[Tim Ellis]

Sorry I forget that the hotkey list is hidden.

Press 'Help' on the file menu bar and select 'Hotkey and mouse action reference'. Press 'Escape' to exit.

Quick hotkey list for Blender 2.43

Object mode. (Top mesh level) Hold cursor over 3D window.
G = Move/grab
R = Rotate
S = Scale
B = Boolean menu
Right mouse button in 3D window = select
Left mouse button in 3D window = place 3D cursor (Used to add new objects or verts.)
Middle mouse button in 3D window = rotate viewport
Mouse scroll wheel = zoom in or out
Middle mouse button in non 3D windows = navigate around window
Ctrl+P = parent menu
Shift+D = duplicate
Alt+D = instance
Number pad 1 = front view Hold ctrl for back
Number pad 3 = right view " " " left
Number pad 7 = top view " " " bottom
Number pad 2,4,6,8 = rotate viewport
Tab key = enter edit mode for object. (Vertex/curve point edit mode.)
Spacebar = add objects and extra menus
F1 = open file
F2 = save as
F3 = save image
F5 = open material buttons
F6 = open texture buttons
F9 = open object edit buttons
F10 = open render buttons
F11 = show render frame (J when open to switch buffers, Z to zoom, left mouse click for pixel information)
F12 = render frame

Edit mode (Tab key to enter & to return to object mode.)
G = Move/grab
R = Rotate
S = Scale
B = select tool, press once for box select & left mouse button & drag, or twice for circle select. (Use mouse scroll wheel to enlarge or decrease circle area.)
W = mesh tools
Shift+S = snap menu
M = mirror menu
ALT+C = convert to mesh
E = extrude
Shift+D = duplicate
Ctrl+P = parent menu
P = launch physics engine
Right mouse button in 3D window = select
Left mouse button in 3D window = place 3D cursor (Used to add new objects or verts.)
Middle mouse button in 3D window = rotate viewport
Mouse scroll wheel = zoom in or out
Middle mouse button in non 3D windows = navigate around window
Number pad 1 = front view Hold ctrl for back
Number pad 3 = right view " " " left
Number pad 7 = top view " " " bottom
Number pad 2,4,6,8 = rotate viewport
Tab key = exit edit mode for object.
Spacebar = add objects and all edit menus


That should get you going at least.

Here's a modeling tutorial I've written for Blender, which covers the basics and more:-

http://www.free-webspace.biz/sonix/Maxw ... orial.html


A full Blender modeling tutorial of my Tk-Suite model, will be available soon.

Tim.

[Fernando Tella]

Thx Tim for the tips and the tutorial.

[tom]

Perfect tutorial Tim!

[-Adrian]

Thanks a lot Tim, very detailed tutorial. I'll download the latest release and give your tutorial a shot sometime. Maybe this time i'll manage to get used to Blender with a little persistence.

[sandykoufax]

You could find Tim's another great blender and maxwell tutorial in the Maxwell AREA magazine.

[Mihai]

Right mouse button in 3D window = select object
Left mouse button in 3D window = place 3D cursor (Used to add new objects or verts.)
Middle mouse button in 3D window = rotate viewport

Even from just this info, to me it sounds like it's not going to be easy to learn this application at all.

Conventional UI procedures can be good, they are widely adapted because they work well and there is no point in changing them if you don't have anything substantially better to offer.

In almost all 3D applications, you select with the left mousebutton, right clicking usually brings up a context menu related to your current selection.

What do you use more often? Select another object (or vertices, edges, polys), or place the 3D cursor?

[michaelplogue]

So that's how you select other objects.... I couldn't figure this out for the life of me. I would have never thought to use the right button to make a selection.

Flip-flopping the left and right button command would almost make sense......

One thing that I think is cool (not sure if it's actually usefull yet), is the mouse-movement commands: Click and draw a straight line anywhere, and the currently select object will move. Draw a circle and the object rotates. Draw a V and it will rescale.

[tom]

I agree with Mihai, but

One thing that I think is cool (not sure if it's actually usefull yet), is the mouse-movement commands: Click and draw a straight line anywhere, and the currently select object will move. Draw a circle and the object rotates. Draw a V and it will rescale.

as also seen here, Blender loaded much more functionality to mouse gestures so it has to be like that. When you once give it a chance, you will see how powerful a mouse can be.

[superbad]

Sorry, but that's like coming out with a car where the gas was on the left and the brake on the right. It's being different for the sake of being different.

[giacob]

thats probably why english people has the drive on the right...
.... frankly i didnt find so difficult to get use to it ..( i mean blender not english way of driving)
. ... btw ... i cant print Tim's tutorial.. Tim can one print your tutorial or is not possible?

[KRZ]

the illusion of individuality...isnt it great some people like to walk a stair backwards...why not...its possible and if it makes em feel special...more power to em

i enjoy to see live colorful in all its possibilities....just not at work getting things done just needs a straight forward approach for me. and to have to learn new things is easier in a common sense environment. in that case i enjoy the greyness of standards.

happy colorful carnival to all of you guys n gals.

[giacob]

the illusion of individuality...isnt it great some people like to walk a stair backwards...why not...its possible and if it makes em feel special...more power to em

i enjoy to see live colorful in all its possibilities....just not at work getting things done just needs a straight forward approach for me. and to have to learn new things is easier in a common sense environment. in that case i enjoy the greyness of standards.

happy colorful carnival to all of you guys n gals.

......
isnt rather yours a sort of prejudice...?
i mean have u seriously tried to learn Blender?..
frankly i dont think so....
i remember my first try at3 dmax ... frankly wasnt so easy..
so my first try at LW ...
with blender has been the same no more .. nor less.
..maybe less ( because i have already roughly learnt to use other 2 3d application perhaps)

.. be a little bit less superficial.. Blender is certainly not a colourfull carnival...
and it cost 0 euros against the 4000,00 oF 3dmax
THATS IS THE REAL CARNIVAL

[KRZ]

im not bashing blender...dont get me wrong. its awsome feature packed and for free! to think about how much work was invested to build this in the name of open source....its just fantastic!

i just never understood why they took the route of that GUI. i dont see much benefit of it workflow-wise...therefore in my opinion it just wants to be different. its a great move that they separate the functionality from the GUI in the next releases. so we can do as we prefer.

you are right that i never "seriously" tried to learn blender. simply because i refuse to bend myself into ways that i don't share. that was most obvious with zbrush. if i can afford to not learn that apps i just dont do it. if i would see the benefit of the being different i would see the time i have to spend as an investment. but with zbrush or blender i just dont see that benefit. in my opinion standards arenot suddenly there but they develop. and once they are settled it needs a VERY good reason to abandon them.

[tom]

Once I was rendering with Imagine 1.0 on the Amiga back in the history in 1990 (and even earlier in late 80s with Turbosilver etc), there were no Max, C4D etc and then no standards? Absolutely not my dear friends and I can make you sure they were pretty different than anything else today. So, please don't stick to these so called standards too much. Standards don't rule us, we rule them. For the sake of my 2 retro-computing bits, confess you are not flexible enough at some point. You think you don't have to, but the improvements forces you along time. Blender is one nice example of successful development and analytical thinking for me. Well done to their team and community. I'll be watching...

[Fernando Tella]

I, as a beginner with Blender (and coming from max) find that the GUI is great. Customizable, adaptable. What I find hard is the way of doing things, which is completely different from max, but I don't think it has to do with GUI but with mental workflow of creation.