Blender

By convention, x axis is left→right, y is back→front, z is down→up.

Table of Contents

On Startup

(If on tenkeyless keyboard)

Edit → Preferences → Input → check Emulate numpad

Resources

Unsorted

  • <F3> to bring up search bar for all features
  • Right click on the edge to join/split edit modes.
  • <C-Space> to maximise/minimise the current editor
  • Rendering: Turn on denoising data in the layers panel, do a rerender and then go into the compositor
  • To render a gif, export (do we need container as MPEG-4?), use <C-12>
    • Generate a palette with ffmpeg -i 0001-0160.mp4 -vf fps=60,scale=400:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen palette.png
    • Generate gif then with: ffmpeg -i 0001-0160.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex "fps=60,scale=580:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" output.gif

Addons

Camera

  • You can lock it to view in the view properties panel (top right tab in Layout view along with item and tool), meaning whenever the view is changed while you are in camera mode, the camera's transformation changes with it
  • <C-A-0> to snap camera to current view
  • 0 to toggle camera view
  • Orthographic view gives isometric look (use orthographic scale to zoom in and out) (x = 54.736, y = 0, z = 45)
  • Passepartout can be adjusted to block out what's outside the camera

Properties

Rendering

  • Color Management → View Transform can be set from filmic to standard to get a more cartoon-y colour space.
  • Turn on freestyle to display lines on edges

For denoising https://youtu.be/5lr8QnR5WWU?t=953 :

  • In Layers, turn on denoising data
  • Do another rerender
  • Add a Denoise node

View Layer

Freestyle line set → edge types → material boundary can be enabled to show freestyle lines on material boundaries

Scene

Set units for a grid square here

  • Scene → Bloom can be enabled to really make emissions pop (Cubic Worlds shader)

Materials

  • Use the roughness property to adjust the reflectiveness
  • Subsurface can make material more translucent (makes light bounce around object**

Object

  • Viewport display → Display as Wire can be used to see effect of boolean modifier
  • Parent can be selected here (inherited transformation properties)
  • 5 to go into orthographic view

Modifiers

Applied top to bottom. Can also be applied to the vertices and popped from the stack.

  • Boolean: use to cut objects out of other objects
  • Decimate: Can be used to turn high-poly back into low-poly
  • Mirror
  • Simple Deform
    • Bend useful for bending cylinders
  • Solidify: gives thickness (extrudes slightly) for any mesh
    • Use offset to control extrusion direction (inward is negative, outward is positive)
    • Use crease to make it hug (e.g. icing for donut)
  • Subdivision modifier to interpolate vertices on render (final result) and viewport (while editing)

Physics

  • Set rigid body to passive for collisions to be enabled (but no physics)
  • Set rigid body to active for collisions and physics to be enabled

Scene Collection

  • To make an object follow another, click on the child first, then Shift click the parent, then <C-p> to set the parent

Image Editor

  • Can be used to paint on an image (in conjunction with that image being assigned as a texture of the material of a mesh)

Shading Tab

  • Images can be dragged into here and connected to base colour
    • For low poly work, choose 'closest' for texture interpolation

3D Viewport

If working with smaller scale objects, remember to reduce the clip start length. so you can zoom into them without vertices etc. disappearing too early.

  • / to toggle isolating a selection
  • n to bring up view popup (sidebar)
  • Numpad . to focus on selected object (or backtick, then view selected)
  • Vertices at the same spatial position can be merged (https://youtu.be/Qx4MRAdYfgY?t=894)
    • If not in same spatial position, they can also be merged to different places (e.g. center)
  • With xray enabled (<Alt-z), box select will select any vertices/edges/faces on the backside as well
  • 1 moves to front view (facing y axis). <C-1> for opposite side
  • 3 moves to side view (facing x axis). <C-3> for opposite side
  • 7 moves to top view (facing z axis). <C-7> for opposite side
  • 9 flips to the opposite view
  • <Alt-Drag> also does this
  • Reset the position, rotation and scaling of a selected object with <Alt-g>, <Alt-r> and <Alt-s> respectively
  • Use <Tab> to toggle between last selected modes (or to go to edit mode)
  • , to open transformation origins pie menu
  • . to open pivot points pie menu
  • Pie menu to switch between different edit modes can be activated by holding <Tab> and dragging if enabled in the preferences → keymap → pie menu on drag
  • <S-a>: open add menu
  • <MMB> + Drag: rotate
  • <S-MMB> + Drag: pan
  • <MW>: to zoom
    • 4 within shading dialogue to go into wireframe mode (can select vertices directly beneath visible vertices)
  • f to frame selected (remapped from <Numpad .>) - rotations in the viewpoint will go around this
  • x to delete an object
  • With an edge selected, <Alt-LC> to select the loop
  • With two vertices selected, f will join them to form an edge
  • <C-f> fills concave gaps in a mesh (f works as well while having a vertex loop selected)
  • 1, 2, 3 in Edit mode for vertex, edge and face selection)
  • UV editing pane to map textures
  • Hold <Alt> to snap rotate
  • Object properties (properties editor) mode can be used to add keyframes as well
  • Edge loops can be deleted after creating them with the loop cut tool (<C-r>)
  • Align objects with Object → Transform → Align Objects (https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2289/)
  • Meshes can be split apart again with p (https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Splitting_meshes_in_Blender)
  • To assign multiple materials to the same mesh, the materials need to be added to the active material index. Then in Edit Mode → Face Select, select the desired face to be assigned the secondary material
  • <S-Right click> to change where the 3D cursor is (where new objects are created)
  • <C-a> to bring up apply dialog, where scale, rotation, transformations etc. can be re-baselined (reset)
  • Align an object to a specific coordinate axis with Object → Transform → Align to Transform Orientation

Sculpt Mode

Remember to turn off mirroring mode (if you want).

  • f to change the radius
    • Brush settings → Unified radius preserves it across brushes
    • Brush settings → Pressure sensitivity
  • <S-f> to change the strength
  • Brush properties → accumulate can be a good option to have (hold to keep sculpting)
  • Brush properties → Front face only to only sculpt what's in view
    • This isn't great for some modes, e.g. grab, snake hook
  • Hold <Ctrl> when sculpting to subtract instead of add
  • Hold <Shift> when sculpting to smooth
  • Grab g
  • Draw x
  • Snake hook k
  • Smooth <S-s> (or hold down <Shift> while sculpting)
  • Clay strips <S-c>
  • Inflate i
  • Enable dyntopo with <C-d>
  • Trigger a remesh with <C-r> (dyntopo needs to be disabled)
  • Simplify (<S-6>) requires dyntopo enabled
    • Also useful with autosmooth
  • <C-d> to toggle dyntopo
    • Relative detail is default; resolution determined by how zoomed in you are
    • Constant detail is a good one to use
  • Mask to fix the mesh from being deformed
    • <C-i> to invert
    • <A-m> to clear mask
    • Can also hide mask
    • Box mask can also use a lasso to quickly mask a lot of volume

Edit Mode

  • Selected meshes can be separated into objects by right clicking on the selected
  • Bring up edge properties with <C-e> (subdivide etc.)
  • <Ctrl-+> grows the selection (<Ctrl--> shrinks)
  • a to select/deselect all vertices
  • <C-l> to select all faces (or vertices/edges) connected to currently selected face (or vertices or edges)
  • o to toggle proportional editing
    • Use the scroll wheel to change radius of effect
  • p for the separation menu (can separate)
  • <C-i> inverts selection
  • ,
  • h hides selection
    • <Alt-h> to unhide
  • With selected edges, you can also subdivide
    • The smoothness can be turned up during the division
  • Select all edge loops (or face/vertex loops) with <Alt-Left click> (https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/selecting.html#edge-loops) Note that using 3 button mouse emulation will override the alt modifier
  • Enable snap to face to get objects to touch neatly
    • If using proportional editing, can also enable project individual elements so all affected vertices behave this way too
  • e to extrude (creates new bones in armature)
    • <A-e> to bring out extrusion dialog, including extrusion along normals
  • <C-b> to bevel edge
    • <C-S-b> to bevel vertex
  • i to inset faces (almost opposite to extruding; creates more inner vertices) https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.80/modeling/meshes/editing/duplicating/inset.html
  • With a face selected, you can create a custom orientation
  • Pivot point can be changed for a selection (default: bounding box - 3D cursor may also be useful)
  • Scaling

Object Mode

  • z to bring up the shading options.
  • <F2> to rename a selected object
  • <S-a> bring up add dialog
  • <S-d> to duplicate selected object (copies the mesh but shares the same materials and textures)
  • <A-d> to duplicate linked selected object (shares same mesh as well)
  • Toggle between Object → Shade Smooth and Shade Flat
    • Shade smooth is used for organic shapes, fruit etc.
    • Shade flat is used for inorganic shapes, buildings etc.
  • While rotating (r), scaling (s) or grabbing/moving (g):
    • z, y or x to lock movement to those axis (global)
    • Repeating the axis lock will change it use local axis
    • Hold <Ctrl> to operate in increments
    • Hold <Shift> to operate fluidly
  • <S-z>, <S-y> and <S-z> when scaling excludes that axis from being affected
    • Alternatively, click the middle mouse button to lock it in to one of those at the start
  • Right clicking on an object:
    • Set origin - geometry to origin

Pose Mode

  • <A-r> to reset rotations
  • <A-g> to reset movements

Draw Mode

  • f to change brush size

Animation

  • Auto-keyframe can be turned on with the circle button
  • To get rid of an animation from the Outliner view, expand the animation and then RMB → clear animation data
  • To get animation to loop in Godot, name the animation with a -loop suffix in the action editor
  • Go to first frame in timeline with <M-→>
  • To export multiple animations into Godot, they must be stored in the NLA track via the Stash button in the Action Editor
  • i inserts keyframes
  • a selects all keyframes
  • Alt + scroll wheel can also scrub the timeline

Dope Sheet

Graph Editor

This can be used to edit keyframe values after they've been created.

Rigging

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAiTYaiZmY0

Armature needs to be applied to singular mesh (to connect a mesh to an armature, select the mesh first, then the armature and then parent it (weighted one most common) with <C-p>)

  • Deform the mesh by going into Pose Mode in 3D Viewport editor
  • Make armature show up by Object Data Properties → In Front of the Properties editor
  • <S-e> to create a bone extrusion (while in Edit mode)
  • Select a bunch of bones and then you can symmetrize it. Bones need to be named with either .L (or .R) suffix
  • Reset the mode while animating with Clear Pose in Animation editor
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