Guide to Modelling Low Poly Island in Blender - Beginner

1. 1. Introduction: Today we're gonna be designing a low poly island in Blender. I've created a bunch of low polyprotic. I've created a bunch of low poly masterpieces before. So I'm really excited to show you some tips and tricks on how you can do this too. In this class, we'll be using blend of 3.4, which is free to download. You're more than welcome to follow along with me or create your own masterpiece and low poly style, let's jump straight into Blender. 2. 2. Modelling Low Poly Island in Blender: Alright, so here we are in Blender and this is what it should be looking like for you. For we have this light just here, we're just going to delete it, and we're just going to delete this camera as well. If you don't know what I'm doing or you don't understand what I'm doing, you can just see down the bottom what keys I am clicking. The only thing is sometimes when I click Option and might actually be Alt for you depending on what type of keyboard you have. So if it's not working and you're using option, try out. And that's just my only tip for that at the moment that we're gonna be starting with the starting cute to create this low poly island. And we're gonna go G and then we're going to scale it down on these. Just like that. You can go into front view as well to view it or to scale it if you want to. Now you can really make it this island have you want, you could start with a circle or you can stop the cylinder to make it rounded. But we're going to be doing Square today and maybe in the future we would do a circle as well. So first thing we're gonna do is tab into edit mode and we are going to make some loop cuts. To make a loop can go Control R. And you see that little yellow bit turn up there. And then you just need to make two clicks to selected. You can also go Control R and you can scroll up and down your wheel to make us meaning loop cuts as you want. So it probably actually just want the one in the middle and then the one here as well. Just like that, I'm going to select these two vertices. I'm gonna go x and I'm going to delete the vertices. Now I'm going to select this menisci, this one, this one, and this one, and press F. And that'll fill in those vertices and beer. I'm just going to do that on the bottom as well. If now you can see it looks like this. Now we're actually going to be putting the water here. That's why it is looking like that. I'm going to go face select me, go Shift D to duplicate and pay to separate it from the selection. So now you can actually selected properly. So we're gonna go out into object mode, recap what we just made, and then tab into edit mode. You can go a to select all. I'm going to just press one. Actually, I'm just going to press three. I'm going to extrude it along the z like that. And I'm just going to make it a little bit lower than where my sand bar is going to be. Alright, I'm happy with that. Alright, so that's what that is looking like. We'll go into the water, will go a to select all. And we're going to right-click and we're going to subdivide that down the bottom left-hand side. You can click how many times you want to sub-divide. I think I'm gonna go with five times. And then I'm going to click, press a to select all and go Control T, just like that. So now we have turned them all into triangles, which is exactly what we're often, we're going to go into vertices selected. You can press one as well. We can select it up the top here I'm gonna select a couple of vertices. You could individually dragged them and pull them who give them a, what a texture. Or you can go over here to proportional editing and you can click that, turn it on, and we're going to go to random. Now you go there and we're gonna go G. And you can see this circle has appeared on the screen to make it bigger or smaller, you just need a scroll with your mouse wheel. If you can't see it scrolling. And if you scroll all the way and you still can't see it, scroll out, but he will deviate somewhere. Somebody says colon, I'm just going to pick up some of these vertices. I'm just going to have a little bit of a play with them. They don't need to be perfect. It's all low poly. I'm just like picking up and putting them around like that and I don't mind if they overhang. I think it adds a little bit of character to it. And putting on the random as well makes it really cool because it means they're not all going to end up being like the same height or width or anything like that. So you can play with this however you want. But this is my biggest tip for joining the water in a low poly. I'm just going to turn it off and I'm just going to bring in these vertices just a little bit and maybe just that one just there. So that is what the water is looking like. And already you can see that low poly look at B. Now we're just gonna do a low poly look to the sand. So we're going to select all of them by pressing a right-click sub-divide. And we'd probably going to sub-divide it about five times as well. Then we're going to go Control T, and now they are all triangles. We're going to tune back on proportional editing, make sure it's still on random anymore. We're going to do is we're going to call g and we're just going to move them around. I'm not going to move them on exact vertices or anything like that. I'm just gonna kinda have a big play. Whatever I want them to look like. And I do want it to come out the sides a little bit as well. I do think it adds a lot of character to this type of design. So we're just going to pull them out just like that. Be a little bit. Yeah, I think that is looking really, really cool. Event. You can tie it back. Now you can see all of these different log poly looks. And I'm really happy with how this is looking. And we can also fix up these a little bit to the end, so no need to worry about them right now. We can go in or to fix them. You can just go in and you can press Alt or Option and just find the vertices that's affecting and just bring it down a little bit like that. So we've got the sand and we have the water. Now what we're going to do is we're going to do at some palm trees. I'm only those Shift a and I'm going to add an applying, and I'm going to click slash to go into isolation mode. I'm gonna go G and then scale it down. I'm going to go press seven. So we're looking from the top and I'm going to tab into edit mode. I'm then going to scale it along the x. So we're about there and I'm going to go Control R. Haden's three loop cuts by just scrolling up on your mouse view and then clicking. But just gonna do a cut in the middle. And then we're gonna go Merge and Center. And we're going to merge that one at the center as well. So it's looking very good. We're gonna go here to edge select or press. And we're just going to hold down Option or Alt. And we're just going to turn off proportional editing, just smooth Golgi and then see how images going to pull it up just like that. And it's kinda what we are looking for. So what we're gonna do is we're going to go Control off. We're going to add in a loop Katia and a loop cut there. We're going to select, say that Buddha C and we're gonna go V. And it's going to separate. So you can actually separate them like that to make them look a little bit more like a leaf. So just adding a little bit like that. So you can do this however you want. As many cuts as you want as well, whatever you want. So I'm just gonna go around and do this. We have something that looks just like this. Why minds like go by going a and then select a and then go down just like that, so that we have this beautiful log holly leaf. I'm back out into object mode. You'll be able to say what it is looking like. And I quite like that. I do think I want it to be a little bit rounded. So I might select those vertices all in the center, just like that. Turn on proportional editing cocci, and then just turn it up a little bit just so it's a little bit rounded. And if I go into side view, you can see how rounded that it's actually become. So I'm happy with that. I might bring it down just a little bit MO tab back out. So I'm going to select one. I'm going to pull it down. Then I'm going to pull it here. And we're actually going to change the origin point. So to do that, go to Object, go to seed, origin and origin to 3D cursor, which is just here. It says exactly where we want it. Now we're going to go Control a and we're going to apply all transformations and rotation and scale. And then going to add on a curve. The curve we want is this circle. We're going to select this leaf. We're going to go up to array modifier, turn off relative offset, turn on object offset and select that circle. We want maybe five leaves. We're gonna go over here to object properties. And then the z rotation, we're gonna go 360/5, just like that. And you should have it like this. Have you find your leaves that everywhere in the big and a small, You haven't applied the rotation and scale, so you just need to go Control a to apply those just there. And that's my biggest tip for how I do this. This is how I also do plants and flowers and all that type of thing. But yeah, this is my base technique and I love doing this. Well, you wanna do as well. If you want to add some variation is you can change the rotation of the y. We can change the rotation of the journals like that. So what do you mean you after I might just leave mine like this for now and then change it a little bit later. What I'm gonna do is apply the array modifier, delete this circle, select these little palms, Shift D to duplicate it, rotate, and then pull them up and scale them. So it should just be like that, jazz like that. So now you have a little bit more dimension to your palm tree. We're going to select all of them. Press Slash because we were in isolation mode. And now you will see your island has popped up. So we just seem to scale this little tree top and then we're just going to move it to the side, just to the back and I'm just going to place it. I'm thinking Am I will name a little bit bigger. I think that's a great size there. So what I'm gonna do now is I'm just going to get my cursor. I'm just gonna put it on the ground and then I'm gonna go back to my selection box. I'm going to go, I'm going to add in a cylinder, and I'm just going to make it about 16 vertices. And then I'm going to scale all the way down like that. And then I'm going to scale up, gonna go one. So we can actually see what we're doing. And it should be something like that. I'm just going to put the tree, I'm going to put it in the center, just like that. Then I'm going to tap into edit mode for this guy. We're just going to select the vertices and the top of it. And we're just going to scale them down like that. Maybe even just like that, I'm gonna go out of the X-ray mode. So then what we're going to do is go control. We're going to add in a bunch of loop cuts just like that. And then we're going to go to just select these loops just here. So if you just hold, if you just hold Option or Alt with the shift here we have the slight, more than one group. Just like that. We're gonna go Control B. We're just gonna pupil them like this. And then we're gonna go back down there. So we're just gonna go down. We're going to select the vertices in the top part, just here. We're going to hit period and my cable and make sure it's on individual objects. And then we're just going to scale it like this. Now I forgot to select the bottom one, so I'm just gonna go into slash mode and then also just select that one as well. Just so when we scale them like that perfect crisp period on your keyboard again and go back to the median points. So you don't forget to do that. I'm really happy with how that is looking. And I might even just lifted up a little bit. Tab back and data mode. I'm going to press Slash on my keyboard. And I'm just going to press Faisal it I'm gonna go in and press I. And then I'm going to press one and extrude it down just a little bit like this. Now it's looking a little bit better. I think that is one of the trees. And we want to do another little tree as well. So I'm just gonna go Shift D. And then I'm going to scale it. And I'm just going to place it. Or you can do is you can also rotate the trace a little bit. Or you can even go in. And you can select some of these vertices by going into X-Ray mode. Say we want these vertices and you can turn off proportional editing and you can pull it a little bit so that it is a little bit on a lean. And then I'm just going to rotate this around, bring it forward like that, and then just also rotate. Just like that. Perfect. So you can play around with how you want them to look. Obviously, palm trees aren't straight up and down though. You can definitely do whatever you want with them. I'm going to play so my palm trees around and I will see you when we get back. Alright, so this is what my little trees are looking like. And I also had this one here that I duplicated just in case I missed any of them up. But I'm quite happy with how they turned out and I'm very excited to see what you've done with your little trees. So what we're going to do now is we're going to make a tint. We're going to go Shift a and we're going to add in a cube and we're going to scale it down. We're gonna go into slash mode so that it's isolated. And then we scale it along the y, just about there, and maybe even scale it down just a little bit. We're going to tab into edit mode. So here is a little tint. We're gonna go and throw off just like that. We're going to select these vertices on each side. I'm going to go cheat and go G and pull them down just like that. And as you can see, the team comes together very quickly. We're going to go Control R and we're going to add in a loop cut here. And then we're also going to do that. On the other side, pentagonal faces lakes like those two faces and delete those faces just like that. I'm going to do in the three loop cuts like that, had an a little bit more vertices. And then I'm going to go in and I'm just going to select these little guys and I'm just going to move them a little bit just like that. Just something that maybe looks really low poly, it looks real and a pulling wheeled, something like that, then you can fiddle around with that however you like. We're going to add in some more leukocytes. So we're going ahead and three here, we're going to add in two here, two on the other side. And then we're going to add in three in the middle. We're going to select that middle bit is hey, ten or proportional editing. And we're just going to move it down just a little bit. You see how it's curved and just like that, you're going to select those vertices. And then you can just also move them in if you want to. And then you can also go around and pull out some of the other vertices. I'm going to select all and go Control T. And then we have all of those triangles just they're gonna go back to the vertices select with the randomized proportional editing on. I'm just going to move everything just a little bit. They can do this however you like there's no right or wrong answer here. Just like that then is our little low poly tan and I think he looks really, really cool. We're gonna go out of slide-show mode and we're just going to bring him up to the beach, maybe even rotate them just a little bit. Scale a mom select one to make sure it's not fully in the sand. And while we might even do is just make another little one. C spent all this time making the Tam, who might as well clutter or a little bit with the tenths or maybe a big tin. They may be a little tin just like that. I'm happy with how those two little chance have turned out. Alright, so I think we now go in and make the little dark. So what are we going to do is we're going to go in with a cubic inch, scale it all the way down. And we're just going to go into the isolation mode again, just because it's easier for us to work in, we're going to scale it down. I'm going to scale it out across the y, something like that. Then I go into edit mode and we're going to subdivide this about five times, just like that. And then we're gonna go Control T and we're going to turn it into triangles. Once again, I love using this technique. It's so easy to just get that low poly look while doing this. So then I'm just going to select them with proportional editing on, with the random on as well, round. And we're just going to make this dark. Just look a little bit of more low poly. You could give it a would look if you wanted to. That's not really the vibe I'm going for. So just wanted to maybe just look a little bit crazy, a little bit crazy. And low poly really make those triangles stand out and they go out and have a look. And I really like that. I think that's really cool. I'm going to go Shift. I can make a little cute when it gets small. Then pulling out along the X, pull that down along the y. And then we can actually scale. Then this is going to be the little poles that hold the dock into place. We're going to tap into edit mode. I might even just make it a little bit bigger. Just like that. We're going to sub-divide it about hurricane. We sub-divide it two times and then go Control T, make it into triangles. And then just do the same technique, pulling all those little vertices around. Just like that. You can do this however you want, and it's quite fun. It's a little bit of Missy designs now I want to duplicate this on each point. So what we're going to do is we're going to use the array modifier. And we're going to pull it along the y. Just here on the right-hand side you can see and you can see me moving it up and down. Then I can see where I want it. You also want it on the other side. You can actually erase riot again. And now we're going to do it along the x. Just like that. If you wanted to, you could add in a third one. And I'm just going to pull in just a little bit more. And then I might just go back into here. And I say that there's not a lot of vertices hanging out with this guy. So I might just pull them just a little bit of a, just make sure everyone else looks legit das like that. So I'm really happy with how that doc is looking. Well, we could also do is we could duplicate this dog, scale it along the X, pull it out along the x, scale it a little bit more, maybe along these it, pull it up in scale a little bit more along the x, just like that. And then we can do little railing. We can have a couple of little rails on each side. So we can add the array modifier above. If we just do three will be able to just see where it's going, maybe something like that. And then we'll do the array modifier and we'll actually put it on the other side, something that looks like it makes sense, just like that. So now once a beautiful little dark, we're going to select the whole thing, come out of slide-show mode plus j, and we're going to actually move it up, move it along the y. I like quite a bit and we can play around with the water as vow of the water is clipping. I don't want it to be straight in the middle. I kinda want it to be maybe like over off to the left-hand side. Just did. And then I'm just going to pull it back off the why I really, really like how this whole scene is looking. I loved that they could go campaign and they can jump out a little pair and go fishing. I think this is absolutely looking amazing. How we might do is add in some little rocks. So go Shift a and we want to add in an ecosphere and we want to give it one subdivision. So just looks like that. You can scale it down, but we can actually just move it into the same straightaway if you wanna do it, just so you can see what it's looking like, guys are going to be rocks. I'm just gonna put it in the sand a little bit. The tab, tab into edit mode. Select one of the vertices, make sure proportional entertainers on with the random. And then I'm just going to pull it around like that. And maybe even pull this one out just like that. The top one is a little crazy and then that creates little rocks. Alice top one is so crazy, so I'm just going to pull him down a little bit. It's a little bit too much, but this is what our little rocks looking like. Just shifting around. I'm going to use Alt D or option D to just move them so that the same textures applied to them when we move them. So I'm just going to play around with them a little bit. And then I might also pull them onto the other side. And I might even put some in the camp actually, maybe they have a little campfire going. They could use these. Maybe it's like little seats like scale it down like that a little bit. Rotated, pull them up and then just duplicate it for the other side. Can we might actually make it a little campfire. These little rocks here I think I'm going to be like a little seat to sit on for the campfire. They can fire. What we're going to do is go shift a, go into your head in a ecosphere, make sure it's on one subdivision called slash mode. Scale it down, go to Stephen, bring it back along the y. Just like that. We want to go into edit mode and we just want it to look a little bit crazy. However you want it to look, is perfectly fine to me. Great. We're going to go Control a and apply all transformations and rotation and scale. I'm just going to bring it back and then do it again. Linear shift a and we're going to add in a curve which is a circle. So this is exactly the same technique that we did for the palm trees. So for the Little Rock, they go into an array modifier. And we're going to go into Object Offset just like that. And I think we're probably looking at about Stephen. And then we're gonna go over here, the rotation 360/7. They are very cute like that. Maybe we even do eight or you succeed if I buy it. Just like that, just so it's a little five hit and I'm actually really happy with how that turned out. I'm going to apply the array modifier. If you wanted to go in and you want to make all the little box a little bit different. You can just go in with the array modifier and just pull them around, just make them a little bit different. You don't have to do this, can really do whatever you want, just like that. Now, I'm going to delete this circle. We don't need it anymore. And then I'm gonna go out of slide-show mode, going to bring it up, scale it down, and we're going to place it just there. Just like that. I'm quite happy with what Ed is looking alike. So that is the basic same for this. Well, you can add whatever you want, any elements if you want. I'm meant to be staying in a ball on the river, or you want them to be fishing. You want to create characters. You want to do different trays. You want to do fishy, wanna do starfish. Whenever you wanna do, please do it. I'd love to see that this is just the basics of lots of different techniques you can do. And how you can get lots of different effects like with the palm trees and the fire pit and also the tin and all that type of thing. What we're gonna do now is we're going to go in and start texturize everything and give it those colors. 3. 3. Shading and texturing: Alright, let's start texturizing. So we're going to be rendering an EV, but we're just gonna go over here and we're going to turn on a couple of settings. So we want ambient inclusion, bloom, and screen space reflections. And then we're going to turn on refractions just via, that is going to really help us when we do the water. We're gonna go over here and we're going to go just into viewport shading. If you're just in this one, you're not going to see any of the colors, so we're just going to go here. So we're just gonna go in the water, added a new material colored water, and I'm just going to add in a nice blue for that one. We're gonna go down and we're going to change a couple of more cities. We're gonna go down to Transmission. We're going to turn it up to one. And then we're going to turn the IOR to 1.333, which is the IOR of water. And then you want to be looking like this. Once we put it in their lives and start rendering, it will look a lot better as well, but this is what we have so far. We're gonna do the sand. So we're gonna go in and collect sand. Well, we can also do is we can actually go into the shaders tab and we can add in a little bit more texture to this end. We can go in and add a color ramp and we can add hay for noise texture. Put the distance into the fact that the color into the base color, just like that, by going to add in a couple of different variations of yellow. So one may be bright enough. One maybe like orange, like a different tone. So you can just see the different colors there. And we're going to increase, what is going to increase the scale by about 500. As you can see it, I really liked this. Callas might just make it a little bit lighter, a little bit more yellow. So what we're gonna do is we're going to add in a color ramp and then we're going to add in and noise texture. But the factor into the color, into the color, you will see these dots turn up. We're gonna do one of these helices, yellow. And then the other color is another off-brand, yellow as well. So you can just see the slight variation color just yet. We're going to increase the scale. Might even just change this color up a little bit, increase the scale. We probably want to go to 150, maybe even 200. And we're just going to increase the tea towel and then just distort it, just auto height even take this to 250. Now it looks a little bit more like sand and you can even make this a little bit more orangey. You're thinking it's not looking sandy enough, gas like that are gonna go in and do the wood texture as well. We'll go on and call this would going to add a new color. I'm going to add in the noise texture very similar to what we did with the sand and then plug loads. And they're going to add in a couple of different browns, maybe that color. Oh yeah, we're going to increase the scale too much. And then just a storage jars, Tylenol, but might even pull it up, scale down. You can see the distortion will go here and we'll add the wood to the base as well. There we can see the distortion. It's mine. Just be just a little too much. Definitely want to add a little bit more detail. We're going to be a little bit more rough. I'm thinking that and then we'll add the word to them one. Then we have a little dog just there. Now for the Stones, I'm just going to add in another texture, just call it stone, and then just add some gray. And what I'm gonna do is I'm just going to turn off the roughness of them. And then I'm going to add in a second stone color of the roughness of that. And then this some color should be even talk because it's right on the light, the fire just there. I might actually make this a strong color and I quite like that, that looks really cool. We're gonna go in and edit the tint colors. My tint is blue and green. I think we might go with those. Might go with a green. This is like my favorite green to use and are just turn up the roughness, jazz like that. And they might be this hello little tin IV. She's just a little bit more blue, just like that. All I'm quite happy with how they are looking now looking very, very, very cute, will go on and do the trunk. And we can either just leave this as a brown color just like that, or we can add an a just a little bit more color to it by doing a color ramp. And then the noise texture. And then I'm just going to go around to all of these little trays. And I might even use some of the wood from town near as well. So there's just a couple of little variations. Gonna go in and add the green leaves. No too much. I want to turn off at roughness as well. Chlorine one, like this one. And then I'll add in another little green. And my days slaves maybe just a little bit darker too much that it looks funny but just like that. And then we'll just go around and play with those two different greens just like this. And this is your basic little sane all done. Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna go on to the lighting and then we're going to render this. 4. 4. Lighting and Camera: Alright, so to start the lighting, what we're gonna do first is we're going to add in how camera. Click zero on your numpad so that you can go into the camera, go to View, and then go camera to view, zoom out. And then Jones kinda get the angle that you're after. I'm kinda looking for something like that. Go shift day and we want to add in a plane. I'm just going to bring it down quite a lot. And then I'm going to rotate it, scale it, tab into edit mode, go and select this edge here, extrude it up. Good, This control copy. And then shade that smooth. Just like that. I'm going to go in and add in a son because they would definitely be a son here. And I'm just going to pull it probably just about here. I want it to be maybe a little bit of an orangey color. We'll go up here as well so we can actually see what's going on. So just go to the Viewport Shading tab. We might even just turn out this a little bit, maybe even to two. And I might even just lifted up. Then I'm just going to add in a pointless I'm just going to place that in the back just about here. Just to give everything a little bit of a color just like that. And it just makes it a little bit more 3D. And then I might even do little area lineup here, pull it back, rotate it, and we're going to turn it into a desk like that. And we're just going to increase, that is way too much, maybe about 50, going to pull this up a little bit more. Now is the point where I usually go in and start rendering it to see what it looks like. Stop playing around with the lighting, whatever vibe you're going for. I'm quite happy with this lighting, but I don't like that. These vague shadows, I'm actually going to pull this down paths. You can actually see the shadow though, to render this one, we are rendering in TV, so we've already set up everything. So once you're done, you just need to go here and click Render and then click Render Image and theory goes, theories, you'll love poly little island. So I'm just going to finish off my one and then I'll show you what it looks like. 5. 5. Outro: Well, my low poly island is looking like a rendered. I'm really excited to see what you've created and how you've used these tips and tricks to create your own low poly island. But thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it and I will now see you in the next video.