Blender/C2/The-Blender-Interface/English
Title of script: Basic Description of the Blender interface
Author: Bhanu Prakash, Monisha Banerjee
Keywords: Scene, 3D Panel, Cube, Lamp, Camera, Axis, View, Select, Object, Info Panel, File, Add, Render, Outliner Panel, Timeline Panel
Reviewers: Namita Lobo, Leena Mulye
Script Update according to review on 29/11/2011
| Slide 1 | Welcome to the series of Blender tutorials.
This tutorial is about basic description of the Blender interface in Blender 2.59. This script has been contributed by Bhanu Prakash and edited by Monisha Banerjee |
| Slide 2 | After watching this tutorial, we shall learn the different windows of the Blender interface,
the parameters and tabs assigned to each window, how to select an object in the 3D view, and how to move an object in X,Y & Z directions |
| Slide 3 | I assume that you know how to get started with Blender. |
| If not then please refer to our earlier tutorials on getting Blender. | |
| Hover on the 3D panel. | This is the 3D panel.
By default there are three objects present in the 3D view. |
| Hover on the objects present in 3D space. | a cube, a lamp and a camera.
The cube is already selected by default. |
| Right click to select lamp | Right click to select the lamp |
| Right click to select camera | Right click to select the camera.
So to select any object in the 3D view, you must right click on that object. |
| Right click to select cube | Right click to select the cube. |
| Hover on the Red green blue colored handle. | These three coloured arrows, merging at the centre of the cube, represent the 3D Transform manipulator.
This manipulator helps to move the object in a particular axis. |
| Hover on Red handle | Red color represents X axis, |
| Hover on Green handle | green represents Y axis |
| Hover on Blue handle | and blue represents Z axis. |
| Left click and hold the green handle and move the mouse left to right. | Left click and hold the green handle and move your mouse left to right.
We see that the object moves only in the direction of Y axis. For keyboard shortcut, Press G&Y |
| Left click and hold the blue handle and move the mouse left to right. | Similarly, move the object along Z axis using blue handle.
For keyboard shortcut, Press G&Z |
| Left click and hold the red handle and move the mouse left to right. | Now, try moving the object along X axis.
For keyboard shortcut, Press G&X |
| Hover on the 3D view. | The area enclosed by the red box is the 3D view. |
| Go to the bottom left corner of the 3D view | Go to the bottom left corner of the 3D view header. |
| Select view | Left click View. Here is a list of various view options for the 3D view. |
| Left click ‘Top’. | Left click ‘Top’. The 3D view changes from User Perspective to Top view.
We can see our object from the top view. For keyboard shortcut, press numpad 7. |
| Left click ‘Select’. | Left click Select. Here is a list of various selection options for all objects in the 3d view. |
| Left click Object | Again from 3D view header options, Left click on Object. Here is a list of various editing options for the active object. |
| Hover on the object tools. | On the left side of the 3D view is the object Tools panel. This panel lists the various tools used to modify the active object in the 3D view. |
| Hover on Transform, Object, Shading, Keyframes, Motion Paths, repeat, Grease Pencil | The tools are grouped in different categories - Transform, Object, Shading, Keyframes, Motion Paths, repeat, Grease Pencil |
| Go to Lamp in 3D view | For example, let's move the lamp in the 3D view. |
| Right click to select the lamp | Right click to select the lamp |
| Go to Object tools panel | Go to the Object tools panel. You can see the options for the lamp in the Object tools panel. |
| Left click translate and move your mouse | Left click translate and move your mouse. The lamp moves in the direction of the mouse movement. |
| Right click on screen or Press Esc on your keyboard to cancel translate | Right click on screen or Press Esc on your keyboard to cancel translate |
| Hover on right side of 3D view | On the right side of the 3D view is another panel hidden by default |
| Left click the plus sign at the top right corner of the 3D view | Left click the plus sign at the top right corner of the 3D view, to open the hidden panel.
For keyboard shortcut, press N |
| This extra Object Transform panel is similar to the Object panel in the Properties window.
We will see the Object panel in detail in subsequent tutorials. For now, let's hide the extra panel and go back to the default 3D view. | |
| Move your mouse cursor to the left edge of the extra Object Transform panel. | Move your mouse cursor to the left edge of the extra Object Transform panel.
A double-headed arrow appears |
| Left click and drag your mouse to the right | Left click and drag your mouse to the right.
The extra Object Transform panel is once again hidden. You can also use the keyboard shortcut N to hide or unhide this panel. To learn more about the 3D view, see the tutorial Types of Windows - 3D view |
| Hover on Info Panel | The area enclosed by the red box is the Info panel. |
| Hover on the top panel in the Blender interface. | It is the top most panel in our Blender interface. ‘Info’ panel contains the main menu. |
| Left click File. | Left click File. This menu contains File options such as creating a new file, opening an existing file, saving the file, User Preferences, importing or exporting a file, etc. |
| Left click Add | Left click Add. Here is the object repository. We can add new objects to the 3D view using this menu. For keyboard shortcut, Press Shift & A. |
| Go to 3D view | Now, lets add a plane to the 3D view. |
| Left click on bottom right | Left click anywhere on screen to move the 3D cursor. I am choosing this location. |
| Press Shift & A to bring up the ADD menu | Press Shift & A to bring up the ADD menu. |
| Mesh. Left click plane. | Mesh. Left click plane. A new plane is added to the 3D view at the 3D cursor position.
To understand about 3D cursor, please see the tutorial Navigation – 3D cursor. |
| DD UV sphere and torus | Similarly, you can try adding some more objects to the 3D view. Now let's go back to the Info panel |
| Left click Render to open the Render menu | Left click Render to open the Render menu |
| Hover on the options | Render has different render options like render image, render animation, show or hide render view, etc. Render settings will be covered in detail in later tutorials.
To learn more about the Info Panel, see the tutorial Type of Windows - File Browser and Info Panel |
| Hover on Outliner | The area under the red box is the outliner panel. |
| Hover on the top right corner of the blender interface. | It is present at the top right corner of the blender interface. |
| Hover on the object names present under the Outliner window. | Outliner gives a list of all the objects present in the 3D view. To learn more about the Outliner, see the tutorial Types of Windows - Outliner. |
| Hover on properties window | The area inside the red box is the properties window. This window contains a wide range of panels with a large number of tools and settings. We shall use these panels many times while working in Blender. |
| Hover on the panel below the Outliner window. | Properties window is present at the bottom right corner of the Blender interface, below the outliner window. To learn more about the Properties window, see the tutorials Types of Windows - Properties Part 1 and 2 |
| Hover inside the red box | This is the Timeline. |
| Hover on the footer panel. | It is located below the 3D view. |
| Hover on the time line area. | Here we can see the frame range for animation. |
| Hover on the green line | This green vertical line tells you the current frame on which you are working. You can move this along the frame range. |
| Left click and hold the green line. Now move your mouse. Release left click to confirm frame | Left click and hold the green line. Now move your mouse. Release left click to confirm frame |
| Hover on Start:1 | This represents the start frame of our animation range. |
| Hover on End:250 | This represents the end frame of our animation range |
| Hover on Playback options | These are the playback options for our animation. To learn more about the Timeline, see the tutorial Types of Windows - Timeline |
| So, this is a brief overview of the blender interface. Apart from all these windows which are present in the blender workspace by default, there are other windows as well which can be selected from the menu at any point. A detailed description of all these windows is provided in the subsequent tutorials. | |
| Slide 4 | Now try to select each object in the 3D view; using the 3D transform manipulator, move the cube in X Y and Z directions; explore the view tab; and using translate in the Object Tools panel, move the camera in the 3D view |
| Slide 5 | This Tutorial is created by Project Oscar and supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT.
More information on the same is available at the following links oscar.iitb.ac.in, and spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-Intro. The Spoken Tutorial Project- Conducts workshops using spoken tutorials. Gives certificates to those who pass an online test. For more details, please contact us contact@spoken-tutorial.org Thanks for joining us |
| Slide 6 | and this is Monisha from IIT Bombay signing off. |
