Doc:2.4/Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character Animation/Setting up the mesh

From BlenderWiki

Welcome to Blender!

If you haven't already, please take the time to read the Introduction for important information regarding this tutorial.

You can download Blender from www.blender.org. Blender is available for many operating systems: Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD. Instructions for installation can also be found there. Once it's installed and started up, you'll see something like this:

The default scene.

In the default screen, moving from the top down, there is:

1. A top header containing the File menu, Add menu, and others
2. The 3D Window with some objects
3. The header for the 3D Window
4. The header for the Buttons Window
5. The Buttons Window

Let's get started!

Vital functions

Selecting

In Blender, the most frequent action you perform is making a selection. So, there are many different ways to make a selection:

• RMB - make a single selection.
  
• ⇧ ShiftRMB - add to or subtract from a selection.
  
• B - bounding box select. Draw a rectangle with the mouse, then use LMB to confirm or RMB to cancel.
  
• BB (hit it twice) brush select. Use LMB to "paint" over vertices you want to select, MMB to deselect, or RMB to cancel.
  
• A - select/deselect all

More info: Manual/Selection

Undo

It's probably a good idea to let you know early on that, like many programs, Blender has the ability to undo:

• Press CtrlZ to undo. Everything we just deleted is returned to the scene.
• Press CtrlY to redo. Back to the fresh scene!

By default, Blender has 32 undo steps, so you can keep pressing CtrlZ to do multiple undos. Or, for more control, you can use AltU for a menu that acts much like the History in Photoshop where you can select which step to undo back to.

Saving

Now is a good time to save your file. Blender's file sizes are not very large, so you can save often.

Saving a file.

• Press F2 to save. The 3D Window turns into a big Save dialog box. Navigate by clicking on the "P" button to move up one directory, or by clicking on directory names which are in white text.
• LMB on the file name text box ("untitled.blend" by default) to be able to edit the text (Saving a file)
• Type in a file name. It's a good idea to use a number in it, because Blender will auto-increment the filename for you (see below).
• Press Save file to save. You are returned to the 3D Window.

To illustrate the useful feature of auto-incrementing (I wish more programs had this!),

• Press F2 again for the Save dialog
• Press + NumPad to increment the filename. If it was "Tutorial_01", it will now be "Tutorial_02".
• Click Save file or hit ↵ Enter to save.

Using this feature, you can quickly save a file with the combination F2-+ NumPad-↵ Enter.

Loading

• Show the Load dialog with F1
• MMB on the file you want to open, or select it with LMB and click Load file.

A fresh start

The default scene has a cube, a camera, and a lamp. Let's delete all that and start from scratch.

• Since the default scene has the cube already selected press A to deselect all, then A again to select all objects.
• Press X to delete selected objects. Ah, a fresh scene!

Add a plane

Now we will add a Mesh object (a Mesh is the basis for most 3D models). Since we're modeling a character, it will be useful to only have to create one side, and automatically create the other side. To do this, we'll Mirror the mesh.

• Change to Front View (press 1 NumPad in the 3D Window). Note that this is different than the 1 key in the row of numbers at the top of the keyboard. We will use the NumPad keys frequently, so if you have a keyboard without a separate NumPad (for example many laptops lack a separate NumPad), then follow these quick instructions to reassign the top row of numbers to act like the NumPad numbers.

• Add a plane (Space>>Add>>Mesh>>Plane) - (This will only work while the Mouse Cursor is positioned over the 3D View window).

Two things determine the position and orientation of an object when you add it:

1. The 3D Cursor (the red-and-white circle that acts as a reference point ).
2. Your current view.

We switched to Front View so that the plane would not be crooked when we added it. We could have added any one of those mesh types, but a plane is the simplest and most straightforward to work with.

Add a plane.

The new plane.

• When the plane was added, Blender starts us out in Edit Mode. Edit Mode is where you can edit the vertices (the yellow and pink dots) that make up a mesh.

Note For the remainder of the tutorial, I have turned off the Transform Widget (the thing with the three colored arrows). The Transform Widget is a graphical way of moving objects, but I prefer using the much quicker hotkeys (more on these later). Turning off the Widget also makes these screenshots less cluttered. To turn off the Transform Widget, press the button with the pointing hand on the bottom of the 3D Window Turn off the Transform Widget by pressing the pointing hand button.

Note You can also see which mode Blender is in by looking at the 3D Window Header. The image below shows the current mode to be Edit Mode. Also one possible way of selecting a different Mode from the one currently indicated is by LMB selecting the Mode selection box and selecting a different Mode.

• Subdivide the plane once (W>>Subdivide, as in Subdividing the plane). Subdividing adds vertices to the mesh.

Then delete the left half of the plane:

• A to deselect all
• B to switch the mouse cursor to border select mode. Drag a rectangle around the vertices all the way on the left with LMB to border-select them.
• X to delete the vertices. If we didn't subdivide, we'd only be left with two vertices now.
• You should have something like Half a subdivided plane.

Subdividing the plane.

Half of a once-subdivided plane.

Mirror the plane

The half-plane in Object Mode.

• Press ⇆ Tab to switch from Edit Mode to Object Mode. The plane is outlined in pink, showing that it is currently selected (The half-plane in Object Mode).
• Go to the Edit Buttons (Press the context button in the Buttons Window, or press F9).

The Buttons Window contains many options and settings. The sheer number of buttons available can be intimidating at first, but realize that even advanced users don't always use them all. If you feel like exploring a little, hover over a button for its tooltip . . . and maybe press it to see if it does anything. Don't forget to save before you do, though!

Buttons are grouped into panels, and these panels can be collapsed using the little triangle near its title, or moved around. Try CtrlWheel to zoom the Buttons Window as well to get a size you like.

Note There are too many buttons to show all at once, so the Buttons Window is divided into sections. You can access these different sections by pressing the different Context Buttons along the top of the Buttons Window. Context Buttons in the Buttons Window. Here, the Edit Buttons are selected.

Add a Mirror modifier.

• In the Edit Buttons, find the Modifier tab. Click Add Modifier (Add a Mirror modifier).
• Select Mirror.

The Mirror modifier, applied to the half-plane. Note that Do Clipping is selected.

• In the Mirror modifier, make sure X is selected
• Important: Make sure that you click Do Clipping, as in The Mirror modifier. This will prevent vertices from crossing the mirror axis.
• DO NOT hit Apply. We'll apply the effects of the Mirror modifier later when we're all done modeling.

Mirrored plane.

• Go back into Edit Mode (⇆ Tab). Your mirrored plane should look like Mirrored plane.

Next: Creating the mouth

Previous: Introduction

Back to Index