Box modeling the main section of the chair

The main section of the chair is a fairly simple shape, so it's the perfect place to practice box modeling. As mentioned before, we start this style of modeling with a primitive shape (in this case, we'll use a cube). and then we use extrusions, edge loops, and other simple modeling tools to block out the major forms of the model.

First, let's create a cube. When we create new objects in Blender, they will spawn at the location of the 3D Cursor. It's best to reset the position of the cursor before adding new objects so that they spawn at the center of the grid:

1. Press the Shift + S hotkey to bring up the Snap pie menu.
2. Choose Cursor to World Origin:

Excellent, the 3D Cursor has been reset to the center position. Later in this chapter, we will place the 3D Cursor in custom locations so that it can help us in our modeling workflow, but for now, we need it right here in the center, as shown here:

Next, let's add in a cube to begin our model:

1. Find the Add menu at the top of the 3D Viewport or press the Shift + A hotkey.
2. Choose Mesh | Cube.
3. Rename the cube object Chair_Main.

Perfect. Now, let's turn on x-ray mode so that we can see the reference images through the surface of the cube:

1. Press the Tilde (~) hotkey and then choose Right from the pie menu.
2. Find and click the Toggle X-Ray button in the top-right corner of the 3D Viewport:

Once the x-ray button has been enabled, your Viewport should look like this:

There we go! Now that we can see what we're doing, we can align the cube to the seat of the chair.

Let's move the new cube into place:

1. Press the Tab hotkey to enter Edit Mode.
2. Press the A hotkey to select all of the components of the cube (if they aren't selected already).
3. Press G to grab the components and drag them upward to the seat of the chair.
4. Left-click to confirm the translation:

5. Press S to scale the cube down so that it matches the vertical thickness of the seat of the chair.
6. Left-click to confirm the scale:

7. Press the S hotkey again to begin scaling again.
8. Press the Y hotkey to lock the scale to the y-axis.
9. Drag the mouse outward to scale the cube to match the size of the chair along the y-axis.
10. Left-click to confirm the scale:

So far so good, but now we need to adjust the size so that it lines up with the chair from the Top view:

1. Press the Tilde (~) hotkey to open the View pie menu.
2. Choose Top from the menu.
3. Press A to make sure the components of the cube are still selected.
4. Press S to scale.
5. Press the X hotkey to lock the scale to the x-axis.
6. Move the mouse to resize the cube's width to match the width of the seat:

Good. Now we need to add some extra geometry so that we can build the back of the chair:

1. Go to the right side view (the ~ hotkey | Right.)
2. Select the Loop Cut tool from the Toolbar.
3. Hover the mouse over one of the horizontal edges, and a vertical highlight will appear.

4. Click to insert a new edge loop.
5. Select the Edge Slide tool from the Toolbar.
6. Click and drag to slide the edge to the spot where the back of the chair meets the seat of the chair (right behind the armrest, as seen in the following screenshot):

Inserting edge loops like this is a very common way to add detail to a model. This method works very well for defining a region to extrude more polygons out of, which is exactly what we'll be doing next:

1. Press the 3 hotkey on the home row of the keyboard to switch to Face Select mode.
2. Select the face in the top-right of the mesh (it might be hard to see from this angle but it can still be selected).
3. Select the Extrude Region tool from the Toolbar.
4. Click and drag the extrude widget to pull out some extra geometry from the selected region.
5. Pull up until the extrusion aligns with the crease in the side of the chair.
6. Press the G hotkey to grab the extruded face.
7. Press the Y hotkey to lock the translation to the y-axis.
8. Move the face backward to align with the reference image of the chair.

9. Left-click to confirm the translation:

Perfect! This is a very common modeling process: Loop Cut, Edge Slide, Extrude, and Move. We will be using this often. Extrude and move the back of the chair two more times to form the upper section and the headrest, as seen in the following screenshot:

Excellent. Now we need to have a look at the front of the chair so we can adjust the width of each section:

1. Go to the Front View (the ~ hotkey | Front.)
2. Use the Loop Cut tool to add two new vertical edge loops.
3. Use the Edge Slide tool to slide the two new edge loops to align with the features of the chair in the following screenshot:

Perfect! These new edge loops will let us carve away the unneeded sections of the chair while retaining the detail where needed. Up next, we can create a "Bridge" from the front to the back of the chair, which in this case will carve away the unneeded polygons:

1. Press the 3 hotkey on the home row of the keyboard to switch to Face Select mode.
2. Click and drag to box select the four faces in the front as well as the four faces in the back (refer to the following screenshot). Don't select the perimeter faces along the right side or the top, otherwise, the "bridge edge loops" operation won't work:

3. Go to the Edge menu at the top of the 3D Viewport.
4. Choose Bridge Edge Loops:

There. Now the polygons on the front of the chair have been bridged to the back of the chair, which has carved away the selected section. If we had just deleted these polygons, there would be a hole in the side of the mesh that we would have had to patch up. This method of bridging did, however, leave behind some unneeded faces around the perimeter, so let's delete those now:

1. Select the five faces around the perimeter.
2. Go to the Mesh menu.
3. Choose Delete | Faces:

That's a good start! Now, we need to make a few more extrusions to round out the edges:

1. Switch to Face Select mode.
2. Select the face on the right side of the headrest.
3. Use either the Extrude Region tool from the Toolbar or the E hotkey to extrude the side of the headrest about halfway to the edge of the reference image.

4. Press the S hotkey to begin scaling.
5. Press the Z hotkey to lock the scale to the z-axis.
6. Scale the selected face down to more closely align with the reference image.
7. Left-click to confirm the scale.
8. Extrude again, this time all of the way to the edge of the reference image.
9. Scale down the extruded face to finish rounding out the headrest:

Very nice. Repeat this process for the lower section of the chair to round it out, as seen in the following screenshot:

Good. Now let's round out that hard corner of the midsection. This time, we'll use a slightly different method—a bevel:

1. Click and drag with the middle mouse button to rotate the Viewport so you can see the corner of the chair's midsection (refer to the following screenshot).
2. Press the 2 hotkey on the home row of the keyboard to switch to Edge Select mode.
3. Select the corner edge.
4. Return to the Front View so that we can see the reference image again:

5. Go to the Edge menu at the top of the Viewport.
6. Choose Bevel Edges or use the Ctrl + B hotkey to begin the bevel operation.
7. Scroll up on the mouse wheel to increase the segments to two.

8. Drag your mouse outward to increase the width of the bevel to match the roundness of the corner in the reference image; in this case, about 0.125 m works well (refer to the following screenshot).
9. Left-click to confirm the bevel operation:

Good. Now let's round out the edge of the seat:

1. Use either the Loop Cut tool from the Toolbar or the Ctrl + R hotkey to cut an extra vertical edge loop into the side of the seat.
2. Switch to Face Select mode.
3. Box select over the far right side of the edge of the seat to grab both faces along the side.
4. Press the G hotkey to grab the faces.
5. Press the X hotkey to lock the translation to the x-axis.

6. Move the faces to better align with the reference image (refer to the following screenshot).
7. Left-click to confirm the translation.
8. Press the S hotkey to begin scaling.
9. Press the Z hotkey to lock the scale to the z-axis.
10. Scale the selected face down to more closely align with the reference image.
11. Left-click to confirm the scale:

Let's do one more bit of refinement to the seat before we move on:

1. Go to the Top view.
2. Switch to Face Select mode.
3. Select the two middle-most faces on the front of the seat (refer to the following screenshot).
4. Press the G hotkey to grab the faces.
5. Press the Y hotkey to lock the translation to the y-axis.
6. Drag the faces downward until the right-most edge of the selection aligns with the reference image (refer to the following screenshot).
7. Left-click to confirm the translation.
8. Deselect the right-most face, leaving just one face selected.
9. Press the G hotkey again to grab the face.
10. Press the Y hotkey to lock the translation to the y-axis.

11. Drag the face downward until it aligns with the reference image (refer to the following screenshot).
12. Left-click to confirm the translation:

Perfect! Chairs with rounded corners are much more comfortable than ones with sharp corners! Now, we just have to make it symmetrical, and we have a super-easy way to do just that:

1. Press the A hotkey to select the entire chair.
2. Go to the Mesh menu at the top of the 3D Viewport.
3. Choose Symmetrize.
4. Click on the word Symmetrize that appears in the bottom-left to expand the Adjust Last Operation panel.
5. Change the Direction to +X to -X so that the correct side of the object is mirrored over.

6. Tab back into Object mode—we're done with the main piece of the chair:

Wow! There were a lot of steps behind creating the chair, but we've powered through them and we've learned several important parts of the box modeling workflow along the way, well done!

We've learned how to do the following:

• Change between the Top view, Right side view, and Front View.
• Use the G, R, and S hotkeys to grab, rotate, and scale objects.
• Use the X, Y, and Z hotkeys to lock transformations to a specific axis.
• Use the Extrude tool to pull new geometry out of a selected region of the mesh.
• Use the Loop Cut tool to insert edge loops into a mesh.
• Use the Edge Slide tool to reposition our new edge loops.

From this point forward in this chapter, we are going to provide more streamlined instructions for the parts of the workflow that you've already learned. We will, of course, continue to introduce new tools and operators in detail, but we won't bore you by repeating the step-by-step instructions for things you've already learned. Many of these operations should be starting to feel familiar to you already.

If you do find yourself struggling to remember how to perform any of these operations, you can always refer back to this early part of this chapter for detailed instructions.

Now, let's move on and talk about two methodologies for modeling that will both come in handy.