Blender For Dummies

Jason van Gumster, author of all previous editions of Blender For Dummies, has used Blender in animation, video, and digital design for over 20 years. A Blender Foundation Certified Trainer, he has taught numerous students and serves as lead moderator on BlenderArtists.org, the largest Blender community website.

• Introduction 1About This Book 2Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 4Beyond the Book 4Where to Go from Here 5Part 1: Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender 7Chapter 1: Discovering Blender 9Getting to Know Blender 10Discovering Blender’s origins and the strength of the Blender community 11Making open movies and games 12Getting to Know the Interface 15Working with an interface that stays out of your way 17Resizing areas 19Maximizing an area 20The menu that is a pie 22Chapter 2: Understanding How Blender Thinks 25Looking at Editor Types 25General editors 26Animation editors 28Scripting editors 29Data editors 29Understanding the Properties editor 30Navigating in Three Dimensions 32Orbiting, panning, and zooming the 3D Viewport 32Changing views 35Selecting objects 40Taking advantage of the 3D cursor 40Extra Features in the 3D Viewport 44Quad View 44Regions 45Collaborating (with others and yourself) with annotations 48Don’t know how to do something? Hooray for fully Integrated search! 49Customizing Blender to Fit You 50Using preset workspaces 51Blender workflows 55Setting user preferences 57Using custom event maps 58Speeding up your workflow with Quick Favorites 61Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty Working in Blender 63Grabbing, Scaling, and Rotating 64Differentiating Between Coordinate Systems 64Transforming an Object by Using Object Gizmos 67Activating object gizmos 68Using object gizmos 69Saving Time by Using Hotkeys 72Transforming with hotkeys 73Hotkeys and coordinate systems 73Numerical input 76The Sidebar 76Chapter 4: Working in Edit Mode and Object Mode 77Making Changes by Using Edit Mode 77Switching between Object mode and Edit mode 78Selecting vertices, edges, and faces 79Working with linked vertices 84Still Blender’s No 1 modeling tool: Extrude 85Adding to a Scene 90Adding objects 90Meet Suzanne, the Blender monke 92Joining and separating objects 93Creating duplicates and links 95Discovering parents, children, and collections 101Saving, opening, and appending 108Part 2: Creating Detailed 3D Scenes 111Chapter 5: Creating Anything You Can Imagine with Meshes 113Pushing Vertices 114Getting familiar with Edit mode tools 116Adding geometry by insetting 117Cutting edges with the Knife 122Rounding your corners by beveling 126Spiraling new geometry into existence with the Spin tool 130Working with Loops and Rings 131Understanding edge loops and face loops 132Selecting edge rings 134Creating new loops 135Simplifying Your Life as a Modeler with Modifiers 137Understanding modifier types 140Doing half the work (and still looking good!) with the Mirror modifier 147Smoothing things out with the Subdivision Surface modifier 149Using the power of Arrays 153Chapter 6: Sculpting in Virtual Space 157Adding Background Images in the 3D Viewport 158Mastering the types of image objects 159Changing image object properties 160Adjusting your image objects 162Setting Up Your Sculpting Workspace 163Sculpting a Mesh Object 166Understanding sculpt tool types 166Tweaking brush properties 173Refining control of your tools 174Creating custom brushes 176Using Blender’s texture system to tweak brushes 176Sculpting with the Multiresolution modifier 177Freeform Sculpting with Dynamic Topology (Dyntopo) 180Understanding the Basics of Retopology 184Chapter 7: Using Blender’s Non-Mesh Primitives 189Using Curves and Surfaces 190Understanding the different types of curves 192Working with curves 193Understanding the strengths and limitations of Blender’s Surfaces 212Using Metaball Objects 213Meta-wha? 214What metaball objects are useful for 217Adding Text 217Adding and editing text 218Controlling text appearance 219Deforming text with a curve 227Converting to curves and meshes 228Chapter 8: Changing That Boring Gray Default Material 229Understanding Materials and Render Engines 230Quick ’n’ Dirty Coloring 233Setting diffuse colors 233Assigning multiple materials to different parts of a mesh 235Using vertex colors 240Setting Up Node Materials 247Adjusting your workspace to work with materials 248Working with nodes 249Understanding shaders 250Playing with Materials in Blender 251Demystifying the Principled BSDF 252Combining shaders with the Mix Shader node 258Playing with the Shader to RGB node 263Chapter 9: Giving Models Texture 267Adding Textures 267Using Procedural Textures 268Understanding Texture Mapping 272Making simple adjustments with the Texture Mapping panel 272Using texture coordinates 273Understanding Object coordinates and the UV Project modifier 278Unwrapping a Mesh 281Marking seams on a mesh 282Adding a test grid 283Generating and editing UV coordinates 284Painting Textures Directly on a Mesh  287Preparing to paint  288Working in Texture Paint mode  290Using textures on your Draw tool  292Saving Painted Textures and Exporting UV Layouts  295Chapter 10: Lighting and Environment  297Lighting a Scene  297Understanding a basic three-point lighting setup 298Knowing when to use which type of light 301Lighting for Speedy Renders  317Working with three-point lighting in Blender 318Using Look Dev to set up lighting  318Setting Up the World  320Changing the sky to something other than dull gray  320Understanding ambient occlusion  325Working with Light Probes in Eevee  328Baking from your light probes  330Understanding the limitations of light probes 332Part 3: Get Animated!  333Chapter 11: Animating Objects 335Working with Animation Curves 336Customizing your screen layout for Animation 338Inserting keys 340Working with keying sets  345Working in the Graph Editor 351Editing motion curves  352Using Constraints Effectively  356The all-powerful Empty!  357Adjusting the influence of a constraint 360Using vertex groups in constraints  361Copying the movement of another object  361Putting limits on an object  363Tracking the motion of another object  365Chapter 12: Rigging: The Art of Building an Animatable Puppet  367Creating Shape Keys  368Creating new shapes  368Mixing shapes 370Knowing where shape keys are helpful  372Adding Hooks  373Creating new hooks  373Knowing where hooks are helpful 375Using Armatures: Skeletons in the Mesh  375Editing armatures  376Putting skin on your skeleton 390Bringing It All Together to Rig a Character  396Building Stickman’s centerline  396Adding Stickman’s appendages  397Taking advantage of parenting and constraints  400Comparing inverse kinematics and forward kinematics  403Making the rig more user friendly 407Chapter 13: Animating Object Deformations  411Working with the Dope Sheet  411Selecting keys in the Dope Sheet 412Working with markers  415Recognizing different kinds of keyframe indicators  416Animating with Armatures  418Principles of animation worth remembering 420Making sense of quaternions (or, “Why are there four rotation curves?!”)  423Copying mirrored poses  424Doing Nonlinear Animation  425Working with actions  426Mixing actions to create complex animation 429Taking advantage of looped animation  430Chapter 14: Letting Blender Do the Work for You 433Using Particles in Blender 435Knowing what particle systems are good for 436Using force fields and collisions 440Using particles for hair and fur  442Giving Objects Some Jiggle and Bounce  446Dropping Objects in a Scene with Rigid Body Dynamics  449Simulating Cloth 450Splashing Fluids in Your Scene 452Smoking without Hurting Your Lungs: Smoke Simulation in Blender  457Creating a smoke simulation  457Rendering smoke  458Chapter 15: Making 2D and 2.5D Animation with Grease Pencil  461Getting Started with the 2D Animation Workspace  462Working with Grease Pencil tools  464Drawing with Grease Pencil  465Sculpting Grease Pencil objects  470Editing Grease Pencil objects  472Understanding Grease Pencil Materials  473Mastering Grease Pencil Layers 478Automating Your Drawings with Grease Pencil Modifiers  482Animating with Grease Pencil  488Using a hand-drawn animation workflow with Grease Pencil objects  488Rigging Grease Pencil objects for animation  492Integrating Grease Pencil with a 3D Scene 495Part 4: Sharing Your Work with the World  497Chapter 16: Exporting and Rendering Scenes 499Exporting to External Formats  499Rendering a Scene  502Creating a still image  502Creating a sequence of still images for editing or compositing  509Chapter 17: Editing Video and Animation  513Comparing Editing to Compositing  514Working with the Video Sequencer  514Adding and editing strips  518Adding effects and transitions  525Rendering from the Video Sequencer 527Chapter 18: Compositing Images and Video  531Understanding Nodes  531Getting Started with the Compositor  534Rendering in Passes and Layers  535Discovering Passes Available in Eevee and Cycles  536Understanding Cycles-only Light Passes  540Meet Cryptomatte  542Working with Nodes  544Configuring the backdrop 545Identifying Parts of a Node 547Navigating the Compositor 548Adding nodes to your compositing network  549Grouping nodes together  550Discovering the Nodes Available to You 550Rendering from the Compositor  552Chapter 19: Mixing Video and 3D with Motion Tracking  553Making Your Life Easier by Starting with Good Video  554Knowing your camera  554Keeping your lighting consistent  556Having images in good focus  557Understanding the scene  558Getting Familiar with the Motion Tracking Workspace  559Tracking Movement in Blender  561Adding markers and tracking 563Solving camera motion from tracker data  569Setting up your scene for integrating with your video footage  573Where to Go from Here  575  Part 5: the Part of Tens  577Chapter 20: Ten Tips for Working More Effectively in Blender  579Use Tooltips and Integrated Search  579Take Advantage of the Quick Favorites Menu  580Look at Models from Different Views  580Don’t Forget about Add-ons  582Lock a Camera to an Animated Character  582Name Everything  583Do Low-Resolution Test Renders 583Use Annotations to Plan  586Ask for Help  586Have Fun, but Take Breaks  587Chapter 21: Ten Excellent Community Resources  589Blender org  589Blender ID  590Blender manual  590Developer blog  590Bug reporting and developer discussions  590builder blender org  591Blender Cloud 592BlenderArtists org  592BlenderNation  592BlenderBasics com  593Blender Stackexchange com 593CGCookie com  593Blend Swap (blendswap com)  593Blender community 594Blender Today  594Right-Click Select  594Blender NPR  595Social Media  595Blender chat  596Index  597