{"id":2669,"date":"2020-01-19T17:55:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T17:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/?p=2669"},"modified":"2023-09-07T15:52:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:52:44","slug":"show-normals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/show-normals\/","title":{"rendered":"Show Normals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_83 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a15d76968951\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a15d76968951\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/show-normals\/#normals\" >Normals<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/show-normals\/#enable-normals\" >Enable Normals<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><video poster=\"\" controls=\"controls\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"><source src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/normals\/show-normals.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><!--<source src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/collections\/collection-shortcut.ogg\" type=\"video\/ogg\" \/>\n<source src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/collections\/collection-shortcut.webm\" type=\"video\/webm\" \/>--><\/video><\/p>\n<p>For Blender 2.8+\/2.9+ and newer the way <b>Normals<\/b> are shown has changed slightly in that the settings are no longer part of what was <i>View Properties<\/i>. Instead the options can now be found in <b>Overlay<\/b>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Design note<\/b>: with Blender 2.8+\/2.9+ objects render doubled-sided by default based on <b>Viewport Shading<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/backface-culling\/\">culling<\/a> this to determine which way a surface might be pointing (single-sided rendering) differs as a result. Normals helps in this regard by quickly indicating surface orientation without toggling settings on\/off per each mode.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"normals\"><\/span>Normals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In Blender there are two distinct types of <b>Normal<\/b> that can be displayed, <b>Vertex<\/b> and <b>Face<\/b>, with an ancillary third, <b>Split<\/b>, indicating these same elements in relation to breaks in surfaces continuity (e.g. as a consequence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/smoothing\/\">Shade\/Mesh Smoothing<\/a>). Normals can be shown as an individual class or type e.g. vertex normals, or in combination with another or all options, e.g. vertex and\/or + vace and\/or + split. When enabled, Normals are displayed in Blender as a thin coloured line, depending on the type, perpendicular to the element illustrating its orientation relative to neighbouring elements, a flat plain for example, would display a line at 90\u00b0 to its surface, a subdivided flat plain, several such lines.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Design note<\/b>: in Blender a Normal generally identifies an averaged XYZ coordinate in 3D space that&#8217;s relative to an objects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/origin\/\">Origin<\/a> &#8211; if an object in Object Mode, or complete mesh in Edit Mode, is manipulated (moved, rotated or scaled) it has no effect on the orientation of a Normal unless the associated element itself, the individual vertex or face, is directly modified or manipulated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/normals\/normal-orientation.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/normals\/normal-orientation.jpg\" alt=\"Normals point perpendicular to element\" width=\"900px\" height=\"500px\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<i>Normals (blue lines) point perpendicular [green] to their respective elements, Vertex or Face [red], indicating the orientation of said element, in particular with respect to its neighbours.<\/i><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"enable-normals\"><\/span>Enable Normals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>To activate <b>Normals<\/b>, select the object <a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/multi-object-editing\/\">or objects<\/a> in question and switch to <b>Edit Mode<\/b> (<span class=\"shortcutkey\">Tab<\/span>).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Design note<\/b>: Normals only display in Edit Mode and are shown globally (not selection based).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here, in the 3D View Header click in the <b>Overlays<\/b> button upper-right to access the <b>Viewport Overlays<\/b> drop-down and towards the bottom click the appropriate icon<b>, Display Vertex Normals<\/b> to show normals for vertexes, <b>Display Normals<\/b> for faces and surfaces (including Ngons etc.) and\/or <b>Display Split Normals<\/b> to show the orientation of vertex normals that are split (surface continuity breaks). A set of lines will appear coloured <i>dark-blue<\/i>, <i>pale-blue<\/i> and <i>pink<\/i> respectively.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Design note<\/b>: the length of a normal can be adjusted to accommodate working at different scales, to do this change the <b>Size:<\/b> value (length is relative to grid scale, the default <b>0.10<\/b> is 1\/10th of 1 Unit but may appear longer on some projects that on others due to scale differences, which necessarily prompt higher values to be used, i.e. a line that&#8217;s 0.10 in one project might need to be 1.00 to appear the same in another.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/normals\/normals-activate.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/images\/tutorials\/normals\/normals-activate.jpg\" alt=\"Activating Normals for display\" width=\"900px\" height=\"500px\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<i>To enabled Normals so they&#8217;re visible in the 3D View click the <b>Overlay<\/b> button then set the option in the <b>Viewport Overlays<\/b> menu &#8211; <b>Display Vertex Normal<\/b>, <b>Display Normals<\/b> and <b>Display Split Normals<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,230],"tags":[384,346,383,174,395,482],"class_list":["post-2669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blender","category-tutorials","tag-3d-view","tag-edit-mode","tag-face-normals","tag-normals","tag-overlays","tag-viewport-overlays"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2669"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5096,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669\/revisions\/5096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katsbits.com\/codex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}