Modeling and texturing a Hay Bale in?Blender

(easy tutorial for everyone)

This post may contain affiliate links, where I may receive a small commission if you purchase something through following the link at no cost to you.

I will model in the Blender 4.0 version. You can use any version that you?like.

Okay, it’s time to start modelling our Bale.

First, open Blender, and don’t delete the default cube.

Open the right sidebar with “N.”

Change cube dimensions to x=1m, y=1.5m and z=0.6m.

These are the dimensions of our bale. You can change the dimensions to make it smaller or bigger if you prefer.

Now select the cube, click “CTRL+A” and apply scale.

It is important to apply the transforms (location, rotation and scale) before editing the mesh in the edit?mode.

Otherwise, the values between the object mode and the edit mode will not match.

As you can see on the right side, under “Scale”, the numbers are different:

x=0.500, y=0.750, and z=0.300. If those numbers are different, it means the scale isn’t applied.

When you apply the scale, that part looks like this:

Now all values: x,y, and z are 1 as they should be after we applied scale.

Now click on this wrench icon on the right side. That part is called “Modifiers.”

Choose Add modifier?—?Generate?—?Bevel.

When you add Bevel to your object, it no longer has sharp edges.

?Instead, you add more realism because most real-life objects aren’t 100% sharp.

Here, you can change the Bevel options. Segments and the amount of Bevel are values you will typically adjust.

I will change segments of my Bale to 3. You can put any other number you prefer.

The important thing while following any tutorial is to add a bit of your stuff to it, so don’t always follow me exactly in number or color. Do it your?way.?

Have fun while experimenting!

You can see how the Bale doesn’t look smooth currently. To change that, click the Right Mouse Button (RMB) and choose Shade Smooth.

Now it looks much better, right?

Until now, we were in object mode. Now we will switch to edit mode with “TAB.”

Now add a loop with “CTRL+R.”

If you scroll the mouse wheel, you can add more loops.

In this case, we need only one more loop, so scroll the mouse wheel just one more time.

Press the left mouse button to confirm when you added all the loops you want.

Press the RMB to center the loops in the middle of the cube.

We will scale those two loops along the X-axis with “S+X.”

Now click “CTRL+R” and scroll the mouse wheel one more time to add two more loops on this side too.

Press the left mouse button to confirm when you added all the desired loops.

Press the RMB to center the loops in the middle of the cube.

We will scale those two loops along the Y-axis with “S+Y.”

We will add two more loops to the inside of those loops with “CTRL+R” and scale them with “S+Y.”

Do the same again, but this time inside the other two loops.

?Just this time, when scaling, scale along the X-axis with “S+X.”

Switch from selecting vertices or edges (depending on what you use) to selecting faces with 3 on your keyboard.

Choose the whole loop with the “ALT+ left mouse button.”

Hold the mouse wheel to rotate the scene.

While holding “SHIFT,” choose the other loop with “ALT+left mouse click.”

Scale them with “S.”

Duplicate them with “SHIFT+D” and press the RMB to return them to the previous position.

Click “P” selection to make a new seperated object out of it.

Switch to object mode with “TAB.”

Scale it with “S” to become bigger.

Go to Render.

Change the render engine from Eevee to Cycles and the device from CPU to GPU if your graphic card is better than the processor.

Also, turn on denoise in the viewport.

Switch to rendered mode.

Select the Bale, and apply Bevel modifier.

Go to Particle Properties.

Click on “+” to add a new particle system.

Switch from Emitter to Hair.

Change Hair Length to 0.03 or any other value you think is the best.

Change number to 5000 (or any other number you think is the best.)

Go to Hair Shape.

Change Tip to 1m and turn off “ close tip.”

Go to Children. Switch from None to Interpolated.

Go to Roughness and change Endpoint to around 0.125.

Change render amount from 100 to 10.

Rename the first cube to BaleHay (or anything else you prefer.)

Rename the second cube to BalePlastic (or anything else.)

Scale a bit BalePlastic with “S” if necessary.

Choose BaleHay and go to Material Properties.

Rename material to BaleHay (or anything else.)

Choose BalePlastic and go to Material Properties.

Click “-” to delete BaleHay material.

Click “+” to add new material and rename it to BalePlastic.

Change base color to black (or anything else you want.)

Change Rougness to around 0.318.

Choose BaleHay.

Place the cursor near the editing boundary, and right click when you see the double sided arrow.

Select vertical split and drag it to the left to create a new window.

Open the shader editor in the window you just created.

Click “N” to hide that sidebar on the right.

Connect Base Color from Principled BSDF with Color from ColorRamp.

Connect FAC from ColorRamp with FAC from Noise Texture.

Connect Vector from Noise Texture with Vector from Mapping.

Connect Vector from Mapping with Object from Texture Coordinate.

Change scale from Noise Texture to around 13.3.

Change the first color in ColorRamp to some combination of ligth brown and yellow.

Change the second color in ColorRamp to some light yellow.

Adjust the first and second color in ColorRamp until you are satisfied with your Bale.

Click on the Camera icon.

Turn on “Camera to view” so you can move the camera.

Adjust the camera by scrolling the mouse wheel up and down and moving it left and right.

Change samples in render to 512 because there is no need for 4096 samples in this case.

Click on Render?—?Render Image.

That is it! You just learned how to model and texture 3D Bale in Blender.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

You can find video tutorial of modeling and texturing the Hay Bale on my Youtube channel.

I also added this 3D model on BlenderKit, and it will soon be downloadable (probably in 3–7 days, depending on when the admins approve it).

If you want 10% discount on your BlenderKit subscription

use my affiliate link: https://www.blenderkit.com/r/satales3d/