Blender/Week 1

Overview

This week will focus on the basics of 3d modelling. We'll start with an overview on 3D modelling, its history, the many ways in which it is used, and how Blender fits into the mix. We'll then become familiar with the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro documentation and some other helpful resources. This first week will involve a lot of reading and you may become anxious to just jump right into using the software, this is highly encouraged. As daunting as the interface may seem at first, it quickly becomes intuitive and efficient. The only way to really get the hang of it is to use it. Once we have covered the interface we'll move on to having some fun creating things.

Goals:

• Become Familiar with 3D coordinates
• Gain a basic understanding of the Blender interface
• Learn how to undo changes
• Start to experiment
• Attempt to memorize as many keyboard shortcuts as possible

In Class

Reading:

• Blender 3D: Noob to Pro Overview

• Unit 1: Knowing Before Making

• What Blender can do

• 3D Geometry

• Coordinate Transformations

• Orthographic Views

• Perspective Views

• Coordinate Spaces in Blender

• User Interface Overview

• Keystroke, Button, and Menu Notation

• Non-Standard Equipment

• Operating System Specific Notes

• Blender Interface

• Blender Windowing System

• User Preference Windows

• Properties Window

• 3D View Windows

• Object Mode

• Meshes and Edit Mode

• Normals and Shading

Articles

Cartesian coordinate system

3D Modelling

3D Projection

Normal (geometry)

Polygon Mesh

Shading

Tips

• Save your work often! You never know when Blender or your computer may crash. Blender has autosave and recover last session features however it should not be relied upon. (Ctrl + S to save)
• You can often undo mistakes, but not always (Ctrl + Z)
• You can click the plus sign next to the filename when saving and it will append a number to it so that you can save multiple revisions.

Resources

• Blender 3D: Hotkeys

Tasks

• Create a new workspace and customize the interface to your liking
• Practice using the interface
• Create a scene (Ctrl+N) and add every shape available (Shift + A), customize the shapes in the editing panel(T) as you add them
• Move the shapes into different positions in the scene using the snap to axis shortcuts(G to grab, x, y, z, to constrain to axis)
• Switch into edit mode (Tab) and modify the position of the vertices of the objects
• Render the scene and save the image

Homework:

Create a model of your own room (1 light, 1 camera, no materials, just models)

Requirements:

• Each object has it's own name (desk, trashcan, etc...)
• At least 5 objects.

(grade based heavily on effort.)