A Low-Poly Mushroom

In this guide we’ll make a low-poly mushroom like this:

• Start Blender

• Select the default Cube
• Press X, then Enter to delete the Cube

Add a Cylinder

• Press Shift+A to open the Add menu

• Choose Mesh then Cylinder

• In the Add Cylinder options (bottom left corner), set the following:
  • Vertices: 5
  • Radius: 0.1m
  • Depth: 0.4m
  • Cap Fill Type: None
  • Z: 0.2m

It will be rather small, but should look something like this:

Since we’re going for a low-poly look, 5 is a good start here. But even for a high-poly design this is not a bad starting value since we can add more polygons later with modifiers.

Also, for the initial size (Radius, Depth), we’re just going for something that’s smaller than a typical character (1-2m tall).

Frame Selected

• From the View menu, choose Frame Selected to zoom in on your newly created cylinder

• You may want to zoom out a bit. Use the Mouse Wheel on Windows or Cmd+Two Finger drag on Mac.

Edit Mode

• Press the Tab key to enter Edit Mode, or use the Interaction Mode switcher:

• Press the 2 key to switch to Edge Selection Mode

Extrude and Scale

We’ll now build the basic shape of our mushroom.

Don’t worry if it don’t turn exactly right on the first try. We’ll tweak the shape later.

• Alt + Left-Click on one of the top edges on your cylinder:

• Press E to start extruding
• Move your mouse up a bit
• Press Z to restrict extrusion to the Z axis (up/down)
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• Press S to scale, and make the loop larger
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• Press E, then Z to extrude along Z again
• This time, move down a bit
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• S to scale again:
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• Repeat Extruding and Scaling 4 times to get something like this:

Avoid creating too many steps. In Blender, it’s generally an advantage to start out with as little geometry as possible, and the add details later.

Closing the Top

• Press M to Merge vertices
• Choose At Center:

We now have a very coarse mushroom:

Tweaking the Shape

Rotate the view around and check that the shape of the mushroom is like you want it. If it’s not quite right, you can:

• Alt + Click edges to select loops on the mushroom, then
• S, Move mouse, Left-Click to scale the selected loops
• G, Z, Move mouse, Left-Click to move the selected loops up and down (in Z)

Repeat scaling and moving until you’re happy with the shape.

Closing the Bottom

Notice that the bottom of our mushroom is still open.

Let’s fix that.

• Select the bottom edge loop (Alt + Left-Click)
• Press F to form a new Face from the loop

Better Stem

Now that we’re on the bottom, let’s make the stem a little less straight.

• Press Ctrl+R to add a Ring Cut
• Move the mouse over the stem
• Left-Click
• Move the ring towards the bottom of the stem
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• S, Move mouse, Left-Click to scale the ring outwards a bit

More Details

Now, let’s add a bit more detail. While 5 segments are OK for the stem, the “hat” of the mushroom is probably a bit too pointy.

• Press Alt + Z to toggle “X-ray” mode, or use the button in the toolbar:

• Select the edges like shown below. There’s a couple of options:
  • While holding Shift, Left-Click each edge
  • While holding Shift, Click and drag around the edges
  • Select the edges for one corner, then press Shift+G and choose Face Angles to select similar edges.

• Press Alt + Z to toggle “X-ray” mode off again
• Press Ctrl + B to start the Bevel command
• Move the mouse to get a good sized bevel
• Left-Click when you have something like this:

• Check the bottom of your mushroom. If it doesn’t look good, Undo (Ctrl+Z) a few times and try a different size bevel, or try beveling a different set of edges. It doesn’t have to look exactly like mine.

More details

Blender has a nice way to add details to any Mesh using Modifiers.

• Click the Modifiers button on the bottom-right panel:

• Click Add Modifier
• Choose Subdivision Surface under Generate:

Notice how the mushroom preview is now more detailed:

Having the subdivision shown while editing can get a little annoying, but fortunately Blender allows this to be customized.

• Click the button to turn off subdivision preview during editing.

• Press Tab to switch to Object Mode
• Press Tab again to switch back to Edit Mode

Notice how the preview changes.

Using a subdivision modifier like this allows us to keep modeling with simple geometry while having more details for preview and (later) rendering and export.

Coloring

Ok. Time for some color.

• Press 3 to switch to `Face
• Select one part of the Mushroom “hat” like this:

You may also want to include faces from the underside of the “hat”.

• Press Shift+G and choose Area to select the entire hat

If you don’t get exactly the right set of faces you may want to lower the Select Similar Threshold:

You’ll want a selection like this:

• Go to the Materials panel by clicking the button

• Press the New button

• Click the colored field for Base Color:

• Choose any color you’d like for the hat
• Press the Assign button

You’ll notice that the preview doesn’t change. That’s because we’re in Solid viewport shading mode.

• Click the button in the top-right corner:

• Alternatively: Press Z, then select Material Preview

Your mushroom should now show in the color you’ve chosen. But since there’s only one material it’ll be used for the entire mushroom, despite our current selection. Let’s fix that but adding a second material for the stem.

• Create another material by pressing the + button
• Press the New button
• Pick a Base Color suitable for the stem
• Press Ctrl+I to invert the selection, so the stem is selected
• Press the Assign button
• Press Tab to switch back to Object Mode preview:

Saving

If you haven’t already done this, now would be a very good time to save your Blender file.

• Press Ctrl+S to save

If this is the first save, Blender will ask for a name and location

Variety

• Make sure you’re in Object Mode
• Press Shift+D to create a copy of the mushroom
• Press Shift+Z to restrict movement to the floor (XY plane)
• Move the mouse to move the copy a bit away from the original
• Left-Click to place the copy
• Press Tab with your copy selected to edit it

Use the following tools to make your copy slightly different.

Select things:

• Use keys 1, 2 and 3 to make changes to vertices, edges and faces respectively
• Make individual selections by Left-clicking, Holding Shift to select multiple vertices/edges/faces
• Left-Click and Drag to make a box selection
• Use Shift+G to select similar vertices/edges/faces

With something selected, make some changes:

• Use key G to move the selection
• Use key S to scale the selection
• Use key R to rotate the selection

Assign different colors to different types of mushrooms.

Export each muchroom in it’s own file, or export clusters of mushrooms together.

Export Rendering

If you want to save a nice image of your mushroom scene, you can Render it.

• Press F12 to open the Render window
• Wait for the render to finish
• Press Ctrl+S to save your image as a .png file

If you don’t have an F12 key on your keyboard, you can:

• Press the Rendering tab at the top of the menu
• From the Render menu choose Render Image

Exporting for Game Engines

To use your Mushroom in another application like Unity or Godot, you’ll need to export it.

• From the File menu, choose Export
• For Unity, pick FBX (.fbx)
• For Godot, pick glTF 2.0 (.glb/.gltf)

• Navigate to a suitable location for your exported file
• Expand Include
• Enable Selected Objects (assuming you’ve still got your Mushroom selected)
• Expand Data (for glTF) or Geometry (for FBX)
• Expand Mesh
• Enable Apply Modifiers
• Type a name of your liking in the name field

• Press Export glTF 2.0 or Export FBX