Module 1: Blender First Steps

Navigating the Blender Interface

Blender is a free, open-source 3D application used for modelling, rendering, animation and much more. Its interface can feel overwhelming the first time you open it, with dozens of buttons, panels and editors. The good news is that you only need a small part of it to start, and once you can move confidently around the 3D viewport, everything else becomes far easier to learn. This lesson gives you that confidence.

Getting Blender and the default screen

Download Blender only from the official site, blender.org. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. This course uses the 4.x series; menus in very old versions (before 2.80) look quite different, so avoid outdated tutorials. When you open Blender and choose General, you see the default scene: a cube, a camera and a light.

The default screen is made of editors:

• 3D Viewport in the centre: where you see and work on your scene.
• Outliner at the top right: a list of every object in the scene.
• Properties editor at the bottom right: settings for the render, the world, and the selected object, its modifiers and materials, organised in tabs with icons.
• Timeline at the bottom: used for animation.

Along the top are workspaces such as Layout, Modeling, Sculpting, UV Editing, Shading and Animation. Each is simply a different arrangement of editors for a particular task. You can switch at any time without losing work.

Moving the view

Blender is designed for a three-button mouse. If you only have a trackpad, enable Emulate 3 Button Mouse under Edit, Preferences, Input, and consider buying an inexpensive mouse with a clickable scroll wheel; it makes 3D work much easier.

Without a numeric keypad, enable Emulate Numpad in Preferences so the number keys on the main keyboard act as the numpad.

Selecting and the mode system

Left-click selects an object; Shift + left-click adds to the selection; A selects all; Alt + A deselects all. The last object selected is the active object, shown with a lighter outline.

Blender works in modes, chosen from the drop-down at the top left of the viewport or with Tab. Object Mode is for arranging whole objects. Edit Mode is for changing an object's shape by working on its vertices, edges and faces. Other modes include Sculpt Mode and Texture Paint. Many beginners get confused because a tool they expect is missing; usually they are simply in the wrong mode.

A worked example

Imagine you are preparing a 3D model of a small coffee table for a Nairobi furniture maker's website. You open Blender, keep the default cube, and press Numpad 1 to see it from the front. You press Numpad 5 to switch to orthographic, which removes perspective so you can judge proportions accurately. You orbit with the middle mouse to check it from an angle, then press Numpad 0 to see how the camera currently frames it. Finally, you press Numpad . to zoom to the cube when you lose it off screen. In one minute you have used every essential navigation move.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Working with a trackpad without emulation. Set up Preferences first.
• Losing the object after zooming too far. Use Numpad . or View, Frame All (Home key).
• Using outdated tutorials for versions before 2.80, where the interface and shortcuts differ.
• Forgetting the mode. Check the mode drop-down when tools do not behave as expected.
• Accidentally pressing keys over the wrong editor. Shortcuts apply to the editor under your mouse pointer.

Practise navigation until it is automatic. Every later lesson assumes you can move around without thinking about it.