Xah Lee, 2010-01-06, 2010-05-11, 2010-07-29
When you start blender, it has 3 windows. At the top, middle, bottom.
• You can change each window size by moving the mouse between border then drag.
• You can split a window into 2 by moving mouse in border and right click, then chose “Split Area” or “Join Areas”.
• Ctrl+UpArrow to maximize the window the cursor is on. (does not work if the window types is User Preference)
• Almost all Blender operations have a menu or keyboard shortcut.
• The response of most keyboard shortcuts depends on which window is currently active. The active window is the one your mouse cursor is on.
• Each window is in a particular “type”. The top one by default is “User Preferences”. The middle is “3D View”. The bottom one is “Buttons Window”.
Window type menu.
• Each window's type can be changed to any other type. To change, use the left most button on window's header.
Each window has a tool-bar, called its Header. This Header can be placed on top or bottom of the window or hidden. To change, right click on the header.
Change view angle and position is the most important thing in learning 3d modeler.
Here's some common abbrev:
| Abbrev | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LMB | left mouse button |
| MMB | middle mouse button |
| RMB | right mouse button |
Make sure your Num Lock is on.
. 8 . 4 . 6 . 2 .
Use numpad 1, 3, 7 to change view points to Front, Side, Top. Press Ctrl+numpad7 to view bottom. Same for 1 and 3.
Use 0 to switch to Camera view.
7 . . . . . 1 . 3 0
The 5 is for toggle ortho/perspective view.
. . . . 5 . . . .
Ctrl+Alt+Numpad0 sets the camera to the current viewpoint.
Remember, when you press some key, what it does depends on which is the current window. The current window is the one your cursor is on.
You can see all commands that controls view point from the View menu.
Z to toggle between wireframe/solid modes.
The View menu.
There's the camera and lamp.
3D cursor is the red/white dashed circle.
LMB to place in anywhere.
Shift+C to return to previous position.
press the number key 0 to 9 changes your layer. Holding Alt down will switch you to the second row of layers. Holding Shift down will show just that layer, and toggles.
Press ` to show all layers.
To move a obj from one layer to another, press “m”.
For more, see the Select menu.
When in edit mode, yellow means selected items.
Numpad period puts rotation center on the currently selected object.
【Ctrl+x】 to start a new scene. Or, menu “File▸New”.
Reading this vid tutorial: Source, by Gaia Clary of blog.machinimatrix.org. The vid is ~20 min, but will take ~50 min to follow thru.
Now, reading another vid tutorial: “Creating sculpted Prims with Blender” Source
The above should get you started. For a more complete and systematic tutorial, am reading: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro.
see also: