I need to create something that looks similar to this, but I’ve got no idea how I’d go about doing it.
Does anyone know of a tutorial or has an explanation they might provide?
make one section containing two ‘rings’ worth of holes, by retopo-ing a cylinder, then use the array modifier to flesh out the rest. retopo is also called ‘surface snapping’.
Try this.
Have the Loop Tool addon enabled.
Add a Circle, press F6 and set the vertice count to exactly 20
Select the whole circle then press E , press Z and type 1
Press CTRL+R and type 3 to add 3 loop cuts like this
Select those vertices
In the Loop Tools, press on the Circle button (or press W -> Loop Tools -> Circle), press F6 and disable “Flatten” (that is enabled by default) so the circle follow the shape instead of being flattened on an axis
Select those vertices
Press W -> Loop Tools -> Circle (no need to press F6 as from now the Flatten setting is still disabled)
Follow that pattern to make more circle, you can delete the central vertices of all of them too
Go to Object Mode and add an Array Modifier set like this :
Apply the modifier (important do not enable “Merge” in the modifier before applying), then go back to edit mode
Unselect All, move your mouse on the new part that the array modifier has added and press L to select it automatically
Press R then press Z (to constraint on the Z axis) and type 36 (for 36 degrees)
Select All and press W -> Remove Double to merge both parts (20 vertices will be removed and both part are now only 1)
Press CTRL+N to recalculate the normals
Go to Object mode and add an array modifier setup like this :
Apply it, this time you need to have the Merge enabled (so we don’t have to do W ->Remove Double again)
From there you can add a solidify modifier to give it depth , subdivide, edge split, give crease to the holes boundaries edges etc…
Or just do it before applying the array modifiers, as if i remember well it will copy the edges you creased as being creased too.
sanctuary, you could compile your mini-tutorials and make a book some day.
Mesh_looptools is a missing addon… 
The download for it is just a python script. I’m not sure how to use it with Blender
EDIT: Moved the script into my Python IDLE window. Saved it with the correct name, changed some permissions and then pasted that thing right into the correct folder. Hopefully works now
Nope, just getting a traceback error
What version of Blender are you using ?
In Blender stable 2.65a (and any current version in the buildbot) , the addon is bundled with Blender, you just need to enable it in File -> User Preferences -> Addon
Mesh category -> Loop Tools.
Blender is a mess of 3 different versions at the moment. I was doing modding for Skyrim, which required these different versions with nifscripts ect…
I’ve tried uninstalling them all, but I can’t seem to get rid of the old 1.57 version. Right now I run 2.63
Yes, that’s what can be annoying in production as some functions may only work in recent Blender versions, while some scripts require older ones and has not been updated/will not be updated for newest release.
I made a barrel with squares instead. Looks alright from a distance anyway. I followed the rest of your tutorial to do so. Thanks!
While i remember, an alternative to the loop tools circle is , after selecting the vertices, to press SHIFT+ALT+S then type 1 (or click on Mesh -> Transform -> To Sphere and type 1 to make the selection into a circle)