Chapter 1. Sci-Fi Pistol - Creating the Basic Shapes

In this section, we'll cover a few introductory topics, discuss our goals for the project, and then create the basic shape of a pistol. As we do this, we'll use a number of different tools and modifiers. At the end of this section, we'll be ready to move on and detail our pistol:

• A project overview
• Creating the barrel
• Modeling a handgrip and other pieces

Welcome to Blender 3D Incredible Machines.

In this book, we'll be working through a series of Blender projects aimed at increasing your modeling, texturing, and rendering skills.

Before we jump right into it, there are a few quick things that we need to cover.

First of all, I should mention that this book isn't meant for absolute beginners.

It would be great if a single volume could take you from knowing nothing about the software to cranking out sophisticated 3D models; unfortunately, this is not realistic. Blender's an incredible piece of software, but it's also complex. The sheer number of features means that learning to use it (or at least, learning to use it well) is a long-term endeavor. The best Blender modelers in the world will tell you that they always discover something new.

So, who exactly is the target audience?

In terms of skill level, this book will be most useful to intermediate users. Among other things, an intermediate user can do the following:

• Navigate comfortably in 3D space
• Switch between different views
• Add objects to a scene
• Move, rotate, and scale objects
• Open, close, and save files
• Switch between the Object and Edit modes
• Switch between face, edge, and vertex selections
• Add modifiers
• Drink large quantities of coffee

This book is called Blender 3D Incredible Machines for a reason. We're going to focus on building sophisticated mechanical models here, which means that invariably, there are certain topics that we won't cover.

There's nothing in here about creating realistic fur or setting up materials to simulate human skin. While these are fascinating topics, they're beyond the scope of this book (and frankly, I don't feel qualified to teach you about them).

As you get started with our first project, you'll find that the instructions are detailed and specific. However, as we move further along, this will become less true. This avoids repetition and also allows us to pull back and see the big picture. We can start focusing on workflow and project management, which is critical when building complex models.

There's one last thing I'd like to mention before we jump into it. In a lot of Blender tutorials, you build models based on reference or background images. This is incredibly useful when you model a real object, but everything in this book is fictional. We want to focus on technique and workflow here and leave ourselves some flexibility on the designs. Therefore, we're going to build everything in a freehand manner. However, if you'd prefer to work from a reference image, blueprints for all the models are provided at the back of this book.

This pretty much wraps up our introductory topics...so, if you're ready, let's get to work!