TGJ2O

Lathing and vertex-editing

Next we're going to lathe some engines to add to our saucer to soup-it-up. Cause what's a UFO without engines!

Step 1: Creating the outline of the engine

YOU CAN'T DRAW IN SPACE. Unfortunately Blender isn't anything like MSpaint or Adobe Animate. However, through some trickery, it IS possible to add points in space (as close to 'drawing' as you get in the 3D world). The easiest way to do this is to create the shell of an object, go in to edit it, delete all the points that make it up, then create your own points instead. You're tricking Blender into using your own shapes by starting with one of theirs.

First we're going to hide the saucer disc and cockpit in the Collections panel just like before (click on the eyeball next to the layer name - to get both the saucer and the disk SHIFT+eyeball).

We want to be on SIDE VIEW so press 3 on the keypad.

Next, by pressing SHIFT A and adding a mesh plane (or ADD>MESH>PLANE) we create an object we can use to form the basis of our engine. Rename this PLANE to ENGINE in the Collections panel.

Press TAB (or click on EDIT mode dropdown menu below) to get into edit mode. Once in edit mode select A to select the vertices, then delete them all (delete on the keyboard). Yes, we're deleting all the points before we start adding our own points manually.

CHOOSE VERTEX select To add points we're going to press CTRL+RMB and click the outline of our engine. This is purely what the silhouette of the engine is going to look like!

The mesh-plane viewed at an angle

CTRL+RMB adding various points that will make up the outer edge of the engine

Step 2: Spinning the shape

Now that we have our shape we're going to spin it like a piece of clay on a potters wheel. To do so we'll switch to FRONT SIDE mode (keypad 1) We should only see a slice of the shape.

2) We'll rotate it around the axis as shown in red. To do so we'll click on the SPIN button on the toolbar at the left. (you can also get to it by SHIFT+Spacebar, then clicking on SPIN)

3) Click Y axis (up top)

4) I put my STEPS are set to 20

5) Click on the + button and the object will spin (by default) 360 degrees

If we orbit around a bit we can see the shape now and it looks (sort of?) like a rocket engine

Step 3 - Tweaking the shape with axis-confied scale and axis-confined translates

Let's adjust the shape a bit. I like mine to have less of a "flare" at the back.

So I'm going to loop-select (ALT+LMB) the last line in the engine (see pic at right). If you can't do this it's fine, just go into wireframe mode and box select the points.

Now I'm going to scale it, and move it (S for scale and G for move). First (S) scaling it down, then (G) moving it away from the middle a bit. This must not be done while orbiting the object, it should be either in FRONT or SIDE or TOP mode.

One final thing. I'm now going to scale in Z only. So (S)cale then press Z - which forces the scale to only work in the Z axis .

That compresses the engine "flare" in Z only as a last step.

Do the same for the front ring. ALT+LMB then SCALE then Z.

See if you can figure out what I did to mine (i put it in wireframe mode so you can sneek a peak).

Optional: if we want a bit more control on how many surfaces there are in the rear section of the engine. As such we're going to loop-cut this area. To do so we'll click on the LOOP-CUT button (or CTRL+R). Hover your cursor over the rear section of the engine as seen below. You'll get a yellow line that appears. Use your SCROLL WHEEL and increase the number of cuts to 2 before using the LMB. You'll then see you can slide the loops around before LMB again commits the cuts to the mesh.

Loop cut is chosen with 2 potential cuts. LMB commits to the number of cuts. LMB again commits to the location of the cuts within that area

And one final loop cut inside the back section of the engine in my particular rocket.

Step 4 - Paint our engine

We'll choose a duplicate of our spaceship colour, then adjust the black painting the whole thing that colour.

Select all of the faces (A).

Go to MATERIALS, use the dropdown menu and find our Cockpit.black colour from before. Duplicate it like you did for the cockpit.black colour. Rename cockpit.black.001 to Engine.black. We'll use this later on as well. Hit ASSIGN to put the colour on the face.

Check out what it looks like in Rendered mode.

Let's light up our engine now. Choose the ring on the inside of our engine (hit C and paint the section in the middle). We're going to light this up. Hit ESC to get out of brush select mode.

Click on the + next to the box up to to make a new material slot (NOT the same as duplicating our last material, though it may seem that way). It creates a new material slot.

Click on NEW to allow for a new material to be made. We'll choose a yellowish colour.

We're going to choose EMISSION instead of Principled BSDF

I chose a yellowish colour with strength 5 and Alpha Clip along with Screen Space Refraction

Hit ASSIGN and tab back out. MEH you say, it's only ok

On the right side click on what looks like the back of a camera (render properties). Turn on Bloom (see below).1

Settings for engine glow

Bloom activated on the camera icon

Engine glow without Bloom.

Engine glow WITH bloom on.

Step 5 - Placing our engine and duplicating it

Unhide our saucer and cockpit. The engine might be either too big, or too small. We'll first SCALE it so it to fit. But positioning it is a pain because of the views. A trick to be able to see front/top/side/orbited together on the screen is to press CTRL+ALT+Q. Now you can hit G to move the engine. As you move the cursor into the various views you will control the X/Y/Z movement of the engine.

Press 7 to view top-down. Now press S for scale and make the engines a bit smaller.

Using a combination of G (TRANSLATE) and X/Y/Z place the engine where you want. Once happy, we want to copy it to the other side (BTW, I added some swank by making a red ring on my engine. Don't worry, you didn't miss any steps.

In my case my engine is WAY too small. So I'm going to scale it up. Press S then resize to suit your ship size. Here i've scaled it up, and I had to rotate it (R) 180deg. so the exhaust came out the back.

Now we'll duplicate the engine. To do so we'll go to TOP VIEW (7 on the keypad). Ensure the 3D cursor is in the middle of the project space. Press SHIFT+S and choose Cursor to World origins. Now select the engine. You're going to go to the top left of the viewport and choose OBJECT>SET ORIGIN>ORIGIN TO 3D CURSOR

You'll know it worked if you hit R for rotate and move the engine around and it doesn't pivot on itself, but rather around the center of the cockpit (hit escape to cancel the rotation).

The fastest way to copy shapes in BLENDER is to press SHIFT D then enter (without moving the mouse). This makes a duplicate ON TOP OF the last object.

Hit ESC. Now CTRL+M to open the mirror toolbar (below). Choose X (or Y depending on how you drew your engine). It should be a perfect copy on the other side now.

Setting the origin of the engine to the 3d cursor

After duplicating it, and inverting on the X axis

Let's parent each engine to the disc. To do that we'll select the first engine, then SHIFT + SELECT the disc.

Press CTRL+P

choose Object

Do the same for the 2nd engine

Select the disc and hit G and move it around - notice everything's moving with the disc now? (don't actually move it anywhere, just hit ESC)

Now to make the fin for steering

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