Blender: The No. 1 3D Graphics Program

Introduction

Welcome to my fifth and final guide of my UE application. I will be Pming a HUE after a few reviews, grammar ad punctuation corrections and making them generally neater.

Now, onto Blender. Blender is a program I was introduced to by a friend in the begenning of 2009. I thoroughly enjoy using Blender, and believe it is one of the best free 3D graphics programs out there!

My guide will be teaching you the very basics of blender, including all the information needed to use my guide on Creating a human eyeball using Blender (found here,) how and where to get Blender, and demonstrating what can be done with Blender and a little time.

Contents

I: Introduction


II: Contents


III: What is Blender?


IV: Where can you get Blender?


V: What is Blender used for?


VI: The basics of Blender


Part 1. Changing Modes


Part 2. Adding in basic shapes


Part 3. Selecting shapes


Part 4. Removing objects


Part 5. Smoothing/Subsurfing objects


Part 6. Adding colours


Part 7. Rendering


Part 8. Working out the camera


Part 9. Using the light effectively


VII: My personal images


VIII: Acknowledgements

Blender is A 3D graphics program. It can be used for a large variety of things.

It was created by "The Blender Foundation." Work began in 2002, and a few years later it was finished and released to the public.

Blender IS a free program, and as you would know, without funding it would be next to impossible to continually update the program. If you enjoy using Blender, Donate! Follow to this link to donate. (Note. NONE of this money goes to me or anyone or anything to do with Sythe.org. It goes directly to The Blender Foundation and is used to update the program.

Where can you get Blender?

Blender's official website can be found at Blender.org. Here, you can do the following things.

Check out the Gallery,
Look into the development of Blender,
Browse the Education and Help section, (Great for noobs!)
Look into the community section,
Download the blender program, and
Visit the Blender shop, where you can buy books and DVDS on improving your Blender skills.

We'll focus on downloading. If you haven't found the download button, the image below will show you.

After clicking the download button, look at the options for your Operating System (Blender currently supports Linux, Windows, Mac, Solaris and Irix,) then select either the WINZIP or installer options.

After selecting where you would like the folder to go. Your good to go!




Blender, unlike Google Sketchup (Check out my guide on Sketchup *Here, Insert link*, is a very professional program.

It can be used for the following things:

Entertainment - This is what I generally use it for, it can give hours of fun (and sometimes frustrating.)

School projects - I have used Blender for a few school projects. Most notably, a 3D image of a trebuchet I constructed.

At home jobs - If you have small at home jobs to do, such as making a chair, etc, use Blender for a plan! It is entertaining and can give A basic idea on what your doing.

(If you have a career or 3D graphics, before using this program, i'd reccomend talking to your boss about it.)

The basics of Blender

The first thing you notice when you open Blender is the very confusing toolbar/panel at the bottom of the screen. This often intimidates users, misleading them into thinking the program is to difficult. However, all you need to do is just learn things 1 step at a time. I have been using Blender for over a year, and I don't know everything about it either, but I make it through.

The below information are tips on getting around.

Changing modes

There are six modes in Blender. The two most important are edit and object modes.

You can change between these two by:

1. Pressing "tab" on your keyboard, or

2. Pressing the button on the toolbar (See image below) and then selecting object or edit mode from the list.

Adding in basic shapes

Adding shapes into Blender is easy, and can be done in 3 simple steps

1. Press spacebar

2. Click "Mesh"

3. Select the shape you would like too use.

Easy!

Selecting objects

Selecting objects can by done by:

1. If in object mode, right clicking the object,

2. In edit mode, pressing "B" on the keyboard, then dragging a box around the shape.

Removing objects

1. Select the object, (read above)

2. Press "Delete" on your keyboard,

3. With your mouse, press "Erase selected object(s)

Smoothing/Subsurfing objects

1. Select the object you plan on smoothing,

2. On the bottom right corner of the screen, click "Add Modifier." (Must be in edit mode.)

3. Press "Subsurf."

4. When the Subsurf menu appears, change the level from 1 too around 4 or 5.

5. To make your smoothing even better, in the "Links and Materials section (Bottom left hand corner of the screen,) Click "Set Smooth."

Adding colours

1. Make sure you have the object you want coloured selected and you are in edit mode.

2. In the "Links and Materials menu," press "New." (The one under the "1 Mat 1" writing.)

3. Click the small great square above New, then select the colour you want.

Rendering

Rendering is viewing the graphics in an image mode. To do this, press F12.

Working out the camera

The camera is a very important part of Blender and viewing your creations.

First, there are preset camera views. You see this my using the numbers 1-8 on the Numpad.

Secondly, you can customly control the camera. To do this:

1. Press "0" on the Numpad,

2. Hold "Shift F,"

3. Use your mouse to move the view, to move the camera, and not the view, use the "W,A,S,D,R & F keys.

4. To stop moving, use your the left click with your mouse.

Using the light effectively

1. Make sure you are in object mode,

2. Right click the Light,

3. drag it to the postion you want it to be in.

My personal images

Acknowledgements

As mentioned in my other Blender guide, thankyou to my mate Jordan, who taught me a lot, and introduced me to Blender.

Blender.org, thanks for making such a fantastic program, and for the continuous updates.

Yet again the User Educators, notably Magic Arrow, Lukef555 and of course Plznate, for there continued help and support. I couldn't have gotten this far without you three.

And of course, all my readers. Thankyou for taking the time to read it, and all the positive comments showing you enjoyed it gives me the motivation to continue writing guides. Thanks!

(All these images were taken by me, however, only the images in "My personal images" and "The basics of Blender" were made by me.)

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Bump.

I'll check this out tomorrow, but how is it better/worse than c4d?

I haven't used much C4D, I just personally preferred Blender as I found it easier to use with it's interface, plus a friend showed me how to use it and I just liked it. Sorry if the title seems a bit misleading, it's more to get members enticed to check the guide out :P

I'm totally into the whole open-source free program scene (who wouldn't be?).. I'm very grateful for you posting this guide (the first one I've read about it). I'm not so intimidated now, and I think I'll give it a try I keep contemplating whether I should give in and get C4D, Illustrator, etc, but people don't realize that most of the time it's not the tools they're using, but how capable of learning and creating they are. Free or not, I'm sure Blender is capable of a lot with the right person using it & you're showing that!

Crap, this thread is old-ish

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vouches

names

Bump!

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