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I'm designing my models for shoe soles (3d printing) using blender. I'm a real beginner and so I just used the basic extrude, bevel and proportional editing to reach my goals. But now I would like to design a toe-cap. Right now the model looks like this: enter image description here

But I would like someting more like this:

enter image description here

But I can't get the mash to "bulge" over the toes. Proportional editing will always also pull the lower layers in... Any ideas are highly appreciated.

Samsara
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  • First try with the Proportional Editing option on, you'll probably need to add horizontal edge loops. If you don't want to affect some parts of the mesh, make them invisible – moonboots Mar 23 '21 at 08:33
  • ok, that sound interesting... I didn't know that I can hide single vertices... – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 08:42
  • Another problem is that the wall thickness has to stay the same. To create the bulge would it also be necessary to create another loop cut? Just because the middle part has to bulge outwards while the top part is pulled the other way? – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 08:46
  • yes you'll have to create inner edge loops as well. The problem is that you're working the other way around, you should 1/ make sure the whole shape is good (don't give it any thickness for the moment) 2/ keep it low-poly as much as possible, only subdivide it when you're glad with the shape (and keep a low-poly version in an invisible collection so that you can always come back to it) – moonboots Mar 23 '21 at 08:50
  • ok, you suggest first create the shape of the outer shell and add the "volume" as last step? So my workflow would look like this
    1. scan foot outline and convert to svg
    2. import svg and convert to mash
    3. pull up edges to finale heigth
    4. add sewing notch
    5. use proportional editing and loop cuts to form the toe cap
    6. and then? I need to reach a wall thickness of 2mm....
     – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 09:15
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    You can begin with the sole if you have the shape, keep it low poly, extrude up, add horizontal edge loops to the extrusion, give the extrusion the correct shape, at the end when you're glad with the whole shape, if you need to give thickness, you can use for example a Solidify modifier and apply – moonboots Mar 23 '21 at 09:19
  • @moonboots: Thank you for your help and answering my beginner questions. I'll test the solidify modifier. Regarding "keep low poly"... I tried that but then I had a hard time getting the design rounded at the end... is there also a trick for that? – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 09:42
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    you need to give your object a Subdivision Surface modifier, only apply it if necessary, and keep a version without applying the modifier, maybe take a look at some tutorials, for example here look at how he keeps the mesh low-poly, only the Subdivision Surface makes the object look high-poly and round: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSABdIpsBEA – moonboots Mar 23 '21 at 09:46
  • thank you so much. It works pretty well this way. – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 10:10

2 Answers2

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Bridge Edge Loops is Blender's lofting tool, with a reasonable range of options.

One way to capture the curvature:

enter image description here

  • Rotate a duplicate of the top edge of your sole-rim upwards, towards the top profile of the shoe. If you have an actual front elevation of the shoe to work to, for the profile edge, so much the better. (You could create a curve for that, convert to mesh, adjust the number of vertices to match the base edge. Loop Tools > Space is very handy for getting a fixed count of vertices evenly spread along a curved mesh-loop.)
  • Either use an existing top-surface, or extrude a temporary approximate one out, to give Bridge Edge Loops something to work to, and then use Bridge Edge Loops, with 'Blend surfaces' set. Adjust the number of 'Cuts', and 'Smoothness' to get as close as possible to your desired result.
  • Delete the temporary surface, and maybe Relax or Smooth some regions of vertices to improve the shape.

All this happens before detailing, and subdivision.

enter image description here

Robin Betts
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  • @Samsara Agreed with above comments, it does look as iif your topology could be less dense at this stage. So could mine, probably. – Robin Betts Mar 23 '21 at 12:03
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I'm a lazy person, so I'd let Blender do most of the work.

  1. Add a UV sphere and rotate it 90°
  2. Remove unnecessary faces
  3. Tweak, extrude, subdivide...

enter image description here

jachym michal
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  • thank you, the problem is that the base outline of the sole is taken off of the real foot ;) so toes unfortunately don't have a circle shape – Samsara Mar 23 '21 at 08:39
  • Sure, it's just one way to do it :). I'd move the vertical edges to fit the sole, and slap a Subdivision Modifier on top. Anyways, good luck with your project, surely other ways will work just fine :). – jachym michal Mar 23 '21 at 11:08
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    IMO, laziness is the most important skill in modelling. To some of us, it comes naturally.. :) – Robin Betts Mar 23 '21 at 11:58
  • @Robin I'm learning from the best :) – jachym michal Mar 23 '21 at 12:18