# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Simple Vehicle: Body

|previous=Simple Vehicle: Another Shooting Machine
}}
```
## Techniques

You should already know how to:

-   Make a mesh
-   Navigate the viewport
-   Extrusion
-   Form faces
-   Name objects

This section will recap and introduce:

-   Deleting and creating edges
-   Subdividing
-   Merging vertices
-   Loop subdivide
-   Adding unconnected vertices in one object

## Planning

The jeep is being designed to include the back, flatbed, door holes,
dashboard, window, and hood. The window is extruded straight up (older
jeeps\' windshields aren\'t slanted), and I decided to add a lower back
to later hold the bumper/lights if you want to add them.

## Building the Jeep

### Extrude the Chassis

Start a new file.

Change to front view (), switch to
**EDIT** mode, and deselect all ().

!Main sections are
made..jpg "Main sections are made."){width="300"}

Be in **Face** select mode

Starting from the default cube (*#1*), box select
() on the right edge to select the right
face, and extrude () 2 units (*#2*) to the
right along the X axis (should default, otherwise
). Continue with three more extrusions to
the right along the X axis of 1 unit (*#3*), 1 unit (*#4*), and 2 units
(*#5*).

deselect all ().

Now starting again from the default cube (*#1*), box select
() on the left edge to select the left
side face, and extrude 1 unit (*#6*) to the left in the X axis

deselect all ().

box select () on the bottom edge of block
*#6* to select the bottom face, and extrude 1 unit (*#7*) down in the Z
axis.

deselect all ().

Finally box select () on the top edge of
*#4* the second block from the right to select the top face, and extrude
up 2 units (*#8*) in the Z direction.

### Widen the chassis

250px\|right Now to
widen the jeep body.

Switch to top view ().

deselect all ().

set \"Limit selection to visible\" off Increase the width of the
existing boxes (*#1*) with one square (*#2*) by box selecting
() everything (since you\'re in **face**
select mode it will select all the faces of the starting chassis), now
Scale () 2 times on the Y axis
()

And select all faces on one side and extrude along the Y Axis 1 unit. do
the same on the other side

This should give you the figure that is shown to the right.

**Noob note:** holding  as you do the
above moves and extrusions will lock it to grid steps

**Noob note:** You might want to save your job here and rename it before
carrying on as the options below are easier if you can revisit this
stage.

!Widening along the Y
axis{width="250"}

### Flatbed and Doors

Our jeep design will have somewhat of a cheat - no actual door.

There are now a few different ways of doing this (thanks to reader
submissions)! Try each one and study the results, as they will teach you
about the issues you will encounter when you start making models of your
own design;

Method 1 is the simplest of them, but teaches you the least in dealing
with mesh trouble.

#### Method 1

##### Make the jeep bed

![](Blender3d_Method_2_select_bed_and_doors_s1.jpg‎ "Blender3d_Method_2_select_bed_and_doors_s1.jpg‎"){width="200"}

In  view

Be in **Face select** mode

Turn **occlude background geometry** (now called **Limit selection to
visible**) on. It\'s the button with the spotty-box icon to the right of
vertex, edge, and face select buttons.

Select (, then
+) the
top faces where the flatbed and then doors should go. You should now
have four faces selected, two large ones for the bed, and two small ones
for the doors.

200px\|right

Extrude () the \"region\" -2, on the Z
axis ().

##### Make the no-door holes

200px\|right
200px\|right

Now in front view ()

Be in **Edge select** mode

Select () the top edge of the door face,
and delete () the \"edge\". Next, do the
same to the corresponding door edge on the other side.

200px\|right

Be in **Face select** mode

Select the faces in the bottom of the door wells, and extrude them up
0.5 along the Z axis.

200px\|right

Select the bed panels, and extrude them up .1 along the Z axis ( leaving
them on top of each other will cause problems with rendering engines
down the road )

right\|200px

**Noob Note:** Be very careful as you extrude the parts up, since they
are on top of each other, it\'s easy to select the face on the outside,
rather than the one on the inside. Once you\'ve done the extrusion,
check the normal lines by hitting the *draw normals* button in the mesh
tools more panel (*if you can\'t see it, hover and scroll with the
MMB*). If you don\'t get good normals, then hit undo, then reselect the
faces, and try again until you get the correct face being extruded (50%
chance of getting the wrong face pulled up). Or select the faces with a
wrong normal and hit the *Flip Normals* button in the Mesh Tools tab.

Finally, select the whole body and remove doubles,
() to select all then
() to bring up the specials menu. On the
special\'s menu, hit \"remove doubles\".

Note: removing doubles every couple of steps is a good habit to get
into, and will save you time down the road.

#### Method 2

##### Make the jeep bed

!Deleting faces{width="300"} be
in Top view (), and **Face select**
Mode.

Select the two faces in between the bumpers and windshield
(, then
+).

Now delete both faces (-\>\"faces\").

**Note:** *you could also be in edge select mode, and delete (xkey) the
edge between the two faces, for the same end result.*

!Selecting
vertices{width="300"} You
will now add outer faces around the hole we just opened in the model, by
selecting two vertices at the top of the model, and two from the bottom
of the model.

Be in vertex mode

Deselect all ( twice)

Starting at vertex A, circle select ()
vertex B, C, and D,

!Creating faces{width="300"}
Next create a face (); do this same
procedure 5 more times at the vertx groups show in the pictures.

right\|700px
right\|700px

###### Issues with exposed inside faces (Normals)

right\|300px
Now that we have gotten the new outer faces in place we can\'t see into
the model any more but we still have a big problem, the floor is
actually the outside face of the bottom of the model, this is not good
because you should never leave exposed inside faces (the other side of
outer faces) on a model.

Exposed inside faces are invisible when looking through them when you
apply textures and render it, since nearly all rendering engines
completely ignore inside faces ( A common problem with many sketchup
models, ah the irony! ).

You can tell a face is an inside face, by the fact that if you turn on
show normals, and show vnormals, on the mesh tools more panel, the
outside faces and vertices will have blue lines shooting out of them,
while inside faces will not. \'\'

Understanding this now will save you lots of wasted hours in the future
trying to fix your normals.\'\'

!Click the button within the red circle to display face
normals
Press **NKEY** and go to \"mesh display\" and click on the cube with the
face highlighted. Look closely at the exposed interior faces in the
floor of the truck bed, they don\'t have blue lines popping out in the
inside, only on the outsides.\'\'

*Now select textured from the box where you pick wireframe, or shaded,
and the exposed inside faces will become invisible when viewed from the
inside, but look great when looked at from the outside.*

In newer versions it is no longer invisible, and it seems to work but it
still has no normals, and it is still important to know.

###### Add the floor of the bed

Lets make a floor for the bed now.

right\|400px

Be in **Face select** mode

Select () both faces of the truck bed,

Extrude () pick \"region\" from the popup,
and move up along the Z axis (), by about
0.2.

With the two faces selected, hit mesh -\> normals -\> flip to make their
normals correct for their new position

Now rotate the model till you\'re looking at it from the bottom, as you
can see there is now a hole that needs some extra inside faces removed,
and new faces added to compete the bottom.

right\|400px
Select each extra face on the sides, and delete
() the \"faces\" as shown in the photos.

right\|400px
Change to **Vertex select** mode

Select () corners a, b, c, d, and create
a face , then do the same for c, d, e, and
f.

right\|400px
Recheck the normals, and make sure you only have outer faces on the
outside of your model.

##### Make the door holes

Method 2.2 is easier!

###### Method 2.1 Subdivision

right\|400px
To cut out one door, select the four vertical edges where the door will
go.

!Split the area where the door will
go.{width="300"}
Use the subdivide command () to cut the
edges in half. You\'ll notice that the subdividing will also affect the
adjoining faces. 

!Delete edges for door
opening.{width="250"}

Select the two edges at the top of the door panel and delete them,
removing the top half of it.

right\|400px
Change to **Vertex select** mode

Now build up faces by selecting the groups of vertex\'s as shown in the
photo, and creating a face (). Do the same
thing for the other side, removing/adding edges and creating new faces.

!Merging faces.{width="300"} If you
want to clean up the look of the sub divided faces in the model

Change to **Face select** mode, and select the faces that are going to
be combined.

Press  and a little window will appear
titled \'Make Faces\'. Click on \'Make FGon\' to merge the faces. (*As
you may have guessed, if an FGon face is created and you want to later
undo it, select the \'clear FGon\' option in the Make Faces window.*)

**Note:** to merge an Fgon to a flat face, select it and hit
+

**Pro Note:** You don\'t even have to make an FGon. Just select the
door-to-be, Tris and Quads both, and hit
+.

**Noob Note:** Q. What is an FGon??

A. It is a fake polygon, a way to hide triangles and quads on flat
faces.

###### Method 2.2 Multicut

right\|400px

Be in frontview (NUM1).

Select the top edges where you want the doors

Multicut (KKEY), enter two in the popup, draw a line along the axis of
the cut, as shown in the photo, and hit
.

right\|400px

Then move the newly created edges down and towards the sides.

###### method 2.3 (Noobie)

Select top face of where door is going to be

`   `` to extrude, pick "Region" from the popup menu`\
`   `` to lock in Z direction`\
`   hold `**`CTRL`**` to snap to whole BUs and move down one BU`

Select 2 top edges that look like they have no widths

`   `` to erase, pick "Edges" from the popup menu`

Two faces will be missing. For each individual missing face, Select top
and bottom edges

`   `` to fill in the missing face.`

### Resizing the bed and windshield

Go ahead and resize the widths of the bed and windshield.

As a precaution, Remove doubles before starting!

right\|400px

To narrow the width of the window, change to **Edge mode** and select
the edges shown in the picture, then move
() along the X axis.

right\|400px
To narrow the width of the side, change to **Edge mode** and select the
edges shown in the picture, then move ()
along the Y axis.

!Adjusting the
widths.{width="300"} Always move
as many vertices or edges at the same time to not only work faster but
to make sure they are moved equally. The use of circle select, loop
select, and  while moving vertices is
very helpful in fine movements.

!Bringing the back to a
point.{width="300"} If
you want an object to come to a point such as a wedge from a cube, merge
vertices.

In this example, the lower back area will be modified. Select two
vertices to join together and press
+. Select
the option for your merging. \'At First\' or \'At Last\' will probably
be the option that will work here.

Play around to see what each merge option does. After the merging,
Blender will tell you how many vertices were removed.

Be certain to \"remove doubles\" (), as
merging creates lots of them. ( *You can also find it on the menu Mesh
==\> Vertices ==\> Remove doubles*)

!Raise the flatbed.{width="300"}
Extrude the bed surface upward. This is only useful in hiding the tires
that we\'ll add later in the tutorial. Alternatively, you could make two
boxes to hide them.

## A Touch of Detail

### Adding an Engine Hood

#### Method 1

!Loop Subdivide
select.{width="200"}

Let\'s add some detail to the model - how about the hood? First thing to
do is add some edges to the front of the jeep. Press
+ to
enter Loop Subdivide. A pink loop will appear around the mesh. Put the
cursor over the area to get the example picture to appear.

!Aligning the hood.{width="200"}

When the loop is in the right place, 
click. The place to put the actual cut can now be selected. Do this
twice - once for each side. Move and align the resulting edges to form
an angle to the front and bring the window vertices in.

Extrude the hood surface up a small amount. We don\'t want it too high,
just high enough to catch the light.

Zoom in and select the top-front hood edge created from the extrusion.
Drag it out along the X axis. Select the now diagonal face of the hood
extrusion. Extrude from it. The result will come out of the surface at a
diagonal angle. Take the resulting vertices and move them close to the
front of the jeep.\
 !Formatting the
window.{width="200"}

Using the additional lines from the loop subdivide you can improve the
shape of the window

#### Method 2

Another way to raise the Jeep hood. It doesn't require loop cuts, so is
a bit simpler. !Hood
extrusion.{width="200"} Step 1. Make
Inner Square.

Switch to Top-view (), or slightly
rotated off for easier viewing. Face-select the top square of the hood.\
Do -xtrude, then hit `<esc>`{=html}. NOTE:
this WILL make a new surface, hitting 
doesn't cancel the extrude, just makes its location to be exactly on the
old surface.\
Do -cale and type 0.9 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. Now you will see the new surface as a smaller square
(or really rectangle) on top of the jeep hood square.\
\
**Noob Note:** What I had to do is -cale
on  and type 0.9, otherwise the New
Surface For the hood would end up shooting through the Windshield.\
\

!Bring out the top front
edge.{width="200"} Step
2. Shape Hood.

Still in Top-view NUM 7, deselect all.\
Box-select the right two vertices of the new square, towards the front
of the jeep.\
Do -cale on Y, and type 0.8 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. Leave the two vertices still selected.\
Do -rab on X, and type 0.2 and hit
`<return>`{=html}.\
Face-select the resulting quadrilateral.\
Switch to Side-view NUM 3.\
Do -xtrude on Z and type 0.2 and hit
`<return>`{=html}. I used 0.2 to exaggerate the screenshot a bit, you
probably want 0.1 instead.\
Now you should have a raised hood on the front of the jeep.

#### Method 3

Another way to extruding the Hood of the jeep including a lip that comes
over the front.

![](Hoodstep1.png "Hoodstep1.png"){width="200"} Step 1: In face select
mode
(+-\>faces),
select the top of the hood and press  to
extrude it. Only extrude it a small amount.

![](Hoodstep2.png "Hoodstep2.png"){width="200"} Step 2: Staying in Face
select mode, here is the tricky part. Select the small face on the front
of the hood you just extruded. Then, hit 
then . This creates a duplicated face on
top of the one you selected. Do not click or move the mouse between
these two keystrokes.

![](Hoodstep3.png "Hoodstep3.png"){width="200"} Step 3: Now deselect the
selected face by hitting `<b>`{=html}AKEY`</b>`{=html}. Then enter Edge
select mode
(+-\>edges)
and select the top edge of the face you just deselected.

![](Hoodstep4.png "Hoodstep4.png"){width="200"} Step 4: Hit
 to go to the side view. Now using the
red X arrow pull the edge out a little further than you pulled up the
hood itself then hit .

![](Hoodstep5.png "Hoodstep5.png"){width="200"} Step 5: Now rotate just
enough so you can see under the wedge you just made. Go back into Face
select mode
(+-\>faces)
and select the face on the underside of it.

![](Hoodstep6.png "Hoodstep6.png"){width="200"} Step 6: Go back into
side view with . Now hit
 to extrude the face a little with the
mouse. When it\'s a good size hit .

![](Hoodstep7.png "Hoodstep7.png"){width="200"} Step 7: Now make sure
the \"Select only visible\" button is turned off (\"Occlude background
geometry\" in later versions) and go into Vertex select mode
(+-\>vertices).
Play around with the vertices pulling them a little closer to the front
of the jeep. It\'s best to select using the box select
() or the Lasso
(+).

![](Hoodstep8.png "Hoodstep8.png"){width="200"} The end result should be
an extruded hood with a lip.

### Add a Fender

!Starting the
fender.{width="300"} In the
topdown view (), add a plane. Extrude
an edge twice to result in three connected planes.

!Bend the fender.{width="300"} Pull
the sides down to form a trapezoid shape and reduce the width.

!Model with
fenders.{width="300"} Once it is
in the desired shape, select the three faces and duplicate it. Press
+\'\'\'
and all selected vertices, edges, and/or faces will be duplicated. The
copy will automatically be grabbed for moving.

Move the duplicate to the jeep body and repeat the duplication two more
times for a total of four fenders.

Noob note: A good idea is to first position one fender, then copy it and
restrict movement to x or y-axis. Then copy both fenders and move the
two new copies along x or y-axis. Much simpler than trying to position
four fenders individually.

### Add a rocket launcher mount

!Setting up the tripod in 
view.{width="300"}
We\'ll move on to making a tripod support for the rocket launcher.

Add a cylinder mesh with 12 vertices then scale and size it so that it
looks like a tube. Once you have it to a size you like,

Duplicate it twice for a total of 3 cylinders.

Rotate two of the cylinders in the 
view by  clicking on the white circle
that appears when the cylinder is selected in rotate mode.

The picture on the left is an example of the end result.

!Setting up the tripod in 
view.{width="219"}
Change to overhead view () and put
together the three cylinders so the tops come close together. Now all
three can be selected and moved or rotated accordingly.

!Putting in the
tripod.{width="300"} Move the
tripod onto the jeep flat bed. The final steps are to select your
materials and rename the object (described in the wheel section). This
will complete our simple jeep model.

## Subsurf

Since we expect a jeep body to have squared up edges, we won\'t subsurf
this part of the model.

## Optional Activities

Feel free to add anything you see fit such as bumpers, guard rails,
doors, steering wheel, lights, etc. You can either have them on the same
object or separate objects (useful if you want to move them around).

