blender provides a lot of information
with its interface and can be flexible
enough to fit the workflow you need
let's go over some of the basics on how
to interpret and interact with blender's
ui
before we begin i want to point out that
there is a very handy display at the
very bottom of the user interface
this is an informative display that lets
you know what each click can do in the
context your cursor is at the moment
it also applies to when certain hotkeys
are being held down to change the
function of certain clicks
for example if you hold shift you can
see the information at the bottom
changing
it tells us that without holding shift
your middle mouse button rotates your
perspective but holding shift pans your
perspective
feel free to refer to this display at
any time while watching this series or
playing around with blender to learn
more of its features as a quick
reference here are what some of the
mouse icons translate to
now the next big thing you'll notice is
that each important section of the ui is
separated into panels these panels are
scalable if you click and drag any of
the boundaries and they can also be
whatever you'd like them to be simply
click the drop down menu in the top left
or bottom left of a panel and select a
different type of editor
you can also create more panels by
right-clicking a boundary clicking split
area and then left-clicking at a
position of the screen you desire
to delete a panel simply right-click a
boundary click join area and left-click
over the panel you'd like to overwrite
additionally if you would ever like to
maximize a panel to focus on it simply
mouse over an area and press control
space you can also press control space
again to return
while this is extremely powerful blender
also provides default workspaces you can
choose from that set up the appropriate
editors for specific workflows you can
find these workspace options in the tabs
above
for hotkey users you can press control
page up or control page down
we will be going over each of these
workspaces in future videos however for
this video we will focus on the primary
editors of the layout workspace further
introduction of other editors will be
given in editor-specific videos
so let's begin if you saw our viewport
navigation video then you already know
what the viewport is this is where our
3d scene is displayed in this editor you
can perform a variety of tasks that
interact with your 3d scene and its
objects
however it's important to note that
there are two helpful quick menus in the
viewport simply press t as in tools or
left click this arrow here to expand the
quick tools menu for the viewport this
includes tools such as the select box
move rotate and scale
for hotkey users keep in mind you can
also use shift space at any time to
bring up the same tools menu but labeled
and at your cursor location
this works similarly to a pi menu in
that you have the option to hold the
shift space hotkey move your cursor to
the tool you want and release the hotkey
to select a tool
you can also press n as a number or
left-click the arrow on the right to
open additional quick settings which
includes your item's transformation data
specific settings and other viewport
options
you'll notice here there is an option
for the 3d cursor this is a very
powerful tool which you can see right
here
this red and white circle acts as the
spawning point for any new objects and
can be used as a reference for pivoting
which we'll go over in another video to
place it around your scene simply hold
shift and right click
to recenter the cursor simply press
shift s and select cursor to world
origin from the pie menu or adjust the
location and rotation settings in the
right hand side quick menu now this
feels like a good time to explain what
pie menus are for those who are
unfamiliar
pie menus are quick wheel menus that
appear around your cursor after a hotkey
is pressed you have three options when
navigating a pi menu the first option is
to right-click to cancel in case you
changed your mind the second option is
to press and hold the hotkey to initiate
the pi menu
drag your cursor to your desired choice
then let go of the hotkey to select with
no clicking necessary or the third
option is to let go of the hotkey that
initiated the pi menu before moving your
cursor then use your cursor to left
click select the option you like after
you get used to where each option is
this can greatly speed up your workflow
while also making several options
available with less keystrokes
throughout the series you will see pi
menus quite often for various different
contexts
now below the viewport we have the
timeline this controls playback of your
animation you can zoom in and out with
your scroll wheel drag the timeline with
your middle mouse button change the
start and end frames for your output and
create and manipulate keyframes all of
which we'll go over in another video
the properties editor contains several
tabs vertically to display the
properties of your scene your current
tool and whatever object you have
selected
to start at the top this first tab
represents the options your currently
selected tool in the viewport may have
in this case the select box tool gives
you a few different selection options
the next few tabs which you can see are
separated by a small gap contain your
scene specific properties
just to clarify your scene refers to
your entire 3d scene however you can
create more than one scene in a single
blender file by clicking up here
you can also select a scene from
existing scenes using this drop down
this back facing camera icon is your
render tab this allows you to change
render engines sampling engine specific
properties and other properties that
affect your final image and how it's
interpreted from the 3d scene
the next icon looks like a printer and
this is your output tab
this is where all of your output
settings can be tweaked before render
resolution frame rate file path file
type and much more
the icon that looks like a stack of
photos is the view layer tab and is
similar to what used to be called render
layers view layers are typically used to
separate background and character passes
for example for easy compositing after
render however you'll notice this is
only the past properties not the objects
and it's for only one view layer the one
we're currently in to select a different
view layer to change its properties
you'll need to go up here similar to
creating a new scene you can create and
select existing view layers here
while we're on the topic i'd like to
point out what this panel above
properties is for in order to specify
which collections of objects are
rendered out in each view layer you can
check and uncheck collections here in
what's called the outliner
i highly recommend using descriptive
names for your collections and view
layers by double clicking them but we
will go over this in another video
next we have the general scene tab this
has other miscellaneous scene properties
that affect your scene such as your
active camera your units and rigid body
settings
finally the globe icon is the final tab
of this section and is called the world
tab this includes properties for the sky
and air of your scene in other words the
surface option for your world is the
shader used for your sky or background
color
while volume allows for volumetric
lighting throughout the atmosphere of
your scene as a whole such as fog or
mist
for the next section the property tabs
will be specific to the active object
you have selected so in this case i will
select the cube
our first tab is the object tab this
contains basic information such as
location rotation and scale of the
object you can also specify parent-child
relationships which collections it
belongs to and visibility of the object
the next tab is a very important tab for
blender represented by a wrench icon the
modifiers tab allows for powerful
manipulation of objects using predefined
modifiers simply select a modifier from
the drop down menu to add it to the
stack below you can use as many
modifiers as you like and change the
order or application of these
modifications using these arrows
for example the subdivision surface
modifier and the bevel modifier
this next tab is the particles tab you
can see the icon looks like an object
shooting particles out from its main
body in here you can create particle
systems and add them to the object you
have selected
next is the physics tab which looks like
an orbiting planet icon this contains
several different types of physics
simulations and physics manipulators
including cloth rigid body smoke fluid
collision and force fields such as wind
the next icon looks like two objects
wrapped together this represents the
constraints tab
this tab is very similar to the
modifiers tab but deals more so with
relationships of the objects you have
selected with other objects or values
rather than manipulating the object by
itself
you can have an object copy the location
of another object with the copy location
constraint stay above the ground with
the floor constraint or point at another
object with the tracking constraints
the green triangle icon is for your
object's mesh data to explain what mesh
data is i can tell you that the reason
why our cube is a cube is because of the
mesh data if i were to take this exact
same object and change the mesh data its
shape would not be the same but its
object properties such as its location
would remain the same
here you can manipulate your vertex
groups also known as weight maps your
shape keys also known as blend shapes
and your uv maps other geometry specific
settings belong here as well
and finally we have our material tab
this is represented by a material sphere
icon and is where you control much of
how your object is shaded during render
the material you choose here will affect
how shiny your object is what color it
is and how rough it may appear to be
the final tab is actually in a different
section as you can see there's a small
gap there this is the texture tab
represented with a checkered canvas icon
and is not object specific textures
exist as separate entities that can be
referenced for a number of things
including the world aka skybox materials
or brushes because of this ubiquity they
are in a separate section
before we move on let's go ahead and
left click to select our lamp object
this is the dotted circular thing you
see next to our cube
once you have that selected you'll have
access to its lamp properties which
looks like a light bulb
this is where you can tweak its
brightness the radius of light whether
or not it casts shadows and what type of
lamp it is
we can also left click to select our
camera object which is this sideways
rectangular pyramid shape we have here
now you should have access to the camera
options which include focal length
perspective type and much more and
that's the summary for the default
layout workspace we see when we open
blender i hope this is helpful for you
and i'll be going into more detail about
the other workspaces and what each
editor does in separate videos