When we
create a cube or a plane, these objects appear with no subdivision and very few
vertices and edges. To create more complex forms, we will certainly need more
edges to extrude and transform. There are two ways for creating a loop
subdivide. We can use the Mesh menu in the header of the 3D View and
choose Edges | Loop Subdivide, or use a keyboard shortcut, which is a
lot faster, with the keys Ctrl +R.
Before we use this option, we must select one Mesh object and
enter into Edit mode. The loop subdivides only when working in this mode. If
everything was done right, when we press Ctrl +R, a pink line
will appear around the object. In the following example, a cube was scaled with
the S key to make it narrower:
This line will place the loop for the model, and we can change the
orientation of the cut by moving the cursor around the object. Then, a yellow
line will appear for us to choose the right place to create the cut. Just move
the mouse cursor to place the cut somewhere, click with your left mouse button
to finish, and a new edge loop will be added to the Mesh object:
When we use this kind of tool
with additional transformations, the possibilities to create new shapes
increase dramatically. Let's see an example:
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With the Loop Subdivide, we can change the shape of
a wall, and add different planes to it.
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We have a model of a wall with an opening for a
door, transformed from a base cube:
Let's change the geometry of that wall with a loop
subdivide. When we press the Ctrl +R shortcut, a new loop
subdivide will be added to the wall:
We can place
the new loop right before the door:
Now, we select the vertices
selected in the following image, and scale them in the Z axis. It will make a
slant plane:
This new
shape was possible with the use of a loop cut. Of course, there are other ways
to create this kind of geometry, but this is a good example of what we can do
with loop cuts.
