done. Let's go over the existing objects and get back to sculpting the general shape. Feel free to use the voxel remesher or dyntopo to get more resolution to sculpt on.

Now that we have multiple objects, it is cumbersome to always go back to Object Mode, select a different object and go to Sculpt Mode. Luckily there's a handy way to instantly switch between objects.

1. Point at another object with your cursor
2. Press Alt Q and the object you switched to will blink in orange

Tip

The shortcut actually works in any mode and on other object types such as Grease Pencil and Curves!

The same is also possible from the Outliner by clicking on the mode icon next to the objects.

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Keep sculpting the torso, arms and leg objects a bit with what you've learned. Don't go too high resolution with the remeshers yet. Get the shape and joints in there until you are happy to move on.

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Base Meshes via the Skin Modifier

You don't have to model base meshes by hand. There's a useful modifier to create simple tube-like base meshes quickly.

1. Add a Cube (Shift A)
2. Add a Skin modifier in the Properties Editor

The modifier will turn our vertices and edges into tubes with a quad topology with minimal stretching. Faces are discarded from the original topology.

This is a perfect mesh to sculpt on further and subdivide later on!

For now, here's how you edit the shapes further:

1. Go into Edit Mode (Tab)
2. Enable Xray (Alt Z) to see the original topology inside
3. Set the Xray opacity to 1.0 to only have the wires as see-through

Let's go ahead and use this to make the beard.

1. Make sure you are in Edit Mode (Tab)
2. Merge all vertices (M) -> "At Center"
3. Extrude (E) the vertex multiple times to create a curved shape
4. Change the thickness of the vertices (Ctrl A) to make a nice tapering of the clump

Now let's make the clump a bit more smooth. We can add Subdivision Surface Modifiers to the object. Ideally add one above and one below the Skin Modifier.

• The first one is subdividing the edges to be a smoother curve
• The second one is subdividing the generated tubes to be more rounded

Also add a Mirror modifier so we only have to work on one side and save some time.

Now you can keep duplicating the clumps in Edit Mode to create more. Keep going until you are happy with the overall look of the mass of hair. It doesn't need to be too detailed yet. It's just about the broad shapes.

Tip

There are fast ways to quickly select an entire hair clump mesh. Use "Select Linked" (Ctrl L) to select all geometry that is attached to your existing selection. Alternative you can use "Select Linked Pick" (L) to select what's directly under the mouse cursor, but this can sometimes select the wrong mesh.

I duplicated my selection but the skin modifier doesn't do anything on it?

Among all connected vertices is always one that is marked as the "Root". It's the one that has the dotted red line around it. If you duplicate some part of the mesh but not the attached Root, the Skin Modifier cannot create any geometry for it.

This can be quickly fixed by selecting a vertex (ideally one at an end-point) and pressing "Mark Root" on the Skin Modifier.

For a little bit of asymmetry we can do the following:

1. Select the hair clumps that are closest to the Mirroring center
2. Separate them into their own object (P -> "Selection")
3. Switch to that object (Alt Q)
4. Remove the Mirror modifier on that object

This extra object helps with breaking up the symmetry. Add a few hair clumps to that one so that it takes up enough visible space of the beard.

Rough Base Mesh Modeling

For the hands it will be very beneficial for later to start with a clean topology. So we'll box model the hand real quick.

1. Select the cube object for the hand
2. Enter Edit Mode (Tab)
3. Scale the cube to be flatter
4. Add two Edge Loops along the width and height (Ctrl R)
5. Extrude out the fingers, thumb and wrist (E)
6. Spread them out a bit by moving the finger ends (G)
7. Add more Loop Cuts to make the quad faces less stretched
8. Add a Subdivision Surface modifier
9. Apply the modifier

We'll intentionally do this very rough and don't worry about the shape of the model yet! What we need out of this base mesh is mainly the clean topology. Not the final shape. From this we can go into Sculpt Mode and refine the shapes further in the next lesson.

More Asymmetry

To get even more asymmetry out of the body pose, lets make the arms unique for each side instead:

1. Remove the Mirror modifiers on the arm and hand
2. Set the Transform Pivot Point to "3D Cursor" (Period / In the Header)
3. Select the arm and hand
4. Duplicate them (Shift D) and cancel the movement with RMB
5. Mirror the objects with Ctrl M and X for the X-axis

After doing something like this it's best to apply the scale of the objects. Otherwise our tools and brushes will be flipped as well.

1. Apply the Scale with Ctrl A -> "Scale"
2. Enter Edit Mode on the objects (Tab)
3. Select All (A)
4. Recalculate the Normals (Shift N) so the surfaces are not flipped

Now lets pose the other arm to have the gnome hold out one arm.

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Mini-Assignment

To wrap this up, lets add one more prop that the gnome is supposed to hold in his hand: A flower or a clover.

Use the tools that we learned so far to create this mesh. There are multiple ways to approach this, using either the Skin modifier, box modeling or sculpting. Use whatever feels right for you and experiment.

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That's the end of the lesson. We've gone over common techniques to create base meshes to start sculpting on:

• Adding primitive objects
• Switching objects faster
• The importance of applying the scale
• Mirroring entire objects
• Box modeling and the Skin modifier for base mesh creation