Blender Quick Start Guide

The Blender Quick Start Guide

by Darrin Lile
Blender Foundation Certified Trainer

Blender began as an in-house 3D graphics program in the

1990s and has grown into an incredibly powerful 3D
animation and visual effects suite of tools. But perhaps the
most astounding aspect of Blender is that it’s free. It
blender101.com provides artists all over the world with amazing opportunities
to create their visions at a very low cost of entry. Granted,
It takes time and practice to
you need a computer, and a fairly powerful one at that. But
learn and internalize Blender’s
workflow. But given the right
an artist anywhere in the world can download Blender and
guidance, anyone can quickly begin creating their dreams.
get up to speed and start
creating with Blender.
Having said that, I will be the first to admit that there is a bit
of a learning curve to using Blender. It’s not an easy program
to learn, and definitely not an easy one to master. It takes
time and practice to learn and internalize Blender’s workflow.
But I think, given the right guidance, anyone can quickly get
up to speed and start creating with Blender. And that’s what
this Blender Quick Start Guide aims to do: get you started
creating your visions in Blender, as quickly as possible.

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 Blender Quick Start Guide

Installing Blender
The first thing you need is, of course, Blender. If you haven’t
downloaded the program yet, go to www.blender.org and
click on the Download button on the main page for the latest
version. This will take you to the Download screen where
you can download the appropriate flavor of Blender for your
particular operating system.

Note the system requirements while you are there. You

should have at least 8 GBs of RAM in your computer and
have a reasonably good graphics card, with at least 1GB of
memory. These specs will help with the speed at which
Blender can render the models and images on your screen.

In addition, you may want to invest in a pen and tablet for

your computer as well. I use a Wacom Intuos tablet for
sculpting and texture painting. This is extremely helpful and
provides a lot of control when doing detailed work. Using
the mouse in these situations can be very frustrating. In
addition, Blender uses many shortcut keys on the keyboard
number pad. I use a laptop that does not have a number pad
When you first open Blender it is so I have purchased a separate Bluetooth number pad. I pull
a fairly sparse initial interface, as this out whenever I use Blender. I highly recommend it. If
3D animation programs go, but this isn’t an option for you, I’ll talk about how to emulate
there is a lot hidden here…
number pad keys later.

Once you have downloaded Blender, follow the instructions

on the website to install the program. For most operating
systems all that is required is a simple double-click of the
downloaded file to install Blender.

The Blender Interface

When you first open Blender it is a fairly sparse initial
interface, as 3D animation programs go. There is a lot
hidden here and we will not be able to go over every single
detail in this guide. But here are the essentials of what you
need to know to get started.

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Navigation
To move around in Blender’s 3D View, the main thing you
need to know is that the Middle Mouse Button rules.

Hold down the Middle Mouse Button (MMB) and move the
mouse and you will tumble around in the 3D world. To pan
the camera back and forth hold down the Shift key and
click and drag the MMB. To zoom in and out, hold down the
Control key and click and drag the MMB. You can also
turn the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out.

So in a nutshell, here’s what you need to know about

navigating the 3D viewport:

• MMB = Tumble

• Shift + MMB = Pan

• Ctrl + MMB = Zoom

• Scroll Wheel = Zoom

Selection
The selection of objects in
The selection of objects in Blender is one of those things
Blender is one of those things
that can turn people off right from the start. But please stay
that can turn people off. But
know that there is a certain logic with me and know that there is a certain logic to it.
behind this.
To select an object in Blender you use the Right Mouse
Button. That’s right, unlike every other program on earth,
you select things with the right mouse button. So hover your
cursor over the camera in the 3D view and click the right
mouse button. An orange outline appears around the object
letting you know that it has been selected. If you try to
select an object with the Left Mouse Button, you’ll find that,
instead of selecting the object, the action just moves a little
red circle around the screen (we’ll talk about that in a bit).
It’s a little odd, but once you get into the groove of Blender’s
way of doing things, it actually works out pretty well. Try and
be open-minded about it here at the start but, if it just isn’t

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working for you, we will soon talk about how to switch to the
Left Mouse Button.

If you want to select more than one item at a time, hold the
Shift button down on the keyboard while you click. Now
when you right-click another item it will add it to the existing
collection of items. To deselect an item from the selection
just hold Shift and RMB click it again.

Now that you have a few objects selected, what if you just
want to deselect everything? Well, you can not just click out
in empty space. That would move that red circle thing
around again. No, to deselect everything just press the A key
on the keyboard. And if you hit the A key again it will now
select every visible object in the scene. The A key toggles the
selection of all objects.

Here’s a quick run-down of the selection options we’ve

discussed so far:

• RMB = select an object in 3D view

• Shift + RMB = add to or remove an object

from the existing selection
In terms of navigating within the
3D space, the main thing you • A key = toggles selection and de-selection
need to know is that the Middle of all objects visible in the 3D view
Mouse Button rules.
Tools and Properties
There are many panels and windows to work with in Blender.
But two of the most important are the Tool Shelf and the
Properties Panel. These allow us to create and modify
objects in the scene.

The Tool Shelf is usually already visible on the left side of

the Blender interface. It can be toggled on and off with the
T key on the keyboard.

The left side of the Tool Shelf itself holds some handy tabs
for categories like Tools, Create, Relations, Animation, and

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Physics. The Tools and Create tabs will probably be what

you use most as you’re learning Blender.

On the right side of the 3D viewport is where you will find

the Properties Panel. It is often hidden from view when
you first open Blender, but you can toggle its visibility on and
off with the N key on the keyboard. The Properties Panel
allows you to view and adjust the properties of the objects in
the your scene.

For example, select the Cube, and at the top of the

Properties Panel you should now be able to see the fields for
its Location in the scene. If you haven’t moved the cube, the
X, Y, and Z fields will read 0.000. Below this are the
Rotation, Scale, and Dimensions fields. As we move and alter
our objects in the screen, we’ll be able to see these fields
update. You can also enter numeric values directly into these
fields to transform the object. And if you’re feeling fancy, you
can even type in an equation, like 2 + 3 in the Location Z, and
Blender will update the scene accordingly, moving the object
up 5 units.

If you scroll down in the Properties Panel there are quite a

few other sections available. You can change the focal length
of the camera in the Lens field of the View section. And you
can also change the name of the selected object in the Item
section.

Screen Layouts
There are of course many other windows in the Blender user
interface besides the Tool Shelf and Properties Panel. And
they are all remarkably configurable. In fact, each window
you see in the Blender interface can be changed, resized, or
simply removed altogether.

If you hover your cursor over the border of any two windows,
you can click and drag to resize those windows. If you Right-
click on one of these borders you get an Area Options
menu that allows you to choose between Split Area and Join

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Area. Use these to split an existing window or combine two

into one.

However, any changes you make at this point will be applied

directly to the Default screen layout. The Screen Layout
menu is at the top of the interface. My suggestion is to
create a new screen layout before you begin rearranging the
windows of the interface. That way you always have the
Default layout to go back to.

To create a new screen layout you can click on the plus icon
next to the screen layout pull-down menu. Give your new
screen layout a name, and now you can make any changes to
this new screen layout that you would like. If you expand the
pull-down menu you can find the Default layout still there
for you to go back to.

There are several other screen layouts listed here as well.

This menu gives you several options for configuring the
interface based on specific, yet common, tasks for which
artists use Blender. There are Screen Layouts for Animation,
Compositing, Motion
Tracking, and Video Editing. By the way…
Try one and see what you You can press Ctrl + right-
think. Going through each of or left-arrow to scroll
these and examining the quickly through all the
different windows in each different screen layouts.
layout provides good insight
into how people use the Editor
panels as well as how easy it is to configure Blender’s
interface.

For example, the top right panel when you first open Blender
is an Editor window called the Outliner. The Outliner
displays a list of the objects in the current scene and allows
you to adjust their visibility, select-ability, and render-ability.
But this is just one Editor type that could be displayed in this
window. If you click on the button in the top left of the
panel window you will get a list of all the possible Editors
that are available. Several of them are already shown in the
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default layout, like the Properties panel, the Timeline, and

the 3D view. But as you can see, there are many more.

Editor Windows
Each of Blender’s Screen Layouts is made up of multiple
Editor Windows. You can access a list of Editor Types by
clicking on the pull-down menu button in the corner of any
window. The list is rather long and you may not use many of
these for some time, if ever, depending on your needs. I
don’t think I’ve ever used the Text Editor.

You can change any window to any Editor type. So we could

change the Outliner to the Node Editor, or the Dope Sheet,
and then back again. But remember, any change you make is
applied to the screen layout your using at the time.

Working with Objects

Objects are the building blocks of any 3D model. You can see
the base primitive objects that are available by clicking on
the Create tab in the Tools Shelf on the left. From here you
can create Meshes, Curves, Lamps, and other objects such as
Cameras, Armatures, and Text objects.

Let’s try this. If you haven’t already, select the cube in the
center of the grid with the RMB and hit the X key to Delete
it. You will then have to confirm the action by clicking
Delete from the menu that pops up.

Now click the UV Sphere button in the Create Tab. This will
create a new object at the location of the 3D Cursor (that
little red circle thingy again. I promise we’ll talk about that
soon). Notice that a new collection of fields and buttons
appears at the bottom of the Create Tab on the left. These
are settings that only appear when you first create an object.
They allow you to adjust the object before beginning to edit
it. If you were to move or alter the object in any way, these
settings would disappear and would no longer be available.

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 Blender Quick Start Guide

They are only here during the initial set-up of the object in
the scene.

If you change the Segments field to something like 6 and the

Rings to 8, you can see how this effects the shape and look of
the sphere.

Transforming Objects
Now that you’ve created an object, you might as well move it
around a bit, right? You’re choices are to Translate, Rotate, or
Scale the object. And you can do this in a couple of different
ways.

First let’s look at the Transformation Manipulators. You

can select which manipulator you would like to use at the
bottom of the 3D View. Selecting a Transform manipulator
superimposes the transform gizmo over the selected object.
You can now click on one of the arrows with the left-mouse-
button (LMB) and drag the object within 3D space. If you
click on the Rotate button, you will see a new type of circular
gizmo superimposed on the selected object. Clicking and
dragging on one of these rings allows you to rotate the object
around. Lastly, if you click on the Scale button, you can
stretch and squash your object by clicking and dragging on
any of the lines with the small boxes at the end.

Notice that the colors of each gizmo correspond to the

colors of the axis in the bottom left of the 3D view. These
are the axes of the 3D world inside Blender. The blue axis is
the Z axis which represents up and down. The red axis is the
X axis, which represents side to side. And the green axis is
the Y axis, which represents the forward and backward axis
in Blender.

There are of course shortcut keys for Translate, Rotate, and

Scale. For Translate, you can press the G key (think “g” for
grab) and move the mouse. This moves the object freely in
3D space. When you have placed the object where you would
like, click the Left Mouse Button to confirm the action.

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Likewise, you can press the R key to Rotate, and the S key to
Scale. When you press one of these keys and move the
mouse, however, you don’t have a great deal of control over
how the object is placed. The object tends to move, rotate,
or scale in multiple axes.

You can select a particular axis in which the action should

take place by adding an extra key-press after the shortcut key.
For example, let’s say that we’d like to move that sphere in
the X axis only. You can press the G key for move and then
immediately press the X key. Now when you move the
mouse the object will be constrained to only moving along
the X axis. This works for rotation and scale as well.

And you can you can get even

more fancy with this trick. Say By the way…
you wanted to move a sphere Most other 3D programs
use the Z axis to represent
up five grid units. You could
the forward and backward
press G for move, the Z key
axis, and the Y axis for up
for the Z axis, and then press 5. and down. This really isn’t
Your sphere moves up 5 units. an issue until you begin
Now just click the mouse or importing Blender objects
into other 3D animation
press Enter to confirm the
packages.
action. This works with
rotation, but the number you
enter is the number of degrees to be rotated. So you could
press R, then Y, type 45, and then press Enter. Your object
rotates 45 degrees around the Y axis.

You can also indicate which axis you do not want to be

effected by the action. For example, if you had a cylinder and
you wanted to scale it in the X and Y axes, but not in the Z
(so it got fatter but not taller), here’s what you could do.
Select the cylinder and press S for Scale, then press Shift + Z
to tell Blender that you do not want the Z axis effected, and
then move the mouse. Now the cylinder scales only on its X
and Y axes, increasing its width without increasing its height.

Here are the shortcut key combinations we’ve just discussed:

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 Blender Quick Start Guide

• G key: Translate (or Move)

• R key: Rotate

• S key: Scale

• G, R, or S and then X, Y, or Z to constrain

the action to an axis

• G, R, or S, and then X, Y, or Z, and then the

number of units to be effected

• G, R, or S and then Shift + X, Y, or Z to

choose the axis that will not be effected by
the action

The 3D Cursor
OK, I’ve put off talking about the 3D Cursor long enough.
This is one of those very “Blender things” that you just don’t
find in too many other animation programs. In fact, I’ve
never seen anything like it. But surprisingly enough, once
you get used to it, that little red circle thingy comes in pretty
handy.

The 3D Cursor allows you to snap things to a particular point

in 3D space. You can place the cursor somewhere and then
snap an object to it, or a vertex, or a pivot point; anything
really. As you have no doubt already discovered, you can click
the left mouse button anywhere in the scene and the 3D
Cursor will move to that point. You can also use the Snap
Menu to move it around.

Press Shift + S to bring up the Snap Menu, and here you can
choose among several ways of moving the 3D Cursor. You
can snap the Cursor to the current selection, to the center of
the grid, to the nearest grid unit, or to the active object.
Which you choose depends on what you would like to do.

Let’s say you had two objects in your scene and you wanted to
place a point light exactly in the center between these. You
could select the two objects, press Shift + S to bring up the
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Snap Menu, and choose the “Cursor to Selected” option.

This would place the 3D Cursor in the center of the selected
objects. Now you could go to the Create Tab on the Tool
Shelf and click on the Point Light button. New objects are
created at the position of the 3D Cursor, so the light would
now be centered between the two objects.

Another great way to use the 3D Cursor is for moving the

pivot point of an object. By doing this you can change the
point at which an object rotates or scales. Instead of an
object rotating at its center point, like a seesaw, it could
rotate at one end, like a lever. But to discuss this further, we
first need to talk about Edit Mode.

Edit Mode
So far we have been working in what is called Object Mode.
Down at the bottom of the 3D view, there is a menu and it is
usually set to Object Mode when you first open a scene. This
is the Object Interaction menu. If you click on this you can
see many other interaction modes. Switch to Edit Mode
here, or you can toggle in and out of Edit Mode by simply
pressing the Tab key.

In Edit Mode you have access to the basic components that

make up an object: vertices, edges, and faces. A vertex is just
a point in space; it has location, but no size. An edge is the
connection of two vertices. And a face is defined by at least
three connected edges.

You can switch between these three basic components by

choosing the appropriate button at the bottom of the 3D
View: Vertex Select, Edge Select, or Face Select. You can also
switch between the Select Modes by pressing Ctrl + Tab.
This brings up the Mesh Select Mode menu.

It is in Edit Mode that the majority of modeling is done.

Adjusting a 3D model in Object Mode allows you to control
its scale and proportion, but it is in Edit Mode that the
details are created.
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Pivot Points and Origins

We took a brief detour away from the 3D Cursor to discuss
Edit Mode, but now we need to revisit the topic to look at
the concepts of Pivot Points and Origins in Blender.

In most 3D animation programs, the pivot point of an object

is the same thing as its origin. The model naturally scales
from, and rotates at, its origin. And you are given tools to
move that origin to wherever you would like. But the origin
and the pivot point of an object are always treated as the
same thing, inextricably intertwined.

Blender however, does this a bit differently. Every object has

an origin, and yes we can rotate the object around its origin
any time we like. But we can also rotate an object around the
location of the 3D Cursor, apart from the origin. This allows
us to do some pretty tricky stuff once you get used to the
idea. So let’s examine a scenario in which this might be
useful.

Let’s say we have a door that needs to rotate at its hinges to

open. For animation purposes we would move the origin of
the object in line with the hinges. Now when we go to the
rotate tool the door object will rotate at its hinges. But what
if, when setting up our scene, we needed to scale the door up
from the ground? We could move the origin to the base of
the door, scale it, and then move the origin back to where it
was for opening of the door. But a more efficient way would
be to move the 3D Cursor to the base of the door, and then
tell Blender to temporarily scale from the position of the 3D
Cursor.

How would we do this? As discussed earlier, pressing Shift +

S will bring up the Snap Menu. This allows us to snap the
cursor to whatever is selected. So we could select a vertex,
edge, or face at the base of the door, press Shift + S, and then
choose Cursor to Selected. This moves the 3D Cursor to the
proper place, but now we need to tell Blender to use this as
the point from which we will scale the door.
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We use the Pivot Point menu at the bottom of the 3D

View to do this. The default setting for this is Median Point.
This usually coincides with the origin of the object. But if we
select 3D Cursor from this menu, Blender will use the
location of the 3D Cursor as the pivot point when we scale
the door. When finished we can switch back to Median
Point.

We can also use the 3D Cursor to move the origin of an

object. On the Tool Shelf, under the Tools tab, you will find a
pull-down menu titled Set Origin. When you fly the menu
out you have several options for moving the origin of the
selected object. One of them, of course, is Origin to 3D
Cursor.

Treating the pivot point and the origin of an object as

separate entities allows us a great deal of freedom when
working with objects in Blender.

Essential Modeling Tools

There are many modeling tools in Blender, and the list seems
to grow with every version update. But there are two
essential modeling tools that you must know from the
beginning. You can create an amazing array of objects from
just these two tools. And for both of these, you need to have
the object in Edit Mode.

Extrude
The Extrude Tool is one of the most fundamental tools in
3D modeling. It is essential for adding new geometry to a
model. You can find the Extrude button on the Tool Shelf (T
key) under the Create tab. The shortcut for this is the E
key.

Let’s give it a try. Add a Cube into your scene. Go into Edit
Mode by pressing the Tab key, and then press Ctrl + Tab to
bring up the Mesh Select Mode menu. Choose Face from
this menu. Now select a face and press the E key. When you
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move the mouse Blender will extrude the face along a

perpendicular line, creating new faces. You can select and
extrude multiple faces as well.

For just about anything you create, you we will be using the
Extrude Tool quite a bit. But you can also extrude edges.
Select an edge and extrude it out. You’ll see that it pulls a
single plane out from the edge. This kind of shape is usually
not recommended, however. For several reasons, you usually
want only two faces to have a common edge.

You can also extrude a vertex. But that’s not advisable either.
In 3D, as in life, just because you can do something doesn’t
always mean you should.

Loop Cut and Slide

Loop Cut is an essential tool with which we can add edges
to our 3D models. It too has a button on the Create tab of
the Tool Shelf, and its shortcut key is Ctrl + R.

After you press Ctrl + R you will need to hover your mouse
cursor over an edge of the object to get a ghost-image of the
edge loop that will be created. Move the cursor to other
edges of the object and the ghost-loop will hop from one
place to another, giving you an indication of where the actual
edge will be placed. Once you find the right location, click
the Left Mouse Button (LMB) to drop a temporary edge
onto your object. You can now slide that edge back and forth
with the mouse. When you have placed the edge exactly
where you want it to go, click the LMB again to confirm the
action.

The shortcut keys for the essential modeling tools we have

discussed are:

• Extrude: E key

• Loop Cut and Slide: Ctrl + R

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Modifiers
There are several modifiers that you should know about at
the beginning of your Blender journey. They can be found in
the Properties Window, on the right side of the screen, when
you click on the Wrench Icon. The ones that we will be
discussing are the
Subdivision Surface and the
Mirror modifiers. There
are many more, as you can
see in the Modifier pull-
down menu. But these two
will serve you well as you
get up to speed in Blender.

The Subdivision Surface

modifier allows you to
smooth the polygons of a
model by virtually and
interactively subdividing
the mesh. You can increase
or decrease the amount of
smoothing within the
settings of the modifier. With each increase in subdivisions,
the model increases in smoothness. Ultimately you can apply
the smoothing permanently to the model by clicking the
Apply button.

To add the Subdivision Surface modifier to an object simply

select it from the Add Modifier pull-down menu. Increasing
the value in the View field will increase the number of
polygons you see in the 3D View. You can set a different
value for how the object looks in the final render using the
Render field.

There are two types of subdivision algorithms that you can

use to subdivide the object with this modifier. One is
Catmull-Clark, which will smooth the object, rounding out
the edges. This is the one I usually use. The other is Simple.

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Clicking the Simple button will allow you to add polygons to

the object without rounding off the corners. The button
with the Eye icon on it will toggle the effect off and on in the
3D view window.

When using any of the modifiers, keep in mind that the

changes they make to the object are just a preview. The
changes are not applied directly to the object until you press
the Apply button. The modifier will then disappear from the
modifiers list and the changes will be applied permanently.
But you do not always have to apply the changes if you are
using your model solely in Blender. A model can often be
rendered and even animated with modifiers added and not
applied.

The Mirror modifier is an excellent tool for models like

characters and vehicles, anything that is symmetrical across a
center axis. With this modifier you will be able to model just
one side of a character and the changes will mirror
automatically to the other side.

It is usually best to use the Mirror modifier on an object that

is in the center of the grid. I tend to model my objects in the
center of the grid and then, when finished, move them to the
proper location in the scene.

To use the Mirror modifier, delete one half of your object and
then apply the modifier. You can select to mirror along the
X, Y, or Z axes. In the example on the left I’ve chosen the X
axis.

The Merge option is on by default, and should be left on if

you want the two sides to become one object when you apply
the modifier. I generally enable the Clipping function as
well. This will allow you to drag points that should be on the
center line and snap them together. This helps avoid seams
down the center of your object.

Keep in mind that this modifier mirrors around the origin of

the object. So you may need to use the 3D cursor to move
the origin to the proper location. If you are getting
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undesired results from the Mirror modifier, sometimes a

change in the position of the origin can help.

In addition, there may be times when the object you are

trying to mirror has been rotated from it original orientation.
If this is the case, the Mirror modifier may not work as
desired. To reset the rotation of an object, press Ctrl + A and
choose Rotation from the menu.

Like any other modifier, you can click the Apply button to
make your changes permanent. For the Mirror modifier, I
recommend applying the changes before moving on to other
parts of the modeling process, like rigging a character or
texturing. Strange results can occur if you leave this modifier
in the list while using other tools.

Ultimately, you can add as many modifiers to an object as you

like, but be mindful of the Evaluation Order of the modifier
stack. Blender evaluates and applies the modifiers in the
stack from top to bottom. Depending on the modifiers that
are used, the order in the stack can affect the results that you
get. Having a Mirror modifier above a Solidify modifier
above a Subdivision Surface modifier can give very different
results than Subdivision Surface, Solidify, then Mirror. You
can move individual modifiers up and down in the stack and
sometimes this just has to be tested to see what the results
will be with different stack orders.

Layers
An important part of any project, 3D or otherwise, is
organization. And Blender’s layers help you stay organized as
you create your scene. The layers are found at the bottom of
the 3D view. You can select an individual layer by clicking on
one of the boxes, or multiple layers by Shift + clicking several.

You can also move selected objects from one layer to another.
Just press the M key on the keyboard and the “Move to
Layer” window comes up. You can then select one or many
layers to move the object to.
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Personalizing Blender
There are a few ways of personalizing Blender that might
help you work more efficiently. One is changing the selection
of objects from the right to the left mouse button. Another
is creating shortcut keys for the manipulator tools. And of
course, you can change the color scheme of the interface as
well. Lastly, we’ll look at how to emulate number pad keys on
a laptop. Let’s take a look at each of these.

Mouse Button Selection

Selecting objects with the right mouse button may not be
everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve been using Blender for years and it
still feels odd to me at times. So if you
would like to change to using the left
mouse button, no one will hold it
against you. Here’s how…

Go to the File menu at the top of the

screen and then choose User
Preferences. The Blender User
Preferences window will open. Now
click on the Input button at the top of
the window. On the left side you will
find a “Select With:” section with
buttons for Left and Right. Click the
Left button.

When finished be sure to also click the

“Save User Settings” button at the
bottom of the window. Now when you
close the window you should be able to
select objects in Blender with the left mouse button. For
most people this will probably feel a lot more intuitive.

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Manipulator Short Cut Keys

I started in 3D animation long ago with programs like
Lightwave and 3ds Max. Because of this I got used to having
short cut keys to switch between the Move, Rotate, and Scale
manipulators. I still like the intuitive nature of grabbing a
manipulator and transforming the object or component in a
particular axis. And even though I love Blender, I want the
ability to switch between manipulators without having to
click on a button each time.

So here is how I have set up my Blender preferences so that I

have short cut keys for each of the manipulators.

We’ll once again need to go into the User Preferences

window from the File menu. Click the Input button at the
top of the window. In the center there is a long list of items.
The seventh one down is 3D View. Twirl down the little
triangle next to 3D View, and then twirl down the triangle for
3D View (Global).

Now you will need to scroll all the down the list until you see
the “Add New” button. Click this button and a new item
called “none” will be added to the list. Open this up and
enter the follow information.

In the field that says “none” enter:

view3d.enable_manipulator

I use the Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow to choose the Move

manipulator, the Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow for the Rotate
manipulator, and for the Scale manipulator I use Ctrl + Alt +
Right Arrow. These are what work for me. You can choose
anything you would like, but be careful not to create short
cut key combinations that are already being used for
something else in Blender.

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Here is what my preferences look like for each of the

manipulators:

Color Scheme
You can also change the appearance of the Blender user
interface to suit your personal preferences. Go back into the
User Preferences window and click on the Themes button at
the top. On the left is a pull down menu with various color
themes for the interface.

One word of caution, before you begin trying out these

various themes make a Default preset so you can get back to
the current theme easily. Just click on the + button next to
the Preset menu and name the new preset “Default.” Now
you can always get back to the way Blender was at install
without having to use the Load Factory Settings option in
the File menu.

In addition to the Preset menu, Blender gives you the option

of modifying just about every detail of the interface. I have

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never felt comfortable delving into each little setting in this

window. Just knowing that I have the power to do so has
been enough for me.

Emulating Number Pad Keys

If you are using a laptop that does not have a number pad,
you can change Blender’s preferences to use the standard
number keys at the top of the keyboard. Just access the User
Preferences window from the File menu and click the Input
button at the top of the window. Place a check mark in the
box by “Emulate Numpad.” Now click the “Save User
Preferences” button at the bottom of the screen.

Essential Shortcut Keys

There are a lot of short cut keys to remember in Blender. No
one can remember them all. But here are a few that I think
are essential to know early in the learning process.

G Move

R Rotate

S Scale

Z Wireframe Shading

A Select All/Deselect toggle

X Delete

T Tool Shelf

N Properties Panel

M Move to Layer

Tab Edit Mode/Object Mode toggle

Shift + S Snap Menu

Space Search

Ctrl+Alt+Q Quad View toggle

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C Circle Select

B Border Select

Shift + D Duplicate

Numpad 1 Front View

Numpad 3 Right View

Numpad 7 Top View

Numpad 5 Orthographic/Perspective Views

Edit Mode:

E Extrude

Ctrl + R Loop Cut and Slide

W Specials menu

Ctrl + V Vertices Menu

Ctrl + E Edges Menu

Ctrl + F Faces Menu

Conclusion
Thank you for joining me on this brief Quick Start tour of
Blender. I hope it’s been helpful. Blender is a wonderful
program and an incredible artistic tool. It is not the easiest
application to learn, but it is well worth the effort to be able
to tap into its amazing creative power.

If you would like to learn more about Blender, please check

out my website: Blender101.com. Here you will find an entire
blender101.com Blender curriculum of courses that can help you learn
Blender quickly and thoroughly. There are courses covering
modeling and texturing, rigging and animation, and even
courses t0 show you how to use Blender for creating and
exporting game assets to Unity.

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So keep moving forward on your journey to learn Blender!

Join me at Blender101.com and find out how to bring your
visions to life.

I can’t wait to see what you create!

Thank you!
Darrin Lile

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