# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Dicing With Depth

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![](DieAnotherWay18.png "DieAnotherWay18.png")
**Dice** are objects which are familiar to us all,
used in countless games. Here we will model how to make a single *die*
(or a single dice, if you prefer).

The end result should look something like at right. Notice the following
features:

-   different colours for the pips versus the body of the die
-   rounded edges and corners, while the faces are (mostly) flat
-   round, recessed pips.

Achieving all these effects will be a good exercise of your
mesh-modelling skills.

### Characteristics of the Die

![](9_posiciones.jpg "9_posiciones.jpg") The number of pips on each face
of a die ranges from 1 to 6. However, in order to space them correctly,
there needs to be 9 positions for a pip on each face, even though not
all of them will be filled on any face.

![](Muescas_y_espacios.jpg "Muescas_y_espacios.jpg") We will also
proportion our die so that the diameter of each pip will be twice the
horizontal or vertical distance between pips, even though if you look at
the illustration the pips on the finished die look smaller because they
eventually do not occupy this full diameter. As you will see, this makes
it easy to get the proportions uniform with a relatively small number of
*loop cuts*.

![](Standard-Die-Layout.jpg "Standard-Die-Layout.jpg") Also note one of
the characteristics of real dice is that the number of pips on opposite
sides adds up to 7 as depicted in the Standard Die Layout.

## The Basic Mesh

Open a new Blender document. Select  the
default cube, and  into Edit mode.

![](Bevel-done.png "Bevel-done.png") First of all, let's apply a small
amount of bevel to the corners and edges: with *all* the vertices
selected, press  to start
bevelling---not too much, press  when
you see something like at right.

!The first cut is the
deepest Now, we
need to make a bunch of loop cuts to mark out the areas where the pips
will go. To simplify things, we will do cuts through the middle of each
pip, as well as between pips---a total of 9 loops each way---then go
back and remove the unneeded cuts. That way we get the 2:1 proportions
correct with a minimum of effort. Who says it doesn't pay to plan ahead?

To make a loop cut, press , then
move the cursor over the edge you wish to subdivide: you should see a
single magenta loop appear. Now press ,
and you should see this change to 9 loops. Next, click
 to change the lines to yellow and
really start cutting, then immediately press
 to finish the cut *without* moving the
cuts from their initial positions.

You will need to do this 3 times, between the 3 pairs of opposing faces.

!First loop to remove
selected
!First loop gone Now look at
each face of your cube: you will see an 11×11 grid of vertices, with the
corner vertices each adjoining a triangle at the corner. Make sure
nothing is initially selected. Count the *third* vertex in from a
corner, and move the mouse slightly so it is over the edge leading from
this vertex into the interior of the face, just to avoid confusion; now
, and you should select a loop
like at right.

If you get the wrong selection, just 
to clear it, and try again. Remember to click over an *edge* that is
running the right way, rather than a vertex, otherwise Blender is liable
to select a loop running the wrong way.

Press  or
, and in the deletion menu that
appears, select "Edge Loops". The selected loop should disappear.

!Middle loop selected
!Middle loop gone Going in
from the edge of the face, skip over one loop, and remove the middle
one.

!Third loop selected
!Third loop gone Then
finally remove the third one in from the opposite edge.

![](BlenderDieanotherway3-00.png "BlenderDieanotherway3-00.png") You
need to do this deletion of loops on every face that has the original 11
X 11 grid of vertices. When you are finished, the resulting mesh should
look like at right.

## Making the Pips

![](Alt-m-five-spots.png "Alt-m-five-spots.png") Now we will hollow out
the spots or pips. The idea is to *extrude* selected ones of the large
squares on each face *inwards* into the cube ("intrude" rather than
"extrude", perhaps?), then split the bottom of each resulting pit into
four triangles each by adding an extra vertex in the middle; then
pushing in this vertex will give us the hollow for the pip (as at
right).

We will show three methods for doing this.

Do this individually for each face that is to be made into a pip.

### Method 1 (Slowest)

Select all the large squares to be made into pips (perhaps do one entire
face at a time). Press  to
triangulate these faces. Now switch to edge-select mode, and select the
new diagonal edge that has appeared in the middle of the original
squares; bring up  for edge
Specials and select Subdivide (leave the number of subdivisions at the
default 1). Things won't look any different, but each triangle is now a
quad, with an extra vertex added to the middle of each of those
diagonals.

Now switch back to face-select mode, select those subdivided halves of
all the squares, and  to
triangulate again.

### Method 2 (Faster)

Switch to face-select mode. Select all the large squares to be made into
pips (perhaps do one entire face at a time). Do
 to extrude, and immediately press
 to leave the new extruded vertices in
the same positions as the old ones; now do
 to merge and select the "Collapse"
option.

### Method 3 (Fastest)

Select the relevant large squares on each side to make the required
numbers for each face of a real die. From
 for face Specials, select "Poke
Faces" (or more directly, do ).
Leave the settings at their defaults (in particular, leave the Poke
Offset at 0).

### Digging The Holes

Now that you have crossed the faces of your pips, select the middle
vertices one side at a time, and rab
inwards by a distance of 0.17 (make sure you do it at the appropriate
axis, pres ,
, )
along the appropriate axis.

**Noob Note:** Do this side after side, otherwise you will translate all
your vertices to one side and not all inside.

## Rounding Things Off

![](DieAnotherWay12c.png "DieAnotherWay12c.png") Now apply a subsurf
modifier and set the shading to smooth, the result should look something
like this.

The trouble is, the pips look too much like dimples rather than proper
holes. To fix this, we can apply a *crease* to sharpen up the edges.

![](Creasing-five-spots-selected.png "Creasing-five-spots-selected.png")
In edge-select mode, select the four edges around the opening of each
pip. Press , and move the mouse
until the edges take on the darkest magenta tint. That should firm up
the edges of the holes a bit. 

## Colouring Your Die

First, go to the Materials Context
![](Blender255MaterialContextButton.png "Blender255MaterialContextButton.png")
and set up the colour for the main part of the die (say, make it red as
in the illustration above). This can be done in Object or Edit modes.

Next, click the "+" button to add a second, initially empty, material
slot, then click the "+New" button that appears below it to create a new
material for this slot. Make this material white, for the pips. Then,
select the pips themselves, and use the "Assign" button to colour them
with this material as detailed below.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 1

Go to the Select menu, and select the option "Select Faces by Sides". A
panel will appear at the bottom of the Tool Shelf (use
 to toggle the visibility of this),
with a field titled "Number of Vertices", initially showing 4; change
this to 3, and it should select all the triangles, which includes the
pips as well as the corners of the cube. You can deselect the latter one
by one by ing them.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 2

Alternatively, you can do just select the faces of each pip.

### Quickly Selecting The Pips, Method 3 (Fastest)

(Works in blender 2.6, not sure about earlier versions.) In face select
mode select one of the triangular faces of one of the pips. Hit space
and type \"select similar\" then choose \"area.\" If this selects too
many faces along the edge of the die, cancel and try again with
\"perimeter.\"

