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Blender Tutorial for Beginners — Transcript

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0:00Blender is a free program that can be
0:03used to create anything you can think
0:05of. Whether you aspire to be a digital
0:07artist or a game developer, you've
0:09probably been mesmerized by some Blender
0:11creations, but you you don't know how to
0:14do that. Or at least you don't know how
0:15to do that yet. Well, today you'll learn
0:18the basics of Blender and the bare
0:19basics of 3D modeling. This video has
0:22been split up into three parts. learning
0:24the controls, the simple modeling, and
0:26how to continue to learn and grow in
0:28Blender after this video. Let's get
0:30started.
0:33Okay, in order to download Blender, just
0:36type in blender.org
0:38into Google, go over to this download
0:41button right here. Then, if you use
0:42Windows, you can click right here. If
0:44you use something else, you can click on
0:46this dropdown and select Mac, Linux, or
0:49anything else. But since I'm using
0:50Windows, I'll just click download
0:52Blender. And you'll download it how you
0:54would any other app. You can also get
0:56Blender on Steam if you want to track
0:58how many hours you've done. Once you
0:59boot up Blender, you'll probably be met
1:01with this screen. And if you've used it
1:03before, you'll see all of your recent
1:05files, but you probably won't have that.
1:07So, you can click on a new file if you
1:10want to, but what I recommend doing is
1:12just clicking off that screen to the
1:14default workspace. Now, you're probably
1:16overwhelmed by all of the options you
1:18see at the moment, but just know that
1:20I've been using Blender for multiple
1:22years, and I've only used like 10% of
1:24the options here. Out of all of these
1:25workspaces, I've used like maybe three
1:28of them. So, don't worry, you don't have
1:30to learn everything. Just take your
1:31time, and just learn the tools that best
1:33fit you. Let's begin with some of these
1:36movement controls. Now, if you have a
1:38mouse, what you're going to do is click
1:39on that little scroll wheel, and that
1:41will allow you to rotate around the
1:43scene like this. What you can do next is
1:45you can hold shift in that middle mouse
1:47button and you can pan around like this.
1:49Now, if you don't have a mouse, what you
1:51can do is click right here and this will
1:53rotate around. Or you can hold right
1:55here and you can pan around. And another
1:57option you can do if you don't have a
1:59mouse is you can go up to references, go
2:01into this input right here and click on
2:03emulate threebutton mouse. Then what you
2:05can do is just hold alt and click and
2:07that will emulate as holding down that
2:09middle mouse button. And then you can
2:10also do shift altclick to pan. But since
2:13I have a mouse, I'm going to disable
2:15that. Then for zooming, you can just use
2:17your scroll wheel, or you can use this
2:19little icon right here to zoom in and
2:21out. Now, let's do some little snapping
2:23tricks to help you lock onto different
2:25axes. So, what you can do, you can go up
2:27to this gizmo and click on any of these
2:29and it'll snap you there. Or if you have
2:31a mouse pad on your keyboard, you can
2:33click on any of these numbers and it'll
2:35snap you to different axes. But what I
2:37prefer doing is simply rotating around
2:39with the middle mouse button and holding
2:41alt. and that will snap you to different
2:43points of view. That's just a very fast
2:45way of doing it. Then let's say you get
2:47lost in a scene and you have no idea
2:48where you are. You know, you're just
2:50completely flipped around. You have no
2:52idea where your original object is. What
2:54you can do is you can click on right
2:55here. Then you can click on the number
2:57pad decimal and it will snap to your
2:59object. If you don't have a number pad,
3:01what you can do is simply hit the tilda
3:03key and view selected and it will snap
3:05you back. Now, let's go over some of the
3:06basic object controls. Select
3:09everything. Then you can press delete to
3:11remove everything or you can press X to
3:14delete everything. Then if you want to
3:15add in an object, you can do shift A,
3:17which pulls up this entire menu right
3:19here. And you can add a whole lot of
3:21different things. But for now, we're
3:22just going to stay in this mesh tab. And
3:23I'm going to add in a cube. And that's
3:25just how you add in more objects to the
3:27scene. But let's say for instance, you
3:29want to add in a cylinder. Once you add
3:31it in, you'll get this little popup
3:33right here. You want to click on this
3:34arrow. And then you can adjust all these
3:37different properties of the cylinder.
3:38For instance, if you want it to be like
3:40a wide short cylinder, you can. You can
3:43adjust as many vertices as you want as
3:44well. But once you click off, that menu
3:47disappears and you can't pull it back
3:49up. So, let's add back in a cube. Then,
3:52if you want to move this cube around,
3:54what you want to do is press G and
3:56that'll grab the object and allow you to
3:58move anywhere within the scene. And
3:59then, one thing you'll probably do a lot
4:01is wanting to snap it to an axis. So,
4:03what you can do is press G and hold it.
4:05Then hold one of the axis keys, which is
4:08Z, X, and Y. And that will simply snap
4:10it to all the different axes, so you can
4:13make sure it's aligned. Next is scaling
4:15the objects. And that simply is using
4:17the S key. So you can scale it any way
4:19you want. And similar to the movement
4:21key, if you hold S, you can snap it to
4:23an axis. That'll only scale it in one
4:26direction. Next, in order to rotate, all
4:28you need to do is press R. And again,
4:30similar to the scale and movement key,
4:32you can press from the axis keys, and it
4:33will snap it to that axis. So you can
4:35only rotate in one direction, which is
4:37something you'll do quite a lot when
4:39modeling. Now, another thing you can do
4:40when rotating is hold R and type in a
4:43number, for instance, 45, and that will
4:45rotate at 45° in the desired angle,
4:48which is great for creating precise
4:50rotations. Next, let's go over how to
4:52undo and redo. It's similar to most
4:54programs where just Z will undo
4:56everything and shift control- Z will
4:58redo it. Then if you want to get an
5:01exact replica of this object, you can do
5:03shift D to duplicate it. You can do this
5:05as many times as you want. It'll always
5:07be a perfect replica of the object you
5:09duplicated. Then let's say you want to
5:11select everything in your scene. If you
5:13simply press A, it'll select all the
5:16objects in your scene. And you can move
5:18these and rotate these as you wish. Now
5:20there's a lot of different modes and
5:22views you can use in Blender, but the
5:24ones you'll be using most in modeling is
5:25the object mode and the edit mode. The
5:27difference between this is the object
5:29mode is this entire object. And the edit
5:31mode is used to edit the different
5:33vertices within this model. In order to
5:36get to edit mode, you can go up to this
5:37tab right here and select edit mode. Or
5:40what you can do is simply press tab and
5:42it will quickly swap to edit and object
5:45mode. Now, if you're unable to get into
5:46edit mode, make sure you select an
5:48object. And whichever object you select,
5:50you'll go into edit mode for that
5:51specific object. Now, once you're in
5:53edit mode, a lot of the controls are
5:55similar to object mode. You can use this
5:57simple G to move, S to scale, R to
6:01rotate. All of those work in edit mode.
6:03Now, as I mentioned before, the
6:04difference between edit and object mode
6:06is that you can highlight the vertices,
6:08the edges, and the faces in a specific
6:11object in which you can more finely
6:13tweak a model. Now, you can swap between
6:15these different selections by going up
6:17to here. This is the vertex mode, which
6:19is these individual little points right
6:21here. This is the edge mode, which is
6:23the distance between two vertices that
6:25you can quickly select. And this right
6:27here is the face mode in which you can
6:29select any face you want. You can swap
6:31quickly between these modes by pressing
6:33one, two, or three. Then let's say you
6:35want to extrude one of these faces out.
6:37You can simply do that by selecting one
6:39of these faces and pressing E. And that
6:42will extrude a portion of this model out
6:44based on the face. You can also do this
6:47for vertices and edges, but usually you
6:49want to stick to faces. Next, let's say
6:51you want to have more points to edit
6:52within a model. What you can do is press
6:54CtrlR and add in a loop cut to the
6:57model. You can click and then drag where
7:00you want this loop cut to happen. And
7:02once you let go, it creates a loop cut,
7:04which adds more faces and separates the
7:06model and gives you more planes to play
7:08with. And when you're adding loop cuts,
7:10you can use the scroll wheel to add as
7:12many as you want at a time. You can add
7:14a whole lot or you could just add a
7:16couple. And then you can drag it where
7:18you want them, or you can press
7:19rightclick, and that perfectly centers
7:21it between the face. Now, let's say you
7:23want to select multiple faces at once.
7:25What you should do is click on a face,
7:27then hold shift and click on another
7:29one, then another one, and another one,
7:30as many as you want, and then you can
7:32edit all of these faces at once. Another
7:34thing you can do is click on one face,
7:36then hold control and click on another
7:38face that's further away from the model,
7:40and select everything between the two.
7:42You can use this for edges and vertices
7:44as well. And another quick way to select
7:47multiple points is using altclick, and
7:49this will select every single point
7:51within the edge loop. Now, you might not
7:53know what edge loops are, and that's
7:54fine at the moment because it's used for
7:56more complicated topology, but for now,
7:58you should just use it as a quick way to
7:59grab certain areas and certain points.
8:02And also, you can see many tools right
8:03here. So, if you don't know the
8:05shortcuts and you want to experiment,
8:07you can simply click on one of these
8:08panels and add in anything you want.
8:11Next, let's talk about beveling. Now, in
8:13order to bevel, you simply press CtrlB,
8:16and that adds a little bevel between two
8:18points. And through this bevel, you can
8:20use the scroll wheel to add multiple
8:23areas to soften out that edge a little
8:25bit more. Then what you can also do is
8:27click P and then you can tweak the angle
8:30of this bevel. So if you want to insert
8:31it, you can. Now for a lot of these
8:33different tools, you can look down at
8:35the bottom of the screen and see all the
8:38different keybinds you can use to tweak
8:40it slightly. But a lot of these you'll
8:42probably never use, but I would
8:43recommend experimenting with them and
8:45see the different results. Then let's
8:47talk about insetting. If you select the
8:49face, you can press I and that will
8:51insert it like so. Then with this
8:53inserted face, you can do anything you
8:54want. You can press E to extrude it. And
8:57extrusions don't always have to go
8:59outwards. They can also go inwards. So
9:01you can have a little inlet like this.
9:03Now, since all of this was done in edit
9:05mode, if you tab back out to object
9:07mode, everything was saved within this
9:09object. So if you duplicate it,
9:11everything will be the same. Now you can
9:13easily move this entire mesh across and
9:16rotate it and size it however you want.
9:18Next, let's talk about smooth shading.
9:20If you right click on this object,
9:22you'll see shade smooth, shade auto
9:23smooth, and shade flat. Currently, by
9:26default, it's shaded flat. If you click
9:27on shade smooth, all of the edges will
9:29disappear and everything will have this
9:31weird smooth shading. But since this
9:33model wasn't built for smooth shading,
9:35it looks pretty bad as is. So, go back
9:37to shade flat. For an example, what I'm
9:40going to do is go back into edit mode,
9:41then add in a little bevel right here,
9:44like so. Now, as you can see here, these
9:46things aren't smooth. You can see the
9:47different edges, but what I like doing
9:49is clicking on shade auto smooth. And
9:52this will add in a modifier. Now, to see
9:54all the modifiers on an object, click on
9:56this little wrench icon right here. Then
9:58you can see smooth by angle. This was
10:00caused by clicking shade auto smooth. If
10:02you click shade flat, that'll go away.
10:04And then, as you can probably tell, they
10:06smooth out this edge based on this
10:08angle. If you set this angle very low,
10:10then nothing will be shaded smooth. But
10:12if you set this very high, every edge
10:14will be shaded smooth based on this
10:16angle. So if you have a 90° angle like
10:18these, it will be shaded over. But if
10:20you like an 89° angle, since these are
10:22perfect right angles, it won't be shaded
10:24smooth. So if you want to add in a
10:27cylinder and you don't want all this
10:28sharp shading, simply just add in a
10:30shade auto smooth modifier, and that
10:32will smooth it out. Now, I don't want to
10:34overwhelm you with all the possible
10:35modifiers because trust me, there are a
10:37lot. But I'll explain one of the other
10:39most used modifiers, the mirror
10:41modifier. Now, if you add in a mirror
10:44modifier to an object, you probably
10:46won't see any difference. This is
10:48because it's based on this origin point,
10:50which is shown by this orange dot right
10:52here. Now, this origin point is by
10:54default the center of the added in
10:56object. So, if I delete this cylinder
10:58and add in a cube, it'll be at the
11:00center of the cube. Now you can adjust
11:02where this origin is by going into edit
11:04mode and sliding this across. This will
11:07move all the geometry but won't move the
11:09origin. But if you move in object mode,
11:11it'll move the geometry and will move
11:13the origin. So this correlates to the
11:15mirror modifier because if I add in one
11:17now and select the yaxis, as you can
11:21see, it reflects across based on this
11:23origin point. So if I go back into edit
11:25mode and move this across, you can see
11:27it perfectly reflects across this origin
11:30point. So keep in mind whenever you're
11:32editing a model, if you want to reflect
11:34something, make sure that it's across
11:36this origin point. Now, as you probably
11:38have noticed, there's a lot of key binds
11:40to learn. So I recommend just learning
11:42the simple ones and slowly progressing.
11:45You can always just search up on Google
11:47and it'll show a lot of different ways
11:49to do it. So if you ever forget
11:50something, just quickly search it up,
11:52and it'll probably instruct you on how
11:54to do it.
11:55Okay, let's now do some basic modeling.
11:59What we're going to first do is get some
12:01references. Now, references are very
12:03good because as a beginner, you really
12:05don't know which direction you want to
12:07go. So, I'm just going to pull up some
12:09references off of Google and just bring
12:11them into Blender. Now, the way you
12:13should bring them into Blender is by
12:14locking yourself on an axis and then
12:17doing shift a image reference, then
12:20select the image you just saved. Now,
12:23I'm going to be showing you how to make
12:25three different models. Each of these
12:27models uses different techniques, so
12:30hopefully you'll be able to learn. Let's
12:31first start with this crate right here.
12:34You can also do altg and that'll snap
12:37the origin to the center of the
12:38viewport. So, I'll just bring that back.
12:40Now, we're starting with low poly models
12:43because you shouldn't be attempting
12:45anything realistic at this point. If you
12:47try making something realistic, you'll
12:49probably run into a whole lot of issues
12:51and try to make a whole lot of details
12:53that you're not prepared or know enough
12:55about to make. So, we're going to keep
12:57it simple, keep it low poly, that way
12:58it'll be optimized if you want to import
13:00it into a game. So, I'm going to start
13:02with adding in a cube. Then, before we
13:06do anything, I like setting up my
13:07viewport a little differently. So, I'm
13:09going to go up to here, click on this
13:10arrow right here, click on cavity,
13:12change the type to both, and increase
13:14this ridge and valley. That way, you
13:16have nice edge highlights. Makes the
13:18model a little nicer to look at and
13:19easier to work with. Then, before we
13:22begin, there's a whole lot of different
13:23viewport shadings you can look at. For
13:25this tutorial, we're going to be looking
13:26at the normal model view and the
13:28wireframe view. Now, you can change
13:31between these different viewports up
13:32here, or you can hold Z and then quickly
13:35change right here. For this tutorial,
13:37you won't be using rendered or material
13:39preview at all. Just wireframe and
13:41solid. Now, use solid for most of the
13:43time and use wireframe if you want to
13:45see something that's being hidden by the
13:46model or if you want to select a side
13:48like that. Now, let's begin with
13:50modeling. I'm going to bring this
13:52reference up a little bit so it's not
13:53completely covered by my object. So to
13:56begin, what I'm going to do is press A
13:57to select everything and I to insert it.
13:59Now, if your inset doesn't work, press
14:01it again. That way, it's individual
14:03faces. Then I'm going to bring it in a
14:05little bit. I'd say like right about
14:06there. Then I want to extrude these
14:08inward. And to do that, I'm going to do
14:11alt E, extrude faces along normals. And
14:14this way all of them extrude at the same
14:17angle. Because if you did the normal
14:18extrude here, all of it would follow the
14:20same direction. But by extruding along
14:22normals, each face will be inseted. So
14:24I'll set it like right there. Then
14:26that's the basic shape already. Next,
14:28what I want to do is add in these little
14:30panels right here. Now, one thing a lot
14:31of beginners like to do is having
14:33everything stem out of one object, which
14:35can work. But what I would recommend
14:37doing is being comfortable adding in
14:38multiple objects to a single model. So
14:40I'm going to hop out of edit mode into
14:42object mode and add in a cube. Then I'm
14:45going to bring this cube out a little
14:46bit and I'm going to make it fit the
14:49dimensions of this panel right here. So
14:51I'm going to scale it inwards like this
14:53so it's thin. Then I want to rotate it
14:5645° like so. It rotated evenly along
14:59this axis because I've snapped into it.
15:01If I were to have rotated 45° from this
15:04angle, it would have looked weird. But
15:06since I've snapped, it'll rotate
15:07perfectly along this axis. Now, another
15:09thing you can do is when you're scaling,
15:11you can press one of the axis keys to
15:12scale along axis. But you can press the
15:15axis key again to fit the rotation. And
15:17it scales more uniformly. So I want it
15:19to be about that thick. Then I can bring
15:22it in like right there. Then I'll scale
15:24it up a little bit more to fit the crate
15:26size like so. Then just copy this
15:29around. I'll duplicate it with shift D
15:31and bring it over right there. Then I'll
15:33select both of these. Shift D to
15:35duplicate. Then rotate it 90°. That way
15:39all the panels fit inside the crate like
15:41so. That's one model done. Then if you
15:43don't want to see this model anymore,
15:44you can select everything and press H to
15:47hide it and alt H to reveal everything.
15:50So I'll undo that and keep it hidden.
15:52Next, let's make this barrel. So I'm
15:54going to do alt G to snap it to the
15:55middle. I'll bring it back and up a
15:57little bit. And since barrels are
15:58cylindrical, I'm going to do shift A and
16:01add in a cylinder. This already has too
16:03many faces. You can count how many faces
16:05there are here. There appears to be
16:06eight. So I'll set this verticy count to
16:08eight. Next, what I'm going to do is
16:10simply scale this to fit about the
16:12general proportions of the reference.
16:15So, I think about think about that
16:16works. Then, I'm going to hop into edit
16:18mode. Then, I'm going to do CtrlR to add
16:21in a loop cut. And I'll add in three
16:23like so. Then, with these loop cuts, I'm
16:25going to scale them out a little bit to
16:27create a more stylized proportion. So,
16:30I'll scale this middle one out a little
16:31bit. I'll scale these outer ones out a
16:34little bit. That way, it looks a little
16:35bit rounded. Like so. Then, you can see
16:37these little metal rings that go around
16:38it. The way I'm going to do that is by
16:42adding in another loop cut right here
16:44and a loop cut right here. Then with
16:46these loop cuts, I'm going to bevel them
16:49with only one edge. That way it splits
16:51the edge and gives me some faces I can
16:53work with. I want it to be about that
16:55size. Then I'm going to altclick this to
16:58select the edge loop. I'll altclick the
17:00other one to select this edge loop. Then
17:02I'll do alt e extrude along normals. And
17:05this is a quick way to add some little
17:07edge rings. Then to get this little
17:09inseted bit, what I'm going to do is
17:11select this top face, press I to insert
17:13it a little bit, set it like right
17:15there, then E to extrude it downwards.
17:17That's just a simple little low poly
17:18barrel. Next, let's move on to the tree
17:20model. So I'll press H to hide these.
17:23Also, you can unhide things by pressing
17:24this little I icon right here. Let's
17:27work on this tree model. Now let's start
17:29with the trunk. This looks like a six
17:31face cylinder as a trunk. So what I'm
17:33going to do is add in a cylinder. Set
17:34this to six faces and bring it down. I'm
17:37going to go into wireframe view and size
17:39it about accordingly to the reference.
17:42Like so. Something like this will work.
17:45Then I'm going to scale this bar inward
17:48a little bit. Then E to extrude it. Then
17:50scale it inward a little bit and just
17:52fit the basic shape of the tree from
17:53what I can tell. So since the rest of
17:55this will be covered by these leaves,
17:57I'll just extrude it up and scale it
17:59like this. Okay, that's the simple trunk
18:02done. Next is these leaves. So, I'm
18:04going to bring in another cylinder.
18:07Then, I'm going to go into edit mode,
18:09select these vertices, bring it down,
18:11and scale it inward like this. I'll
18:13scale these ones outward a little bit
18:15more. And that's just a basic shape.
18:16Then, I'll go into object mode and
18:18duplicate this and bring it up and scale
18:21it in object mode like this to add some
18:23variation. Then, I'll duplicate it in
18:25object mode again, scale it down, scale
18:27it up a little bit, and just repeat this
18:29process, copying the reference. Then
18:31once we're at the top here, what you can
18:33do is select all of these vertices,
18:35scale it inward, click on zero when
18:38you're scaling so they're all at the
18:40same point, then do m merge by distance
18:42so there's no stray vertices so it
18:44becomes one conjoined point. Then just
18:46bring this upward and scale this as so.
18:48Then you can just refine all these
18:50different tree points. And that's just a
18:52simple little tree. To make it a little
18:54more stylized, you can rotate these
18:56points slightly just to add some
18:57variation to them like so. That's how
18:59you make a simple little low poly
19:01stylized tree. All right, now let's talk
19:04about how you can continue to learn
19:06Blender after this tutorial. And before
19:08you click off, I would argue that
19:09learning how to learn is arguably more
19:12important than anything shown so far.
19:13Let's start with easily the most common
19:15way people learn programs through
19:17YouTube tutorials. Now, tutorials are
19:19great, and don't let anyone tell you
19:21otherwise. For Blender especially, there
19:23are hundreds of tutorials for basically
19:24every facet of the program, as well as
19:27dozens of tutorials for specific item
19:29models if you need a more direct
19:30instruction. Now, there are two ways of
19:32watching a tutorial. Active watching and
19:35passive watching. If you were to
19:36actively watch something, then you would
19:38be following step by step with the
19:40tutorial, and in the end, you would have
19:41a similar, if not the same result as
19:43shown in the video. For passive
19:45watching, you're simply watching the
19:46video without applying what you're
19:48seeing. I personally have had great
19:50results with both methods. Active
19:52watching is great for learning how to
19:53make specific things and retaining the
19:55knowledge of hotkeys and techniques.
19:57While passive watching is great for
19:59learning more complicated things and
20:00finding out unique concepts. Eventually,
20:03you'll learn the basics, and when you
20:04do, you shouldn't be afraid to tackle
20:06something without a guide or tutorial.
20:08You should start relying less and less
20:10on tutorials and build up your own
20:11strength and independence as you move
20:13on. Of course, you should still watch
20:15things that interest you or if you get
20:17completely stuck. But remember, solving
20:19problems on your own is where true
20:21learning occurs. And pretty soon, you'll
20:23no longer be a beginner and might be
20:25interested in purchasing a paid course.
20:27Now, I want to be transparent and say
20:28I've never personally bought a course.
20:30So, you don't need it to learn Blender,
20:32but don't be afraid of purchasing one.
20:34There's a lot of great courses, and they
20:36tend to be more structured and
20:38consistent, which creates a greater
20:39learning experience. They're also often
20:42created by genuine professionals that
20:43have years of experience. Ultimately,
20:46how you decide to learn is up to you.
20:48There's no single best option for
20:49anyone. But always remember that
20:51learning something will take time. As
20:53long as you strive to get a little
20:54better each day, you'll become a
20:56professional in no time. You got this.

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