This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalLicense.

© 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2017 fifth edition by James Chronister. This document may be reproduced inwhole or in part without permission from the author. Feel free to use this manual for any and all

educational applications. I enjoy emails from other educators, so please let me know how you’re usingthe book. You may not bundle this tutorial with any software or documentation that is intended for

commercial applications (marketing for a profit) without expressed written approval from the author.Inquiries and comments can be directed to jchronister@cdschools.org. This document, and other

information, can be found at http://www.cdschools.org/blenderbasics . At this site, look under“Academics” in “Technology Education”.

Information regarding the Blender program and development can be found at www.blender.org. Blenderusers can also find information on how to use the program at www.blenderartists.org. Daily Blendernews and tutorial links can be found at www.blendernation.com.

You can now find video tutorials for Blender Basics on line for each chapter. Visit:

http://www.cdschools.org/blenderbasics

Look for the video link on the page to take you to the YouTube channel.

Table of Contents

i

Introductory Itemsv Introduction vi Rendering and Animation Basic Conceptsviii Basic Key Commands

Chapter 1- The Blender Interface 1-1 The Blender Screen1-2 Viewport (Window) Types1-3 The User Preferences Window1-4 Open, Saving and Appending Files1-5 Packing Data1-6 Importing Objects (from other file formats)

Chapter 2- Working with Viewports (windows) 2-1 Moving Around in 3D Space2-2 Window and Button Control2-3 Creating Viewports

Chapter 3- Creating and Editing Objects 3-1 Working with Basic Meshes3-3 Using Main Modifiers to Manipulate Meshes3-5 Edit Mode- Mesh Editing3-7 The Tool Shelf3-9 Proportional Editing3-17 Joining/Separating Meshes, Boolean Operations

Chapter 4- Blender Render Engines4-1 The Classic Render Engine4-3 The Cycles Render Engine4-8 Tweaking Cycles for Speed & Quality

Chapter 5- Materials and Textures5-1 Basic Material Settings5-4 Basic Texture Settings5-7 Using Images and Movies as Textures5-9 Displacement Mapping5-10 Materials and Textures in Cycles

Chapter 6- Setting Up a World 6-1 Using Color, Mist and Textures6-4 Using an Image in the Background6-5 Cycles World Settings

Chapter 7- Lighting and Cameras7-1 Camera Settings and Options7-2 Using Nodes for Depth-of-Field, Green Screen (Chroma Key), and More7-7 Lighting Types and Settings7-9 Indirect Lighting

Chapter 8- Render Settings 8-1 Basic Setup Options8-4 Rendering Movies and Images8-5 Network Rendering

Chapter 9- Ray-Tracing (mirror, transparency, shadows) 9-1 Lighting and Shadows9-2 Reflection (mirror) and Refraction (transparency)

Chapter 10- Animation Basics 10-1 Basic Key-framing and Auto Key-framing10-3 Working with the Graph Editor and Dope Sheet10-7 Animating Materials, Lamps and World Settings (and more)

Table of Contents

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Table of Contents (continued)

ii

Chapter 11- Adding 3D Text 11-1 Blender 3D Text Settings11-2 Converting to a Mesh

Chapter 12- NURBS and Meta Shape Basics12-1 Using NURBS to create lofted shapes12-2 Liquid and droplet effects using Meta Shapes

Chapter 13- Modifiers 13-1 Basic Mesh Modifiers 13-6 Simulation Modifiers

Chapter 14- Particle Systems and Interactions14-1 Particle Settings and Material Influence (Cycles)14-7 Using the Explode Modifier14-8 Particle Interaction With Objects and Forces14-9 Using Particles for Hair and Grass

Chapter 15- Child-Parent Relationships 15-1 Using Child-Parented Objects15-2 Adjusting Object Centers (pivot points)

Chapter 16- Working With Constraints 16-2 Tracking To An Object16-4 Following Paths and Curves

Chapter 17- Armatures (bones and skeletons)17-1 Using Armatures to Deform Meshes17-4 Creating Vertex Groups17-5 Using Inverse Kinematics (IK) and Other Constraints

Chapter 18- Relative Vertex Keys (shape keys) 18-1 Creating Mesh Keys18-3 Using Action Editor Sliders

Chapter 19- Object Physics 19-1 Creating Fabric and Fluid Effects with Interactions19-10 Realistic Object Interactions in Real-Time and Animations

Chapter 20- Creating Springs, Screws, Gears and other Add-On Shapes 20-1 Duplicating Meshes to Create Screws and Gears20-4 Using Mesh Editing to Create Revolved Shapes20-5 Blender Add-On Meshes

Chapter 21- Video Motion Tracking21-1 Setting Up the Tracking Scene21-8 Using Masks and Materials

Chapter 22- Game Engine Basics (real-time animation) 22-1 Setting Up The Physics Engine22-5 Applying Materials22-5 Using Game Physics in Animation22-6 Using Logic Blocks

Chapter 23- UV Texture Mapping 23-1 Using Basic Mapping23-3 GLSL Shading

Chapter 24- Video Sequence Editor 24-1 Producing a Movie From Individual Clips and Images24-5 Adding an Audio Track

Chapter 25- 3D Printing Tools25-1 Fundamentals of 3D Printing25-2 Using Blender to Create 3D Printer Models25-3 Exporting Models

Educational Standards AlignmentIndex

Table of Contents (continued)

ii

Practice Exercises

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Chapter 1Setting Up Your Interface …............................................................................................. 1-7Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 1-8

Chapter 2Multiple Viewport Configuration …................................................................................. 2-5Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 2-6

Chapter 3Create a Sculpture …....................................................................................................... 3-4Modeling a Landscape and Lighthouse ….................................................................... 3-11Adding Windows to the Lighthouse …............................................................................ 3-19Challenge Task: Creating a 3D Logo ….......................................................................... 3-20Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 3-22

Chapter 4Test Renderings …........................…................................................................................. 4-9Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 4-10

Chapter 5Adding Classic Materials & Textures to the Lighthouse Scene..................................... 5-15Challenge Task: Cycles Shading for the Lighthouse Scene …..................................... 5-23Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 5-24

Chapter 6Creating an Environment for Your Scene ..................…................................................. 6-10Challenge Task: A Sculpture Environment …................................................................. 6-12Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 6-12

Chapter 7Lighting Up the Landscape Scene ..................…............................................................ 7-10Challenge Task: Cycles Scene and Blur …..................................................................... 7-12Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 7-14

Chapter 8Saving a Picture of Your Scene ....................................…............................................... 8-8Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 8-8

Chapter 9Reflection and Refraction ..................….......................................................................... 9-3Challenge Task: Cycles Reflection and Refraction …................................................... 9-5Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 9-6

Chapter 10Adding Motion to Your Scene.............…......................................................................... 10-8Challenge Task: A Logo or Sculpture in Motion …........................................................ 10-11Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 10-12

Chapter 11Company Logo .............…................................................................................................ 11-3Challenge Task: Production Logo …............................................................................... 11-4Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 11-4

Chapter 12The Lava Lamp .............…................................................................................................. 12-3Challenge Task: The Spill …..........…................................................................................ 12-6Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 12-6

Performance Tasks

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Practice Exercises

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Chapter 13Common Modifiers Exercise...............…......................................................................... 13-8Challenge Task: Insect Study ….....…............................................................................. 13-9Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 13-10

Chapter 14Adding Rain to Your Scene.............…............................................................................. 14-14Challenge Task: A Fireworks Display& Candle …......................................................... 14-15Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 14-16

Chapter 15The Robotic Arm .............…............................................................................................... 15-3Challenge Task: A Simple Character …......................................................................... 15-4Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 15-4

Chapter 16A Camera That Follows the Arm .............…..................................................................... 16-3Challenge Task: A Simple Roller Coaster …................................................................... 16-6Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 16-8

Chapter 17Create a Hand With Armatures .............…...................................................................... 17-6Challenge Task: Flubber Character …............................................................................ 17-8Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 17-10

Chapter 18Cheesy Actor Monkey .............….................................................................................... 18-5Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 18-6

Chapter 19A Waving Flag .............….................................................................................................. 19-3Making a Splash With Fluids .............…........................................................................... 19-9Challenge Task: Rube Goldberg Invention …............................................................... 19-11Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 19-12

Chapter 20Turning Gears .............…................................................................................................... 20-6Challenge Task: An Animated Spring …......................................................................... 20-7Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 20-8

Chapter 21Composite Desk Scene .............….................................................................................. 21-9Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 21-10

Chapter 22A Simple Maze Runner .............…................................................................................... 22-11Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 22-12

Chapter 23Creating a Texture Wrap .............…................................................................................ 23-5Challenge Task: Texture Your Maze …........................................................................... 23-6Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 23-6

Chapter 24Video Portfolio .............…................................................................................................. 24-6Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 24-6

Chapter 25Chess Piece .............…................................................................................................. 25-5Unit Reflection …............................................................................................................... 25-6

Performance Tasks

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About Blender

How can Blender be free?People usually associate freeware software with the terms “bad”, “with limited features”or just a “demo”. Blender is fully functional. It works as an open-sourced, communitydevelopment program where people from around the world contribute to its success.Blender is a rendering\animation\game development open-sourced freewareprogram maintained by the Blender Foundation and can be downloaded, free ofcharge, from www.blender.org. The goal of the foundation can be summarized asfollows:

“The Blender Foundation is an independent organization (a Dutch “stichting”), actingas a non-profit public benefit corporation, with the following goals:

1. To establish services for active users and developers of Blender.

2. To maintain and improve the current Blender product via a public accessible source code system under the GNU GPL license.

3. To establish funding or revenue mechanisms that serve the foundation’s goals and cover the foundation’s expenses.

4. To give the worldwide Internet community access to 3D technology in general, with Blender as a core.

Blender website (blender.org)

Blender can be a difficult program to learn with limitless possibilities. What do you teachin the time you have to teach? That’s a tough question because you can’t teach it all.This tutorial book is designed to get you up and running in the basics of creating objectsand scenes and animating. The best advice I can give you about learning this programis Don’t Give Up! All rendering and animation programs have a tough learning curve.After a few weeks, things get easier. This tutorial has been developed to be used inconjunction with daily lesson planning and demonstrations. Because of this, some areasof Blender have not been described as fully as they could be. If you are using this guideas a stand-alone teaching or “self-help” tool, you may need to seek additional helpfrom reputable places like www.blender.org and www.blenderartists.org to make senseof things. These sites give you access to help forums and tutorials. There are literallythousands of Blender users world-wide that browse the forums to give and get advice.Make use of that vast knowledge base!

Version Information:The current release at the time of this printing is version 2.78. Since Blender is developedby a worldwide pool of individuals giving freely of their time, releases happen often.

New for this edition:While most of the activities here use the classic render engine due to classroom timeconstraints (cycles rendering is very time intensive), a unit (and more) has been addedfor the cycles render engine. There are also new challenge tasks for those students thatare looking for extra, or alternate, activities. Reference to education standards,reflective writing, motion tracking, and 3D printing have also been added.

v

IntroductionIntroduction

v

Rendering and Animation Basics

RENDERING:

A rendering is a pictorial output of a 3D scene or object. Features like materials, lighting, oversampling and shadows control the effects and quality of the rendering. The more of these features you add, the more realistic your scene become, but also lengthens rendering times.

Materials and Textures:

You can control the way an object appears by applying color and textures. Materials provide realism with added effects. You an control glossiness (specular), self-emitting lighting characteristics, transparency and pattern repetition. Ray-tracing can provide reflection (mirror) and refraction (transparency) effects. Textures can be made from any scanned photograph or drawn object in an image-editing or painting-type program. Images in almost any format (jpg, bitmap, png) can be used. Blender also has many built-in texture generators that can simulate a variety of surface characteristics such as wood, marble, clouds, waves and surface roughness.

Lighting:

Lighting provides the realism to your scene through reflections and shadows. You can control the type of light, intensity and color. Some lights can give a “fog” or “dusty” look with a halo or volume lighting effect. Illumination distances can also be set.

Cameras:

Your camera is your point-of-view for the scene. Just like a real camera, you can control lens length to achieve close-ups or wide angles. Clipping distance can also be set to control how far and near the camera sees. Depth-of-field can be controlled using nodes.

ANIMATION:

An animation is a series of rendered images that form a movie. The quality of your movie is controlled by all of the above mentioned features including frames per second (fps), output size, file type and compression. The most common method of animation is called key-framing. Key frames are created at various points in the animation while the computer generates all of the transition frames between the two keys. Basic animation options include changing size, rotation and location of objects.

Rendering and Animation

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Rendering and Animation

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Time Factors:

In order to animate, you must first set the length of your animation in frames and your frames per second (fps). The length in time can be calculated from these.

Frame Rate Options: NTSC- U.S. and Japan video standard of 30 fps Film- Movie standard of 24 fps PAL- European video standard of 25 fps

*We typically use a frame rate of 25-30 fps depending on computer speed or if we planto save the file to DVD. Hit the “PAL” or “NTSC” setting buttons for these. Creating Keys:

A key is placed at the beginning and end of a desired move, size change or rotation of an object. Think in terms of how long you want a change to occur and relate it to your fps. For example, if you want an object to move from point A to point B in 2 seconds and you have 30 fps, place 2 keys 60 frames apart.

Following Paths and Objects:

In most animation programs, a camera can follow a path or object (or both) as it moves. This feature saves a lot of animation time and reduces the number of keys needed.

Output Options:

We typically save our movies in MPEG format for Windows. This type of file plays easily on most media players and at a high quality. Depending on how you plan to use your movie (i.e. on the web, saved to DVD, played in a presentation), you may wish to use different formats. Examples include Apple Quicktime and Windows AVI formats. Different formats also allow you to adjust the quality settings. For example, AVI formats can be compressed using a variety of compressors called CODECs.

Rendering sizes:

Animations are saved in a measurement unit called a pixel. Your computer and TV screens display images as small dots. The more dots, or pixels, per inch, the higher the resolution. Modern displays and TVs use square pixels, but older TV sets used rectangularpixels. This made it somewhat more difficult to render images because the output from 3D animation programs needed to be compressed into a non-square ratio format. Since most TVs have been replaced by modern flat screens, we can begin to get awayfrom these older, confusing ratios and work with 1:1 pixel ratios.

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Rendering and Animation

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The next considerations deal with render sizes:

1. The older TV standard of 4:3 ratio size or the newer TV (and film)16:9 ratio size. 2. Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD).

This decision will most likely be controlled by the type of result you need and how much time you have to render the project. Until recently, we have always worked with DVD standard definition 4:3 renderings in the classroom. We are changing most of our projects to HDTV 720p to better fit modern TVs and online video postings. While high definition renderings can produce better projects, the cost in rendering times would make it almost impossible for us to complete projects in the classroom during the schoolday, even with the small render farm we have in the lab. Standard definition still looks great played back on modern TVs and renders at a fraction of the time of higher HD. Here are the frame sizes for each type of render:

Basic Key Commands

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Rendering and Animation

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Real-Time Animation and Physics:

Blender uses the Bullet physics engine to make objects react in your scene like they would in real life. The Bullet physics engine was used in movies like 2012 to create all of the realistic-looking animations of falling and reacting objects. Real-time animation allows you to add physical properties to your objects and use the keyboard and other features to control them. You can create actors, change masses, control dampening (friction), set force and torque in x, y, and z planes and create relationships with other objects within the scene. With time and practice, interesting 3D games, animations, and real-time architectural walk-throughs can be created.

Blender allows you to use the physics engine to create animation tracks. You can now use the physics to create realistic falling, rolling, etc. animations and use them in movies.

Basic Blender Commands

This is just a partial list of Blender commands. Please visit the Blender.org website for more details.

TAB key- Toggles between edit mode (vertex editing) and object select mode . If you’re in edit mode when you create a new object, it will be joined to the selected object.

Ctrl “Z”- The global UNDO command. With each press, one step will be undone (up to 32 steps possible by default). If in edit mode, it will only undo editing steps on the selected object.

Space Bar- Brings up a search window to find basic commands.“Z” key- Toggles view from wireframe to solid. Alt “Z”- Toggles a texture/shaded view.“R” key- Rotates an object or selected vertices. (pressing X,Y,Z after “R” will limit effect)“S” key- Scales a selected object or vertices. (pressing X,Y,Z after “S” will limit effect)“G” key- Grabs or moves the object or selected vertices. (pressing X,Y,Z after “G” limits effect)“A” key- While in edit mode it’s good for selecting all vertices for commands like remove

doubles and subdivide. Pressing “A” twice will clear selected and reselect.Alt “A”- Plays animation in selected window. Your cursor must be in that window for it to play.Ctrl “A”- After an object has been re-sized and/or rotated, this can reset the object’s data to

1 and 0.“W” key- Brings up a “Specials” menu while in edit mode of specific edit mode options.Shift-“D”- Duplicates or copies selected objects or selected vertices.“E” key- While in edit mode, selected vertices can be extruded by pressing “E”.“O” key- The “O” key (not zero) will put you into proportional vertex editing while in edit

mode. Proportional editing now also works in object mode. “B” key- Gives you a box (window drag) to select multiple objects. In edit mode, works the

same to select multiple vertices. “C” key- Gives you a circle select in edit mode that can be sized by scrolling the mouse

wheel. Press LMB to select, press wheel to deselect. Right mouse click or “Esc” to exit.Shift-”A”- Brings up the tools menu where you can add meshes, cameras, lights, etc.Number Pad- Controls your views. “7” top, “1” front, “3” side, “0” camera, “5” perspective, “.”

zooms on selected object, “+ and –“ zoom in and out. The + - buttons also control affected vertices size in proportional vertex editing.

Mouse- Left to manipulate (LMB), right to select (RMB), center wheel to zoom and rotate view. If you hold down “shift” and center wheel you can pan around on the screen.

Shift Key- Hold down the shift key to make multiple selections with the right mouse button. Arrow Keys-Used to advance frames in animation. Left/right goes 1 frame at a time, up/down

goes 10 frames at a time.“P” key- While in edit mode, pressing P will seperate selected verticies. In object mode,

pressing P will cause you to enter into the game (real-time) mode. Press Esc to exit game mode.

ATL/CTRL “P”-Creates or breaks child/parent relationships. To create C/P relationships, hold downshift key and select child first, then parent. Hit Ctrl P. To clear a relationship, do the same except hit Alt P.

“U” key- In Object Mode, brings up the Single-User menu to unlink materials, animations (IPOs), etc. for linked or copied objects.

“M” key- Moves selected objects to other layers.Ctrl “M”- Mirrors an object. Select “M”, then X,Y,or Z to mirror on that axis. “N” key- Brings up the numeric info. on a selected object (location, rotation and size). Info.

can then be changed in the panel.

Basic Key Commands

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Basic Key Commands

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Ctrl “J”- Joins selected objects together.Ctrl “L”- Link mesh's data to another mesh. Good for copying materials and other object

data from one object to other objects. While holding the Shift key, select all the objects with the one containing the material or other data last. Press Ctrl-”L” and select you option.

“F” key- Makes a face in edit mode of the selected vertices. You can only select 3-4 vertices at a time to make a face. By selecting 2 verticies and pressing F will close shape.

Alt “F”- Will Face or Fill a closed set of selected verticies.Ctrl “F”- Brings up a “Face Specials” menu with other face options.Shift “F”- Camera Flying is enabled and will cause the camera to “fly” through the scene.“X” or Delete- Delete selected objects, vertices or faces.“K”-LMB In edit mode, K and left mouse button will allow you to slice faces.Ctrl “R”- In edit mode, will bring up options to slice or cut faces.Shift- “S” In both edit and object modes, this will give you options to locate objects or the

cursor to assist in precise placement.Function Keys-F1-Load File; F2-Save File; F3-Repeat History; F11-Last Render; F12-Render “I” Key- The “I” key is used to insert animation keys for various things. Objects can be

animated with basic Rotation, Location and Size keys and combinations there of. “T” Key Opens the Toolbox at the side of your viewport.Ctrl “T”- Used to create a Track To Constraint to make one object follow another (like a

camera with a target).Ctrl “S”- Used to Save your Blender fileAlt “C”- Used to convert meshes, text and curves. For example, text can be converted into a

mesh for other transform options.“Shift” “Space” Toggles between multiple screens to full screen of active view port. Can also use

“Ctrl”-”Up Arrow” to do the same thing.Ctrl “0”- If using multiple cameras, this will switch to the selected camera. (Number pad “0”)Armatures- Meshes can be controlled by “bones” or armatures. Create a mesh with vertices at

the joint locations, then create an armature string within it. Child/Parent the mesh to the armature using the armature option. You can then animate in Pose Mode.

Ctrl-Tab- Puts you into Pose mode for manipulating armatures.Import/Export- Blender accepts many different file formats through the import/export

commands. When inserting other Blender files or objects into another scene, use the APPEND option from the file menu and select the appropriate options. Multiple objects can be selected with Shift-Right mouse button.

Multiple Viewports- To create multiple viewports, move your cursor to the upper-right corner of an existing viewport. When your cursor turns into a “+” over the tab triangle, press LMB and drag to spit viewport area. To join areas, repeat the process.

The Basic Blender Buttons:Editor

(window) Type

Render Setting

Scene Settings

World Settings

Object Settings

Constraints

Modifiers

ObjectData

Material Settings

Texture Settings

Particles

Physics

Practice Exercises

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