Cover Image Credit: Anatolii Nesterov

Bonus Videos + Tutorials mentioned in the video:

https://youtu.be/SM8ukvOFgKs

https://youtu.be/B186kSYglEA

What Are Normals?

Normals define the direction the surface of a mesh is pointing in. These are used by the 3D render engine to shade the mesh.

They define:

1. The X,Y,Z direction of a surface
2. The front- and backside of a face

The 3 Types of Normals

1. Face Normals: The direction faces are pointing in
2. Vertex Normals: The average of all face Normals that a vertex is connected to
3. Split Normals: All individual face Normals that a vertex is connected to

⇒ The most important ones are split Normals because they’re the only ones we can visibly change

The 3 Modes of Shading

1. Flat: Each face has it’s own Normal
2. Smooth: Face Normals are influenced by neighbours and blend between them