[ZB Learning Blog] Practicing the Basics of Gizmo and ZModeler

Continuing from my recent ZB practice session.

This is purely a practice blog, so it might only be interesting to people who are curious or at about the same beginner level as me.

I’m planning to keep writing these as a way to make notes for myself and help the lessons stick.

It’s actually fun struggling through and filling in the gaps where there’s no explanation!

I’m still practicing modeling while rewatching Takatori-san’s course videos.

I managed to get past the ribbon flash issue from the other day — and yes, I actually made that ribbon.

So now, on to the next step: the part where you make Marie’s gun using ZModeler + Gizmo.

This step repeats a lot of the same operations, so the video cuts a bit, and that left me wondering:
“How exactly does it end up in that dynamic state with that kind of normal?”

I think other people at my level will probably be confused at the same spots, so as a reference, here’s my in-progress state up until just before the Boolean step.

For the rigid sections, you can kind of work it out with masks and the gizmo, but I think the hardest part is shaping the taper on the grip.

I made the taper on the back side first, then did the front side later.

I kept wondering, “Can’t I just pinch it with the gizmo?” — tried it from different angles, struggled figuring out where to put the creases. But that’s part of the fun too. Time just melts away.

Since I didn’t really know what I was doing, I tried moving vertices around — and this is the state I ended up with.

Without Dynamic Subdiv, it looks like this.

I also separated the grip from the gun body using hide-and-split.

I’m not sure if this brute-force modeling approach is the right way, but I feel like if I keep at it, I’ll understand more.

Since I’m only using Gizmo and ZModeler at this point, it’s actually faster to work with just the mouse + keyboard shortcuts instead of a pen.

This might be a little jarring: if you first watch Forutoneishon-san’s course and get used to the freedom of being able to jump to any part of the full recording, then move to Takatori-san’s course, it can throw you off a bit.

But still, when you manage to make something by recalling what you’ve learned and filling in the gaps, it feels really good. These little “I tried it and it worked!” moments are probably way healthier than endless social media scrolling.

By the way — recently I installed some extensions on X that hide the timeline and remove the Like and RT buttons, and wow, it made the site super boring.

But that actually made it easier to focus on other things, which has been great.
If you search for “Control Panel for Twitter,” you’ll find it — honestly, I highly recommend it for anyone using Chrome.

Also, on days when you’re feeling unmotivated, or your schedule gets messed up and you don’t touch ZB at all, it’s still worth it to at least launch the program.

If you don’t even open it, it never becomes a habit — and then you’re at real risk of quitting altogether.
So even if I don’t get any work done, I still launch it, just to give myself that “I did it today” feeling.

It might sound pointless — “If you didn’t actually do anything, what’s the point?” — but honestly, it feels so different compared to a day where I didn’t even open it at all.