3D Designing

Instructor: Patrick V. Mole, MIT

“ You learn something every
day if you pay attention.

-Ray LeBlond

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1.
The Blender 3D
and its interface
What is Blender
Blender is primarily used as a 3D modeling suite that allows you to create
3D scenes and models for several different industries including animation
and game design.

⬡ Architectural Design
⬡ VFX
⬡ Motion Capture
⬡ Logo Design
⬡ Motion Graphics

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How to Download Blender
⬡ Head over to blender.org, and click the download link at the top of the
screen to download the latest version.
⬡ Choose your operating system, click the blue Download button, and
then save the file wherever you’d like on your computer.
⬡ Once the download is finished, navigate to the installation file, and
double-click.
⬡ After that, simply follow the software’s prompts to install it.

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What are the Requirements?
HARDWARE (MINIMUM)
⬡ 64-bit dual core 2Ghz CPU with SSE2
support
⬡ 4 GB RAM
⬡ 1280×768 display
⬡ Mouse, trackpad, or pen+tablet
⬡ Graphics card with 1 GB RAM, OpenGL
3.3

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What are the Requirements?
HARDWARE (RECOMMENDED)
⬡ 64-bit quad core CPU
⬡ 16 GB RAM
⬡ Full HD display
⬡ Three button mouse or pen+tablet
⬡ Graphics card with 4 GB RAM

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Blender User Inferface
TOPBAR

⬡ File Menu – New (Ctrl+N), Open (Ctrl+O), Open Recent (Shift+Ctrl+O),

Revert, Recover, Save (Ctrl+S), Save As (Shift+Ctrl+S), Save Copy, and more.

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⬡ Edit Menu – Undo/Redo/History, Menu Search, Operator Search, Rename
Active Item, Batch Rename, Lock Object Modes, Preferences
⬡ Render Menu – Render Image (F12), Render Animation (Ctrl+F12), Render
Audio, View Render (F11), Lock Interface
⬡ Window Menu – New Window, New Main Window, Toggle Window
Fullscreen, Next Workspace, Previous Workspace, Show Status Bar, Save
Screenshot
⬡ Help – Help System

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Default Workspaces
Blender’s default startup shows the “Layout” workspace in the main area. This
workspace is a general workspace to preview your scene and contains the following
Editors:
⬡ 3D Viewport on top left.
⬡ Outliner on top right.
⬡ Properties on bottom right.
⬡ Timeline on bottom left.

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3D Viewport (yellow), Outliner (green), Properties (blue) and Timeline (red).

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Blender also has several other workspaces added by default:
⬡ Modeling - For modification of geometry by modeling tools.
⬡ Sculpting - For modification of meshes by sculpting tools.
⬡ UV Editing - For mapping of image texture coordinates to 3D surfaces.
⬡ Texture Paint - For coloring image textures in the 3D Viewport.
⬡ Shading - For specifying material properties for rendering.
⬡ Animation - For making properties of objects dependent on time.
⬡ Rendering - For viewing and analyzing rendering results.
⬡ Compositing - For combining and post-processing of images and rendering
information.
⬡ Geometry Nodes - For procedural modeling using Geometry Nodes.
⬡ Scripting - For interacting with Blender’s Python API and writing scripts.

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Additional Workspaces
Blender has a couple additional Workspaces to choose from when adding a new
Workspace:
⬡ 2D Animation - General workspace to work with Grease Pencil
⬡ 2D Full Canvas - Similar to “2D Animation” but contains a larger canvas.
⬡ Masking - For creating 2D masks for compositing or video editing.
⬡ Motion Tracking - For calculating camera motion and stabilizing video footage.
⬡ Video Editing - For sequencing together media into one video.

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Areas
The Blender window is divided into a
number of rectangles called Areas.
Areas reserve screen space for Editors,
such as the 3D Viewport or the
Outliner. Each editor offers a specific
piece of functionality.

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Resizing Areas
Move your mouse cursor over the border between two areas, so that the cursor
changes to a double-headed arrow, and then click and drag.

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Splitting Areas
Splitting an area will create a new area.
Placing the mouse cursor in an area corner
will change the cursor to a cross (+).
Dragging from an area corner inward will
split the area. You define the split direction
by dragging either horizontally or
vertically. Other way is by right clicking
the boundaries.

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Joining Areas
Dragging from an area corner outward will
join two areas. The area that will be closed
shows a dark overlay. You can select which
area will be closed by moving the mouse
over it.

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Common Shortcuts

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Common Editor Keys
These keys are shared across editors such as the 3D Viewport, UV and Graph
editor.
⬡ A - Select all.
⬡ Alt-A - Select none.
⬡ Ctrl+I - Invert selection.
⬡ H - Hide selection.
⬡ Alt+H - Reveal hidden items.
⬡ T - Toggle Toolbar.
⬡ N - Toggle Sidebar.
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Mouse Action
Mouse Select (Right & Left) Action
⬡ Select & Tweak - Right mouse always tweaks the selected item.
⬡ Selection Tool - Right mouse uses the selection tool.

Middle Mouse Action (MMB)

⬡ Orbit - Rotates the view around a pivot point, Shift-MMB is used for panning
the view.
⬡ Pan - Shifts the view towards the mouse, Shift-MMB is used for orbiting the
view.
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Startup Scene

After closing the splash

screen, the startup scene
is displayed in the 3D
Viewport.

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Elements
⬡ Cube - The gray cube in the center of the scene is a mesh object. Its orange
outline indicates that it’s selected.
⬡ Light - The set of concentric black circles is a light source illuminating the cube.
⬡ Camera - The pyramid with a big triangle above it is the camera, which is used
as the point of view for rendering.
⬡ 3D Cursor - The 3D cursor, a cross with a red-and-white circle, determines
where newly added objects are placed
⬡ Grid Floor - The gray lines forming a floor mark the zero height of the world.

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Object Modes
Modes allow editing different aspects of objects. While Object Mode allows you to
position/rotate/scale them, Edit Mode allows changing their geometry, Pose Mode
allows posing them, and so on.

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