I’ve been playing with Blender off and on for a few years now, never really getting very far past the splash screen. Having always been a disciple of Autodesk software, the Blender interface and controls were completely foreign to me, and it didn’t take me long to just close the darn thing and open up Softimage.

That changed the other day, when I picked up what’s turning out to be a pretty great Blender tutorial book: Blender Foundations: The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6. After sitting myself down through the first few chapters, I can now perform the same basic modeling functions I can in Max and Soft. And now I’m going to share a bit of what I wish I had been able to find when I first started: a quick, to-the-point reference of how to perform certain basic modeling functions with Blender. Think of this as a super quick Blender box-modeling crash course for artists familiar with another program. My hope is somebody else interested in learning Blender finds this as useful as I imagine it would have been to me in breaking through the learning curve.

Without further ado:

Viewport Navigation Commands

Rotate/Orbit Viewport – Middle Mouse Button. This one may be a no-brainer depending on which program you came from, but we’re just starting with the basics here. However, you may also notice that by default the view rotates in trackball mode, which you may not like. You can easily change this by changing a panel to User Preferences, go under the Input tab, and change Orbit Style to “turntable.”

Pan the Viewport – Shift + Middle Mouse Button.

Zoom In/Out – Scroll Wheel.

Change Viewpoint to Top/Front/Side – NumPad 7, 1, 3 respectively. Blender does make it super easy to switch between these viewpoints. To view the opposite, hold the CTRL key while pressing the corresponding number (CTRL+NumPad 7 gives you a bottom view, for example).  If you want to change back to a custom view, just use the Middle Mouse Button at any time to orbit. Press NumPad5 to alternate between orthographic and perspective views.

Center View on Selection – Period “.” on the NumPad.

Object Manipulation Commands

Select/Deselect All – A. Pressing the A key alternates between selecting everything in your scene or, if everything is already selected, selecting nothing. Also works on the mesh editing level for selecting/deselecting all vertices/faces/edges.

Delete Object – X or Delete (your choice).

Select Object – Right Mouse Button. Right Clicking on an object in Blender selects that individual object. This can be changed to Left Clicking in the user preferences, but you may find it easier in the long run just to get used to the idea of Right Clicking to select. Hold Shift while clicking to select more than one object. You can also press C to bring up a selection brush with adjustable brush size (by scrolling), and press B to create a selection box. Those two are particularly useful when in edit mesh mode. In those two modes, oddly enough, Left Clicking selects objects. Middle Clicking deselects objects. Right Clicking exits either mode.

Translate/Grab – G.

Rotate – R.

Scale – S.

If you’re like me, these three commands are where Blender got you; Blender has the annoying habit of working these three commands in Screen axis by default. Meaning whatever angle you’re looking at the object in, that’s the axis your object is going to move in, potentially putting it out in no-man’s-land when you just wanted to move something forward a little. However, there is a very simple solution for this. After each of these commands, you may press X, Y, and Z to lock the translation to the corresponding axis. If you want to move something along two axis but NOT the third, press Shift along with the unwanted axis. Shift-Z will allow you to scoot an object around the X,Y ground level but not move it up or down.

Edit Mesh – Tab. Allows you to fiddle with the selected mesh object. Pressing Tab again brings you back out to object mode. CTRL+Tab allows you to select between Vertex, Edge and Face mode. These components may be selected and manipulated exactly the same as objects.

Extrude – E. Works with vertices, edges and faces. Will automatically start with the new parts in Grab mode for you to move them.

Create new Vertex – CTRL+Click. Having another vertex selected when you do this automatically connects the two vertices with a new edge.

Create new Edge – D while having any two vertices selected.

Create new Face – D while having any two edges selected, or any three vertices (to create a triangle) or four vertices (to create a quad).

I’ll add to this list as needed, but I hope it gives you an easy point to get started. These are the most essential commands I use for box modeling, and I think all programs should have a reference like this without having to jump around different tutorials to find everything.

An image I just ‘shopped. Considering making random photoshops a daily feature. It would give me something to update this blog with.

One of the biggest problems I have with my artwork is having characters that look too “flat:” characters that are standing straight up, either facing the camera or shown at a 3/4 view. This works for some situations, but sometimes feels like I’m overusing it. So here’s an easy trick I’ve learned for drawing characters at some interesting new perspectives. All you need is a reference model to work with. You can buy one of these wooden mannequin thingimajigs, or if you have 3DS Max or a similar program, you can open it up and create a biped. Alternatively, you could also use dolls, action figures, or even people as potential reference models. Position your model into the pose and angle that you want your drawing to be in and take a picture/screen shot.

Good! Now, using this reference, you can create the basic skeleton of your character. Draw a stick-figure matching your reference, putting circles where the shoulders, elbows, hands, knees and feet should be; try to get the circles as close as possible to the size you want to draw the parts they represent. I also have a semi-sphere representing the size and orientation of the hips. It’s okay to trace the stick figure over the reference image if you must. It’s what I do.

Now from here drawing the body should be a simple matter of connecting the dots. Fill in the shape of your character’s body as usual, being sure to consider the perspective as you go (remember, things should look smaller the further away they are! Body parts are no exception). Erase excess lines as you finish with them.

And from here you’re on the home stretch. Just start filling in the rest of your character’s usual details. Give it clothes, hair, facial features and anything else you were planning to. If all went well, you should have a nice-looking character drawing!

Mine was a zombie faerie!

If you have any further questions or extra tips, feel free to post them in the comments. Also feel free to upload your results to Photobucket and share the link.