Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character Animation/Warmup

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[edit] Warm-up Exercise

If you've never used Blender before, do this warm-up. I've written the character animation tutorial with the assumption that you know the material in this warm-up exercise.

If you have used Blender, just take a quick look at the QuickReference notes to refresh your memory.

[edit] Download and install Blender

You can download Blender for your operating system at http://www.blender.org.

Installation instructions can be found at the bottom of the download page.

[edit] First impressions

[edit] Default screen

Each time you start Blender, the default scene is loaded. It looks like the screenshot below.

Don't worry about all those buttons and controls right now! We'll get to them in due time.

You can always quit Blender by pressing Q and clicking on the dialog that says "Quit Blender?" to confirm the quit.

Default screen in Blender. Click image for a larger view.

[edit] One hand on the mouse, one hand on the keyboard

Blender's interface is extremely efficient, and to take advantage of it you'll want to "keep one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard". As you'll see, there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts for speedy workflow. These shortcuts are generally named after the command they execute, so they're easy to remember.

[edit] Navigating in 3D

[edit] View controls with the mouse

First, try your hand at navigating 3D space.

Use  MMB to see that the square . . .

. . . is really a 3D cube.

• 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 Alt LMB .

• 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 ( MW ). This zooms the view in and out.

• Now hold Shift MMB and move the mouse. This pans the view in any direction.

[edit] 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. NumPad 1 does something very different from 1.

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

[edit] Perspective vs Orthogonal views

A cube in orthogonal view.

The same cube in perspective view.

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 NumPad 5. Press NumPad 5 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.

• NumPad 5 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.

[edit] The Camera

The camera.

Camera view (NumPad 0).

Take a look at the camera, it's the pyramid shaped outline. The square part is the front of the camera, and a black arrow points up so you know which direction the camera is facing.

By rotating, zooming, and panning, you can view the scene in an infinite number of ways. However, the output of your Blender work will ultimately be an image or an animation, where you can only have one view at a time. The Camera determines the final view your output will have.

• Press NumPad 0. This shows you the camera view, which you should now recognize as a Perspective view. When you output to an image (called rendering, discussed below), this is the view you will see.

• You know you are in camera view when you see the rectangular outlines near the center of the 3D Window (Camera view). The middle outline shows the boundary of the camera's view.

• To get out of camera view, use another view control ( MMB or one of the NumPad keys).

• If you find a good view when you're using  MMB , you can snap the camera to your current view with Ctrl Alt NumPad 0.

[edit] Objects in the 3D Window

You may have noticed a couple other objects in the scene when you were rotating around the cube. These objects are:

• A Mesh, which currently has the shape of a cube.
• A Camera, which you just learned about.
• A Lamp which adds light to a scene.
• The Transform Widget which provides a graphical way of moving, scaling, and rotating objects
• The 3D Cursor, a reference point.

Each of these objects will be in more detail later, but I just wanted to point them out now.

A cube.

The camera.

A lamp.

Transform Widget.

The 3D Cursor.

[edit] Selecting Objects

An Object Center marker.

The camera, the lamp, and the mesh (which currently looks like a cube) are all Objects. In Blender, Objects can be selected, modified, and moved around. Note that the 3D cursor and the transform widget are not Objects. They are part of the interface, and can't be directly selected.

• Rotate the view around so you can see both the camera and the cube.

• Select the camera with  RMB . Two things happened:

• • First, the camera turned pink to indicate it is selected.

• • Second, the Object Center (a small pink filled circle) is now visible. This indicates the center of the camera Object.

• Now Shift RMB the cube to add it to the selection. Both objects are now selected. Three things happened:

• • First, there was a color change. The added selection, the cube, turned light pink while the original selection, the camera, turned darker pink. The light pink outline means the cube is now the active object since it was the last object selected.

• • Second, both the camera and the cube now have Object Center Markers indicating their centers.

• • Third, notice that the Transform Widget moved so that it is between the camera and the cube. It splits the difference between the two selected objects.

The camera is selected, the cube is not.

Use Shift RMB on the cube. Now both camera and mesh are selected.

• Now hit A to deselect all. Note: if any objects are selected, A deselects everything. If nothing is selected, A selects all. This means you you frequently have to tap A twice if you want to select all.

• Finally, hit A again to select all.

• The cube, camera, and lamp are all selected. Notice that the last object you had selected before is again the active object - it's the only one with the light pink outline.

[edit] Transforming

There are three actions that you'll use over and over again: move, rotate, and scale. Using combinations of these three transforms, you can model any object.

With something selected, press

• G for Grab
• R for Rotate
• S for Scale

Then move the mouse to transform, and  LMB to confirm or  RMB to cancel.

This works on selections both in Object Mode as well as Edit Mode.

Transforms using the hotkeys can be very quick:  RMB -G- LMB , all in less than a second. You can also use the Transform Widget.

You might notice that you can only move

To constrain a movement to a single axis, press either X, Y, or Z while in a transform mode to constrain to movement to the X, Y, or Z axis.

[edit] Object Mode and Edit Mode

A mesh in Object Mode

The same mesh in Edit Mode. Note that you can now see the vertices that compose the mesh.

Objects are things in Blender that you can select and edit. You've seen three types of objects so far: a mesh, a camera, and a lamp. Let's focus on the mesh, which currently looks like a cube.

• Select the cube with  RMB so the mesh has a pink outline.
• Hit TAB.
• You have now entered the cube's Edit Mode.

The small dots you see in Edit Mode are called vertices (singular is "vertex"). Selected vertices are yellow, and unselected vertices are dark pink. You can select vertices the same way you select objects, by using  RMB . There are also other, quicker ways of selecting vertices too (see Selecting Vertices, below).

So when do you use Object Mode, and when do you use Edit Mode?

[edit] Use Object Mode . . .

• To move entire objects around in a scene
• To scale or rotate an entire object
• To group multiple objects together
• To parent multiple objects together
• Any time you want to do something to the entire Object as a whole.

[edit] Use Edit Mode . . .

• To sculpt the vertices making up an Object
• To add vertices to an Object
• To make groups of vertices within an Object
• To add materials to only part of an Object
• Any time you want to edit the contents of an Object

[edit] Selecting vertices

[edit] Buttons Window

--Marenzelleria 21:06, 25 June 2006 (CEST)