Blender Basics · scottaferguson.org

Lesson 15: Ears, snout, and legs

About 14 minutes · Blender 5.2.1 LTS · Mac Mini + Magic Mouse

Why this lesson

Animals are made of a head and body with parts attached. You will use two skills you already know: Extrude from Lesson 4, and Mirror from Lesson 7. Extrude makes new parts from an existing face. Mirror makes the matching side for you.

Finished: head, ears, snout, body, four legs
What to look at: the ears and legs are added pieces. The snout comes from the head.

Steps

  1. Tool Open block-head.blend from Lesson 14.
  2. Key Press Tab for Edit Mode, then 3 for face select.
  3. Mouse Click the top face on one side of the head. It turns orange.
  4. Key Press E, move the mouse up, and click. This makes one ear. Extrude from Lesson 4, unverified on your Mac for this shape
  5. Key Press Tab to leave Edit Mode, then add a Mirror modifier (Add Modifier > Generate > Mirror). Axis X should be blue. The second ear appears.
  6. Key Press Tab for Edit Mode. Select the front face of the head, press E, and pull it forward a little. This makes the snout.
  7. Key For legs, make a separate cube with Shift + A. Press S, type 0.3, and press Enter to make it small. Then press S, Z, type 2, and press Enter to stretch it tall. Place four of them under the body with G.
  8. Check The head, ears, snout, and legs are all present. The two ears and two front legs match.
  9. Key Save with Cmd + S as animal-parts.blend.
Keep the parts separate: it's fine to keep ears and legs as separate objects. It makes them easy to move. You can join them later.

Project: animal parts

A head with two ears, a snout, a body, and four legs, saved as animal-parts.blend. This is the base for the stylized animal in Lesson 16.

← Lesson 14 Next: Lesson 16 →