How can I move many vertices with few dots?

Question

I was looking some blender guides on internet and I've found this

So I was wondering how can I do the same thing ? By that I mean manipulate this object that has so many vertices and faces with these few selected dots ?

Answer 1

This is standard subdivision surface modeling. The very general idea is that you create a base mesh that is comprised of very simple geometry, and then add a subdivision surface modifier to increase the amount of detail or mesh density.

In your screenshot, the "few selected dots" is the low poly base mesh. The part that has "so many vertices and faces" is the output from adding the subdivision modifier.

To edit the mesh, you just manipulate the low polygon base mesh, and the high resolution version will conform to your edits.

Here is a fantastic tutorial that covers the basics of subdivision modeling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmIIIcCUm8E

Answer 2

While Subdivision modelling is generally the recommended approach, if you already HAVE a complex, high resolution geometry here are two approaches you could take.

The longer method is to manually build a low poly mesh approximating the form of the high poly one using retopology or other ways to stick the low poly form onto the right places.

A quicker method that you should also be aware of to try is the Lattice object. If you have a high poly mesh such as (for examples sake) a Suzanne, and create a Lattice object, you can parent the Suzanne to the Lattice (using the Lattice Deform parent type, which creates the modifier for you), and the lattice's vertices start affecting it as if it were a low polygon cage like a subdivision surface. You can adjust the lattice's size, resolution before the parent operation to fit it to a mesh you already have. Unfortunately the lattice cannot be reshaped to fit the mesh better, so it's a faster but less convenient method in many cases. However, you can animate a model passing through a lattice deform which can be useful in specific cases.