Creating 3D shapes

Discuss Kōrero Mai: Can you remember the different Geometric shapes (form) in Blender?

Fact: In design, a shape is two-dimensional (2D) like a square or a triangle. A form is three dimensional (3D) like a cube or a pyramid



Where are these properties on a 3D shape?



  • Vertices
  • Vertex
  • Face
  • Edge





  • Vertices: more than one corner!
  • Vertex: the corner
  • Face: the sides of the shape.
  • Edge: the space where faces meet.





Ready? Kua reri? - Research into properties of shapes
Student Task: What shape am I?


I have 6 square faces.. I have 8 vertices... I have 12 edges... Have go at the rest of the shapes on the handout.







Linking shapes in Blender to your research

Different shapes requires a different amount of Vertices, Edges and Faces.


Discuss Kōrero Mai: Can you remember the different Geometric shapes (form) in Blender?

Different shapes requires a different amount of, Vertices, Edges and Faces.
  • The Cube is simple but what about the other shapes?
  • Can you count how many Vertices there are in a UV Sphere?
  • What about a high detailed 3D character? (It's impossible without help.)
Fact: In 3D, there's a thing called UV Mapping, (UV), which is the texture of an object. If you want to see all of the polygons at once in a sphere without having to rotate the model, it would have to be in a 2D form spread out like a mathematical net; that's a UV Map.


Which word describes the detail of a 3D model?




  • Geometry?
  • Polygon?
  • Shape?





What is a Polygon?


Polygon is the word that describes how detailed a 3D model is


  • Specifically how many Faces a model has.
  • It can also mean how many Vertices and Edges as well but it's mainly the Faces.
  • If a 3D Artist asks you, ''How many Polygons does your model have?'', they are asking about how many Faces there are in your model.


This is a single Polygon in a UV Sphere.




  • A regular UV Sphere has 512 Polygons, or Faces.
  • That's how many it takes to create this ball!
  • Do you know how many Polygons a realistic human face could have?


The more Faces a model has the more detailed it is, compare Ico Sphere to a UV Sphere in Blender



Important: You don’t need to know the exact numbers of Polygons your model has. Blender can help you count how many Faces you have in your model.







Discuss Kōrero Mai: Game VS Movie Characters - what are the differences?

Movies and Games that uses 3D models are generally made differently.
  • They may look the same but the detail is vastly different.
  • A Cube has 6 Faces, but a game character can have hundreds of them.
  • A Movie character on the other hand, can have thousands if not tens of thousands of Faces.
  • Why do you think this is the case?



High detailed games require strong computers or consoles, while movies don’t.

Games companies generally try to optimize the game so that most people can play it.

While movies companies generally try to make their film as high quality as possible.



Even Disney movies, although it’s cartoon characters, have thousands of Polygons in the faces their characters!



  • The character in the picture has over 5000 Polygons on just her face!
  • Having this many faces allows us to manipulate the character animations better.
  • This is all depending on the style that the game/movie company wants to go with, but in most cases 3D movies have a much higher Polygon count.





Ready? Kua reri? - Time for Blender!
Follow the video at your own pace and if there's anything you don't understand, your teacher should have the answers in the presentation slides.