Blender All-in-One For Dummies E-Book

Jason van Gumster

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1398

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Create excellent 3D animations with free, open-source software When you're looking for help with creating animation with Blender, look no further than the top-selling Blender book on the market. This edition of Blender For Dummies covers every step in the animation process, from basic design all the way to finished product. This book walks you through each project phase, including creating models, adding lighting and environment, animating objects, and building a final shareable file. Written by long-time Blender evangelist Jason van Gumster, this deep reference teaches you the full animation process from idea to final vision. With this fun and easy guide, you're on your way toward making your animation dreams a reality. * Set up Blender and navigate the interface * Learn how to build models in virtual space * Texture, light, and animate your figures--then render your final product * Get help and inspiration from the Blender community If you're new to Blender or an experienced user in need of a reference, Blender For Dummies is the easy-to-use guide for you.

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Blender® All-in-One For Dummies®

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Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Book 1: Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender

Chapter 1: Discovering Blender

Getting to Know Blender

Getting to Know the Interface

Chapter 2: Understanding How Blender Thinks

Menus in Blender

Looking at Editor Types

Understanding the Properties Editor

Navigating in Three Dimensions

Extra Features in the 3D Viewport

Customizing Blender to Fit You

Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty Working in Blender

Grabbing, Scaling, and Rotating

Differentiating Between Coordinate Systems

Transforming an Object by Using Tools

Creating Custom Transform Orientations

Saving Time by Using Hotkeys

Other Ways to Transform Objects

Chapter 4: Working in Edit Mode and Object Mode

Making Changes by Using Edit Mode

Understanding Datablocks: Fundamental Elements in a Blender File

Adding to a Scene

Book 2: Creating Detailed 3D Scenes

Chapter 1: Creating Anything You Can Imagine with Meshes

Pushing Vertices

Working with Loops and Rings

Chapter 2: Simplifying Your Life as a Modeler with Modifiers

Accessing Blender’s Modifiers

Understanding Modifier Types

Working with Commonly Used Modifiers

Chapter 3: Sculpting in Virtual Space

Adding Background Images in the 3D Viewport

Setting Up Your Sculpting Workspace

Understanding Matcaps: A Display Option for Sculpting

Sculpting a Mesh Object

Sculpting with the Multiresolution Modifier

Freeform Sculpting with Dynamic Topology (Dyntopo)

Sculpting with Voxel Remesh

Understanding the Basics of Retopology

Chapter 4: Using Blender’s Non-Mesh Primitives

Using Curves and Surfaces

Using Metaball Objects

Adding Text

Chapter 5: Getting Procedural with Geometry Nodes

Discovering the Differences between Destructive and Procedural Modeling

Using the Geometry Nodes Workspace

Understanding Nodes

Working with Nodes

Getting Familiar with Commonly Used Geometry Nodes

Thinking Procedurally: Model Like a Rigger

Book 3: Working with Colors and Materials

Chapter 1: Changing That Boring Gray Default Material

Understanding Materials and Render Engines

Quick ’n’ Dirty Coloring

Setting Up Node Materials

Playing with Materials in Blender

Chapter 2: Giving Models Texture

Adding Textures

Discovering Procedural Textures

Using Color Ramps

Understanding Texture Mapping

Unwrapping a Mesh

Painting Textures Directly on a Mesh

Saving Painted Textures and Exporting UV Layouts

Chapter 3: Lighting and Environment

Lighting a Scene

Lighting for Speedy Renders

Setting Up the World

Working with Light Probes in Eevee

Chapter 4: Exporting and Rendering Scenes

Blender’s Render Engines

Rendering a Scene

Working with Assets in Blender

Book 4: Get Animated!

Chapter 1: Animating Objects

Getting Started with Animation in Blender

Understanding keyframes

Chapter 2: Adding Controls to Your Scene

Using Constraints Effectively

Getting Even More Control with Drivers

Chapter 3: Rigging: The Art of Building an Animatable Puppet

Creating Shape Keys

Adding Hooks

Using Armatures: Skeletons in the Mesh

Bringing It All Together to Rig a Character

Working with Pose Libraries

Chapter 4: Animating Object Deformations

Working with the Dope Sheet

Animating with Armatures

Doing Nonlinear Animation

Chapter 5: Letting Blender Do the Work for You

Using Particles in Blender

Creating hair and fur

Giving Objects Some Jiggle and Bounce

Dropping Objects in a Scene with Rigid Body Dynamics

Simulating Cloth

Splashing Liquids in Your Scene

Smoking without Hurting Your Lungs: Smoke Simulation in Blender

Cheating (in a Good Way) by Using Quick Effects

Chapter 6: Making 2D and 2.5D Animation with Grease Pencil

Getting Started with the 2D Animation Workflow Template

Working with Grease Pencil Tools

Understanding Grease Pencil Materials

Mastering Grease Pencil Layers

Automating Your Drawings with Grease Pencil Modifiers

Understanding Grease Pencil Effects

Animating with Grease Pencil

Integrating Grease Pencil with a 3D Scene

Book 5: Sharing Your Work with the World

Chapter 1: Editing Video and Animation

Comparing Editing to Compositing

Working with the Video Sequencer

Rendering from the Video Sequencer

Chapter 2: Compositing Images and Video

Understanding Nodes

Getting Started with the Compositor

Rendering in Passes and Layers

Working with Nodes

Rendering from the Compositor

Compositing in Real-Time in the 3D Viewport

A Simple Example: Replacing a Texture without Re-rendering

Chapter 3: Mixing Video and 3D with Motion Tracking

Making Your Life Easier by Starting with Good Video

Getting Familiar with the Motion Tracking Workspace

Tracking Movement in Blender

Where to Go from Here

Book 6: Getting Technical

Chapter 1: Working with Linked Data

Appending and Linking Datablocks between Blender Files

Taking Advantage of the Edit Linked Library Add-on

Working with Library Overrides

Chapter 2: Automating Blender with Python Scripting

Understanding the Usefulness of Automation

Discovering Blender’s Scripting Workspace

Getting Familiar with the Python Language

Writing Your First Blender Script

Taking Advantage of Templates and Documentation

Adding Custom Properties to Datablocks

Index

About the Author

Connect with Dummies

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Book 1 Chapter 2

TABLE 2-1 Keyboard/Mouse Keys for Navigating 3D Space

TABLE 2-2 Hotkeys on the Numeric Keypad

Book 1 Chapter 3

TABLE 3-1 Useful Hotkey Sequences for Transformations

Book 2 Chapter 5

TABLE 5-1 Commonly Used Hotkeys in the Node Editors

TABLE 5-2 Commonly Used Mouse Actions in the Node Editors

Book 4 Chapter 1

TABLE 1-1 Basic controls in the Graph Editor

Book 5 Chapter 1

TABLE 1-1 Helpful Mouse Actions in the Sequencer

TABLE 1-2 Common Features/Hotkeys in the Sequencer

List of Illustrations

Book 1 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: Blender through the years: (from left to right) Blender 1.8, Blende...

FIGURE 1-2: The Blender splash screen.

FIGURE 1-3: The default Blender interface.

FIGURE 1-4: A typical Blender workspace includes at least one window containing...

FIGURE 1-5: Your first pie (menu)!

Book 1 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: The Editor Type menu.

FIGURE 2-2: Navigation controls at the top right of the 3D Viewport give you fa...

FIGURE 2-3: The View menu in the 3D Viewport (left) and the pie menu version of...

FIGURE 2-4: The numeric keypad is your ultimate tool for navigating 3D space.

FIGURE 2-5: Viewport shading types from the 3D Viewport’s header (left) and fro...

FIGURE 2-6: Border Select, Circle Select, and Lasso Select.

FIGURE 2-7: You can open a little Toolbar menu near your mouse cursor by pressi...

FIGURE 2-8: You can control the position and orientation of your 3D cursor from...

FIGURE 2-9: The Pivot Point menu in the 3D Viewport’s header (left) and as a pi...

FIGURE 2-10: The Snap menu.

FIGURE 2-11: Using the Ctrl+Alt+Q hotkey, you can quickly switch between Blende...

FIGURE 2-12: You can open a floating Last Operator panel by pressing F9.

FIGURE 2-13: The Annotations panel in the View tab of the Sidebar is where you ...

FIGURE 2-14: Blender’s integrated search menu is a great way to get familiar wi...

FIGURE 2-15: Add any workspace to your Blender window by navigating the menu in...

FIGURE 2-16: Customizing a hotkey sequence directly from Blender’s menus.

Book 1 Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: The Transform Orientations roll-out from the 3D Viewport’s header (...

FIGURE 3-2: The Global, Local, Normal, Gimbal, View, Cursor, and Parent coordin...

FIGURE 3-3: Blender gives you an assortment of transform tools: Move, Rotate, S...

FIGURE 3-4: The Show Gizmos menu in the 3D Viewport’s header gives you the abil...

FIGURE 3-5: The Snapping menu.

FIGURE 3-6: You can view changes in the 3D Viewport’s header.

Book 1 Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: On the left, the Mode button allows you to switch between Object mo...

FIGURE 4-2: The Modeling workspace gives you quick access to Edit mode and a sc...

FIGURE 4-3: The Edit mode Select buttons.

FIGURE 4-4: Vertex Select, Edge Select, Face Select, and Combo Select modes.

FIGURE 4-5: Use the Viewport Overlays roll-out menu to enable face centers so i...

FIGURE 4-6: Ngons in Blender can’t have holes in them.

FIGURE 4-7: Suzanne!

FIGURE 4-8: Editing duplicated Suzannes!

FIGURE 4-9: Three objects are sharing this datablock.

FIGURE 4-10: A data schematic of linked Suzannes.

FIGURE 4-11: Linking cubes to Suzanne.

FIGURE 4-12: The Outliner is where you manage collections. Four chapters into t...

FIGURE 4-13: The Blender File Browser.

Book 2 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: From left to right, box modeling, point-for-point modeling, and scu...

FIGURE 1-2: You can expand the Toolbar in Blender’s 3D Viewport by clicking its...

FIGURE 1-3: Insetting (right) creates a nicer border on a complex shape than ju...

FIGURE 1-4: Insetting can cause ugly overlapping intersections at corners.

FIGURE 1-5: Clean corners on your inset, thanks to the power of the Merge opera...

FIGURE 1-6: Using the Knife tool, you can prepare your mesh for other mesh oper...

FIGURE 1-7: The Bisect gizmo allows you to adjust your bisecting cut after you’...

FIGURE 1-8: The Bevel tool gives you the ability to add realism to your models ...

FIGURE 1-9: The Last Operator panel gives you all the necessary controls for tw...

FIGURE 1-10: Using the Spin tool, you can turn flat profiles into beautiful cyl...

FIGURE 1-11: Use the Last Operator panel to tweak the number of steps or to hav...

FIGURE 1-12: A closed edge loop (left) around a sphere and a terminating edge l...

FIGURE 1-13: Some face loops selected on a sphere.

FIGURE 1-14: An edge ring selected on a UV sphere.

Book 2 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: All the modifiers you can use on mesh objects.

FIGURE 2-2: The Array and Bevel modifiers in Modifiers Properties.

FIGURE 2-3: The Mirror modifier.

FIGURE 2-4: On the left, an asymmetric Suzanne with no mirror modifier. In the ...

FIGURE 2-5: Vertex groups are created within the Object Data tab of the Propert...

FIGURE 2-6: A cube with increasing levels of subdivision from 1 to 6.

FIGURE 2-7: Adding the Subdivision Surface modifier to Suzanne.

FIGURE 2-8: The Subdivision Surface modifier.

FIGURE 2-9: Filling a room with chairs by using the Array modifier.

FIGURE 2-10: (1) Model the step. (2) Add an Empty for Object Offset and rotate ...

Book 2 Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: Blender’s sculpt tools give you the ability to create highly detail...

FIGURE 3-2: The three kinds of image objects: Image Empty, Reference, and Backg...

FIGURE 3-3: The Object Data tab of the Properties editor is where you can modif...

FIGURE 3-4: The default work environment when you choose File ⇒?? New ⇒?? Sculp...

FIGURE 3-5: The available matcaps that come with Blender are easily accessible ...

FIGURE 3-6: The Cloth tool gives you quick, controlled access to cloth simulati...

FIGURE 3-7: Use the Texture panel in Tool Properties to make use of a texture o...

FIGURE 3-8: The Multiresolution modifier block.

FIGURE 3-9: The Dyntopo panel in Tool Properties allows you to enable dynamic t...

FIGURE 3-10: The Remesh panel in Tool Properties while in Sculpt mode is where ...

FIGURE 3-11: The R hotkey while in Sculpt mode gives you a handy visualization ...

FIGURE 3-12: Beginning to model with the Poly Build tool. You start with three ...

FIGURE 3-13: Using the Poly Build tool to start retopologizing your sculpt.

FIGURE 3-14: On the left, a model sculpted with Dyntopo; on the right is the sa...

Book 2 Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: With the exception of the slats for the seat and back, this entire ...

FIGURE 4-2: The Add ⇒   Curve menu.

FIGURE 4-3: An arbitrary shape created with Bézier curves (left) and NURBS curv...

FIGURE 4-4: The Add ⇒   Surface menu.

FIGURE 4-5: The same Bézier curve, cyclic (left) and non-cyclic (right).

FIGURE 4-6: The Draw tool’s settings give you a lot of additional power when cr...

FIGURE 4-7: Using the curve’s Draw tool along the surface of another object, yo...

FIGURE 4-8: The controls for editing curves.

FIGURE 4-9: Some of the different things you can do with an extruded curve.

FIGURE 4-10: Having fun by adding a bevel object to a Bézier circle.

FIGURE 4-11: Using a taper object to control a curve’s lengthwise shape.

FIGURE 4-12: Fun with the tilt function! Mmmmmm … twisty.

FIGURE 4-13: The same curve with aligned, free, auto, and vector handles.

FIGURE 4-14: Decreasing curve weights on a control point, differences between t...

FIGURE 4-15: Using lofting to create the hull of a boat.

FIGURE 4-16: Merging two metaballs.

FIGURE 4-17: The five metaball object primitives.

FIGURE 4-18: The Metaball panel.

FIGURE 4-19: Taking advantage of the curve-based nature of Blender text objects...

FIGURE 4-20: The Object Data tab of the Properties editor, sometimes referred t...

FIGURE 4-21: Blender’s File Browser can give you previews of what the fonts on ...

FIGURE 4-22: Using the Bold and Italics fonts to use widely different fonts in ...

FIGURE 4-23: Wheeeee! Metaletters!

FIGURE 4-24: Using text boxes to get multi-column text layouts.

FIGURE 4-25: Text on a curve.

Book 2 Chapter 5

FIGURE 5-1: The Geometry Nodes workspace is where you go to build your awesome ...

FIGURE 5-2: Like many other editors in Blender, the Geometry Nodes Editor has a...

FIGURE 5-3: The Spreadsheet editor gives you tools for filtering and checking d...

FIGURE 5-4: An assembly line approach, similar to Blender’s modifier stack and ...

FIGURE 5-5: Turning a simple assembly line into a complex assembly network.

FIGURE 5-6: Re-creating a simple version of the Subdivision Surface modifier us...

FIGURE 5-7: Using the “pull and search” approach to add a new node by dragging ...

FIGURE 5-8: Use Reroute sockets to help keep your noodles organized.

FIGURE 5-9: Using Frames, you can color-code and label parts of your node netwo...

FIGURE 5-10: The Simulation Zone in the Geometry Nodes Editor is used to create...

FIGURE 5-11: Your first simulation! A frame counter using the Simulation Zone.

FIGURE 5-12: The goal: Create your own vertex instance modifier to make a punk-...

FIGURE 5-13: With the Object Info node, you can pull any object from your scene...

FIGURE 5-14: You have a bunch of instances of cones! But they’re pointed the wr...

FIGURE 5-15: You can control the scale of your cone instances. Of course, they’...

FIGURE 5-16: With the Join Geometry node (a little Reroute socket to make thing...

FIGURE 5-17: You made your own version of a vertex instance as a modifier using...

FIGURE 5-18: A node network for a vertex instance modifier with a few more nice...

Book 3 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: From left to right, the same 3D model rendered in Workbench, Eevee,...

FIGURE 1-2: The Material tab of the Properties editor with a single basic mater...

FIGURE 1-3: Blender’s color picker.

FIGURE 1-4: Creating a beach ball with a UV sphere and four material slots.

FIGURE 1-5: Material slots on curves, surfaces, and text objects.

FIGURE 1-6: A schematic showing a material linked to a mesh and to an object.

FIGURE 1-7: Linked duplicates of Suzanne, except they don’t share the same mate...

FIGURE 1-8: The paint tools in the Toolbar.

FIGURE 1-9: The Tool tab of the Properties editor gives you a bunch of settings...

FIGURE 1-10: Right-click in the 3D Viewport for quick access to color and brush...

FIGURE 1-11: You can add multiple color attributes to a single mesh object from...

FIGURE 1-12: On the left, the Surface panel of the Material tab of the Properti...

FIGURE 1-13: The Shading workspace is ideal for working with node materials.

FIGURE 1-14: Use the Viewport Shading rollout to change the HDRI used to light ...

FIGURE 1-15: From the Shader Editor you can add shaders to your material.

FIGURE 1-16: The Principled BSDF node makes our lives as artists easier.

FIGURE 1-17: Use the Settings panel in the Material tab of the Properties edito...

FIGURE 1-18: The Mix Shader node doesn’t look like much, but there’s a bucket f...

FIGURE 1-19: Suzanne is here, ready to be made angry!

FIGURE 1-20: With the Color Ramp node, you can control what parts of Suzanne’s ...

FIGURE 1-21: The temperature is rising and Suzanne is getting angry. You wouldn...

FIGURE 1-22: The lowly Shader to RGB node. Just wait until you see what this th...

FIGURE 1-23: The Shader to RGB node can give you Suzanne with cartoony or comic...

Book 3 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: You add textures directly in your material node network.

FIGURE 2-2: Blender’s texture nodes.

FIGURE 2-3: The Color Ramp node has a ramp widget that allows you to create and...

FIGURE 2-4: Most texture nodes have a Texture Mapping panel in the Node tab of ...

FIGURE 2-5: Using the Texture Coordinate node and the Mapping node to put an im...

FIGURE 2-6: Bump mapping is easy. Just connect your texture to the Displacement...

FIGURE 2-7: Using the Pointiness socket, you can procedurally add rust on an ob...

FIGURE 2-8: Positioning a texture on an object using the UV Project modifier.

FIGURE 2-9: UV unwrapping a 3D mesh is like making a map of the Earth.

FIGURE 2-10: The UV Editing workspace is, as you might expect, for editing UV c...

FIGURE 2-11: The New Image floating panel for adding a test grid image.

FIGURE 2-12: An unwrapped Suzanne head.

FIGURE 2-13: You can use the Texture Paint workspace to paint textures on your ...

FIGURE 2-14: On the left, the Tool tab of the Properties editor in Texture Pain...

FIGURE 2-15: Create custom textures for painting in Texture Properties.

Book 3 Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: Different lighting configurations can drastically affect the look o...

FIGURE 3-2: A typical three-point lighting setup.

FIGURE 3-3: Suzanne, lit with the back light placed a few different ways.

FIGURE 3-4: Adding a light in the 3D Viewport.

FIGURE 3-5: From left to right, Point, Sun, Spot, and Area lights.

FIGURE 3-6: Panels and options available for all light types. On the left are t...

FIGURE 3-7: Using a Voronoi texture mapped to a Spot light, you can fake underw...

FIGURE 3-8: Controls for the Sun lights in Eevee and Cycles.

FIGURE 3-9: The angular diameter of a Sun light is the perceived size of the su...

FIGURE 3-10: The controls for Spot lights in Eevee and Cycles.

FIGURE 3-11: The controls for Area lights in Eevee and Cycles.

FIGURE 3-12: Emitting light from any mesh in Cycles is as easy as wiring an Emi...

FIGURE 3-13: Getting a mesh light to be invisible in your scene requires playin...

FIGURE 3-14: Using Area lights as portals can help reduce overall noise in an i...

FIGURE 3-15: To get Material Preview to more faithfully represent your scene li...

FIGURE 3-16: World Properties when the active renderer is Cycles (left) and Eev...

FIGURE 3-17: Eevee and Cycles treat the World like a material, so most of your ...

FIGURE 3-18: You can use high dynamic range images (HDRIs) as an environment te...

FIGURE 3-19: A node network for generating a flat gradient background in Cycles...

FIGURE 3-20: You can control the amount of ambient occlusion (AO) in your scene...

FIGURE 3-21: From left to right, with their render times: no ambient occlusion ...

FIGURE 3-22: From left to right, the Reflection Cube Map, Reflection Plane, and...

FIGURE 3-23: The Indirect Lighting panel in Render Properties is where you bake...

Book 3 Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: To view your renders, choose Maximized Area, Image Editor, or New W...

FIGURE 4-3: You can adjust the Layout workspace to show an Asset Browser by cha...

FIGURE 4-2: The Output panel in the Output tab of the Properties editor.

FIGURE 4-4: The Asset Details sidebar in the Asset Browser is where you can add...

Book 4 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: Blender’s Animation workspace is an excellent place to animate.

FIGURE 1-2: Animating the location of the default cube object.

FIGURE 1-3: Right-click any property in the Properties editor to insert a keyfr...

FIGURE 1-4: The Timeline’s Keying rollout has controls for choosing your active...

FIGURE 1-5: The Keying Sets panel is where you add new custom keying sets.

FIGURE 1-6: The properties of your active keying set are listed in the Active K...

FIGURE 1-7: Changing the interpolation type on selected f-curve control points.

FIGURE 1-8: The four extrapolation modes you can have on f-curves.

FIGURE 1-9: The Sidebar (N) in the Graph Editor.

FIGURE 1-10: Blender offers seven different f-curve modifiers that you can appl...

Book 4 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: The types of constraints available by default within Blender.

FIGURE 2-2: The Constraints tab of the Properties editor is where you add and m...

FIGURE 2-3: Parenting an object to a vertex group.

FIGURE 2-4: Rolling a cube using the Pivot constraint. Rotate, move the Empty, ...

FIGURE 2-5: The Driven Property pop-over is where you can quickly set up a driv...

FIGURE 2-6: The Drivers editor is where you can have complete control over how ...

Book 4 Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: The three different looks that the Shape Keys panel provides.

FIGURE 3-2: Creating a bug-eyed shape key for Suzanne.

FIGURE 3-3: Suzanne with excessively pinched and bulged eyes, just by changing ...

FIGURE 3-4: Creating a scream shape key.

FIGURE 3-5: A cube smoothly deformed by a hook.

FIGURE 3-6: An armature object with a single bone. Woohoo!

FIGURE 3-7: Three different ways to directly name your bones.

FIGURE 3-8: Press Ctrl+F2 to activate Blender’s Batch Rename operator so you ca...

FIGURE 3-9: Bones that are unparented (top), with an offset parent (middle), an...

FIGURE 3-10: Armature-specific tabs in the Properties editor.

FIGURE 3-11: The different display types for bones in Blender from top to botto...

FIGURE 3-12: Splitting your Properties editor can give you the ability to see t...

FIGURE 3-13: The Bendy Bones panel in Bone Properties gives you full control of...

FIGURE 3-14: Adjusting Curve In X bends the bone about the X-axis of its head (...

FIGURE 3-15: A single bendy bone, currently unbent.

FIGURE 3-16: All the various bending, twisting, and scaling you can do on a ben...

FIGURE 3-17: Using envelopes to control your armature’s influence over the mesh...

FIGURE 3-18: You can use the Vertex Groups panel to manually create vertex grou...

FIGURE 3-19: Envelope weights can give you unpleasant vertex group assignments ...

FIGURE 3-20: Stickman has an armature for his centerline.

FIGURE 3-21: A half-skeleton Stickman!

FIGURE 3-22: Stickman with a skeleton in him. He’s almost rigged, but he still ...

FIGURE 3-23: The Stickman rig, now with head control!

FIGURE 3-24: A basic IK rig for the legs of Stickman.

FIGURE 3-25: A completely working Stickman rig.

FIGURE 3-26: Stickman … rigged with sticks!

FIGURE 3-27: The Bone Groups panel with controls for bone groups and bone color...

FIGURE 3-28: A Blender session with an Asset Browser, ready to create a pose li...

FIGURE 3-29: A pose library for Stickman!

Book 4 Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: Using markers, you can add helpful notes to your animated sequences...

FIGURE 4-2: Quaternions in action! They’re nearly incomprehensible!

FIGURE 4-3: All you have to do is put one foot forward, and Blender handles the...

FIGURE 4-4: Using the Action datablock in the Dope Sheet to create a new action...

FIGURE 4-5: An animation screen layout with the Nonlinear Animation editor adde...

FIGURE 4-6: Using the Sidebar in the Nonlinear Animation editor.

FIGURE 4-7: Action strips in the Nonlinear Animation editor, looped and rescale...

Book 4 Chapter 5

FIGURE 5-1: Creating a basic particle system.

FIGURE 5-2: Creating a wind force that blows your particles into a plane, which...

FIGURE 5-3: Combing hair in Sculpt mode. Suzanne looks so wise with a moustache...

FIGURE 5-4: Use the Asset Browser to get quick access to helpful pre-configured...

FIGURE 5-5: On the left, bearded Suzanne rendered in Eevee. On the right, she’s...

FIGURE 5-6: Dropping a jiggly cube into the scene.

FIGURE 5-7: Creating a simple rigid body simulation.

FIGURE 5-8: Creating a simple cloth simulation.

FIGURE 5-9: Splashing orange juice out of a glass. This image was on the cover ...

FIGURE 5-10: A simple smoke simulation displayed in the 3D Viewport.

FIGURE 5-11: On the left, a smoke simulation rendered in Eevee. On the right is...

Book 4 Chapter 6

FIGURE 6-1: Blender’s 2D Animation workflow template gives you a super-comforta...

FIGURE 6-2: The primitives for Grease Pencil: Blank, Stroke, and Monkey (of cou...

FIGURE 6-3: Blender’s default Grease Pencil brushes are great, but it’s even be...

FIGURE 6-4: Material Properties with a single Grease Pencil material added to y...

FIGURE 6-5: Changing the Stroke properties of your Grease Pencil material gives...

FIGURE 6-6: A single Grease Pencil object with two materials on it, one a dotte...

FIGURE 6-7: With just a little bit of playing around with materials on Suzanne.

FIGURE 6-8: Use the Layers roll-out in the 3D Viewport’s Tool Settings region t...

FIGURE 6-9: The Adjustments sub-panel for Layers lets you modify all the stroke...

FIGURE 6-10: A visualization of the levels of control Blender gives you control...

FIGURE 6-11: Blender gives you almost as many Grease Pencil modifiers as there ...

FIGURE 6-12: The first stages of a classic bouncing ball animation with Grease ...

FIGURE 6-13: Bouncing ball pencil test, complete!

FIGURE 6-14: One bouncing ball animation, ready for render!

FIGURE 6-15: One Grease Pencil rubber ball, ready to be bounced.

FIGURE 6-16: It hasn’t been animated yet, but this ball now has a rig and can b...

FIGURE 6-17: A hand-drawn ball, drawn once and bounced with technology from the...

Book 5 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: The default Video Editing workspace for when you start a project.

FIGURE 1-2: You can edit video and preview it all in the same space using Previ...

FIGURE 1-3: Choose Sync to Audio to ensure that your audio plays back in sync w...

FIGURE 1-4: The Add menu in the Video Sequencer.

FIGURE 1-5: You can swap the File Browser with a Graph Editor in the Video Edit...

FIGURE 1-6: Common FFmpeg settings for container, video, and audio.

Book 5 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: The Compositing workspace that ships with Blender is the preferred ...

FIGURE 2-2: Controls for your view layers are all along the right side of the s...

FIGURE 2-3: View Layer properties with Eevee as your render engine (left) versu...

FIGURE 2-4: Enabling passes adds corresponding output sockets on your view laye...

FIGURE 2-5: Setting up the Cryptomatte node for picking your mattes.

FIGURE 2-6: Just some objects I picked for making a matte to use elsewhere in a...

FIGURE 2-7: Use the AOV Output node in the Shader Node Editor to create a custo...

FIGURE 2-8: When using Material Preview or Rendered viewport shading, the Viewp...

FIGURE 2-9: Einar, rendered in Cycles and ready to have his face replaced.

FIGURE 2-10: Your Einar render loaded in an Image node in the Compositor.

FIGURE 2-11: The UV pass of a render looks kind of weird and alien.

FIGURE 2-12: A color grid remapped to match the UV of Einar.

FIGURE 2-13: Your remapped image texture now has the scene’s lighting applied t...

FIGURE 2-14: Use the Cryptomatte node to make a mask of Einar’s face.

FIGURE 2-15: Einar has a new face!

Book 5 Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: A camera captures light bouncing off the environment with a lens an...

FIGURE 3-2: An interlaced frame is assembled by interleaving neighboring frames...

FIGURE 3-3: Start your motion tracking session with the VFX workflow template.

FIGURE 3-4: With a video sequence loaded, the Movie Clip Editor has a lot more ...

FIGURE 3-5: A single tracking marker in Blender’s Movie Clip Editor.

FIGURE 3-6: From the Track tab of the Movie Clip Editor’s Sidebar you can get a...

FIGURE 3-7: Have Blender automatically detect features in your footage, and you...

FIGURE 3-8: With good tracking data on your video sequence, you may have all ki...

FIGURE 3-9: The Solve tab of the Movie Clip Editor’s Toolbar is where your 2D f...

FIGURE 3-10: Use the Camera and Lens panels in the Track tab of the Movie Clip ...

FIGURE 3-11: Solving camera motion puts a lot of information in the 3D scene.

FIGURE 3-12: A simple shot, tracked and solved, with Suzanne added for good mea...

Book 6 Chapter 1

FIGURE 1-1: The controls provided by the Edit Linked Library add-on are availab...

Book 6 Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: The Scripting workspace is the best place to start when writing scr...

FIGURE 2-2: Your first Python script in Blender. Hello world!

FIGURE 2-3: A large assortment of templates for Python scripts are available fr...

FIGURE 2-4: Adding a custom property to the default cube.

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Begin Reading

Index

About the Author

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Blender® All-in-One For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Blender is a registered trademark of Blender Foundation in the EU and USA. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2024933364

ISBN: 978-1-394-20404-5 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-394-20406-9 (ePub); ISBN: 978-1-394-20405-2 (ePDF)

Introduction

Welcome to Blender All-in-One For Dummies, your introduction to one of the most well-known free programs for creating 3D computer graphics. With Blender, you can create characters, props, environments, and nearly anything else your imagination can generate. And it's not just about creating objects. You can set them in motion, too. Tell a story in an animation, walk people through a world of your own creation, or add a special effect to some video footage. It's all possible. They still haven’t quite designed a way for Blender to give you a foot massage if you’ve had a bad day, but in all seriousness, it’s difficult to imagine a task in computer animation that you can’t do with Blender. And just think: the developers of Blender have included all these features in a package you can download for free and run on nearly any computer. Crazy!

Blender sits at a very unique position in the world of 3D computer graphics. In the distant past, to get into 3D modeling and animation, you had only a few options, and most of them were too expensive, too limiting, or — ahem — too illegal for people just trying to see what this whole 3D thing was all about. Blender circumvents all those issues because it’s free. And not just zero-cost free, but freedom Free. Blender is open source. A world full of developers and users regularly contribute code and documentation to this project, adding enhancements and improvements at a mind-boggling pace.

Of course, 3D computer graphics is a complex topic, and all software of this type is dense with buttons, options, settings, and unique ways of working. Perhaps more than any other program like it, Blender has carried a pretty heavy reputation for being difficult to understand. Blender wasn’t typically viewed as software for beginners. But, with every new release, it gets better and better. Of course, there’s still a lot in there. That’s why this book exists. If I’ve done my job right, this book will help get you started at a sprint. Blender All-in-One For Dummies is not just a book on using Blender. Sure, I explain why things in Blender work in their peculiar Blenderish ways, but I also make a point to explain core principles of 3D computer graphics as they are relevant. There’s no use in being able to find a button if you’re not really sure what it does or how it works. My hope is that with this combined knowledge, you can actually take advantage of Blender’s unique traits to create your own high-quality 3D art as quickly and efficiently as possible. Perhaps you can even become as addicted to it as I have been for the last 25+ years!

About This Book

Blender is an extremely complex program used for the even more complex task of producing high-quality 3D models and animations. In fact, Blender’s capabilities have expanded so much since in the three years since Blender For Dummies, 4th Edition was released, we couldn’t just do a new edition; we had to make it an All-in-One! That said, I can’t cover every single feature and button in this powerful tool. For a more comprehensive manual, refer to the excellent online documentation available through Blender’s website at https://docs.blender.org/manual.

Because I want to bring you up to speed on working in 3D space with Blender so that you can start bringing your ideas to life as soon as possible, I focus on introducing you to the fundamental “Blender way” of working. Not only do I show you how something is done in Blender, but I also often take the time to explain why things are done a certain way. Hopefully, this approach will put you on the fast track to making awesome work, and also allow you to figure out new parts of Blender on your own when you come across them.

Throughout the book, I refer to the Blender community. Blender’s user community is probably one of its most valuable assets. It really is a feature all its own, and I would be remiss to neglect to mention it. Not only do many members of the community create great work, but they also write new code for Blender, write and edit documentation, and help each other improve. And understand that when I make reference to the Blender community, I include you in that community as well. As of right now, you are a Blenderhead — a fellow Blender user and, therefore, a member of the Blender community.

Blender is a truly cross-platform program running on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Fortunately, not much in Blender differs from one platform to another. However, for the few differences, I’ll be sure to point them out for you.

Foolish Assumptions

I’ve written this book for two sorts of beginners: people who are completely new to the world of 3D and people who know a thing or two about 3D but are completely new to Blender.

Because of the various types of beginners this book addresses, I tend to err on the side of explaining too much rather than too little. If you’re someone who is already familiar with another 3D computer graphics program, such as Maya, Cinema 4D, Houdini, or even an earlier version of Blender, you can probably skip a number of these explanations. Likewise, if you’re a complete newbie, you may notice that I occasionally compare a feature in Blender to one in another package. However, that comparison is mostly for the benefit of these other users. I write so that you can understand a concept without having to know any of these other programs.

I do, however, make the assumption that you have at least a basic understanding of your computer. I assume that you know how to use a mouse, and I highly recommend that you use a mouse with at least two buttons and a scroll wheel, and that you’ve configured your operating system to enable the middle- and right-click buttons on your mouse. You can use Blender with a one- or two-button mouse or even a laptop trackpad, and I provide workarounds for the unfortunate souls in that grim state (cough … Mac users … cough), but it’s certainly not ideal.

An exception is if you’re using Blender with a drawing tablet like the ones produced by Wacom. Blender is accessible to tablet users and quite useful for tasks like drawing and sculpting. Of course, even though tablets are much less expensive these days than in the past, not everyone has one. For that reason, I focus primarily on using Blender with a mouse, although I will occasionally point out where having a tablet is helpful. Because Blender makes use of all your mouse buttons, I stipulate whether you need to left-click, right-click, or middle-click. And in case you didn’t already know, pressing down on your mouse’s scroll wheel typically accesses the middle mouse button. I also make use of this cool little arrow ( ⇒     ) for indicating a sequence of steps. It could be a series of hotkeys to press, menu items to select, or places to look in the Blender interface, but the consistent thing is that all these items are used for steps that you need to perform sequentially rather than simultaneously. For things that have to be done simultaneously like hotkey combinations such as Ctrl+Z for undo, I use a plus symbol (+).

I also assume that you’re working with Blender’s default settings and theme. You can customize the settings for yourself (in fact, I still use the presets from previous releases of Blender; 20 years of muscle memory doesn’t go away easily), but if you do, Blender may not behave exactly like I describe in the book. For that reason, I focus mostly on accessing features through the menu system rather than using hotkeys. Hotkeys are meant to be customized, but the menus in Blender remain a consistent way of accessing features. Bearing in mind the point about Blender's themes, you may notice that the screenshots of Blender’s interface are lighter in this book than you see onscreen. If I used Blender’s default theme colors, all the figures in the book would appear overly dark. So for the last edition of this book I created a custom theme with lighter colors that shows up better in print. Since then, that theme has actually been incorporated with Blender and ships with it. If you like the look of it, you can enable the “Print Friendly” theme from the Themes section of Preferences.

Icons Used in This Book

As you flip through this book, icons periodically appear next to some paragraphs. These icons notify you of unique or valuable information on the topic at hand. Sometimes that information is a tip, sometimes it’s more detail about how something works, sometimes it’s a warning to help you avoid losing data, and sometimes they’re images that match icons in Blender’s interface (there’s a lot of them). For the icons that aren’t in Blender’s interface, the following are descriptions of each icon in this book.

This icon calls out suggestions that help you work more effectively and save time.

This icon marks something that I think you should try to keep in mind while working in Blender. Sometimes it’s a random tidbit of information, but more often than not, it’s something that you’ll run into repeatedly and is, therefore, worth remembering.

Working in 3D can involve some pretty heavy technical information. You can usually work just fine without ever having to know these things, but if you do take the time to understand it, I bet you dollars to donuts that you’ll be able to use Blender more effectively.

This icon doesn’t show up often, but when it does, I definitely recommend that you pay attention. You won’t blow up your computer if you overlook it, but you could lose work.

Blender is a fast-moving target. Quite a bit has changed since the previous edition of this book. These icons point out things that are new or different in Blender so that you can get to be at least as effective (and hopefully more effective) with the current version as you were with past versions. Also, because this book focuses on the 3.6 LTS release of Blender, there are some differences that appear in more recent releases. I use this icon to let you know of those as well.

Beyond the Book

Blender All-in-One For Dummies includes the following online goodies only for easy download:

Cheat Sheet:

You can find the Cheat Sheet for this book here:

www.dummies.com/article/technology/software/animation-software/blender/blender-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-208646/

, or by going to

www.dummies.com

, typing

blender

in the search box, and clicking Explore Articles.

Extras:

I keep and maintain a website at

blenderbasics.com

with additional resources. I have a whole bunch of tutorials, both in written and in video format, specifically for readers of this book. Also, Blender’s a big, fast-moving program. I do my best on that site to chronicle changes in Blender that affect the content of this book (and perhaps share a new tip or two as well).

Where to Go from Here

Wondering where to start? The easy answer here would be to say “Just dive on in!” but that’s probably a bit too vague. This book is primarily intended as a reference, so if you already know what you’re looking for, flip over to the table of contents or index and start soaking in the Blendery goodness.

If you’re just starting out, I suggest that you merely turn a couple of pages, start at Chapter 1, and enjoy the ride. And, even if you’re the sort of person who knows exactly what you’re looking for, take the time to read through other sections of the book. You can find a bunch of valuable little bits of information that may help you work more effectively.

Regardless of how you read this book, though, my one hope is that you find it to be a valuable resource that allows you to flex your creative muscles and, more importantly, have fun doing it.

Book 1

Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: Discovering Blender

Getting to Know Blender

Getting to Know the Interface

Chapter 2: Understanding How Blender Thinks

Menus in Blender

Looking at Editor Types

Understanding the Properties Editor

Navigating in Three Dimensions

Extra Features in the 3D Viewport

Customizing Blender to Fit You

Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty Working in Blender

Grabbing, Scaling, and Rotating

Differentiating Between Coordinate Systems

Transforming an Object by Using Tools

Creating Custom Transform Orientations

Saving Time by Using Hotkeys

Other Ways to Transform Objects

Chapter 4: Working in Edit Mode and Object Mode

Making Changes by Using Edit Mode

Understanding Datablocks: Fundamental Elements in a Blender File

Adding to a Scene

Chapter 1

Discovering Blender

IN THIS CHAPTER

Figuring out what Blender is and what it’s used for

Understanding Blender’s history

Getting familiar with the Blender interface

In the world of 3D modeling and animation software, programs have traditionally been expensive — like, thousands-of-dollars-and-maybe-an-arm expensive. That’s changed a bit over the years, with software companies moving to more subscription-based ways of selling their programs. The entry cost is lower, but paying each month can still add up pretty quickly. There are some valid reasons for the high prices. Software companies spend millions of dollars and countless hours developing these programs. The large production companies that buy this kind of software for their staff, make enough money to afford the high cost, or hire programmers and write their own in-house software.

But what about us, you and me: the little folks? We are the ambitious dreamers with big ideas, high motivation … and tight budgets. How can we bring our ideas to life and our stories to screen, even if only on our own computer monitors? Granted, we could shell out the cash (and hopefully keep our arms) for the expensive programs that the pros use. But even then, animation is a highly collaborative art, and it’s difficult to produce anything in a reasonable amount of time without some help.

We need quality software and a strong community to work, grow, and evolve with. Fortunately, Blender can provide us with both these things. This chapter is an introduction to Blender, its background, its interface, and its community.

Getting to Know Blender

Blender is a free and open source 3D modeling and animation suite. Yikes! What a mouthful, huh? Put simply, Blender is a computer graphics program that allows you to produce high-quality still images and animations using three-dimensional geometry. It used to be that you’d only see the results of this work in animated feature films or high-budget television shows. These days, it’s way more pervasive. Computer-generated 3D graphics are everywhere. Almost every major film and television show involves some kind of 3D computer graphics and animation. (Even sporting events! Pay close attention to the animations that show the scores or players’ names.) And it’s not just film and TV; 3D graphics play a major role in video games, industrial design, scientific visualization, and architecture (to name just a few industries). In the right hands, Blender is capable of producing this kind of work. With a little patience and dedication, your hands can be the right hands.

One of the things that makes Blender different and special compared to similar 3D software is that it is freely available without cost, and that it’s free and open source software.

Being free of cost, as well as free (as in freedom) and open source, means that not only can you go to the Blender website (www.blender.org) and download the entire program right now without paying anything, but you can also freely download the source or the code that makes up the program. For most programs, the source code is a heavily guarded and highly protected secret that only certain people (mostly programmers hired by the company that distributes the program) can see and modify. But Blender is open source, so anybody can see the program’s source code and make changes to it. The benefit is that instead of having the program’s guts behind lock and key, Blender can be improved by programmers (and even non-programmers) all over the world!