Doc:2.4/Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character Animation/3D View

From BlenderWiki

Navigating in 3D

View controls with the mouse

First, try your hand at navigating 3D space.

• Move your mouse cursor so it's in the part of the window with the pink square and the gray grid. This region is called the 3D Window.

• Hold down MMB (middle mouse button) and move the mouse around. Note: If you don't have a middle mouse button, you can change the view with AltLMB .

• Let go of MMB to stop moving the view.

• You can see that the square is really a 3D box, and you can view it from any angle.

• In the same window, try using the mouse wheel (Wheel ). This zooms the view in and out.

• Now hold ⇧ ShiftMMB and move the mouse. This pans the view in any direction.

View controls with the keyboard

Often you want to get a perfect top-down view or a view directly from the side or front. This is difficult to do with MMB . Instead, use the NumPad keys.

Important: the NumPad keys have different functions than the row of numbers at the top of the keyboard. 1 NumPad does something very different from 1.

• Press 1 NumPad. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the front.
• Press 3 NumPad. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the side.
• Press 7 NumPad. Now you are viewing the cube straight from the top.

Laptop users If you have a laptop that doesn't have a NumPad, you can make the keys at the top of your keyboard act like the NumPad it by following the simple Emulate NumPad instructions.

Perspective vs Orthogonal views

There are two different kinds of projections you can use. These are a matter of preference, and you

• Use MMB to view the cube from any angle other than straight-on.

• Press 5 NumPad. Press 5 NumPad again. Try it a few times to get a feel for what it's doing. Notice the changes in the cube's angles and in the grid in the background.

• 5 NumPad toggles between Orthogonal view (the default) and Perspective view.

Which view you decide to use is a matter of preference.

• Orthogonal view is a 3D representation that could never happen in real life: two same-size objects will appear the same size no matter how far apart they are from each other or from the camera.

• Perspective view mimics real life: closer objects appear larger than far away objects, and parallel lines vanish toward the horizon.

When you're modeling a mechanical object or trying to model symmetrically, try using orthogonal view. Use Perspective view when modeling something organic, like a character, or to get an idea of what the model will look like when the camera looks at it.