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Blender Notes

  • Runs best as Admin.
  • Uses Python for scripting.
  • Note that Blender will let you quit without saving work, and it won't prompt you. Make sure you save manually if you want to save your work.
  • 3D modeling
  • Creating armatures (rigging)
  • Animation
  • UV wrapping (find a good picture for UV wrapping: penny? Cat?)
  • Exporting to the UDK
  • Blender's native game engine: logic bricks
  • Resources

3D modeling

The UI

  • As you move your pointer from area to area, focus shifts to the area where you are. No clicking necessary.
  • File menu (ignore the others at the top): Open, Save, Import/Export, Quit, Link, Append, User Preferences, Save User Settings, Load Factory Settings.
  • Default, Scene: click icon to the left to see drop-down menu. This can be confusing.
  • Panes/areas: splitting, merging. Can't merge one pane into two other panes or vice versa.
  • T for Tools menu
  • N for Transform menu
  • Various views: left corner (upper or lower): icon shows what view type
  • Useful views:
  • (orthographic vs. perspective)
  • 3D View
  • Properties
  • Outliner
  • Timeline
  • DopeSheet
  • UV/Image Editor
  • Logic Editor
  • Blender is intended to be a fast-production tool, with lots of keyboard shortcuts.
  • Number pad: 1, 3, 7, 9. Ctrl + each. 0. 2, 4, 6, 8. 5.

Object Mode vs. Edit Mode

  • You can join objects together (Ctrl+J).
  • You can separate the selected part of a mesh (P).
  • You can select all linked vertices (L).

Shading options

Textured, Solid, Wireframe, Bounding Box.

Layers

Can move objects back and forth between layers with M.

Other options

  • Pivot (get to later)
  • Translate, Rotate, Scale (easier to use G, R, S on keyboard)
  • Vertex, Edge, Face select modes
  • Block background geometry button
  • Proportional editing button (get to later)
  • View, Select, Mesh/Object menus in 3D viewport.

Navigation

  • 1, 3, 7: front, side, top, .
  • 5 (orthographic vs. perspective)
  • 2, 4, 6, 8: incremental turns.
  • 0: camera view.
  • Mouse-wheel-click and drag to rotate view.
  • Shift+ mouse-wheel-click to pan.
  • Rotate mouse wheel to zoom.

Create a mesh

  • Create a mesh: Shift+A, or Add. Start with a primitive. (Cube by default.)
  • Right-click to select.
  • If you start with a cube, you can go lots of places.
  • Hide parts of an object with select+H. Then show again w/ select+Alt+H.
  • Invert selection: Ctrl+I.
  • Extrude: E.
  • Scale & rotate w/ S & R. Add X, Y, or Z to specify an axis.
  • Scale along two axes by Shift+Other axis: to scale along X and Y, Shift+Z.
  • Vertex, edge, face select.
  • Shift to multi-select (not Ctrl).
  • Box-select: B; Box-deselect: B+click mouse wheel.
  • Circle-select: C; Circle-deselect: C+click mouse wheel.
  • Spin.
  • Fixing Normals: create Icosphere, look at in Textured mode.
  • Clipping path (for games or for larger objects)
  • As you grab/move, scale, and rotatein Object mode, you can see how far you've moved the object from its origin. Note that if you do that work in Edit mode, your Object mode values stay at defaults.
  • Make a flower starting with a cube.
  • Make a fake person with cubes.
  • Show some game models? Boson, cat, screwdriver, couch, Pixel?

Normals

  • If normals are facing the wrong way, your model will seem to have holes in it.
  • Add icosphere. Show normals. Show how to see the normal (Edit mode, Transform panel [N]), how to adjust the length of the normal for optimal viewing, and how to flip it.

The Cursor

  • Shift+S: center cursor, move selection to cursor.
  • New objects are added at cursor.

Pivot points

  • For rotating, spinning, etc. Can be useful to set to 3D cursor, for precise control. But keep an eye on it so you don't leave it set to 3D cursor when you really want it set to the active element.

Dividing meshes: Subdivide, loop cut, subsurf

  • Subdivide cuts each face in each dimension.
  • Loop cut and slide cuts an edge loop.
  • Subsurf rounds hard edges (use modifier in Object mode).

Creating armatures (rigging for animation)

You create armature/bones/rigging in order to simplify animation. Each bone controls multiple vertices. You can weight a vertex so it's controlled more by one bone than another.

Add bones

  • In Object mode, Shift+A -> Armature -> Single Bone.
  • (In Properties panel, in Armature section, X-Ray and Names.)
  • Move, scale, rotate bone with G (grab), S, R.
  • Tab into Edit mode.
  • To add another bone, click the root or tip of a bone, and press E to extrude. Can constrain along an axis. If cancel out, make sure you Undo (Ctrl+Z) the bone, or you'll get an extra bone at the root or tip.
  • To animate people or creatures, look at existing skeletons to get the structure right. (Cat skeleton.)
  • Select bones to be mirrored. Shift+D to copy. Ctrl+M+Z to Mirror along Z axis.
  • Bones can be parented or not.
  • Bones can be connected or not to their parent.
  • To create symmetrical bones, create bones on one side of model. Name them ending with .L.
  • Select all .L bones. Shift+D to duplicate.
  • Set pivot point to 3D cursor.
  • Set 3D cursor to center (Shift+S if necessary.)
  • R, Z, 180 to rotate along Z axis by 180 degrees.
  • With new bones still selected, under Armature menu, click Flip Names to have .L bones automatically become .R bones on the other side.
  • Parent mesh to bones. In Object mode:
  • Clear all selections.
  • Select mesh.
  • Select armature.
  • Ctrl+P, choose "With Automatic Weights."
  • Select mesh. Tab into Edit mode. In Properties panel, under Object data,adjust vertex groups.

Animation

Before making any changes to the model, create a neutral pose as your first animation. Doesn't have to actually move.

  • DopeSheet and Timeline.
  • In DopeSheet, Action Editor.
  • Add and edit actions, start by clicking "New." Three dots to the left are the menu icon for the list of animations.
  • Pose mode (available only when you have an armature selected).
  • Create your neutral pose here. Press I for keyframe menu. Add Loc & Rot & Scale (or just Loc & Rot, because Scale isn't used when exporting to UDK).
  • Add a new pose (+ icon), rename as you like.
  • Select all bones and press I to keyframe for LocRot. This is where the animation begins. If you forget this, your mesh may not start in the neutral pose you want.
  • If you like, click orange circle icon for automatic keyframing. But be aware that any adjustments you make will be recorded. You may want to turn this off when you're done animating.
  • Move green line in Action Editor or Timeline. Then change pose. If auto-keyframing is off, press I to set keyframe there. Blender will automatically smooth out transitions between poses.
  • Select individual elements of keyframe in Action Editor. Select, invert selection, pan (click mouse button), delete (x), scale -- all done here. Just like with mesh.
  • Set start and end frames in Timeline.
  • Move timeline, move bones.
  • Copy-and-paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) poses from one spot to another.
  • Copy-and-paste from one side to the other (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Shift+V). Useful for walk cycles.
  • You can animate without armature: use keyframes, Timeline, Action Editor, all the same way. Can Grab (translate), Rotate, Scale to create animation.

UV wrapping

  • Create model.
  • Create or get image.
  • UV/Image Editor window: open image.
  • With model in Edit mode, either:
  • hand-mark seams w/ Mark Seam under UV Mapping in the Mesh Tools panel, select the whole mesh (A) and then press U -> Unwrap.
  • select the whole mesh (A), and then press U -> Smart UV Project.
  • When hand-marking seams, use Edge select mode. Alt+click edge to use Edge Select mode. Shift+Alt+click edge to multiple-select with Edge Select mode.
  • You can clear a seam once it's selected.
  • You can reset the unwrapping (U -> Reset) if you want to redo it.
  • You can also redo just part of the unwrapping, depending on what you have selected in Edit mode.

Exporting to the UDK

  • Export skeletal meshes and animations with Unreal's exporter, in Tools pane, under Unreal Tools.
  • In Object mode, mesh must have no scaling, rotation, or translation.
  • Mesh must also have UV unwrapping and material applied (even though material gets lost in transit).
  • Export non-skeletal mesh as .dae or .fbx format.
  • If you don't see the import/export options you want, under File -> User Preferences, Add-Ons tab, Import-Export filter (left pane), select the import/export options you want to activate. You can find tutorials that explain how to add more in.

Blender's native game engine: logic bricks

Setting up objects

  • Add cube.
  • Add plane.
  • In Edit mode, subdivide plane, use Face mode to lift one face higher.
  • Add modifier: Subsurf. To create curve. Now you have a hill.
  • Change Blender Render to Blender Game. This changes properties options.
  • Make plane a static actor with collision (Convex Hull).
  • Make cube a rigid-body actor with collision (Box).
  • P to Play.
  • Esc to exit Play mode.
  • Can adjust gravity.
  • Add a sphere, make rigid body, collision (Sphere). Drop it, watch it roll.

Logic bricks

  • Logic Editor in bottom window.
  • Sensor, Controller, Actuator.
  • Add forward, left, right, back, jump.
  • Add Quit Game or Restart Game, attached to a stationary object.

Scripting

You can add more functionality with Python.

Resources

  • tons of free online video tutorials

There are a couple of printed books, but they're not that helpful or that well written.