The aim of this tutorial is to take a complete novice in using Blender through just the essential steps of creating a very simple placeable that can actually be used in NwN. My experience is that with few exceptions most tutorials for Blender (and most other 3D modelling programs) tend to overload you with way too much information that you don’t actually need when you first start out and for very little reward. With this tutorial I hope to change that in some small way.
Coming from an electronics and programming (both amateur) background I was frustrated with what I see as a terrible way to teach 3D modelling to absolute beginners. Almost all of these tutorials (and printed books) start by telling you loads of information that isn’t actually used or needed until a lot later in that tutorial. Compare this with programming where you will almost always see some version of the “Hello World” program*. In other words, in programming, baby steps with a reward, to start with (example below). So frustrated in fact, that I wrote this tutorial.
Please can I have feedback on this even if you are an experienced 3D modeller. You can download it from -
Okay… I will strike first…
To learn by doing…
A top down approach allows noobs to explore the user’s interests and strengths more uniquely.
Less time is lost ploughing through the technical variations of each feature.
As more detailed info becomes required, the noob can already perceive “the map” of their intention and not be offset by “the terrain” of features.
As suggested by the comments on the project page, Tarot, it’d be good if this was the first part of maybe two or three. If I recall correctly, the really hard bit is the UV wrapping/unwrapping ( or something like that) with textures.
I liked this one. I managed the chest but couldn’t get it into game. Mind you, I’m uniquely poor at these things, I suspect. If it would be too long, maybe even just let folks do the chest tutorial themselves and pick up with tutorial at the relevant point to get it into game?
For a series of tutorials that must be quite good see this series on YouTube. I say it must be good because in order to save money the people behind the new bafta nominated movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” used that series to teach themselves Blender.
For another shorter series by somebody else, see “Blender for Beginners - Getting Started Modelling in Blender” on the CG Essentials YouTube channel page.
As far as getting a model into NwN you should really look at the thread I linked to under Acknowledgements in the tutorial I posted. Because the tutorial I posted only covered getting a plane it didn’t need any sort of walkmesh. That is one of the things that is covered in that thread that I didn’t cover.
Great! I would never have the patience to watch the video and try it out. I like written tutorials (easier to understand ). If you have a *.mdl file, you may post it. By now I’ve some experience with 3D models created with a text editor only … like this one. cube.7z (4.5 KB). Maybe I can find out whats missing. Did you add a dummy node?
For me, the step from a flat model to a complex thing like the chest is a bit too large. I simply want to know how I can add the third dimension to the flat thingy.
See, I much prefer videos. It might be that as an ex teacher I increasingly saw kids coming up who preferred a video to the written word so I kinda got used to it. Anyway, there were dark times on my way to completing that video but it got there. However, where “there” is now I have no idea. It was pre pandemic. Will have a look and if it’s still hanging around I’ll def upload it here. If not, I might have another stab at it.
That was never an issue. It began life as a cube ! Seriously, as @Tarot_Redhand will attest, if I can do it anyone can. . .
Now you are WAAYYY above my pay grade. All I did was the tutorial. How much I took in is another matter.
Unless you want people to be able to walk through that chest you will need a placeable walkmesh too. I didn’t cover that in the tutorial but the thread I linked to (see acknowledgments in the tutorial) does amongst other things I didn’t cover. Just read through that thread please.
A walkmesh is quite simple, just 4 vertices and 2 faces, no tverts. Done in less than 5 Minutes with a text-editor. Of course you need to take the verts from the model, if you have it …
With neverblender it takes just one click of the left mouse button and can make it so your PC can walk through a placeable archway. OK, so it may need a [Ctrl] + a/All Transforms to clean it up afterwards but that’s it. Just read that thread I link to under Acknowledgements.
Just a reminder that there is really good tutorial on using Blender (shows you how to create a barrel and texture it) in the book “Game Development with Blender and Godot”, of which the ebook version is free to download until the 22nd September 2023.
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If it would be too long, maybe even just let folks do the chest tutorial themselves and pick up with tutorial at the relevant point to get it into game?
). If you have a *.mdl file, you may post it. By now I’ve some experience with 3D models created with a text editor only … like this one. 
but it got there. However, where “there” is now I have no idea. It was pre pandemic. Will have a look and if it’s still hanging around I’ll def upload it here. If not, I might have another stab at it.
