Hi there, it's Oliver here from Blender.com
In this first tutorial we are going to take a look at the Blender 2.5 C interface
So let's start Blender, here we have it
You should get a splash screen, you only have to click outside it
Alright, so what we have here is a camera, a cube and a light
The first thing we are going to see is the 3D navigation
Because it's one of the most important things on the 3D software
So in Blender the defaults are maybe not the most useful
Overall if you come from another 3D software like 3D Max or Maya or something like that
So later we are going to see how to change that shortcuts and that kind of navigate in the view
But for now we are going to see the defaults
So pressing the middle mouse button we are going to rotate the view
Orbit in the view
Pressing shift and middle mouse button we are going to pan the view
And with control and middle mouse button dragging in and out the mouse
We are going to zoom in and out
Right, this is the basics
So later we are going to see how to change it
Also you maybe have noticed that the 3D view make this movement
This rolling camera
This is a trackball method for rotating the view
Something like in Cbrush
Maybe it's not comfortable to you
So later we are going to see how to change that
Ok, now let's see the Blender C interface
The interface is divided in panels
And we can change the type of panel at any time
For example pressing this, each panel has its own header
And pressing in this corner of the header
You can see the type of window you are working on
So if you need for example here a UV editor
You can press here and this panel becomes an UV editor
Ok, let's let there 3D view
So let me tell you an important shortcut here for the interface
Which is shift and spacebar
Shift and spacebar make the current panel where we have the cursor on full screen
So when we have more than one view and more panels and things like that
At some times we probably need more space on the screen to work with
So we can press shift and spacebar and we have that panel full screen
Very cool
Right, now I am going to tell you the most important panel types
I am not going to enter them because I have nothing in the scene
And you will not see anything
So I am just going to describe them
The 3D view is what we have here with the cube and that stuff
And it is the 3D view, nothing more to say about it
The timeline is where we select the current frame
And the frame we are working on for an animation
And a frame range to render or to move in to play
Here is the timeline
Now the graph editor is where we edit the hyper curves or the animation curves
The dope sheet is a panel where we can change the key timing for an animation
And we can make actions for the objects and that stuff
The NLA editor means non-linear animation editor
This gives us the ability to mix different actions that we can compile with the dope sheet
And mix them here like a video editor
So we can mix animations together
In the UV image editor we can see images to have as references while modeling or that stuff
And also editing the UVs for the objects
The video sequence editor is a video editor
The text editor is where we load the scripts and run them
Or just write scripts there or maybe for example in a scene
Write the documentation for that scene, for example how the rig of a character works
So when the animator takes that scene he can read the text and know what is everything for
The node editor is that, the node editor for composing nodes for materials, textures and compositing the final render
And the logic editor is where we add properties and reactions to the objects for the game engine of Blender
Blender game engine
The properties panel is one of the most important panels in Blender
Is this panel here
So here we have the render parameters, the resolution, anti-aliasing, the scene parameters
The object parameters, the size, the layer in which the object exists
The constraints, the lights, the textures
And also if we select a model we have here the materials
If you have enough space to see the entire header you can press the middle mouse button and drag it
So you can see the rest
Here we have materials, particles, fluids and all the stuff, the kind of simulations
So it's a very important panel
Alright, what else
The outliner, the outliner is this panel here, I'm going to put it in full screen with shift to spacebar
This is where we can take a look at all the objects we have in the scene
So we can open them and see the materials they have added and all that stuff
Modifiers, access to all the objects and all things you have in the scene
Okay
And now, well, the user preferences we are going to see them later
The info panel, which is the main menu
Where we select the scene we are working on
The interface template we are working with
And the main menus like file to open files and save them and all that stuff
And finally, from here, better
We have a file browser, which is just that, a file browser and the console, mainly for programmers
That stuff
Now we are going to go ahead and see how to customize our interface
So we are going to see how to divide the interface to fit our needs
For example, if some, at any time, we probably need more views than this perspective view
So I'm going to show you how to do it
In the 3D panels and several more panels, you can access to these things here
Which are not different panels, just areas from the panel where you have properties about this type of panel
For example, here you have the 3D tools and that stuff
You can hide it and show them from the view menu on the header
You can hide it here, tool shelf and the properties
So I'm going to show you now what the properties are
The tool shelf is this one here, if you hide it, you have the entire 3D view
And you can open it from here
Also, at the right side in the menu, you have the shortcut you have to push to open and hide that tool shelf
The same for the properties, so the properties are here on the right side of the 3D view
And here you have most useful properties about the object you have selected and about the view
Like the lens of the camera, the clipping of the camera, the 3D cursor location
We're going to see the 3D cursor and moving objects, creating objects in future tutorials
So I'm not going to enter in that stuff right now
Sometimes you may need it, so you can open it and with N and T you can hide them
For having more space to work with the 3D view
Now, you can divide areas to have more panels
For example, let's see if we want the normal in other softwares
The 4 3D views, the top, right, front and the perspective
So here in Blender, we have a shortcut and also is an option here in the display
I think, yeah, toggle quad view
Okay, toggle quad view and here you can see the shortcut on the tooltip of the button
Ctrl-Alt-Q
So if we push Ctrl-Alt-Q, we get the 4 views in the same panel
The 3D view panel divides in 4 areas
Okay, so here we get a perspective, an orthographic view, front and top
But maybe you don't need these 4 views
And you want another different interface
Or maybe let's say you don't need even this properties window here
Because you are making some kind of stuff that you don't need this for anything
So in this button here, you have several default templates about different interface
For example, this is for animation, so we have here a dope sheet, a graph editor and a big 3D view
And we have several templates like scripting, here you have a text editor
Alright
And UV editing, here as you see there is no properties panel or something like that
You just need a 3D view for selecting things on the model and a UV editor for editing the UVs
Alright, we are going to create now a different template, a customized template
And I'm going to show you how to divide windows and all that kind of things
So first of all, let's go to the default one, press Ctrl-Alt-Q for just one 3D view
And here I'm going to show you how to move the camera so it fits your needs or something
For example, on the numpad, if you don't have a numpad because you are working on a laptop or something like that
You can configure it later on the user preferences, we are going to see it later
But for now, let's say you have a numpad
So in a numpad you can control several things about the view
For example, pressing the point, you can center the view on the object you have selected
Okay
Pressing 0, you are going directly to the camera view
This is the view that you are going to render when you press here in render
Or press the render shortcut which is the function key number 12
Okay
One is the front, here you have front perspective
Why is that? Because we are now working on a perspective view
So if we want an orthographic view, we can push the 5th button on the numpad
And here you have orthographic views
One is the front view, three is the right view, seven is the top view
And then with 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the numpad, you can rotate the camera with the increments
There you have it
And with 5, again, you can switch between perspective and orthographic
We can configure it later on the user preferences to have an automatic perspective and orthographic change
So when we enter on the front view, for example, it will become automatically an orthographic view
But if we orbit the camera, it will become automatically a perspective view
So right now, we are going to create a new template
So press this button here to add a new template and just call it whatever
Plane Toots, for example
Press enter and here we have a new template, as you can see
Here, in every panel, you have in the left down corner
And in the top right corner, you have this kind of diagonal lines
That if you put the cursor over, the cursor will become a cross
So if you click and drag from that position
Depending on where you drag, the interface will divide or make another thing
For example, if you drag the mouse into that area, into the same panel, the 3D view
It's going to be divided, but depending on the direction you drag the mouse
It will divide vertically or horizontally
I recommend you to try this out so you get the result
Okay, here we have it divided, now we have two 3D views
Of course, we can take this panel or this one and change the type of panel
For example, let's say I want a note editor here
So here we have the note
Alright, but let's get just a 3D perspective
Okay, now if we drag down, it will divide horizontally
But now, what if we at any time want to have just another 1 3D view and not 3?
Okay, we can join areas, even if they are different types of panels
For example, this is a UV editor, so we can press here and drag to the adjacent panel
And we will see this arrow here, which means that the 3D view will overlap the UV editor
Or just change here without releasing the left mouse button
So the UV editor will overlap the 3D view
So let's overlap it this way
Okay, another thing I like to show you is that you can, with Ctrl Alt W, duplicate the entire interface
So here you have another interface and we can change all this
But if we move here an object, it will affect the original interface
This is very useful when we have more than one monitor and we want to see another Blender window on the second monitor
For example, if we are animating a character and we want to see the Hypocurve editor at full screen on the second monitor
Very useful
Also, we can duplicate just a panel and not the entire interface
If we Shift-click here and drag, we will have a window with a 3D view
But it will affect the main interface
This is very cool, we just have here, I don't know, a properties panel for example
So we can access it from a different window
Okay, now this is, now I recommend you to try this out with some more time
So you can get used to that method
You will see that you have non-overlapping panels
So you will not, unless you duplicate the window or something like that
You will not have panels over another one or blocking your 3D view
So it's very, very cool
Okay, now let's see the user preferences
So you can customize your interface and also, I don't know, the colors of the buttons
Or the way you move the 3D view
So you have three ways to access the user preferences
Well, actually there are four ways with the RNA here in Blender 2.5
But that's pretty advanced, so we are going just to check three basic ways to do it
The first one is to go to the File menu and select here User Preferences
But also, we can see here that the shortcut is Ctrl-Alt-U
That's the second way
But what happens that if we press Ctrl-Alt-U
We will get a different window to manipulate the user preferences
But for checking them, we have to change the window
And maybe that's not comfortable for us
So the third way is just divide this panel and create here a User Preferences panel
So we have the user preferences integrated on the main interface
This is very useful
And right now, I'm going to show you these steps and what are they for
So the first one, Interface
Here you have several options for the interface
For example, Rotate Around Selection, a very useful one
I always check it because this one allows you to the camera to orbit around the center of the selected object
So it's very useful
Overall, when you have a very big scene
And well, something like that, I recommend you to test them out
So if you find something useful for you, check it
For example, the other perspective is what I said before
That when we are in a perspective view
But if we change with the shortcut 1 in the numpad to the front view
It will become automatically an orthographic view
This is very cool
Well, the editing is more for options and behaviors for Blender in the editing mode
Or editing things, moving things around and that stuff
For example, Release Confirm
You can drag things around
But if you release the button, you will continue dragging
And you have to left click for confirm
So if you activate Release Confirm
When you release the button, it will be confirmed automatically
Without another click
So that's probably useful for you
And well, here you have another option that I encourage you to try
Now, I think you probably noticed when you entered Blender the first time
Is that you select objects using the right mouse button
This is probably not comfortable for you
So you can change it here to select with the left button
I recommend you to try out for some time the right button selection
Because I started when I took Blender the first time with the left click
But finally, some months later, I checked how it worked
And after several hours, now I can't live without the right click selection
So I recommend you to try
Again, emulate numpad
That's what I said before too
If you are working on a laptop and you don't have a numpad for controlling the view
You can emulate it
So here you have it, it causes the 1 to 0 keys to act as a numpad
Useful for laptops, in fact
Now, the orbiting style of the 3D view
As I said before, it's a trackball method
Something like in Cbrush
So if you don't like that, you can check this option here, the turn table
So now, it orbits just into axis
Here is where you edit all the shortcuts of Blender
We are going to go back to this later
Now, the addons is a panel where you have all the addons that comes with Blender
Or you can install new addons
So these are like plugins
So here you have, for example, addons that are for making gears
Or for making gemstones as primitives
Or just more complicated things like, I don't know
Sporting several formats or fracture tools
This is all work in progress
So you may probably want to check some of this out
There are a cloud generator, it's a very cool one
But you can open it to see some documentation or go into the wiki
And if you push enable addon, you will have it enabled
Obviously, alright
Now, the themes, here is where we change the colors of the interface
So here you can change the type of panel you want to change the colors
So for example, for now, to test it out, I'm going to use the main user interface
And now, here you have the radio buttons
The radio buttons are these buttons here
That when you click on them, they become activated
So let's say I want these buttons here to become orange instead of blue
Because I want them just to look more like the Blendtoots webpage
So I can go here and I see here some blue tones
Here and here
So I just can give them here an orange color that I like
I can see in real time the changes
So when I like this color, I can just position the cursor just over it
Press Ctrl C to copy that color
You can do this with every parameter in Blender
Just numbers or in this case colors
And over these ones, just press Ctrl V and they will become orange
Why is that? Because these buttons here are blue yet
So I want them to be orange
Orange, orange
And now, everything in the interface which before was blue, now should be orange
I see here that it's a quite crappy orange
So maybe change this out
And nothing changed, that's the radio buttons
So here we are
And it's not here
These are the list items
This should be for example, let me check
Things in here, here you have
That's the list item
If we change it, you see the changes there
Right
And menu item
This is what I want to change
So something like this
And now, this is a more cool orange
Well, I'm not going to take more time to do this
Just check this out if you want to personalize
And customize all the interface you can
Also change the background for the 3D view
Or the backgrounds of all the menus and the panels
So check it out
This is the file tab where we tell to blender where to find things
But for example the image editor, the external image editor
Like we can put here for example Photoshop or things like that
Here is the file browser
Panel, ok
And here is the system, here depending on your graphics card, on your PC
You should want to change some options like this one
Or just limiting things if you have a pretty slow PC
So everything works better
And here you have the lights of the default 3D view
So let's say that this, I have to say
This doesn't affect the final render
We need to have lights on the scene
And this lighting on the 3D view will not affect the final render
So I'm going to change this to look more in combination with the buttons now
Something like this orange here
But this cube is not the perfect example to see that lighting
This is more illustrative
For example something like this
So well
Now a final thing, a very important thing actually
That I forgot
So you have this interface configured
You may want to save it
So you don't lose it when you open Blender again
So what you have to say is just save here as default on the user preferences panel
Or just press control U
So you will see this window here which is save user settings
And click it
And if we close Blender and open it again like this
We are going to see the Blender just as we save it
So this is very cool
If we are working on a big project and we are working a lot with the same scene
We can save it as the default settings
And every time we open Blender
We will get that scene without having to open it over and over again
So it's very cool
So now we are going again to the input panel here
In this panel you got all the options in Blender
And you can add shortcuts to them
So they are divided in sections like headers, outliner, timeline
So each panel has its own shortcuts
We are going now to the 3D view
Because we want to change the shortcuts we need to navigate the 3D view
So let's go to the 3D view and here 3D view global
Activate here the edit
If we press it again
We will restore this section to the default settings
And now in rotate view
Here we have rotate move and zoom view
And also if we span this a bit
We can see here these shortcuts we have right now
But we want to change them
So instead of being just the middle mouse button
We want to press alt with it
So it's more like 3D max or something like that
If you want
I personally use shift
Okay
Now in move view for the panning
We deactivate the shift
Because we want to pan just using the middle mouse button
And then for the zoom I think we are done with control and middle mouse button
If you want to use a key on the keyboard instead of a mouse button
You can click here and write a letter down
So deactivate this and just go to try this out
So alt middle mouse we are orbiting the view
And middle mouse just pan the view
So it's very cool
You can change all the shortcuts here
For example extrude
Here you have several extrudes
And you can change them individually
For example you have extrudes for mesh
Extrude and move
Let's span this again
Extrude and move on normals
Extrude, individual and move
Duplicate or extrude at 3D cursor
Also you have extrude for curves and for armatures
So here you have all the extrudes that you have on blender
It's pretty useful
And well you can change there every shortcut you have in this software
And well that's all for now
In the next tutorial we are going to take a look at how to create and modify objects and all that stuff
So hope you liked this tutorial and see you soon
Happy Blending!
