12 Blender Addons for Hard Surface Modeling

if you want to make the process of modeling complex hard surfaces using blender easier then you should consider using some of the 12 animals we chose for you today number 12 loop tools it is actually one of the good tools to get some important hard surface stuff done inside denture but now there are many alternatives however it is still good this add-on has a lot of operators for turning any number of edges into a circle making slappy loops into perfect curves flattening things at strange angles to just name few things that loop tools can do number 11 cable rater this is not exactly an add-on that will help you create and edit hard services but it comes very handy if you want to create cables in your projects including hard surface modeling projects such as robots ships and so on you can use this fantastic add-on that allows you to do that easily in a very short period of time it has many different features and tools that can be more than enough to create all sorts of cables and manipulate them as you please for example you can create a simple cable draw cables on a flat surface add connectors to cables add segments copy segments create a pack of cables and much more number 10 advanced boolean tools this add-on comes with nice boolean tools and modifiers that can make the process of modeling hard surfaces easier even though this add-on is free it can help you achieve really good results it comes with a handy pie menu with boolean operations cleaning mesh wire shading editing normals some modifiers and bevel operators some of the modifiers are array mirror solidify and more for example you can use the boolean by creating a plane give it thickness then cut out the difference which is great for creating hard surface details in a very short period of time number nine the shipwright this is a blender setup which allows you to dynamically create interesting looking objects like sci-fi ships and parts and this allows you to automate the process of extruding and manipulating objects basically what this addon allows you to do is to create a wide range of objects based on the seed values but it takes at least 10 to 15 seconds for the atom to recalculate with a default setup furthermore the changes you make in parameters will automatically update in the model and you can also create objects that can further edit and combine in blender number 8 bull tool this add-on is a nice way to create complex boolean effects in a simple way like a lot of other tools available for blender it is free and available for blender users because it is a built-in add-on it is a very effective way of starting to use boolean tools before deciding on more complex add-ons that we're going to go through very shortly the paid ones are better than this tool but they operate using the same basic principle which is using primitive geometry to perform boolean operations to add or extract details i would say it can do a good job for complex modeling or hard surface to a certain extent if you can't afford the paid ones number seven machine tools this add-on is basically good for functional purposes like working on 3d view pi menus but there are also features for editing like cleaning up mesh smartworth smart faces and so on it is basically a free and continuously evolving collection of blender tools and pie menus in a single customizable package this machine tools free add-on can be a good introduction for doing certain things in hard service modeling but if you want more you should continue watching number six fluent this is a very interesting and powerful hard surface modeling tool that you can use inside blender this is the case because it can combine many tools and functions when it comes to boolean and cutting operations fluent is very good and can do a lot of things but this is not just it since it can do a lot more for example you can turn any selected surface into a cloth panel which can be useful for many situations you can also connect different pieces of geometry or connectors using cables that can be manipulated according to your needs whether you want them to be straight curved or anything else if you need to create a chain this add-on also got you covered because it has tools for this too and if you want to add changes to cables or pipes that you personally made you can do this too to be able to have more control and freedom when working on your personal projects in addition to that you can slide objects along pipes as well to be able to add connectors in the right place it even goes further to allow you to add the ability to unwrap or uv and wrap your model with a simple click number five kidops pro this is a blender add-on that you can use to instantly cut or add to existing objects or create stand-alone objects with a goal to rapidly create and explore new designs the pro version of this add-on comes with a pack that includes three high quality inserts that you can use to take your designs and models to the next level and most of them were created by master xeon himself a great blender artist and developer of popular blender add-ons such as box cutter but the atom was developed by chipwalters an industrial designer with many years of experience this add-on is very effective and easy to use you don't even need a tutorial to understand how it functions you can right away start using it in your projects after you install the add-on and all the packs that come with it you will be able to see several lists that have different inserts organized based on their type for example this add-on can be a huge time saver if you work on hard surfaces models all the time and i highly recommend it number four heart ops this add-on is a joint collaboration between its original developer and many other artists in attempting to streamline our service modeling workflow in blender it is one of the best tools for hard surface modeling for blender due to the tools it can offer that can make the process of hard surface modeling easier and faster it is used by many professionals in different industries such as film and video game development this add-on is very powerful first of all because it has a modifier based on destructive workflow with menus and active tools to be able to work effectively some of the tools you can use include smart hops via hops tool non-destructive and distractive bullying cutting system circular arrays and normal areas in addition to multiple iteration modifier pop-up with hotkeys for efficiency and much more number three decal machine this is one of the top blender add-ons when it comes to adding mesh decals when detailing hard surfaces in a very noncommittal non-destructive uv-less way the library is very interesting and it contains very beautiful and well-designed details that can help you work on a wide variety of hard surface projects and you can even create emissive details that look fantastic especially for sci-fi stuff in addition to that you can create your own in case what you're looking for does not exist in the library with this add-on you can do a lot of things with decals they can be sliced projected or created from edges even depending on your particular project's needs and the good thing is if you already added materials to the surface that can blend in with the material and fit in perfectly also decal machine has a trim sheet support and trims that can be easily placed cut manipulated or removed directly in the viewport for many blender artists this add-on is a huge time saver and you should give it a shot number two box cutter this is one of the most popular hard surface modeling add-ons in the blender community because it is a very fast and efficient surface cutter it is an ever-growing and expanding set of tools that can help you save a lot of time since it is optimized to be as fast as possible for blender users box cutter operations are non-destructive which means it can guarantee that the shapes will be kept alive until you decide to apply them the tools you can use include cut slice inset join knife extract and more in addition to other options to personalize your experience and to be able to work even faster according to your personal workflow but you can't really understand how powerful this add-on is until you start using it number one mesh machine mesh machine is a blender modeling add-on with a focus on hard surface modeling without subdivision surfaces this is probably the best add-on for hard surface modeling for aaa video game assets or high poly models in general it has a lot of great features that can make heavy hard surface modeling way easier than relying on blender tools alone because it has a lot of tools in addition to some ready plugs that you can insert directly for example you can use tools such as fuse and bevel chamfer and chamfer offset boolean tool and so on and use techniques such as variable fillets washout technique and so on the interesting thing about this add-on is that it makes difficult hard service modeling tasks look easier and way less time consuming if you are interested in one of these add-ons you can find all the links in the description i hope you found this video useful and informative if you have something to add you can leave it in the comment section below also you can check some of our previous videos thank you very much and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: InspirationTuts

Views: 155,060

Rating: 4.9759274 out of 5

Keywords: Blender Addons for Hard Surface Modeling, Blender addon, Blender hard surface, Blender hard surface modeling, Blender, Best Blender addons, Top Blender addons, Mesh Machine, Box cutter, DecalMachine, Hard Ops, Kitops pro, Fluent, Machine tools, Bool Tool, the Shipwright, Advanced Boolean tools, Cablerator, Loop tools, Best Blender modeling addons, Blender modeling addons, how to use Blender modeling addons, Best Blender plugins

Id: AT_8DU7DKUE

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021