3D Footwear Modeling in Blender

Lesson series for 3d printed footwear

LEVEL: beginner

This online course is the first of a series that we are releasing for those of you that want to be able to design and 3D print wearable footwear using affordable FDM printers that can work with flexible materials.

If you want to 3D print a shoe, you will first have to create a 3D model of it and in this course you will learn how to do that step by step from scratch in a free software called Blender.

After this course you will know all the commands, tools and plugins you need to create and adjust well-fitting 3D printed shoes. You will also know how to check whether your shoe can indeed be printed and how to solve any potential printing issues in the model. Last but not least, you will learn how to make a professional render - like the one you see here - to present your design on social media.

The classes consist of clear video exercises that you can follow at your own pace, since you have access to them for 12 months. You can ask questions directly to your instructor through our online platform. You can get a certificate for this course after you sent us your completed 3D file and render.

SCROLL DOWN FOR A GREAT OFFER ON THE 3D PRINTER THAT WE USE!

Course Modules

This course is meant for footwear designers, developers and innovators that want to be able to create 3D models of shoes that can be 3D printed with affordable FDM printers. Not just as prototypes, but as fully wearable end products.

This is a beginner course that does not require any prior knowledge of 3D modeling software. However, we do recommend that you already have knowledge of footwear design, since this is not a design course. You will not start by creating your own design, you will simply learn how to use Blender to make a printable 3D model of a shoe by following a series of exercises using a design that your expert teacher Kedar Benjamin created for this course. You can then apply this knowledge to your own designs later.

Please note: if you want to learn 3D modeling because you want to create designs that could also be molded, then we recommend you follow our course 3D Footwear Modeling in Rhino 7 instead! This Blender course is specifically meant for shoes that are produced with 3D printing!

This means we will also not cover commands that are meant for conventional footwear uppers, such as stitching lines, laces and zippers. If you want to learn that we also recommend that you follow our Rhino course.

Soon we will add more courses about how to design for 3D printing, how to do grading and slicing, how to use your 3D printer and how to start a business with 3D printed shoes. Since creating your 3D model is essential and most of the work, we start with this!

Modeling a simple shoe shell with good topology for 3D printing
Modeling a more complex shape from image reference
How to use N-Gons and Triangles
How to attach meshes together and manage edge loops
Using the last’s low poly geometry to help you make the inside of the shoe
Shrinkwrap method for the last
3D printing toolkit and visualizing thickness in edit mode
Measurements in Blender
Creating an outsole pattern in Tissue
Geometry nodes basics, creating patterns
Sculpt mode for textures, multi-res modifier
Alphas and brushes in sculpt mode
Smoothing in sculpt mode
Retopology from a sculpt
Automatic retopology in sculpt mode and modifiers
Sculpt mode for adjustments and reducing mesh density in desired areas
UV unwrapping and displacement textures

Meet your instructor

Kedar Benjamin

Kedar Benjamin - aka Benjometry - is an industrial and computational designer from Bengaluru, India. He decided to specialize in footwear after winning a shoe design contest by 3D printing company Sintratec. In the summer of 2022, right before he joined Footwearology, he was invited by Zellerfeld to design the world’s first AI-generated, commercially available 3D printed shoe. His collaboration with Dall•E 2 and Zellerfeld, Basilisk, has been printed numerous times at Footwearology LAB with various adjustments made each time for different printing methods and materials, which has further expanded our experience in design for FDM printing using Blender. Apart from Blender, Kedar is also experienced in Houdini, Grasshopper and Rhino.

Write your awesome label here.

If you follow us on Instagram you can see pretty much everyday how we print fully wearable shoes on the Artillery Sidewinder X2. We use this printer because it is very easy to assemble, the perfect size for shoes, great value for money and ideal to work with flexible filaments such as TPU and TPE.

We have great news for all our course participants, because recently we became official distributors for this printer, which means that we can now sell it to you for only 249 euros (excluding VAT, if applicable!)

This offer is only for participants in one of our courses. Either in this Blender course or any of the other courses.

If you want to take us up on this offer, just send us an email at info@footwearology.com. We will then send you a payment link and Artillery will ship the printer to you from a warehouse closest to your location !

Footwearology is the only academy for footwear professionals. We enable you to gain the knowledge that will get you, and the companies you work for, ready to create and embrace a better future. All our courses take place online and/or in our LAB in Barcelona, Spain.

Besides teaching, we do research and consulting, focusing on redesigning the entire footwear supply chain by directly connecting technology suppliers, creatives and social media platforms.