Learn subdivision-ready hard surface modeling in the free software Blender

A comprehensive course with over 23 hours of narrated step by step videos

Hard Surface modeling in Blender

For professional hard surface modeling, either in gamedev, film or TV VFX workflows, or motion graphics, it’s essential that you know how to achieve subdivision-ready topology. In this over 23 hour hard surface modeling course, you learn to go from a boolean and modifiers-based blockout to subdivision-ready topology that is ready for film VFX or games.

Why this Course?

Creating mechanical 3D models in Blender can be approached in a variety of ways. If you don’t have concept art, you can dive straight into 3D by blocking out shapes and using sculpting techniques. This method allows you to design and model simultaneously—and I even have a video course dedicated to that approach.

But what if you do have detailed concept art and want to stay true to it? That can be a bit more challenging. That’s exactly where this new course comes in. By mastering the proper workflow for modeling from reference images, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to model almost anything with precision and ease.

Preview the Curriculum

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Chapter 1 - Blockout
42 lessons
1. 000 - Introduction
2. 001 - Reference Images
3. 002 - Horizontal Cylinder
4. 003- Head Cylinder Bottom
5. 004 - Head Cylinder Top
6. 005 - Body Front Part
7. 006 A - Loop Tools And F2 And Flipped Normals
8. 006 B - Body Back
9. 007 - Color Ids
10. 008 - Undercarriage Part 1 And Object Colors
11. 009 - Undercarriage Part 2
12. 010 - Undercarriage Part 3 And Determining The Correct Shape
13. 011 - Undercarriage Part 4 And Double Vertices
14. 012 - Undercarriage Part 5 Knife Tool And Loop Tools Flatten
15. 013 - Intake
16. 014 - Lower Leg Part 1
17. 015 - Lower Leg Part 2
18. 016 - Upper Hind Leg Part 1
19. 017 - Upper Hind Leg Part 2
20. 018 - Fabric Covered Joint Tool Basics
21. 019 - Fabric Covered Joint Part 2 Practical
22. 020 - Bonus Lesson - Quad View
23. 021 - Front Leg Part 1
24. 022 - Front Leg Part 2
25. 023 - Front Leg Part 3 Extra Object Add-On And Skin Modifier
26. 024 - Bevel From Sharp To Soft
27. 025 - Boolean Cuts
28. 026 - Front Leg Part 6
29. 027 - Front Leg Foot And Knee Joints
30. 028 - Finishing The Front Leg
31. 029 - Copy Attributes Menu And Mirroring
32. 030 - Foot
33. 031 - Railings
34. 032 - Pipes
35. 033 - Mirroring Duplicating And Rotating The Legs
36. 034 - Cylinder Along Pipe
37. 035 - More Cylinders
38. 036 - Turret Camera Proportional Falloff
39. 037 - Adjusting Railing Active Element Transform
40. 038 - Additional Handholds
41. 039 - Turret Engine
42. 040 - Final Bits
Chapter 2 - Retopology
93 lessons
1. 041 - Cylinder Caps
2. 042 - Concept Vs Production Models
3. 043 - Modeling Sharp Corners
4. 044 - Retopo Of Cylinders Hole In Side Of Cylinder
5. 045 - Retopo Of Cylinders Rectangular Hole In Front Of Cylinder
6. 045 - Student Question - N-Pole Edge Flow
7. 046 - Retopo Of Cylinders Round Holes
8. 047 - Retopo Of Cylinders Rear Cylinder
9. 048 - Retopo Of Cylinders Holes In Rear Cylinder
10. 048 B - How To Fix Shading Issues And Pinching
11. 049 - Retopo Of Cylinders Triangular Detail
12. 050 - Retopo Of Body Rear Getting Started
13. 051 - Retopo Of Body Rear Connecting The Dots
14. 052 - Retopo Of Body Rear Evenly Distributed Faces
15. 053 - Body Back Triple Edging
16. 054 - Body Back Fixing N-Gons
17. 055 - Railing Connection 1
18. 056 - Railing Connection 2
19. 057 - Redoing The Railing
20. 058 - Small Round Holes
21. 059 - Student Question
22. 060 - Capsule Shaped Holes Clean-Up
23. 061 - Small Topology Reduction
24. 062 - Panel Cuts And Boolean Adjustments
25. 063 - Separating Panels
26. 064 - Connecting Vertices
27. 065 - Adding Loops For More Evenly Distributed Quads
28. 066 - Adding The Rims
29. 067 - Triple Edge Panel 1
30. 059 - Capsule Shaped Holes Boolean
31. 068 - Triple Edge Panel 2
32. 069 - Triple Edge Panel 3
33. 070 - Triple Edge Panel 4
34. 071 - Triple Edge Panel 5
35. 072 - Triple Edge Panel 6
36. 073 - Body Front Mirror
37. 074 Front Detail - Hole
38. 075 Front Detail - Diagonal Shape Part 1
39. 076 Front Detail - Diagonal Shape Part 2
40. 077 - Turret Bottom Part 1 Cutting Holes
41. 078 - Turret Bottom Part 2 Shrinkwrap And More
42. 079 - Turrett Top Part 1 Target Preparation V2
43. 080 - Turret Top Part 2 Front Hole
44. 081 - Turret Top Part 3 Panel Cuts
45. 082 - Turret Top Front Panel Detail Preparing The Surface Vs2
46. 083 - Turret Top Front Panel Detail Using Asset Browser
47. 084 - Turret Top Side Panel Hole 1
48. 085 - Turret Top Side Panel Hole 2
49. 086 - Turret Top Back Panel
50. 087 - Turret Top Upper Panel Surface
51. 088 - Turret Top Upper Panel Holes
52. 089 - Turret Top - Wrapping Up
53. 091 - Undercarriage Details Annotations
54. 090 - Undercarriage Quads
55. 092 - Undercarriage Holes Pt1 Ripping
56. 093 - Undercarriage Holes Pt2 Holes
57. 094 - Undercarriage Holes Pt3
58. 095 - Undercarriage Holes Pt4 Rectangle Holes
59. 096 - Undercarriage Holes Pt5 Round Holes
60. 097 - Undercarriage Holes Pt6
61. 098 - Undercarriage Holes Pt7
62. 099 - Front Leg N-Gons To Quads - Applying Modifiers
63. 100 - Front Leg N-Gons To Quads - Preparing Surfaces Pt1
64. 101 - Front Leg N-Gons To Quads - Preparing Surfaces Pt2
65. 102 - Front Leg Redo And Retopo
66. 103 - Front Leg Shrinkwrap V2
67. 104 - Front Leg Panel Cut And Bevels
68. 105 - Hip Front Panel Better Topology
69. 106 - Hip Front Panel Corners And Vertex Creasing
70. 108 - Shin Part 1 Surface Prep
71. 107 - Hip Other Panels
72. 109 - Shin Part 2 Holes
73. 110 - Shin Part 3 V2
74. 111 - Shin Part 4 Solidify And Bevel
75. 112 - Shin Part 5 Align To View - Zoom To Mouse Cursor
76. 113 - Diagonal Cutout Vertex Snapping
77. 114 - Kneepad Mirror With Rotated Empty
78. 115 - Knee
79. 116 - Small Details - Edge Flow
80. 117 - Side Cylinders-esv2-90p-bg-10p
81. 118 - Hind Leg Thigh Retopo
82. 119 - Hind Leg Thigh Details
83. 120 - Hind Leg Calf Retopo
84. 121 - Foot - Ring Around Rail
85. 122 - Hind Leg Calf Retopo 2
86. 123 - Hind Leg Foot Retopo
87. 124 - Foot
88. 125 - Some More Foot Holes
89. 126 - Cloth Covered Joint Other Method
90. 127 - Finishing legs and knees
91. 128 - Finishing Legs And Feet
92. 129 - Various Bits And Bobs
93. 130 - Tubes And Handles
Chapter 3 - UV Unwrapping
17 lessons
1. 131 - Uv Unwrapping Basics
2. 132 - Uv Unwrapping Straightening Uv Islands
3. 133 - Texel Density
4. 134 - Udims And Margins And Mirroring
5. 135 - Front Leg Unwrapping Narrated
6. 135 - Front Leg Unwrapping Timelapse
7. 136 - More Uv Unwrapping Pipes
8. 137 - Further Unwrapping 2X Speed Timelapse
9. 137 - Unwrap Wrap-Up
10. 138 - Kitbash Process Part 1
11. 139 - Kitbash Process Part 2 - Lattice Deform
12. 140 - Kitbashing Part 3
13. 141 - Kitbashing Part 4-1
14. 142 - Kitbashing Part 5 Mirroring -1
15. 143 - Kitbashing Uv Unwrap
16. 144 - Improving Panel Cuts
17. 145 - Keeping Planes Rectangular Under Subdivision
Chapter 4 - Materials
6 lessons
1. 146 - Materials Start
2. 147 - Materials - Gradient Color
3. 148 - Combining Multiple Gradients
4. 149 - Organising our different materials
5. 150 - Materials - Gradient Color
6. 151 - Combining Multiple Gradients

Course Structure

The course is divided into 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: Setting up reference images and creating the initial iteration of the model using the best modeling techniques for each part. (All these lessons are available now)
Chapter 2: Refining the model by creating proper quad topology, as you would prepare it for film production, so the surface supports for example a detailed sculpt pass for damage and small details. (All these lessons are available now)
Chapters 3: UV unwrapping the quad topology to 17 individual UDIM tiles, as well as adding a bit more second level detail using a (provided) kitbash kit, which is already unwrapped. We'll look at various (free) unwrapping add-ons that come with Blender, as well as tips for speeding up this task. (All these lessons are available now)
Chapter 4: Materials. (Currently in production)
Chapter 5: Rigging and Exporting (Production will start after the materials section is published entirely)

Course Schedule

Currently, the course is still in development. That means that while there is already 23 hours of content, there is still more to come. The Materials lessons are currently being created. After that, the rigging and exporting lessons will be produced.

What’s in the course?

This course includes concept art and orthographic reference images created by talented concept artist Kenn Yap, also known as Chromamoma. I’ve been a fan of Kenn’s work for years and am very excited to collaborate with him on this course.
The course is designed for you to follow along step by step. I don’t skip any parts, and I provide Blend files for each stage of the modeling process alongside the lessons.
The lessons are kept concise so you can, for example, easily complete one per day. Additionally, you can download the lessons for offline use, perfect if you’re traveling or don’t always have access to the internet.

FAQ and details

Below you can find some further explanation of the different chapters, as well as some frequently asked questions.

Chapter 1 details: Modeling

Chapter 2 details: Retopology

Chapter 3 details: UV Unwrapping

Chapter 4 details: Materials

Is there student support?

What do I need to follow the course?

Which version of Blender is this for?

Get started today!

$69

+ VAT

Learn boolean modeling
Learn subdivision modeling
Learn Retopology
Learn UV Unwrapping + UDIM workflow
And more to come!

ENROLL

Learn how to make any hard surface model

A 3D modeler can make a model of anything they want, exactly the way they want it to look. But only if they know the right techniques. With the skills in this course, you'll know how to make solid surface objects exactly as you imagine them, again and again, reliably.

Asset pack: Kitbash Greebles

One of the assets you'll receive with the course is a greebles kit for kitbashing additional detail. These are all carefully crafted UV-unwrapped and subdivision-ready meshes. They are marked as assets, so they can be easily added to your asset browser and dragged and dropped into the scene.