Blender/C2/Types-of-Windows-User-Preference/English
From Script | Spoken-Tutorial
Title of script: Types of Windows – the user preferences window
Author: Bhanu Prakash, Monisha Banerjee
Keywords: interface, editing, input, add-ons, theme, system
Reviewers: Namita Lobo, Leena Mulye
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| Slide 1 | Welcome to the series of Blender tutorials. This tutorial is about the User Preferences window 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 what is User Preferences window; what are the different options available in the User Preferences window; and how to customize the Blender interface using the User Preferences window |
| Slide 6 | For this tutorial, I am using Windows XP operating system. |
| Blender workspace open. | I assume that you know the basic elements of the Blender interface. If not then please refer to our earlier tutorial - Basic Description of the Blender Interface. |
| Go to File at the top left corner | Go to File at the top left corner of the Blender interface. |
| Left click to open File | Left click to open File. Here is a list of options which have been explained already in the tutorial File Browser and Info Panel |
| Select User Preferences | Select User Preferences |
| This is User Preferences window. For keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl, Alt & U | |
| Go to ‘Interface’ | Go to ‘Interface’ at the top left corner of the User Preferences window. This contains several options for customizing the Blender interface. The basic required options are already activated by default. |
| Display mini axis controls the size of the mini axis present at the bottom left corner of the 3D view. The default size is 25. I am using size 60 for better viewing purposes in the Blender Tutorials series. Let me demonstrate | |
| Close the User preferences window | Close the User preferences window |
| At the bottom left corner of the 3D view, we can see the mini axis. The mini axis represents the global transform axis of the 3D space in Blender. It is useful when animating in Blender. We will discuss about global and local transform axis in detail in subsequent tutorials. | |
| Press Ctrl, Alt & U to open the User Preferences window | Press Ctrl, Alt & U to open the User Preferences window |
| Select ‘Rotate around selection’ | Activate ‘Rotate around selection’. This enables you to orbit around the center of the selected object. Let us see what this means. |
| Close the User preferences window | Close the User preferences window |
| Right click the lamp in the 3D view | |
| Press and hold mouse wheel or middle mouse button and move your mouse. | Press and hold mouse wheel or middle mouse button and move your mouse. We are orbiting around the selected object. |
| Right click Camera | Similary, Right click the Camera. |
| Press and hold mouse wheel or middle mouse button and move your mouse. | Press and hold mouse wheel or middle mouse button and move your mouse. Now we are orbiting around camera. |
| Press Ctrl, Alt & U to open the User Preferences window | Press Ctrl, Alt & U to open the User Preferences window |
| Left click Editing | Left click Editing. This contains parameters that reflect the behavior of Blender in Object editing mode or the Edit Mode. Again the basic options are already activated by default. |
| Hover on ‘Global undo’ option. | Global undo increases/decreases the number of undo steps that might be required while editing. |
| Left click Input | Left click Input. Here we can customize all the keyboard shortcuts used in Blender. |
| Hover on ‘Emulate 3-button mouse | Emulate 3-button mouse will make your 2-button mouse behave like a 3-button mouse in Blender. |
| Hover on Select with. | Select with can change the selection option of your mouse from right to left. This is useful for left-handed users. |
| Hover on ‘Emulate numpad’ option | ‘Emulate numpad’ will make the number keys on your keyboard behave like the numpad keys in Blender. This is useful for laptop users, who don't have a separate numpad on the keyboard. |
| Left Click ‘Add-ons’. | Left click Add-ons. This contains a list plug-ins in blender. |
| Left click Enabled | Left click Enabled. Some plug-ins are activated by default. Other plug-ins can be installed from the respective website. |
| For example, let us install a plug-in for crating clouds. | |
| Left click Object | Left click Object |
| Left click on the triangle next to Object: Cloud generator | Left click on the triangle next to Object: Cloud generator |
| Left click ‘link to wiki’ | Left click ‘link to wiki’. This link opens a web page on our internet browser. I am using Firefox 3.09 internet browser. |
| Here we can download and install the cloud generator plug-in for Blender. Just follow the instructions on this page. The steps shown here are similar in all internet browsers. | |
| Left click Theme | Left click Theme. Here you can change the color of each panel of the Blender interface. |
| For example, Left click Timeline. Here you can see the color of the current frame indicator, grid and all other attributes as well. | |
| Left click the green bar next to current frame. | Left click the green bar next to current frame. This is the colour mode window in Blender. The white dot here over the green area controls the colour of the current frame indicator. I am going to change it to red. |
| Left click the white dot, hold and drag your mouse to the red area. | Left click the white dot, hold and drag your mouse to the red area. |
| Release left click | Release left click. Notice how the values of RGB have changed as well. In this way, we can change the colour of the other listed options too. |
| Left click File | Left click File. Here we can set the location of Fonts, Textures, Plugins, Render output, Scripts, Sounds, etc. on our system. Let us set the location for Fonts |
| Left click the file icon at the right end of the first rectangle bar. | Left click the file icon at the right end of the first rectangle bar. A file browser opens. By default, we are inside the local C drive directory |
| Left click the windows directory. Navigate to Fonts | Left click the windows directory. Navigate to Fonts |
| Left click Accept | Left click Accept at the top right corner of the screen. A path has appeared on the first rectangle bar. Blender now knows where to look for the fonts on our system. |
| Left click the file icon at the right end of the second rectangle bar | Similary, left click the file icon at the right end of the second rectangle bar. Again, the file browser opens. Now we can set the location for the textures on our system like we did for the fonts. What if I want to exit this file browser without selecting a location for the textures? |
| Left click Back to previous | Left click Back to previous next to help at the top of the screen to return to the User Preferences window. There is no path visible on the second rectangle bar because I did not select one. |
| Left Click System | Left Click System. Here we can customize the Blender settings according to the properties of the computer we are using. |
| Hover on DPI | DPI changes the font size and resolution for display in Blender. the default DPI in Blender is 72. I am using DPI:90 for better viewing purposes in the Blender tutorials series |
| Hover on Save as default | Save as default at the bottom left corner is used to save the our customized changes in the blender interface. For keyboard shortcut, press CTRl & U |
| So this was the basic information about the User Preferences window. Apart from these there are other options present in user preferences window which will be discussed in the later tutorials. | |
| Slide 7 | Now try to open the user preferences window in Blender using the keyboard shortcut. Then, using Rotate around selection, make the cube the centre of rotation in the 3D view. Install cloud generator plug-in for Blender, change the colour of the current frame indicator in the timeline and set the location for render output on your computer. All the best! |
| Slide 12 | And that completes this tutorial on User Preferences. 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 19 | and this is Monisha from IIT Bombay signing off. |
