Low-Poly Character Model in Blockbench | Timelapse & Commentary

I’m back in Blockbench to try out some character modelling; join me as I create a chibi version of Solid Snake and share my workflow for building a low-poly character in Blockbench… and stick around to the end for some cool close-ups of the final model!

#Blockbench

#EDG32 Palette

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0:00 Intro
0:39 Head
1:58 Ears
2:47 Bandana
3:13 Hair
4:58 Body
7:18 Arm & Leg
8:29 Scaling Up the Model
8:59 Painting the Model
13:00 Duplicating Limbs
13:51 FINAL ARTWORK
14:45 Posing the Character
15:05 Exporting with a Pixelate Effect
15:42 CRT Time
16:36 VID OVER

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Check out my art here:

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Software used: Blockbench (Version 4.6.5, on Mac)
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Title sequence theme music by Failpositive:

Background music obtained through Royalty Free Planet:

Digital Sunlight by Raven
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Internet Girl by MONIN
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

P H A S E | SHIFT by BETTOGH
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Arcade by Raven
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Other background music courtesy of YouTube Audio Library.

[LeeChesnalavage]

“I make pictures out of tiny cubes” should be your new tagline.

[saultoons]

Snake. Snake. Amazing! All it needs now is a cardboard box and a lewd magazine accessory pack 😂

[kalejaneth]

Around 11:20, regarding the symmetry, there's two things you could have done.
One is to have the mirroring option on during the creation or moving around of vertices, which will usually work (though with some options might not work as expected, like merging into the center or moving to/past the mirroring plane).
The other option was to manually go into the faces (if you notice they're different) and right-click + "Switch Face Crease".

For those curious: In practice, all quad faces are pretty much just two triangle faces stitched together, and the crease is the diagonal line dividing them. Switching the face crease switches which diagonal it uses.
Mesh creation is usually done sequentially, so all faces should have the same diagonal for the crease, which ends up being opposite diagonals in the other side of the mesh.
This probably only applies to faces that aren't in the same plane, e.g. when only one of the vertices is moved.

[SULESSBNES]

Your Blockbench work has been amazing so far!! I hope you keep dipping into 3D stuff :D

[teo]

Brandon, it's been a terrible few weeks and it's not looking much brighter anytime soon, but your videos are my happy place when everything else is gloomy. Thank you for being my art sanctuary.

[Aurryuken]

I don't know why this video was recommended to me but I think I want to learn how to make low poly 3D models now. The final result looks so cool

[jordanneal]

I love that you turned me onto this program. I've used Blender quite a bit but always found texturing to be frustrating with it. Doing these low resolution models and drawing the texture right on is a great time.

[dangerouscolors]

this workflow evolution and mastery is crazy! i wasnt expecting you to level up to a straight up character model so soon!

[bencanfield]

Love the utility of 45deg cube-on-cube to create contrast! It really helps break things up for such a simple operation. Great work!!

[azebantheraccoon]

I would love to let you know as someone who's desperately wanted to learn to 3D model, you're the only person I've found who not only did it in a process I was comfortable with (sculpting rather than tracing) but also showed me new tools, I thank you so much for this whole tutorial friend

[thomrade]

Really well done, absolutely captures the essence of Solid Snake! And thanks for inadvertently introducting me to blockbench! I have alwaus struggled with more complex apps like blender for gamedev and it seems like blockbench might be that perfect balance of feature-rich and user-friendly that Ive been after!

[temirina]

FINALLY A PROPER BLOCKBENCH LOWPOLY TUTORIAL THANK YOU

[asierx]

I love that the filenames are "Smolid_Snake" and

[tylermorrison]

Glad to see you making more blockbench stuff! Ive been using it as sort of cool down modelling space when im not working in blender and really love it

[megareavermickeybot]

loving the use of Low polly art like this, kind of makes me want more games like this again.
ALSO I LOVE that you wanted to give it that Mega Man Legends look and style.
I'd love nothing more than to have something like Megaman Legends again ^^

[PommeDeux]

I would love to see more of these Blockbench tutorials. You're a life saver.

[frg]

loving all the low poly 3d stuff!! been itching to try it and your vids are always a great encourager

[mimisaiko]

I think the tint shade tone on skin is brilliant, it gives the illusion of the transparency nature of it.

[CKTDanny]

Wow awesome model & presentation!! This is a huge step up since the last one, it's great seeing you take this software further 🤩

The little details are great, very cool how rotating that rectangular prism makes it look round in this context. Also really like how that headband came out! 🐍

[kappy]

I am always blown away by your pieces. Thank you for always inspiring and creating such incredible vids ❤