Blender Basics Part 1: The Very Basics
If you’re looking for an intro to 3D in Blender, you’ve come to the right place. This guide (the first of a 5-part series) will introduce you to Blender and teach you some basic operations.
First, get Blender here: https://www.blender.org/download.
Introduction to the Interface
Open Blender and click anywhere to get rid of the splash screen.
The interface may look complex at first, but it’s well-designed and surprisingly simple once you get used to it. Take a look at the image to get an idea of what the different interface parts are called.
The 3D Viewport is where you’ll perform all your 3D tasks like creating models or positioning objects. The Outliner lists everything in your scene.
The Properties panel has a lot of different options in it. These will change depending on what you have selected in the 3D Viewport. You can see that it has a bunch of different tabs in it. The one that’s currently selected, (the little orange box) is called the Object Properties.
Basic Navigation
In the world of 3D, there are, of course, 3 dimensions. These are called the X, Y, and Z dimensions.
In the 3d viewport, you’ll see a red line and a green line along the grid. These represent the X dimension (red) and the Y dimension (green) of your 3D space. The vertical Z dimension is represented with a blue color, but it’s not displayed in the viewport by default since it’s generally fairly obvious which way is up.
If you ever get confused about which is which, look at the multicolored Gizmo is the upper right-hand corner of the viewport. This is a handy little display that shows you where the X, Y, and Z directions are at.
Basic navigation in Blender is very intuitive and easy to get used to.
To look around, simply scroll with two fingers on your trackpad (or use your middle mouse button). To pan, hold down SHIFT and move two fingers. To zoom in and out, spread two fingers apart (or use your mouse wheel).
Try it now.
Before we go any further, you’ll have to adjust a setting in the Preferences. Click the Edit menu in the upper left-hand corner, and choose Preferences. In the Preferences window choose the Input tab and turn on Emulate Numpad.
This will let you use your regular number keys for keyboard shortcuts that usually require a keyboard with a number pad.
Close the Preferences window and give it a try! Press 1 for a Front view, 3 for a Right view, and 7 for a Top view.
Basic Transforms
In 3D, the Transform of an object refers to 3 things: the object’s location, its rotation, and its scale (size). In the Properties panel on the right, (make sure the Object Properties tab is still selected) you’ll see a section called Transform.
This is where you can adjust the exact location, rotation, and scale of your object. Click and drag over any of the numbers to ‘scrub’ the values, or type in an exact number.
See if you can scale your cube along the Y axis.
You can also perform these operations in a much more intuitive way: using key commands. Pressing S lets you scale your cube by moving the mouse. R for rotate, and G for location (if that’s hard to remember, think G for Grab).
Try it now: Press G to move your object. When you’re done, click to apply the movement or right-click (ESC works too) to cancel it, resetting your object back to where it was before.
While you’re moving an object with G (or rotating or scaling), you can press X, Y, or Z to constrain the operation to just that axis. You can also type in a number for precise control.
This ability to perform an operation on just one axis is extremely useful. Try scaling your cube along the Y axis to make in longer, and then on the Z axis to make it thinner.
Creating and Deleting Objects
Tired of your cube? Let’s get rid of it! Make sure you have it selected, then press X to delete it.
Adding new objects is just as easy: press SHIFT-A to open the Add menu. You can see there’s a lot of options, but the ones you want in are in the Mesh category.
Try adding a Cylinder, or a Monkey. Try deleting them with X.
Duplicating objects is also very easy. Simply select the object you want to duplicate, press SHIFT-D, then right-click to create the duplicate without moving it. By default, the duplicate will automatically be selected, and you can move, scale, and rotate it wherever you want.
Congratulations! You made it to the end of Part 1. Keep an eye out for Part 2 soon, and remember to practice. If you want a challenge, try out the Bonus Challenge below.
Bonus Challenge: Make a Bench
Using your new skills, try to recreate this bench. You’ll need to add new objects, as well as scale, rotate, position, and duplicate objects. Don’t try to make it exactly the same; this is just an exercise.
Good luck!
