I've been following this series of video tutorials on youtube where the author creates a steam punk cartoon character. I have created the head, but now I am suppose to select the points at the bottom and extrude to form the neck. I can extrude OK, but when I try to scale, it wants to scale from a point directly under the nose, which is the first polygon that I started with. Since it wants to use that point as the reference that it scales from, it doesn't scale right. Half of the face is mirrored. I tried setting the origin to the geometry, but that takes half of face and puts it on the other side of the modeled face so the two ears (if he had any would be touching).

So how can I get it to scale from the center of the points I have selected and not some arbitrary point that it is choosing. In the video, he doesn't seem to be having that problem.

Thank.

Are you using the 3d cursor to set your pivot origin? Also, check that your transform orientation is set properly. A screenshot of the problem will also help.

To scale the neck the way that you want when using the mirror modifier the pivot origin point needs to be in the correct position.
The attached picture should help you out.

Thanks! That helped. I was able to extrude and scale the neck successfully.

After I posted, I remembered that he had had us change the cursor setting to scale the back of the head at the bottom, so I figured it had something to do with that.

What is the normal setting that you would have the cursor set to for most operations? I don't remember what it was set to before he had us change it.

People complain about how the interface is, but I don't find it too troubling. In fact, the more I use Blender, the more I like it.

Thanks again.

For me "Median Point" is what I have set as default. I use the "3D Cursor" frequently but I can't remember the last time I used "Bounding Box". It is more about knowing the differences and selecting the best option for your needs to get a specific outcome at a specific time.