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The Blender 2.5+ User Interface

This Tutorial is meant as an introduction to Blender (2.5 and up). It should be doable by anyone interested in learning how to use Blender. No previous knowledge about Blender should be required.

Table of Contents

1. Navigating the User Interface
1. Menu Bar
2. 3d view
3. Timeline Editor
4. Main Toolbar Panel

To begin this tutorial, open Blender.

Navigating the User Interface

Upon opening Blender for the first time Your view should be somewhat similar to the following:

Menu Bar

Along the top of the screen is the menu bar. At the Top Left there is a selector for what that part of the screen will display. Beside it is a minimizer for the four drop down menus. These Drop down menus are: File, Add, Render and Help.

Next up is the "Screen Layout Selector" () which has a number of default layouts that can be handy for a number of different tasks. Just leave it at "Default" for now.

Next is the "Scene Selector" () that is used to select which scene you are currently working on. This is followed by the rendering engine you wish to use and finally a section giving you a bit of information about blender's current version, etc.

3d view

Along the left hand side of the screen there is the "Toolbar". The different actions available here change depending on what mode you are in and what you have selected.

Beside the toolbar is the main portion of the 3d view. This is where you will be building your objects and animating them. What you see in the view right now is the default starting cube in the middle, centered on the origin point (0,0,0). Also at the origin is the 3d cursor. The 3d cursor marks where the center of new objects will be and can even be used as a reference point for several other operations. To the left of the cube is the camera with the triangle showing which way is up for the camera. To the right of the cube is the lamp. The lamp itself is the black dot surrounded with two dashed line circles.

The current view being shown in the 3d view is a perspective view coming in from an angle. To rotate the view up and down use 'Numpad-8' and 'Numpad-2' respectively. For left and right rotations use 'Numpad-4' and 'Numpad-6' respectively. To move up, down, left or right, hold down the 'Ctrl' key while pressing the numpad keys.

There are naturally several standard views available. The first of these is the camera view. To switch to the camera view press 'Numpad-0'.

The next view is the Front view. To switch to Front view, press 'Numpad-1'. So far we have always been in perspective mode. To toggle between perspective mode and orthographic mode, press 'Numpad-5'.

Next up is the Right view. To switch to the right view, press 'Numpad-3'.

Finally we have the Top view. To switch to the top view, press 'Numpad-7'.

You can also access the Back ('Ctrl+Numpad-1'), Left ('Ctrl+Numpad-3') and Bottom ('Ctrl+Numpad-7') views as well.

Below the "Toolbar" and the main 3d portion of the 3d view is the control bar for the 3d view. This lets you change between the different editing modes, display modes, the pivot location, whether or not to show the 3d-object manipulator (The blue, green and red arrows coming from the center of the cube.) and which type to show. Beside this is the layer selector and a number of other 3d world/view controls.

Timeline Editor

Below the 3d view is the timeline editor. Here there is a display of the timeline of the current scene with a green line marking the current frame. Below you have a few pop-up menus, the playback rendering range a field to set the current frame, playback controls, etc.

Main Toolbar Panel

At the right edge of the window is the Main Toolbar Panel. This contains a number of different sub-panels that can be used to perform different actions. Depending on what type of object is selected, the subpanels that are available may vary. These Sub Panels are:

• The "Render Panel" ()

  The Render panel is where you configure the rendering settings. Here you can select the Layers to render; the dimensions, resolutions and frames (in the case of an animation) to render; the output format and directory for the render and a number of other settings.

  

• The "Scene Panel" ()

  The Scene Panel is used to setup several general scene aspects, from which camera to use to the gravity for the scene.

  

• The "World Panel" ()

  In the world panel you can set up the colour of the background, general world lighting effects and even turn on and configure mist and stars.

  

• The "Object Panel" ()

  Here you are able to set up and configure a number of settings for the currently selected object including the name of the object (It is a good habit to get into naming every object you create so it can be more easily found and identified later on).

  

• The "Constraint Panel" ()

  

• The "Modifier Panel" ()

  Here is where you can add modifiers to your object. These modifiers allow you to apply more advanced adjustments to your objects and possibly even alter how they interact with the rest of the scene.

  

• The "Object Data Panel" ()

  Here you can configure and organize more detailed settings of your object such as vertex groups and UV maps.

  

• The "Material Panel" ()

  The Material Panel is where you can configure most of the object's material settings, such as colour, shading, transparency, reflections, shadows, etc.

  

• The "Texture Panel" ()

  The textures panel is used to configure the texture for a particular Material (Or possibly the World's background). Here you can choose from a number of built-in texture types or include an image or video to use as a texture instead.

  

• The "Particles Panel" ()

  This panel is used to configure and create particle effects. Her you will be able to make effects ranging from emitted particles (For use in things like smoke, some fluid simulations, or just falling/moving particles) and hair particle systems.

  

• The "Physics Panel" ()

  This Panel is used to set up and enable various physics effects for the selected object.

  

• The "Lamp Panel" ( or or or or )

  This panel replaces the "Materials Panel" for lamps. In addition to setting the colour, the brightness (Energy), falloff and shadow type can be set in this panel.

  

• The "Camera Panel" ()

  This panel replaces the "Material Panel" for a camera. In it you can set up camera properties such as the type of lens (Including when to start and stop for the scene clipping).

  

Continue Learning:

1. Learn how to model a simple train engine