Blender

Useful Links

Manual

Materials & Textures

Models, Objects

Tutorials

Commands

General mouse commands

• LMB - Left Mouse Button, used for positioning the referrence pointer on the screen
• MMB - Middle Mouse Button, used for rotating the view
• RMB - Right Mouse Button, used for selection of objects, entities
• WHE - Wheel Scrolling, used for zooming in or out

Viewing

• SHIFT+SPACE - Full scren view (mouse pointer on the view (scene))
• CTRL+ALT+Q - Quad views
• NUMPAD 1 - Front view of the scene
• NUMPAD 3 - Right view of the scene
• NUMPAD 7 - Top view of the scene
• NUMPAD 5 - Change the Perspective or Ortho looking of the view (scene)
• CTRL+<- or CTRL+-> - Change between the screen Layouts
• F12 - Render image
• CTRL+F12 - Render animation

Render Camera

• NUMPAD 0 - Viewing from the camera perspective
• CTRL+ALT+NUMPAD 0 - Sets the view of the camera, according to the scene's view
• SHIFT+F - Rotating the camera (zooming in and out is possible)

If you want the camera to follow a certain object

Track menu - select first the camera, and then the object you want the camera to follow, press CTRL+T.A menu appears, then select Track to Constraint

Editing

• TAB - Changes between the OBJECT MODE and the EDIT MODE

OBJECT MODE

In this mode, you can modify the position of the objects, apply materials, textures, modifiers, etc

While in this mode, you can not modify the internal entities, that are a part of one or multiple objects

• A - Select all objects or deselect the already selected objects
• B - Makes a selection box, so you can select multiple objects
• SHIFT+D - Duplicate selected objects
• G - Move objects
  • To move precisely you need to:
    • Keep pressed the CTRL - is similar to ortho command from AutoCad or Rhino
    • Tap the X - you will move objects on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will move objects on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will move objects on the Z axis
• M' - Layers menu - you can categorize the objects within 10 layers
• NUMPAD 0 - Viewing from the camera perspective
  • To rotate precisely you need to:
    • Tap the X - you will rotate objects on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will rotate objects on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will rotate objects on the Z axis

If the objects need to be on a certain point on the grid, move or rotate the objects and then

• SHIFT+S - It will appear the SNAP menu - choose Selection to Grid
• S - Scale
  • To scale on a certain axis you need to:
    • Tap the X - you will scale objects on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will scale objects on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will scale objects on the Z axis
• X - Deletes selected objects

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• SHIFT+A - Menu for adding different objects
• SHIFT+S - Snap cursor or objects
• N - Properties shelf (right menu)
• T - Tool shelf(left menu)

EDIT MODE

In this mode, you will edit an object that has multiple entities, but also, you can add other objects - think of a part, made of edges and faces. If you will add other parts, it becomes an assembly;

While in this mode all that you create or modify, it will happen inside the object

• A - Select all entities or deselect the already selected entities
• B - Makes a selection box, so you can select multiple entities
• E - Extrude command
• SHIFT+D - Duplicate selected entities or objects
• G - Move entities
  • To move precisely you need to:
    • Keep pressed the CTRL - is similar to ortho command from AutoCad or Rhino
    • Tap the X - you will move entities on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will move entities on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will move entities on the Z axis
• CTRL+M - Mirror command
  • To mirror precisely you need to:
    • Tap the X - you will mirror entities or objects on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will mirror entities or objects on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will mirror entities or objects on the Z axis
• R - Rotate entities
  • To rotate precisely you need to:
    • Tap the X - you will rotate entities on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will rotate entities on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will rotate entities on the Z axis

If the entities need to be on a certain point on the grid, move or rotate the entities and then

• SHIFT+S - It will appear the SNAP menu - choose Selection to Grid
• S - Scale
  • To scale on a certain axis you need to:
    • Tap the X - you will scale entities or objects on the X axis
    • Tap the Y - you will scale entities or objects on the Y axis
    • Tap the Z - you will scale entities or objects on the Z axis
• X - Deletion menu appears - Choose whatever you need to delete

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• SHIFT+A - Menu for adding different objects
• SHIFT+S - Snap cursor, objects or entities
• ALT+R - Spin entities or objects - similar to CIRCULAR ARRAY command, the cursor acts as the center of rotation
• CTRL+P - Attaches objects to a parent object (I used it in animation)

OBJECT DATAS

RENDER

Render - will render one image

Animation - will render a series of images

To have a movie, you must change, in Output, the format to AVI JPEG file

• You can change the rendering camera sizes (Length and Width of what is going to be rendered)
• You can change the number of frames that will be rendered (from 1 to 250 by default)
• You can change the output of the files

SCENE

• Set in the Units -> 'Metric', so you can have metric units in the scene, and not random numbers

OBJECT

Here are the Object's properties. You can add the object to a Layer, or a Group, how it should be Displayed, etc

MODIFIERS

Enhances the objects

• Subdivision Surface - Rounds the edges of an object. Recommended that the values to be under 2
• Ocean - Adds a mesh that can be morphed into a silent lake or an angry ocean, with or without foam, etc
• Armature - It is used for animation. It adds limbs to the objects. These are named BONES, and act like the bones from your body. They have articulations. They can be rotated (R) and moved (G)

ADDING TEXTURES

We will use the Node Editor and UV Mapping We will use the Cycles Render

FULL TEXTURE COMPONENTS (IMAGES)

GENERATING THE TEXTURES We need one image which will be the Diffuse Texture. This image, will be opened with the GIMP program. Within this program, we have in Filters-->Map-->Insanebump - this generates the textures. Press Execute. The images will be saved in the same folder where the original images is.

• DIFFUSE TEXTURE - it the original texture/image - In the Node Editor, this image is connected directly to the Diffuse Color
• NORMAL MAP TEXTURE - used most for bumps (ups and downs for the texture)
• SPECULARITY TEXTURE - for glossy looks
• OCCLUSION TEXTURE - adds crevasses (more shadows)
• DISPLACEMENT TEXTURE - creates level differences for the texture - changes physics