- Hey everyone, it's Kevin with cgboost.com, and in this video we're gonna create this stylized microscope in Blender 3D, which was inspired by the
past science lab challenge. The way we'll do this is by
first modeling the microscope. Then we'll shade it with
a textured material, and lastly, we'll add
Grease Pencil details to give it an illustrated look. If you don't know what Grease Pencil is, it's an element within Blender that allows you to draw
2D in a 3D environment. And here specifically,
we'll be using it to draw on the surface of meshes. If you wanna learn more about it, you can check out my Grease
Pencil course I just released with CG Boost. I'll have more info at
the end of the video. You don't need to know how to draw, and this tutorial can be
followed along by those still fairly new to Blender,
although it might be easier if you have some experience with it. Also, a tablet is not required, but it might be helpful towards
the end for adding details. And for reference, I'll have
the shortcut keys displayed at the bottom right. You can download the final
project file and resources used in this video by going
to cgboost.com/resources. You can find a link below. Alright, let's get started. (graphics whoosh)
(bright music) Here I'm in a new Blender
file using version 3.4 and in the layout workspace. To start, we'll adjust
a few scene settings. Let's go to the render
properties tab here, and just to clarify, we'll be using EV to render out this project. Scroll down to color
management and change the view transform dropdown from
filmic to standard. This will make the
colors display accurately according to the style we're going for. Also, I like to change the
look to medium high contrast. This is a personal preference, but it'll make the colors
appear more vibrant. As we'll be focused on
modeling for this first part, I'll keep the viewport
shading set to solid, and to help I'll click
on the shading dropdown to the right of it and toggle cavity. This will enable a slight
visual bevel to the edges of our meshes to see them more clearly. Going to the 3D viewport,
let's delete this cube with X and going to front view with Numpad one. Now if you don't have a
Numpad, you can access the different orthographic views
through the access controls here, or by going to
edit, preferences, input, and toggling emulate Numpad. This will make the numbers
at the top of your keyboard act like the Numpad shortcuts. Just keep in mind that this
will affect your selection controls while in edit mode. Now when modeling anything and
something a bit more detailed like a microscope, it's really
helpful to have reference. So here I have a side profile
that we can use as a guide, and this will be available
in the link below. To bring this into Blender,
you can simply drag the file into the 3D viewport and
it'll import as an empty. I want to clear any transformations on it. So with it selected hit alt
G to clear its position. Then let's go to the
object data properties tab and increase the size a bit
here to about six meters and then toggle opacity
and lower it to about 0.05, so it's transparent. Then I'll go to the object properties tab, which is this orange icon. Go to viewport display and
check in front to make sure this reference will appear on
top of any meshes we create. Then let's shift this
reference up with G, then Z, to where the base of the microscope sits on top of the X-axis line. So it seems like there's a lot here, but we're going to tackle
this one segment at a time and we'll start with the
arm on the left here. Let's bring in a circle
by hitting shift A, mesh, and selecting it from the list. With it selected, let's rotate
it upward by hitting RX, and typing 90. Then hit G to grab and position
it to where the left side of the circle fits the
outer curve of the arm. I'll size it out slightly
with S, and S, then Z. Tap into edit mode and with point select, you can either hit 1 or
by clicking these buttons at the top, box select all
the vertices that don't sit on that left curve and delete them with X. I'll also select this
top point individually and shift it with G to
fit this top segment, and then I'll do the same for the bottom. Once you're done, go
back into object mode. Let's duplicate this curve with shift D, and then X to shift it over to the right, so this curve fits the
inner part of the arm. I'll also size it down
with S, then Z just a bit. Tab into edit mode and like
before, delete the points that aren't positioned on
the curve except for the ones at the top and bottom. Then shift the points slightly
to roughly fit the shape of the reference. It doesn't need to be exact as
we'll be doing some beveling later to smooth it out. Go back into object mode,
shift select both curves, and hit control J to join
them into one object. Then tab back into edit mode, select the top point of
the inner curve and hit E, then X, to extrude and
shift it over until it hits the right edge of the arm. Then extrude again with E, then Z upward until it's
level with the top point of the other curve. Shift select both the top points
and hit F To connect them. Select the bottom point of the inner curve and like before hit E,
then X to shift it over until it hits the right
edge of the arm base. Then hit E again to
extrude it down diagonally to where it's above the
outer curves bottom point. Shift select both of those
points and hit F to connect them. Make any adjustments needed. Then hit A to select all, and
then F to fill this shape. We're going to extrude this, so go into side view with Numpad 3. With the shape still selected, hit E to extrude to the right along the Y and make this a little less
than two grid squares wide in total. And just for reference,
I'm using default units. Click to confirm, tap into object mode, and right click to set origin to Geometry. Now I want to shift this
back in the Y so it aligns with the world origin. Go to object at the top, transform, and select align objects. Expand the menu at the bottom left, select relative to scene
origin, and align along the Y. Then it'll be positioned accordingly. With it positioned, I
want to start beveling some of the edges here. And we'll start with the
ones on the inner side. In edit mode, hit 2 for
edge select, and again, you can also access this
from the buttons up here. And shift select the inner
edges except for this bottom one that holds the stage here. Hit control B to bevel them,
and increase the number of cuts with your middle mouse wheel
until you get a smooth curve. Click to confirm. If you don't have a middle mouse wheel, you can adjust the number of segments by expanding the bevel
menu at the bottom left that appears upon confirming. Then select the edges on
the outer side of the curve, except for the bottom one
and bevel those as well. Lastly, select the inner
edge on the right side near the base and bevel that. Check it in front view. Now I want to create the last
segment that connects the arm to the tube, so hit 3 for face select, and select this interface of the arm. Hit I to inset, and roughly
size down the new face according to the reference. Go into front view and hit E to extrude until it hits the tube. Click to confirm. When you're finished, tap
back into object mode, right click and select shade auto smooth, rotate your view to check it, and make any other adjustments needed. Next, we'll model this stage, which is this rectangular plate here. In front view, hit shift A
and bring in a mesh cube. Let's move it up with G
to where the origin point is centered to the stage reference. Then size it down with S
until it fits the width. Size it in with S Z
until it fits the height. Going to side view, I'll
scale this in slightly with S, then Y. Now we'll need to make a
hole in this stage for light to pass through from underneath it. With it still selected,
hit shift S to set cursor to selected. Then hit shift A to
bring in a mesh cylinder. Hit N to bring up the side
menu, and size down the cylinder to where it's about 0.19
meters in the X, Y, and Z. Click to confirm. To create the hole, select the stage, go to the modifier properties tab, and add a boolean and modifier. In object, select the eyedropper tool and sample the cylinder we just created. This will non-destructively
create a hole in our stage. And if I hide the cylinder,
you'll see this more clearly. However, I want this hole to be a part of the actual Geometry, so let's apply the modifier by
hovering over it in the panel and hitting control A. If I tap into edit mode,
you'll see the hole integrated into the Geometry. In object mode, delete the
cylinder and select the stage. Now the next thing we'll do
is apply scale transforms, which is resetting an object scale value. This doesn't reset its
visual scale in the view port and it's important for
other Blender functions to work properly with this object. You can do that by hitting
control A and selecting scale from the list. To see if it's been applied correctly, you can check the scale
values in the side menu, and if they're 1 in the X, Y, and Z. Lastly, right click and
select shade auto smooth. Now we'll create the clips
that sit on top of the stage and we'll start with the fastener. So in front view hit shift A and bring in another mesh cylinder. Move it to the left over the
reference and size it down until it fits the radius
of the bottom portion. Tap into edit mode and with face select, select the top face of the mesh, go into front view and
hit E, then S to extrude and scale it outward. Then hit E again to extrude
upward to form the head of the fastener, and until it matches
the height of the reference. Now to create the actual
clip, go into object mode and hit shift S to set cursor to selected, then hit shift A to bring in a mesh plane. Shift it up in the Z a bit,
and size it down with S until it's about the radius
of the fastener head. Tap into edit mode and with edge select, select the right edge, go
into front view and hit E to extrude it downward
diagonally, per the reference. Click extrude again along
the X to fit the length, click, then extrude upward
diagonally, and click. Lastly, select the left
edge, go into front view and extrude it diagonally
upward to the left and finish it off. Make any positioning or
sizing adjustments needed. Now shift select the four
inner edges, and bevel them with control B to smooth them out. Again, adjusting the number of segments with the middle mouse wheel. Then shift select the edges at each end, and hit shift control B to
bevel the corner vertices and round out the ends. Tab into object mode, and
let's add a solidify modifier to give it some thickness. Set the thickness value
to about 0.12 meters. Then hover over the modifier
and hit control A to apply it. Shift select the clip and fastener meshes and hit control J to join
them into one object. Then apply scale with
control A, and right click shade auto smooth. Move this closer in the Y near
the left side of this stage and we'll mirror this for the other side. Go to the modifier properties
tab and add a mirror modifier, under access, toggle off X and toggle y. Then for mirror object, I
drop the stage to mirror according to its origin point. Then let's apply this
modifier by hovering over it and hitting control A, and
now our stage is complete. Next we'll move on to the base supports, which will be situated
on each side of the arm. In front view, hit shift A
and bring in a mesh cube. Size it down until it fits
the width of the base support. Then go into edit mode
and with face select, select the top face. Go back into front view and
let's shift this up with G, then Z, until it hits the
bottom of the stage plate. With edge select, select
the top left edge. And in front view, shift
it along with G, then X, until it matches the left side slant. Now tap back into object
mode and hit control A to apply scale. Tap into edit mode and with
that edge still selected, bevel it with control B until
it matches the reference. Go into side view, hit A to select all, and size of support down
in the Y until its width is a bit thinner than the arm. Tab into object mode and
shift it over to the left with G, then Y. Right click shade auto
smooth, then mirror it for the other side by
adding a mirror modifier. In axis, specify Z and for
mirror object, the arm. Then apply the modifier
by hovering over it and hitting control A. Now we'll create the
hexagonal bolt that connects the supports to the arm. In front view, hit shift A
to bring in a mesh cylinder. Expand the menu in the bottom left and under vertices, specify 6. Then size down the
cylinder and shift it over the bolt reference. Scale it to where it's approximately
the radius of the bolt, rotate it with RX and typing 90, then position and adjust it as needed. Go into side view and scale
the bolt length-wise in the Y until it comes outside the base supports. Then hit control A to apply scale, and now we have our
finished base supports. The next segment we'll create is the base that our microscope will sit on. Let's hit shift C to
set the 3D cursor back to the world origin
and go into front view. Hit shift A, and let's
bring in a mesh cube. Place it over the base
reference and size it down until it's roughly the length of it. Then size it down with S, then
Z, until it fits the height. Go into side view and scale it
in with S, then Y just a bit. Hit control A to apply scale
and go back into front view. Now we'll start shaping this. Tap into edit mode and hit control R to create one loop cut
lengthwise, click to confirm. With edge select, select
the top right edge, go into front view and push
it to the left along the X according to the reference. Now while holding alt, shift
select the two corner edges on the left and bevel them with
control B to round them out. Then switch to face, select
with 3, select the top face and hit control B to bevel that as well. Tab back into object mode,
right click shade auto smooth, and now our base is complete. Now we'll move on to our light source. Go into front view and in
the reference it's the parts underneath the plate. This is supposed to be something circular, so hit shift A and let's
bring in a mesh cylinder. Make sure vertices is 32. Size it down and position
it over the reference. Let's size this down with S
to roughly fit the radius. Then size it down in the Z. Now I want to inset these
faces, so in edit mode and with face select, shift
select the top and bottom faces of the cylinder. Hit I to inset just a bit,
click then hit E, S and Z, to ensure the new face is inward. When you're finished,
tap into object mode, apply scale with control A, and right click shade auto smooth. I want to create the support
for this light source. Tap back into edit mode
and with face select, hold alt to loop select the
outer faces of the cylinder. Hit shift D to duplicate the faces, right click to leave
them where they're at, and hit P to separate by selection. It brings the duplicate
faces into a new object, so tap into object mode, select a new mesh and go back into edit mode. Toggle X-ray with alt Z or by
clicking the button up here and go into front view. Select half of the faces on
the right side of the ring and delete them with X. Toggle off X-ray. Then with edge select,
shift select the outer edges of the ring and hit shift
control B to round them out. Tab into object mode and scale
this out with S just a bit. Now let's add some thickness to this. Go to the modifier properties tab and add a solidify modifier. I'll set the thickness
to about 0.02 meters. Then I'll hover over it and
hit control A to apply it. Tab into edit mode and toggle X-ray again. With face select, shift
select the two faces in front of the arm, hit
E, then x, to extrude it towards the arm. Toggle off X-ray tab
back into object mode, apply scale with control A, and right click shade auto smooth. Select the circular light source mesh, go into front view and
let's rotate it upward to match the reference. And now the light source is complete. Make any adjustments needed. Now we'll move on to the
top half of the microscope starting with the tube and eye piece. In front view, let's bring in
a mesh cylinder with shift A, size it down and place
it over the tube portion of the reference, which
is the bottom half. Size it down until it
roughly matches the radius of the tube. Then size it vertically with S, then Z, tap into edit mode and with face select, select the top face of the cylinder. Go into front view and
using the reference, extrude it with E, then S
outward, click E upward, click E again upward, click,
then S To scale it in, click E upward, click E, then
S to scale it in slightly click then E upward to
create the eye piece, click ES outward slightly, E upward, then ES outward again slightly. Then E upward again, but I'll stop a little below
the top since it curves in. Then hit E again to the top,
and S to scale it in slightly. Then to create the hole I'll
inset with I just a bit, then E to extrude downward into the tube. Now I want to round out
some of these edges, so tap into object mode and
let's apply scale with control A and right click shade auto smooth. Tab back into edit mode
and go into front view. I'm going to create one loop
cut around this slanted portion with control R. Click to confirm, and scale
it in slightly with S. I'll shift the cut down the
slanted portion slightly by hitting G twice. Then hit control B to bevel
it and increase the number of cuts as needed. While holding alt, loop select that ring right under that top
portion and hit control B to bevel that as well. And now our tube and
eye piece is complete. The next part we'll move
on to are the focus dials, which are the circular shapes on the left. In front view, hit shift A
and bring in a mesh cylinder. Bring it up and size it
down to where it's roughly the radius of the larger dial. Then rotate it with RX 90
and adjust it as needed. Go into side view with
Numpad 3, and shift this over to the left with G, then Y. Scale this in with S, then Y, until it's about one grid square wide. Now I want to create a smaller
extruded segment on the right that connects to the arm. Tab into edit mode and with face select, select the face on the
right, hit I to inset until it's a little less than
half the radius and click. Toggle X-ray, then extrude
with E to the right until it hits the arm. Tab into object mode
and go into side view. Shift the dial over to
the right along the Y to close the distance. Then toggle off X-ray. Now tab into edit mode and
select the face on the left side of the dial. Go into front view and insert
the face until it matches the outer middle ring. Click, go into side view
and hit E to extrude this to the left slightly, click. Go back into front view
and inset again with I until it matches the smaller
circle in the middle, click. Then go into side view and
extrude it slightly one more time and click. Tab back into object
mode and hit control A to apply scale, and right
click shade auto smooth. Now we'll do some beveling. Tap into edit mode and with
edge select while holding alt, shift select the outer edges of the dial except the one on the far left. Bevel it with control B, however,
unlike the other beveling we've done, I won't increase
the segments for this as I want a slanted edge. Then with face select, select the far left face
and bevel it as well. This time, increase the number
of segments to round it out. Tap into object mode and that
completes our larger dial. For the smaller one, go into
front view and bring in another mesh cylinder with shift A. Size it down and bring it
up over the smaller dial reference, size it down until
it fits the radius of it. Then rotate it with RX and typing 90. Go into side view and toggle X-ray. Scale it in, in the Y bit
and shift it over to the left along the Y until it comes
out from the face of the arm. Go into edit mode and with face select, select the left face of the cylinder, go into side view and hit E to extrude it slightly to the left, click. Toggle off x-ray. Then go into front view
and hit S to scale it in until it matches the middle ring, click. Go into side view, hit E to
extrude it outward to the left again, click. Then hit I to inset. Click. Then E to extrude inward, click. Tab back into object mode and
make any adjustments needed. Then apply scale with control A and right click shade auto smooth, and now our focus dials are complete. Alright, almost done with the modeling. The last thing we'll need to
create is the rotating turret and three lenses that attach to it. We'll start with the lenses, go into front view and bring
in another mesh cylinder. Size this down and move
it over the reference. Scale it in until it matches
the radius of the lens barrel. Then tap into edit mode
and with face select, select the bottom face, go
into front view and hit E to extrude this downward a bit. Click and scale it in with S, click. Hit E then S, to scale
it in slightly, click. Then E to extrude it downward, click. E then S to scale it in again, click. E to extrude it downward, click. E then S to scale it in
one more time, click. Then E to extrude it downward
and finish it off and click. Tap into object mode,
apply scale with control A and right click shade auto smooth, and now our lenses are done. We're going to duplicate
this two more times for the other two later. Now to create the turret,
bring in another cylinder with shift A. Shift it over the turret
reference and size it down until it roughly matches the
radius of the top portion. I know it's a bit weird
because it's slanted, but it doesn't need to be exact. Size this down with S then
Z, to match the height of that top portion. Then tap into edit mode
and with face select, select the bottom face. Go into front view and hit E then S, to scale it out slightly, click. Then E to extrude downward
until it's a little taller than the top portion, click. And S to scale it out slightly, click. With the bottom face still selected, hit X to delete only faces. Then with edge select
and while holding alt, loop select that bottom ring. Hit control F to bring
up the face context menu and select grid fill. We're going to create that
curved bottom portion. so hit 1 for point select, and
select a point in the middle of the new grid. Go into front view, toggle
proportional editing at the top here, which is
this radar looking icon, and click the dropdown. Toggle connected only and
change the fall off to sphere. Shift the point down in the Z
while adjusting the fall off with your middle mouse wheel
to create that curved portion. When you're finished, toggle
off proportional editing with O, and tap back into object mode. Apply scale with control A, and right click shade auto smooth. Now we'll attach the lenses to the turret. Select the turret and lens
and isolate them with slash. Select the turret
individually and hit shift S to set cursor to selected. Change the transform pivot
point to 3D cursor by accessing it up here or by hitting period
and selecting it from the pie menu. Select the lens and rotate
it with R, Y, and typing 20. Now if the top of the lens
doesn't fit completely in that curved portion, you can
just shift it to your liking with G then C. With the lens still
selected, go into top view with Numpad 7 and toggle X-ray. Duplicate it with shift
D, then R typing 120 to rotate it 120 degrees. Then hit shift R to repeat the action. Toggle off x-ray and check to make sure everything looks good. Then select the three
lenses and shift select the turret last. Hit control P to parent
the lenses to the turret. Then hit slash to unhide
the other elements and go into front view. With the elements still selected, hit R and type negative 20 to
rotate the turret with lenses. Shift it over to the left
to make sure the left edge lines up with the tube and make any other adjustments needed. I want the turret to be
wider, so I'll select it, go into edit mode, hit A to select all, and hit S shift Z twice
to size it according to its local access. When you're finished, change the transform pivot
point back to medium point and now we have our microscope modeled. Make sure to save your work. Let's hide the reference in the outliner. Before we move on, I want
to make sure the faces are oriented in the correct way. To do that, go to the
overlays dropdown here and toggle face orientation. If it's all blue, that means
all the faces are correct. If you have any that are red, select that mesh tab into edit mode, hit A to select all, and hit
shift N to recalculate normals. Let's toggle off face orientation
and select all the meshes. Hit M to send them to a new
collection named microscope. With our microscope modeled,
we can now move on to shading, but before we do that, I
want to set up a camera, animate it, and specify
a background color. To do this, I'll head into
the animation workspace by accessing it from the tab up here. With the left viewport
set to the camera view, I'll use the right to find
a rough angle that I like, kind of diagonal to it. Then I'll hit alt control
Numpad 0 to set the camera view to this angle. Moving out of it in the right viewport, I'll adjust the camera
object while referencing the camera view on the left. I'll pull this object back with
G then Z, twice to adjust it by its local value. Then I'll bring this up in
the Z and angle it downward with R. Now I want to animate this
camera to subtly rotate around the microscope side to side. So hit shift C to set the
cursor to the world origin. Let's bring in an empty cube
to see this more clearly and then parent the camera to the empty by shift selecting the camera, then the empty and hitting control P. Now go to frame 1 and you can
do that quickly by hovering over the timeline and
hitting shift left arrow. Rotate the empty along the
Z to a good starting angle and hit I to key frame the rotation. Then go to frame 125, rotate
it to the right slightly and hit I to key frame that rotation. Select the key frames at frame one, duplicate them with shift D
and place them at frame 250. And now we have a repeating
side to side motion. Feel free to adjust the
camera to your liking and adjust the number of frames. However, for this tutorial,
I'll just be keeping it at 250. Go back into the layout workspace, and starting from this point
we'll set our viewport shading to material preview. Also, let's click the dropdown
and toggle scene lights and scene world. Lastly, go to the world
properties tab and let's change the background to a lighter color. I'll select a pale light yellow, and now we'll move on to shading. Let's hide the camera object
and cube empty by selecting them and hitting H. Then change the dope sheet
down here to the shader editor and collapse this side menu with N. For shading we have two main materials, a light and a dark color. They're pretty much the same
except for the colors picked. And depending on which
mesh they're applied to, a new material is created
based off one of those in order to adjust specific settings. We'll start with the light material. Select the base mesh and hit new. Rename this material to light and we'll create a
basic tune shader setup. Hit shift A to bring in a new
node and search shader to RGB. This node only works with EV
and will help in achieving a non photorealistic look. Drop it in between the principle BSDF and the material output node. Hit shift A again and
bring in a color ramp. Drop it right after
the shader to RGB node, change it from linear to constant, and then you'll see an
obvious color change. Now if you see these strange artifacts in between the colors, these
are shadows from lights as this shader is affected by them. To remove them, let's
click on our light object. Go to the object data properties
tab and uncheck shadow. Click back on the base mesh. So here we can change these slider colors to whatever we'd like,
but before we do that we'll work on the texture. Moving to the left of
the principled BSDF node, hit shift A and let's bring
in a gradient texture node. Then hit shift A again and
bring in a Voronoi texture node. Lastly, bring in a mix
node, change float to color, and if you're using an
earlier version of Blender, this node was previously called mix RGB. Connect the gradient texture
color output to the B input of the mix node and the Voronoi
color output to the A input. Then connect the result
output from the mix node to the base color input
of the principled BSDF. Then you'll see a pattern
where the color transition is. Now let's adjust a few options. Going to the mix node,
set the factor to 0.7, then go to the texture,
change this from 3D to 4D and set the scale to 175. And now it's closer to
the look we're going for. However, it looks a bit stretched
in some areas of the mesh, so we're going to bring in a mapping and texture coordinate node. If you have Node Wrangler activated, which is a free add-on, you can select one of the
texture nodes and hit control T. If you don't, hit shift A
and bring in a mapping node. Connect the vector output
to the vector input of both texture nodes. Then hit shift A again and bring in a texture coordinate node. Connect the object output
to the vector input, and then the texture
should display correctly. When you're finished,
box select all the nodes and hit control G to group them together. This places the selected
nodes into a separate group, which is helpful for organization. Now the last thing I want to do is drag the Voronoi scale input
to the group input output, and then I'll collapse
this group with tab. So you'll see that our
nodes have been placed within this material in another node, and if you want to
access this group again, you can just hit tab. Now we place the scale output
here to be able to adjust it outside the group setup. Then you can change this
value if you'd like. For now, I'll be leaving it
at 175 for all the materials in this tutorial. Now we'll move on to
adjusting the coverage and changing the colors. Going to our color ramp, let's drag this white slider
over to the left a bit. I'll change this black to a medium blue. I also want another color in
between the blue and white, so I'll hit this plus icon
to add another slider. I'll make this a lighter
blue and feel free to pick any colors you'd like. Then I'll adjust the slider
positions until I get something I'm happy with. I want this white to
be the highlight color, so I'll shift it a bit more to the right and this is our general shader setup. Let's copy this over to
some of the other elements in our scene. Shift select the base supports,
arm, tube, then base mesh last, and hit control L
to link the materials. Before we make mesh specific adjustments, let's adjust the light object
we already have in our scene. Again, this will affect the shader, so bring it down closer to
the microscope with G then Z, and then G, then x. Now, as previously mentioned, I created new materials
for some of the meshes based off the one we just created, so I could individually adjust
settings for each mesh like the color ramp sliders. So in looking at the arm, I want to adjust the color coverage on it. Let's select it and click on
this number to create a new material and make a single user copy. Rename it to light arm and now
we can adjust the color ramp sliders without affecting those linked. If you want to make specific
adjustments to this node group on the left, you can make a single user copy as well by clicking the number, but I'll keep it as is for any
new materials we'll create. Let's repeat this process
for the tube, so select it, create a single user copy
by clicking on the number and rename it to light tube, then adjust the sliders as needed. Feel free to adjust the
lighting position as well. Now from this node setup, we can create the dark material. Shift select the stage
mesh, then the base, and hit control L to link the materials. Then click on the stage mesh, create a single user
copy and rename it dark. For this, I'll change the
medium blue to a royal almost purple blue, and
for this light blue, I'll eyedrop that royal
blue and lighten it a bit. I'll leave the white as is and
adjust the slider positions. Let's apply this to the other meshes. Shift select the light source
meshes, hexagonal bolt, stage clips, focus styles, turret, lenses, and the stage last. Then hit control L to link the materials. Now let's adjust the coverage
individually for each segment starting with the clips. Select them, create a single user copy and rename it dark stage clips. I want to bring in some more of the white, so I'll shift this slider accordingly. Then select the circular
light source mesh. Create a single user copy,
rename it dark light source, and again, bring in more of the white. Let's apply this to the
light source support by shift selecting it,
then the circular mesh and hitting control L
to link the materials. Next is a hexagonal bolt. And I'll create another
single user copy and rename it dark hexagon bolt. Then I'll adjust it
like we did previously. For the focus dials,
I think they can share the same material as the hexagon bolt, so I'll shift select both
of them, the bolt last and hit control L to link the materials. Moving onto the turret, I'll create another
single user copy for it and rename it dark turret. I want the majority of it to be white, so I'll shift the sliders accordingly. Then for the lenses,
I'll select one of them and repeat the process. I'll create a single user copy, rename it dark lens, and
adjust the slider positions as needed. Let's apply this to the other
two lenses by shift selecting both of them, the adjusted
one last and hitting control L to link the materials. Going to the tube, I want to make the eye piece portion dark. Let's select the tube and go
to the material properties tab, hit the plus button and
bring in the dark material. Tab into edit mode, toggle
X-ray and hit 3 for face select. In front view, select the
eye piece portion of the tube and with the dark material
selected in the material properties tab, click a
sign, tab into object mode. I want to adjust the coverage slightly, so let's create a a single user
copy and name it dark tube. Then adjust the slider positions. Lastly, going to the larger focus dial, I want to make a portion
of it, the light material. Select it, go to the
material properties tab and hit the plus button to
bring in the light arm material. Then tab into edit mode. Go into side view and
with x-ray still toggled, select the left portion of the dial and assign the light arm material to it. Toggle off X-ray and tap
back into object mode. And now our shading is complete. To help adjust this, I'm
going to bring in a few lights to vary the coverage in some areas. I want to place one on the stage, so let's shift right
click on top of the mesh to set the 3D cursor on it. Then hit shift A to
bring in a point light. Set the power to 5 and uncheck shadow, position it near the hole in the stage. Then duplicate this light and
position it towards the back left side of the microscope. Feel free to make any
other adjustments needed. When you're finished, shift
select all three lights in the scene and hit M to
send them to a new collection named lights, and that
completes our lighting. Let's change the shader
editor back to the dope sheet and make sure to save. So we're almost done with our microscope. Now we'll move on to
working with Grease Pencil, starting with the outlines. For the outlines, I use the
Grease Pencil line art modifier. To do that, make sure
your microscope collection is selected in the outliner. Then hit shift A, Grease Pencil and select collection line art. Immediately This will generate line art around the Geometry of your mesh. It goes by your camera view, so let's go into it with Numpad 0. To see the outlines more
clearly, toggle off overlays by clicking the button at the
top or by hitting shift alt Z. Now let's adjust the line art. To access C settings, go to
the modifier properties tab in line thickness, reduce it to about 10. Then go to the material properties tab and rename the material to outline and change the stroke
base color by eye dropping the royal blue color on the dark material. Now there are few areas where
I wanted the outline to appear like on the base mesh, and
to fix that we can mark edges manually so they're
included in the line art. Toggle overlay is back on, and
let's select that base mesh, tab into edit mode and
hit 2 for edge select. While holding alt, loop select
the top edge at the base mesh and right click select
mark freestyle edge. Then loop select the edge
underneath that bevel and right click mark
freestyle edge as well. When we tab back into object mode, you'll see those edges
included in the line art. Scrub the timeline to check
the line art has been generated correctly on the meshes. If you have the Grease Pencil
tools add-on installed, you can use alt middle mouse
click to scrub directly in the view port. And just a quick note if you
want to install that add-on and the Node Wrangler add-on,
I mentioned previously, you can just go to edit, preferences, add on, searching them
here and checking the box to toggle them. Back to the line art, If
you have any other edges where you want the outline to show up, you can just mark them in this way. Now, if you find your
system is slowing down because of this, you can
either hide the line art in the outliner or you can try baking it. To do that, go to the modifier
properties tab under bake, select bake line art, and it'll take a few moments
depending on your system. However, I advise holding
off until finishing the rotating turret, which
we'll do in an upcoming part. So we have the outlines done, but I want to add more details
with Grease Pencil and it'll just be a few dark and
white lines to augment that illustrated look. This is where it might be
helpful to have a tablet, although again, it's not required. Situate your playhead at
frame 1 and hit shift A to bring in a new Grease Pencil blank. Rename this to microscope details. We'll start with the dark lines. So go to the object data
properties tab and in the layers panel rename the layer
that's created to dark lines and uncheck use lights. Go to the material properties
tab and let's switch out that black material for the outline material. Go into draw mode by hitting control tab and selecting it from the pie menu. Set the radius to 10
pixels, uncheck use pressure and strength to 1 uncheck use pressure. Set the stroke placement to
surface and offset to 0.02. This placement will allow us
to draw with Grease Pencil directly on top of meshes. With the draw tool selected,
which is this pencil icon, go into front view and
we can start drawing. I'll start with the arm,
adding details along the edges, and if you'd like a smoother stroke, you can hold down shift to
enable a pulled string mode. Be careful with the lights
as are objects you can accidentally draw on when
using surface stroke placement. Check it in camera view intermittently. Now I want to add some strokes
on the inner part of the arm, but to do so, I'm actually going to enter orthographic view with Numpad five. When using surface stroke placement and not in a specific plane view, it's a bit tricky to get a
consistent offset depending on your distance from the
mesh you're drawing on. Going into orthographic view
helps in maintaining the offset we've specified. I'll just draw these lines across, then down its length and
a bit more near the bottom and I'll check it again in camera view. I'll move on to the stage
and add some details. Then the base supports and if it helps, you can hide the light
collection in the outliner and then the actual base, and here I'll add some
vertical and horizontal lines on the side of it, then the front of it, and then the top of it. Then the tube and then the eye piece. I'll ignore the turret and lenses for now. Go into camera view and
adjust any strokes as needed. Go to frame 1 again and go to the object data properties tab. Let's create a new layer. We'll move on to adding white lines, so let's name it white lines
and uncheck used lights. Go to the material properties tab, click the plus button
to add a material slot, and click new to create a new material. Rename it to white and change
the show color to white. Similar to what we did previously, I'll add the white
lines to certain meshes, so I'll start with the dials, then the tube, and then the eye
piece, then on the arm here, the stage and around the hole. Then some on the base
supports, hexagonal bolt, and then the light source,
and lastly, the base. As a finishing touch, I'll right click to switch back to the dark lines layer and we'll set the active
material to outline. Then I'll add these small
marks randomly on the meshes. When you're finished, go back into object mode and
into camera view to check it. The last element we'll need to work on is the rotating turret. So we'll first animate it and then add Grease Pencil
details to it afterward. To animate it, we'll
use object constraints. Let's get out of orthographic
view with Numpad 5 and hit shift A to bring
in a plain axis empty. Shift it over to the right and the X, then push it back in the Y, select the turret mesh and
go to the object constraint properties tab. Let's add a copy rotation
constraint and set the target object to the empty we just created. For access, uncheck X and Y, and in mix select after original. When I rotate the empty along the Z, you'll see it affects the
local rotation of the turret. With the playhead at frame
1, hit I to key frame the rotation of the empty, then go to frame 125 and hit RZ 360. Hit I to key frame the rotation there, then duplicate the frames
at 1 and place them at 250, and now our turret rotates back and forth. Let's add some Grease
Pencil details onto this. Select the microscope
details Grease Pencil object and hit shift D to duplicate it. Rename it to turret
details in the outliner or by hitting F2. Shift select the duplicate
Grease Pencil object in the outliner, then the turret in the viewport and hit control P to parent it. Select the turret details
object in the outliner, which is now a child of the turret mesh, and tab into edit mode. Hit A to select all and then X to delete. Hit control tab to go into draw mode, and right click to make sure
you're on the dark lines layer and the active material is outlined. Go into orthographic view
and let's add line details to the turret. To draw on the other side, you can just advance the timeline
and add details as needed. Then right click to switch the
active layer to light lines and active material to white. And now we'll draw lines on the lenses. When you're finished, go back to object mode and
check it again in camera view, make sure to save, and that
completes our microscope. As a finishing touch, I had
a rough grid underneath it. To do that, select the microscope details Grease Pencil object, and go to frame one. Go to the object data properties
tab and create a new layer. Place it at the bottom of the
layer stack rename it floor and uncheck use lights. Go into draw mode and it
shifts C to set the 3D cursor to the world origin. Now set the stroke placement to 3D cursor, and the drawing plane to top. Make sure your material is set to outline and go into top view with Numpad 7. Then we can roughly draw
these lines horizontally and vertically to form a grid. When you're finished, head
back into object mode. Now the last thing we'll need
to do is to go to the view layer properties tab and under
data, make sure Z is checked. This is so that Grease
Pencil will respect meshes when rendering. To render this out, go to
the output properties tab, which is this printer icon,
specify an output location, and for file format, it's
generally recommended to render a sequence of images. But if you'd like to render out a video, you can select FFMPEG
video for file format. Go down to encoding, and
for container select MPEG 4. For output quality, select
perceptually lossless, and then you can go up
to render at the top and select render animation. And that's it for this tutorial. Thank you guys so much for watching. I really appreciate it. I hope this was helpful in learning how to use Grease Pencil
when combined with 3D meshes. Also, if you'd like to
learn more about it, you can check out my course
I just released with CG Boost called Master Grease, Pencil in Blender. In this course, I'll
walk through everything you need to know to get
started with Grease Pencil, and by the end, you'll have created this Medieval Fantasy Village scene. There are also project files
and exercises included. Right now it's an early
access, so it's 20% off, and you can find the course
on the CG Boost website. There are additional parts coming soon, and these will all be included
with the purchase price. You can find the link in the description. If you guys have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below, and if you do end up
creating this microscope, tag us on social media. Thanks again, and see you guys next time.
