Tutroial #1 - The Basics of Blender

Alright guys!! It’s time to explore Blender, this is the first tutorial so we are going to learn the basics of Blender.

Blender as open source software works in a very different way than other commercial software. It is good to know about the history of Blender before touching the tools of Blender so that it may give us a knowledge about the powerful concepts of Blender. You can know about the software here  . This tutorial series will guide you through the Blender’s Interface. This tutorial series is divided into three parts:

First Part:

1.       Downloading and Installing Blender.

2.       Blender’s User Interface.

3.       Understanding the 3D View.

Second Part:

1.       Navigating the 3D View.

2.       Managing Area.

3.       Types of Editors.

Third Part:

1.       Selecting Objects in Blender.

2.       Using the 3D Cursor.

3.       Blender’s User Preferences.

So let’s get started.

BLENDER BASICS: THE USER INTERFACE

Downloading and Installing Blender:

                First step you need to use Blender is to install it. It’s very easy visit www.blender.org  find the download link and choose your platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) install it. That’s it now you have downloaded and installed Blender on your computer. Now you can launch it by clicking Blender.exe.

 Blender’s User Interface:

                As mentioned above Blender’s UI is different from the UI in other software. When you open Blender for the first time you will notice many things in front of you. Blender’s interface is made up of areas (also called as frames). We can spilt or join areas to make our own work spaces which provides more comfortable workspace.

                Each area shows some different tool sets and views called Editors. Each task you performed is done in a specific Editor. Some Examples of Editor’s are 3DView, Outliner, Node Editor, UV Image Editor, Timeline. At any time you can split or join areas that provides you greater flexibility as you work.

 

List of the things when you first encounter blender:

Info Bar (A):

                 The top most area in the Blender’s Interface is the Info Bar. This is the main menu for Blender where you can find options like Open, Save, Help. It also contains Render menu where you can find options like Render Image, Render Animation which is used to final render your project. Also there are two drop down menu’s Screen Layout Selector and Scene Selector. Render Engine Selector is present in the info bar which helps to you to choose the Render Engine to be used in Blender. Next comes the information about the current scene and version of Blender.

 

3D View (B):

                3D View is the place where you can give your objects a shape, life and much more. In 3D View you can create objects, edit objects, animate objects, add lights to your scene. By Default you will see a grid, coloured axes, a light, a cube and a camera.

Tools Region (C):

                Some Editor’s such as 3D View have their own regions which hold the tools for that particular editor’s. Usually there are two types of regions. They are:

1.       Tools Region.

2.       Properties Region.

By default when you open Blender you can able to see the Tools Region which is present in the left side of the Blender Interface where you have to access to the common tools and actions.

Splash Screen (D):

                Splash Screen appears when you open the Blender. It contains the information about the useful links, recent files, the current version of Blender and the help options. If you want to close the splash screen just click anywhere in the interface this will help you to hide the interface.

Timeline (E):

                Timeline represents the time dimension in your scene (in frames) and allows you to watch animations, set key frames and set the start and end of the animation.

Outliner (F):

                This area contains an outline of objects used in the 3D scene and its relationship with the other objects in the scene. It is similar to the tree structure. We can change visibility, selection options, rendering visibility options and we can rename the object.

Properties Editor (G):

                This editor most important editor of the Blender since it contains the options for rendering, adding modifiers, changing materials and much more.

Understanding the 3D View:

                                Now it’s time to explore the elements present in the 3D view which is the min editor in the Blender. This section will give you an idea about what all these elements do.    

    

 

View (A):

                In the top left corner of the 3D view you will see the name of the current view (for example User Persp, Right Persp, Right Ortho and so on).Normally there are two types of views. They are:

1.       Parallel View.

2.       Perspective View.

Tools Region (B):

                Editors will have their regions on the left and right side. Tools Regions is present to the left side of the 3D view. It can be viewed by pressing T key on the keyboard. Its width can be adjusted by hovering the mouse over its border and then click and drag. You can also press the + symbol in the left corner to bring the tools region.

Shortcut Key: Press T key.

Tabs (C):

                The tools region has different types of tabs that you can click to show different types of tools in it.

Operator Panel (D):

                At the bottom of the tools region you can see the operator panel which contains the information (parameters) about the last action you performed. For example if a circle is added the operator panel will show the parameters for the circle such as number of vertices, radius and so on.

Shortcut key: Press F6 key.

Camera (E):

                We can’t able to see anything animated without a camera in the 3D scene. A camera in a scene defines the place or point of view, depth of field (focus), zooming as well as other options that help you to see the final rendered image.

 Default Cube (F):

                When you open Blender there will be a simple cube at the centre of the 3D view. It’s a simple cube you can keep it and make that cube an awesome model or you can delete that by pressing X key or Del key.

Lamp (G):

                If you want your render to look beautiful you need to add some lights to your scene that lights your scene and generate some shadows and give more realism. By default there will be a point lamp present in the scene.

Grid (H):

                The Grid represents the Floor of your scene. By default each square in the grid hold 1 blender units.

Properties Region (I):

                This region is different from the properties editor. It contains the parameters and properties related to 3D view. By default its hidden you can view this region by pressing N key. It contains the options like transform, scale, rotate, display options, adding background images and much more.

Panels (J):

                Menus in the Tools or Properties Region or Properties Editors are divided into panels.You can expand or collapse the panels by clicking on the small triangle.

Header (K):

                Every area has a header which is located at the top or bottom of the current view. It can be moved to the top or bottom by hovering the mouse over the header and pressing F5 will move the header.

 

In 3D View’s Header you can see:

Editor Selector:

                Editor Selector will allow you to select the type of editor you are going to use. For example some of the editor are Node Editor, UV Image Editor and so on.

Editor Menu:

                Provides the option for the specific editor. It changes according to the editor. For 3D view you have the options like View, Select, Mesh, Object.

Interaction Mode:

                Allows you to select the mode in which you are using (Object Mode, Edit Mode etc.).

Drawing Method:

                Allows you to select the display method such solid, wireframe, textured and so on.

Pivot Point Selector:

                It provides a reference point for transforming an object.

Transform Manipulators:

                Allows you to select different transformations manipulators. (For example Translate manipulators, Scaling and Rotation Manipulators) to transform the objects.

Screen Layers:

                Small Boxes represent different layers where we can store objects from the scene.

Global/Local Layers Constraint Button:

Links the visibility of the layers in the 3D view and the Scene Layers that you will render.

Snapping Selector:

                Allows you to snap the elements with the other elements when transform operation is performed.

Preview Render:

                This is used for real time previews. The first button renders a still snapshot and second button renders an animation. These buttons render what you see in the 3D view.

 That's it part 1 of tutorial is over. Hope you learned some new good things.If you have any queries please post that in the comment box. Stay Tuned for the next tutorials.

Thank you,

Happy Blending.

Blender Machi