Hello everyone. Today I am going to show you how to create a low-poly scene as shown below. I am going to try my best to include every step, but let me know if you all need me to add any more information you feel this is lacking.
The Scene
For this tutorial, we’re going to be using Blender 2.79. All concepts gone over here are the same in Blender 2.81. Don’t let it scare you away from creating this map, you got this!
Getting Started in Blender
1. Open blender and clear your scene. This can be done by pressing A (To select everything.) Then pressing X (To delete everything).
Creating the island
2. Let’s jump right into creating the environment. The first thing we’re going to create is the sand.
Press Ctrl + Alt + U to open your user preferences. We’re going to add a Landscape Add-On.
- Understanding Concepts: Think about Add-Ons like Roblox Plugins, they enhance Blender’s functionality.
To add the Add-On, switch to the Add-ons tab and search “Landscape”
Tick the grey box for “Add Mesh: A.N.T Landscape”
Save User Settings at the bottom left corner.
3. Creating the island
To the left click the new “Landscape” button and add a landscape.
Your scene should look something like this now.
- To make the landscape bigger (Easier to work with) select it and press S to scale it up.
Next, we’re going to use modifiers to make it more low-poly.
- Modifiers are self-explanatory, they modify an object for you.
Select the landscape. To the right, you’ll see a bit confusing “Properties” tab. A lot of information to digest, I know, but it’s pretty simple. Look for the little “wrench” icon.
Then press Add Modifier>Decimate
Lower the ratio to 0.0090
Next press TAB or Switch to edit mode.
Press A to select all faces and switch the shading to Flat.
Next switch back into Object mode. It should look like this. If it does, apply your modifier to the right.
4. Shaping the island.
Now that we’ve applied the modifier, we can shape the island. Start by switching into edit mode again TAB and select the vertices you want to edit.
For the design, we want an L shape. Here’s a top-down perspective drawing of the island I made. If you’re a visual learner like I am, it is useful to sketch out your map before you create it.
When editing the vertices, it is handy to enable proportional editing (to toggle it on and off, press O).
- Understanding Concepts: Proportional Edit is a way of transforming selected elements (such as vertices) while having that transformation affect other nearby elements
Here is what my island looks like after editing the island shape.
Delete the faces around the edges to clean up the mesh a little.
Finally, export the mesh to Roblox studio.
File > Export > Wavefront (.obj)
To import the mesh into studio, right-click and add a meshpart. Under the properties tab, press MeshId and upload the mesh from your file.
5. Coloring the island
Select the mesh and color it to a tan color for the sand. Set the material to smooth plastic.
- If you’re making an exact copy of mine, use the color code 255, 201, 138
Next, duplicate the mesh and scale the new one down a little. Then, position it a little above the old mesh you duplicated.
- Color the new mesh to a Shamrock color 91, 154, 76
Once you’ve done this, your island should look something like this.
Creating the Palm Trees
6. Creating the palm trees.
Clear your blender scene again and add a cylinder mesh.
Once you add it, lower the vertices to 8.
Go into edit mode and select the top face. Press S and scale it to 1.2
S + 1.2
Next, bevell it. Press Ctrl + B then type .2
It should look like this now
Switch to Object mode again and use Shift+ D to duplicate it several times.
Use R + X to rotate it on the X-axis and look more natural.
Once you’re done, it should look something like this:
- An important lesson to learn with Low-Poly… Everything doesn’t have to be so uniform. Try playing around with the design and making some parts smaller/disproportionate.
Let’s get started on the leaves. Create a cube and scale it down to the size of a leaf.
Next, loop cut it and roll your mouse until you have about 6 cuts. Loop cut again along the Y-axis.
Using the steps seen below, shape your leaf like this:
Select the back faces, press x then press limited dissolve.
Next, scale it in on the X-Axis as seen below.
For the top of the leaf, limited dissolve it as well but this time, press E to extrude it THEN scale it in on the X-axis. This should create a nice point.
Select all edges along the middle and scale them in. Once this is done, your leaf shape is complete.
Switch out of edit mode and back into object mode. Place about 6-7 leaves on the tree and use R to rotate them from different angles. Here is what my tree looked like when I place them.
- To “join” together with the leaves and trunk mesh, select them and press Ctrl + J KEEP THE LEAVES AND TRUNK SEPERATED
Export the leaves and trunk mesh separately.
File > Export > Wavefront (.obj) and make sure selection only is turned on in the bottom left
Import them into the studio afterward.
- Tip: When importing two separate meshes such as a tree, use locational data in Roblox so the tree is automatically positioned correctly.
Import, set to smooth plastic, and color. Here’s my tree.
Leaves color: 91, 154, 76
Base color: 188, 139, 106
Decorating the island
7. Placing the trees + Adding Water
Group the tree and place it on the island a few times.
Now open the terrain editor and select sea level. From here we can add our water.
8. Final decoration
Using the decimate modifier from before, we can decimate some rocks out of Ico Spheres
Import those into studio and decorate your island with rocks.
And finally, I leave the last bits to you all. Get creative. Perhaps the island needs a dock… Maybe some bushes. Who knows. I’m passing the torch to you all and I’m eager to see how you all complete this awesome island.
