WildFyr Documentation > Blender Tutorials > Mirror a Mesh to Ensure Symmetry

Mirror a Mesh to Ensure Symmetry

When scratch modelling something in Blender, don't do double the work. You can use a Mirror Modifier to ensure each side is the same

Please note, this only applies to models that should be the same on each side.

Using the Mirror Modifier

Let's take your object, in this scenario we will simply use a cube. Add a new cube and head over to the modifiers tab, click add a modifier and under "Generate" select "Mirror". You should now see a bunch of options, X should be the default selected axis, but nothing seems to happen? Well, actually it does, you are looking at both a mesh and a mirrored mesh!

Adding a mirror modifier

Let's find out what the mirror modifier does and how it works. The mirror modifier will mirror a mesh over their origin on any axis selected. When an object's origin is at the world origin, the mirror modifier will mirror it over the world axis. So right now your cube is mirrored, but because the origin is at the centre of the cube you can't see anything. Let's go into edit mode and change the mesh a bit to make it easier to see.

Here is an extra tip, by created a new cube that is 0.000001m in size, it will be shrunk to the world origin only, making the next step easier.

I will use the Snap Tool (The little magnet at the top of the screen) to align the verts on my cube, you can do the same if you wish. Just use these settings (Don't forget to enable the tool, make sure it is blue!)

Snap Tool

As soon as you start moving the verts you are going to notice something strange happening, this is the mirror modifier at work! Everything you do on one side will be mirrored to the other, let's use this to our advantage to make something, for this example, let's make one of those square cubby storage drawers.

The mirror tool

Start by resetting your cube, next snap one side to the centre of the world, and let's scale the top and bottom on the Z axis. Hey, look, there is the bottom of our box! Now we want to bring the sides up, add a loop cut along the outer side, and extrude that up, and across. We have our cubby, let's make a drawer for it, add a new cube and give it the same modifier.

Follow the same basic steps to sonstruct the box, just in this case we will connect the two halfs in the middle, and leave the top open this time. To make it one of those cubby drawers. A plane for a handle, slight adjustments and boom, we have a cute little drawer!

Here's a helpful tip, you can change your "active" axis by holding Shift and clicking on an axis twice, you can also press the key for the axes you want (X, Y, or Z) it to move on to snap it to the same height as another axis but in a different location

The start of a box
The finished cubby with the cube for drawer
Moving the axis around
Finished cubby and drawer

Remember, all these faces are not needed as they all face each other at the middle! Always check your mirrored mesh for extra, unneeded, polygons!

Delete these

What if you want it to mirror over the world axis when the origin is at the centre of the object? Let me introduce you to empties.

The most commonly used empty is a Plain Axis, you can add one of these, then in the modifier settings set the "Mirror Object" node to our new empty. As the empty was created at the 3D cursor (Assuming you didn't mode the 3D cursor, it should be at the world origin), it will now mirror your object over the world axis whist keeping their origin, angle, and other pieces intact.

Using an empty axis to mirror correctly

I hope this small guide helped you learn a bit more about Blender and will allow you to take your modelling skills to the next level. Happy modelling!

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wildfyr
  • 28 days ago

Blender scratch modelling modifiers