Doc:2.4/Manual

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User Manual

Introduction

What is Blender?: Introduction; Blender’s History; License; Blender’s Community; About this Manual; What's changed with Blender 2.4

Installing Blender: Introduction; Python; Installing on Windows; Installing on GNU/Linux; Installing on Mac; Installing on other Operating Systems; Configuring Blender; Directory Layout

Starting

The Interface: Introduction; Keyboard and Mouse; Window System; Arranging frames; Headers; Console window; Window Types; Screens (Workspace Layouts); Scenes; Configuration; Modes; Contexts; Menus; Panels; Buttons and Controls; Internationalization

The Vital Functions: Quick render; Undo and Redo; Default scene; Screenshots; Help!
Setting Preferences: Configuring Preferences; Interface; Editing; Themes; File; System
Your First Animation: 1/2: A static Gingerbread Man; 2/2: Animating the Gingerbread Man

Data System and Files

Blender's Data System: Blender's Library and Data System; Blender's Datablocks; Scenes; Working with Scenes; The Outliner Window; Appending and Linking

File operations: Introduction; Opening blender files; Saving blender files

Interaction in 3D

Modeling

Introduction: Introduction
Objects: Objects; Selecting Objects; Editing Objects; Groups and Parenting; Tracking; Duplication; - DupliVerts; - DupliFaces; - DupliGroup; - DupliFrames
Mesh Objects (cont): Meshes; - Mesh Structures; - Mesh Primitives; Selecting; - Selectable Elements; - Selection Basics; - Advanced Selecting; - Selecting Edges; - Selecting Faces; Editing; Basic Editing; - Translation, Rotation, Scale; - Adding Elements; - Deleting Elements; - Creating Faces and Edges; - Mirror editing; Vertex Editing; Edge Editing; Face Editing; Deforming Tools; - Mirror; - Shrink/Fatten Along Normals; - Smooth; - Noise; Duplicating Tools; - Duplicate; - Extrude

Mesh Objects (cont'd): - Extrude Dup; - Spin; - Spin Dup; - Screw; Subdividing Tools; - Subdivide; - Subdivide fractal; - Subdivide smooth; - Loop Subdivide; - Knife Subdivide; - Bevel; Miscellaneous Tools; Retopo Tool; Sculpt Mode; Multi Resolution Mesh; Vertex Groups; Weight Paint; Mesh Smoothing
Curve Objects: Curves; Selecting; Editing; Advanced Editing
Surface Objects: Surfaces; Selecting; Editing
Text Objects: Texts; Editing
Meta Objects: Metas; Editing
Empty Objects: Empties
Group Objects: Groups
Scripts: Modeling Scripts

Modifiers and Deformation

Introduction: Introduction; Modifiers Stack
Modify: UVProject
Generate: Array; Bevel; Booleans; Build; Decimate; EdgeSplit; Mask; Mirror; Subsurf
Deform (cont): Armature; Cast

Deform (cont'd): Curve; Displace; Hooks; Lattice; MeshDeform; Shrinkwrap; SimpleDeform; Smooth; Wave
Simulate: Cloth; Collision; Explode; Fluid; Particle Instance; Particle System; Soft Body

Lighting

Introduction: Introduction
Lights: Introduction; Light Properties; Light Attenuation; Light Textures; What Light Affects; Lights In Other Contexts
Shadows: Introduction; Shadow Properties; Raytraced Shadow Properties
Volumetric Lights: Introduction
Lamps (cont): Introduction; Lamp Light; - Raytraced Shadows; Spot Light

Lamps (cont'd): - Raytraced Shadows; - Buffered Shadows; - Halos; Area Light; - Raytraced Shadows; Hemi Light; Sun Light; - Raytraced Shadows; - Sky & Atmosphere; Lighting Rigs
Radiosity: Introduction; Rendering; Baking
Scene Light: Ambient Light; Ambient Occlusion
Exposure: Exposure

Materials

Introduction: Introduction to Shading; Materials Introduction
Usage: Assigning a material; Material Preview; Material Options; Multiple Materials
Properties: Diffuse Shaders; Specular Shaders; Ambient Light Effect; Color Ramps; Raytraced Reflections; Raytraced Transparency; Subsurface Scattering (SSS); Strands

Node Materials: Material Nodes; Nodes Editor; Node Controls; Nodes usage; Nodes Groups; Material Node Types; - Input Nodes; - Output; - Color; - Vector; - Convertor; - Dynamic
Vertex Paint: Using Vertex Paint
Halos: Halos

Textures

Introduction: Introduction; UV/Image Editor; Common Options; Texture Stack
Texture Types: Texture Types; Procedural Textures; Image Textures; Video Textures; Texture Nodes; - Nodes Editor; - Node Controls; - Nodes usage; - Nodes Groups; -- Textures Input Nodes; -- Textures Output Nodes; -- Textures Color Nodes; -- Textures Patterns Nodes; -- Textures Textures Nodes; -- Textures Convertor Nodes; -- Textures Distort Nodes; Texture Plugins

Texture Painting: Painting the Texture; - Projection Paint
Mapping: Mapping; Environment Maps; UV Unwrapping Explained; - Unwrapping a Mesh; - Managing the UV Layout; - Editing the UV Layout; - Applying an Image
Influence: Influence; - Material; -- Bump and Normal; -- Displacement; - Particles; - World

World and Ambient Effects

World: Introduction; World Background
Ambient Effects: Mist; Stars

Rigging

Introduction: Introduction to Rigging
Armatures: Armature Objects; Panels overview; Bones; Visualization; Structure; Selecting; Editing; Bones; Properties; Sketching; Templating

Skinning: Introduction; Linking Objects to Bones; Skinning to Objects’ Shapes; Retargeting
Posing: Introduction; Visualization; Editing Poses; Pose Library; Using Constraints; Inverse Kinematics

Constraints

Introduction: Introduction; Constraints Common Interface; Constraints’ Stack
Transform Constraints: Copy Location; Copy Rotation; Copy Scale; Limit Distance; Limit Location; Limit Rotation; Limit Scale; Transformation

Tracking Constraints: Clamp To; IK Solver; Locked Track; Stretch To; Track To
Relationship Constraints: Action; Child Of; Floor; Follow Path; Null; Rigid Body Joint; Script; Shrinkwrap

Animation

Physical Simulation

Introduction: Introduction
Dynamics: Force Fields; Collisions
Particles: Particles; Types; Physics; - Newtonian; - Keyed; - Boids; Visualization; Controlling Emission, Interaction and Time; Cache & Bake; Hair; Children; Vertex Groups; Particle Mode

Soft Body: Introduction; Exterior Forces; Interior Forces; Collisions; Simple Examples; Combination with Armatures; Combination with Hair Particles; Reference
Cloth: Introduction
Fluids: Fluid
Using the Game Engine: Using the Game Engine

Rendering

Introduction: Introduction
Camera: The Camera; Perspective (Vanishing points); Depth Of Field
Render: Displaying Renders; Basic Options; Antialiasing (Oversampling); Rendering Animations; Panoramic; Render Baking; Using the Command Line
Output: Output; Video Output

Effects and Post Processing: Introduction; Render Layers; Render Passes; Edges & Toon; Stamp; Color Management & Exposure; Depth Of Field; Motion Blur
Render Performance: Rendering Performance; Distributed Rendering
External Render Engines: Introduction; YafRay

Compositing with nodes

Composite Nodes: Introduction; Nodes Editor; Node Controls; Nodes usage; Nodes Groups

Composite Node types: Composite Node types; Input Nodes; Output Nodes; Color Nodes; Vector Nodes; Filter Nodes; Convertor Nodes; Matte Nodes; Distortion Nodes

Editing Sequences

Introduction: Introduction
The sequencer: Usage; Sequencer Modes; Sequence Screen Layout

Effects: Built-in Effects; Plugin Effects
Audio: Audio Sequences

Extending Blender

Introduction: Introduction
Python Scripting: Python Scripting in Blender; Setting up Python; The Text Editor; A working example; References

Python Scripts: Script Catalog; Bundled Scripts
Plugins: Blender's Plugins System; Texture plugins specifications; Sequence plugins specifications

Game Engine

Introduction: Introduction
The Logic Editor: Usage; Game Properties
Sensors: Introduction; Sensor Types
Controllers: Introduction; Expressions
Actuators (cont): Introduction; Action; Camera; CD; Constraint; Edit Object; Ipo; 2D Filters; Game; Message; Motion; Parent; Property; Random; Scene

Actuators (cont'd): Shape Action; Sound; State; Visibility
Cameras: Cameras; Dome Camera
Physics: Physics Engine; Material Physics; Object Types; - Static; - No Collision; - Dynamic; - Rigid Body; - Soft Body; - Occluder; - Sensor
Python API: Bullet physics; VideoTexture
Various resources: List of Features; External resources; Game Engine Basics (BSoD Tutorial); FAQ