This tutorial is a translation of my previous video for 3dsmax, in which I show an intermediate technique to achieve a beautiful trefoil star-shaped pendant object (known also as a Cayley Cubic Surface), which could be used as an interesting digital asset, or for 3d printing.  This was another video done in response to UnkerJay, in the Shapeways 3d Design forum. 

Please let me know if you have any problems following along, or if anything about the techniques demonstrated in the video is unclear; I'll do my best to help you design this shape for whatever your needs may be.  Don't forget to subscribe to my channel for many more videos like this in Blender, and 3dsmax.  Hope you enjoy.

Here's a sample render I'd done for the 3dsmax tutorial, illustrating one possible use for the object as a digital asset.  It could be used as a pendant (obviously), or converted to a real world 3D printed model.

Nice, nice.

I don't log in often, but just wanted to say that was a great tutorial, LuxXeon.  Your pacing, explanations, and attention to detail was terrific.  No wasted airtime for a nearly twenty minute video which was very refreshing (some videos are long in length, but short on procedure - five minutes worth of technique dragged on for 20, 30, or even 45 minutes - not yours, of course).

As an intermediate Blender user, I learned a few new tricks, and you reminded me of a couple of things I forgot I should be using in my work-flow.

One suggestion, though, for future tutorials you might want to consider; A newbie following along my not be adept in all the shortcut keys, and might find it difficult to follow along when they see you do something, but not know what you pressed to accomplish it (Alt + M comes to mind for the vertex welds).  If you turned on the Screencast addon (external addon as of 2.72) it might help those following along to learn those keys (if not already known) as well.

Thank you, for createing a great tutorial.  Looking forward to the next one.

I love this tutorial!  Looking at this object as it develops in the video, I can see a lot of possibilities for how to use it, even before you do any subdivisions to smooth it out.  If you take the state of this mesh right before adding the subdivision surface modifier, you have what could become a very cool medieval weapon of some kind.

I also agree with DaremoK3, your tuts are awesome, Luxxeon.  Great pace, and well explained, and detailed, with lots of unique ways to create what seems like complicated geometry.  I think showing the screencast keys would be the only thing I would suggest to improve. 

Thanks, guys.  I'm glad this has been useful in some way.  Special thanks, Daremok3, for the kind and insightful comment.  I'll have to download the screencast keys addon and try it out again.  I know that in Blender 2.74, the integrated feature had been removed, because it wasn't performing properly, and often recorded keystrokes that weren't accurate, or misinterpreted certain keys.  However, perhaps the addon has been improved since then, so I'll see how it works. If there's some external tool for recording screenkeys that is more reliable, I'd be interested in using that.  In the meantime, I'll try to verbally mention all the keys I'm using more consistently in my narrations.  Good tip, thank you.

Good tutorial, but I have to say this is one I found a lot easier to do in Max. Modelled this one in Blender though, and rendered it in the viewport with Cycles. Such a cool looking shape. I agree I think it could be a good starting point for some kind of weapon, but it would look great hanging from a necklace too.

I am of the highest respect for you are teachings.  I do not model for 3d printing, but I have use for models like this in my renderings.  I think they come in very useful to the jewelry I apply to characters, and also for decoration of my interior scenery.  Merci!

Well done, Lux! Looking forward to having my system available to actually put this to use!

This is great, as are all your tutorials.  I do have one question that maybe you can help me with though.  I noticed in this video, as in some of your other videos, that in edit mode, you switch very quickly from vertex, to edge, to face elements without any menus, and without clicking on the UI buttons.  So how are you doing that?  I know you probably have them set to a keyboard shortcut somehow, but how did you do it?  I tried right-clicking on the icon buttons in the UI and chose edit source, but I don't see where they can be set to a shortcut.

Thank you, RobynsVeil.

Davidstoolie, try this:  In edit mode, click CTRL+TAB.  It should bring up a menu where you can switch between Vertex, Edge, or Face modes.  With that menu open, right-click on one of the modes, then select "Change Shortcut" from the subsequent menu. If you hover your mouse over the empty field that will appear, and tap a key on your keyboard, it will assign that key to the associated mode you picked.  Select a new hotkey to each mode, and then be sure to save your Preferences.  If you don't save your Preferences, then you'll have to do it all over again in your next Blender session.

I chose to use my keyboard numbers 1, 2, and 3 for vertex, edge, and face mode accordingly.  This is the same hotkey combinations I use for them in 3dsmax, so it's naturally convenient for me to have them the same in both applications.  You can pick any keyboard combination or hotkey you want, of course.  I do recommend assigning shortcuts to these modes, for a faster workflow overall.  Hope this helps.

I just wanted to resurrect this thread, to show some new examples of real 3d printed models this object, created using this tutorial. The model is available on my Shapeways store (see sig), and since the original link to the video tutorial got deleted when the forums were upgraded, I'll repost it here:

Model A Trefoil Star Pendant In Blender 2.75

Thank you to the users who purchased the objects while still in Beta, and helping to bring proof of concept to these designs. Thanks also to Lisa L. for providing the first 3 photos:

Here's a link to the object on Shapeways: http://shpws.me/L1UD

Here are a few more user-submitted photos of this object.

Those last photos are really pretty, and caught my eye. It's beautiful actually. I just bought this model, lux. First time buying anything on Shapeways by the way. I'll post photos of it when it arrives if you like.

HMorton posted at 11:51PM Thu, 24 December 2015 - #4245460

Those last photos are really pretty, and caught my eye. It's beautiful actually. I just bought this model, lux. First time buying anything on Shapeways by the way. I'll post photos of it when it arrives if you like.

I'd love that! Merry Christmas!

It's neat. Yet not to be confused with a traditional knotwork trefoil... Which can then be woven into itself like a Sierpinski triangle and then connecting those into a star form, if you're crazy enough...

https://www.shapeways.com/product/F24JAEV25/knotwork-sierpinski-star-pendant

Let's just say I got very familiar with the Bezier path tool.

pauljs75 posted at 4:57PM Fri, 25 December 2015 - #4245597

It's neat. Yet not to be confused with a traditional knotwork trefoil... Which can then be woven into itself like a Sierpinski triangle and then connecting those into a star form, if you're crazy enough...

https://www.shapeways.com/product/F24JAEV25/knotwork-sierpinski-star-pendant

Let's just say I got very familiar with the Bezier path tool.

Very cool, Paul! We'll have to compare notes some day. I'm working on something very similar now in fact. I created this "knotted" triangle recently in 3dsmax (not sierpinski based), and have a Blender tutorial coming soon....

It's fairly easy to create, and the procedure translates almost directly to Blender. The 3dsmax tutorial is here:

The Blender version will probably take about the same, but I'm working out a few techniques that might make it even faster to create in Blender. TokiFX came up with a nice translation of the tutorial on his own here: