| Blender is a great 3D modelling program that does more than make
still models - it also allows you to animate your models. For
example, you could make a 3D model of a human then animate the model
so that it walks, runs and dances! Blender lets you create a whole
virtual world with lights, shadows and physical effects like gravity
and collisions - in fact with enough time you could even make a
movie looking like Ice Age, Toy Story or Big Buck Bunny (above). As you might expect, this
makes Blender much more complex and hard-to-learn than Sketchup, for
Sketchup is only really good for making still models of buildings.
Therefore I suggest you get to know Sketchup quite well before you
even think of using Blender, although it's true that there are a number
of things that are easy to do in Sketchup that you won't be able to
do in a similar way in Blender - even things as simple as drawing a
line. You can download Blender free of charge from
www.blender.org .
Or simply do a Google search for
Blender. Downloading and installation is easy.
An excellent free introductory e-book on
Blender 2.5 can be downloaded
HERE (30MB, 178 pages, PDF format).
Getting Started
Everything on this page is
vitally important if you wish to learn Blender so study this page
very carefully. When you start Blender you
will see a cube in the main ‘3D View’ window, along with a
horizontal grid and probably a lamp and a camera. The screen is
complex, with 5 windows altogether, as shown below:
Note that the official
Blender term for windows is 'editors' (the timeline editor,
for example) and in my site I may switch between the two terms
'window' and editor' which for me are synonymous. For more information on how
to work with windows/editors, please see the bottom of this page.
Navigating
Here are some hints for navigating
(changing your viewpoint) within Blender
(these are the same as in Sketchup though Blender and Sketchup are
very different overall). Don't forget that the mouse pointer must be
over the correct window (usually the 3D View window) in order to get
the result you want.
 | To orbit, hold down the middle mouse button and move
the mouse. |
| To pan, hold down the shift key and the middle mouse
button then move the mouse. |
| To zoom simply roll the mouse wheel. |
It's easy to accidentally move or rotate
objects in the wrong directions in Blender. One way to minimise this
risk is to get the habit of working in standard views: from
the top, front or side (the right side). To look down from the top,
press Numpad 7. To look from the front, Numpad 1. To look from the
right side, press Numpad 3. To get the complementary views, use the
Ctrl key. For example, to view from the bottom use Ctrl+Numpad 7.
The view that you are using is indicated in the top left corner of
the 3D window.
Use Numpad 5 to switch between Perspective
view and Ortho(gonal) view. Perspective view looks more
natural but I strongly recommend you use Ortho view all the time
since it gives much more control. Press Numpad 0 to switch into or
out of Camera view. Camera view lets you view the scene from
the location of the active camera and thus allows you to preview
what the final rendered image will look like, since the active
camera is used to make the render. Numpad 8, 4, 6 and 2 behave in
logical ways that I will let you discover for yourself.
Selecting Objects
|
Very important: Select objects using the
RIGHT mouse button
(not the left like in SketchUp). |
|
To select
multiple objects hold down the Shift key and use the right mouse
button. You can also Shift-right click to unselect a selected
object. |
|
Press A to
unselect All objects or, if no objects are already selected,
to select All objects. |
|
You can also make
selections with 'box select' (also called 'border
select'): press B then draw a selection rectangle (box)
that touches (it does not need to enclose) everything you wish
to add to the current selection.
Warning: if something is already selected when you begin
using box select then box select will ADD to the current
selection. Most of the time you will be wanting to make a fresh
selection so you will usually need to deselect all (press
'A') before using box select. |
Transformations
Perform transformations on the selected object(s) by clicking any of the tool buttons
on the Toolbox at the left of the 3D view window (press T if
you can't see the toolbox) or use these keys for the most basic operations:
|
G (grab) to
move |
|
R to rotate |
|
S to scale (shrink or expand) |
When you make these changes you must confirm
them with a left-click. If you right-click instead (or press the
Escape key) then that change will be aborted.
To constrain the above
transformations to a single
dimension you can follow those letters with an X, Y or Z. For example
if you type GY then you will be moving the object in the Y (green) direction only.
You can also follow these letters with a
number. For example if you type S3 then you will scale the object by
3 (3 times bigger in every dimension). If you type GZ5 then you will
move the object 5 units in the Z direction (upwards).
Instead of using the letters G, R and S you may
prefer to use the 3D  manipulator
instead. Turn on the 3D manipulator
by clicking this button (on the left):
 then choose from translate
(move), rotate or scale with the other three buttons (in the image
above the translate option is selected). You can then use any of the
three arrows to modify your object in one dimension or you can drag
the white sphere in the centre to apply a modification in all
directions at once. Using the coloured arrows is a good habit for it
ensures that you know exactly which direction the movement will
follow. You can make the 3D manipulator display more than one
transformation type by holding down Shift and then click adding
other types of transformation (for example you could set up the
manipulator so that it allows you to translate or rotate).
You can UNDO actions with Ctrl+Z,
as in most other programs. To redo what you have just undone, use
Shift+Ctrl+Z (not Ctrl+Y as in many other programs).
If you try to do something in a certain window
and nothing happens make sure that the mouse pointer is over that
window.
See the Keyboard
Shortcuts page for more important keyboard shortcuts
('hotkeys').
Save carefully
You must save carefully and often for
three
reasons:
|
If you close Blender by clicking its close
box then it will close immediately without inviting you to save
your changes like most other programs do. |
|
You may assume that if
you do Ctrl-S then Blender will immediately save your
work, like most programs do. In fact Blender will display a
message asking you if you want to replace the existing file. If
you move the mouse the message will disappear, leaving you
thinking you have saved your work when in fact you have not.
Try to get into the habit of doing File>Save instead of
Ctrl-S for File>Save does not have this problem - it saves your
work immediately without question. |
|
The save dialog looks rather different to
what you are used to: |
In the save dialog (and also
in the Open dialog) you should click on a folder once not twice to
open it. Clicking on the symbol '..' (two dots) will take you to the
folder that contains the current folder. Choose the drive you want to save to at the
left (always the H drive if you are working at school). Add a
bookmark for the H: drive so you can navigate easily to it in the
future. Then type
the desired file name where you see 'myfile.blend' above (you do not
need to type the .blend extension since if will be added
automatically if necessary). You need to click the 'Save
Blender file' button at the right to actually save the file - you
can't save by just pressing the Enter key. As previously stated, be sure not to miss
messages that might pop up when you try to save such as 'Replace
existing file?' - these messages will disappear when you move your
mouse unless you are watching for them, meaning your work does NOT get
saved.
Since it is so easy to FAIL to save your
Blender work properly, it is a good idea to check that your file
really exists in the H drive before you close the program.
Next Steps
Follow the links at the top of this page for several Blender
projects that you can try. Expect to feel a bit lost and frustrated
in the beginning but after a while you will hopefully start to enjoy
Blender as much as I do...
If you would like to go even further with Blender, you will find many
additional lessons on
www.blender.org
including several video lessons. Speaking of videos, you can also
find dozens of Blender lessons on
www.youtube.com . Unfortunately, however,
you are not allowed to access YouTube videos from school!
Check out the video tutorials from Super3boy
which you can find (downloadable) at
Nystic.com or on Youtube.
For more great links check the LINKS PAGE.
Working with Blender's windows
Higher up this page the 5 windows (editors) of Blender's default screen
(layout) were presented. Here is more information on working with
windows in Blender: Each window can be
resized by dragging (with the left mouse button) the border that
separates this window from a neighbouring window.
Each window can be split
into two windows or joined with another window by using the
left mouse button to drag the
pattern of slanted lines that you see in the top-right corner or the
bottom-left corner of the
window (try it). Note how the pointer changes into a white crosshair
when you are correctly pointing at the pattern of lines. If you pull
the crosshairs INTO the same window then the window will be split
into two windows. If you pull the crosshairs into a neighbouring
window then Blender will try to join the two windows.
However, the joining can only succeed if the neighbouring window
edges match those of the first window. For example, of you try to
join a window with another window to the right then the top and
bottom edges of the two windows must line up exactly. When windows
are joined the original window (where you pulled the crosshairs
from) expands over the other window, causing that window to be
suppressed.
Each arrangement of windows is called a 'screen' and
you can switch between a number of screens using a pull-down list in
the Info window at the top of the Blender interface. The main screen
you will use is called 'default' and if you 'mess up' the
window layout you should be able to get the default screen layout
back by choosing 'default' from this list. You also can save new
screen arrangements by pressing the plus sign, though this should
not be necessary for a beginner.
Each window has a 'header'
containing various menus and buttons but this is a bad name for it
could just as well be at the bottom of the window as at the top. In
fact you can switch any header between the top and bottom positions
by right-clicking it and choosing 'Flip to Top' or Flip to Bottom'.
Each
window can be easily switched to display any of dozens
of different window types, by using the button at the left
end of the window's header. Try changing the main (3D View)
window into a Graph Editor window, for example, then switch it back
into a 3D View window.
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