Blender 101

  • LMB, MMB, RMB: left/middle/right mouse button

  • Menu > Edit > Preferences | Input > Emulate Numpad

Camera

Orbit

MMB + move

Front view

1

Pan

Shift + MMB + move

Right view

3

Zoom in/out

MMB

Top view

7

Frame object

Numpad or View > Frame selected

Perspective

0

Frame all

Home or View > Frame all

Selection

Select all objects

A

Unselect all objects

A + A (fast)

Rectangular selection

B

Brush selection

C (MMB to enlarge brush)

Invert selection

Ctrl + I

Misc

Create 3D Cube, Sphere…

Shift + A

Delete selected

X

Undo

Ctrl + Z

Redo

Ctrl + Shift + Z

Hide/Show selected

H / Alt + H

Duplicate

Shift + D (independent copy)

Duplicate + link

Alt + D (linked copy)

Interface

Object Mode / Edit Mode (vertex/edge/face)

Tab inlineimg

Show / hide Toolbar

T

Change shading: Solid, Wireframe…

Z

Make the window under mouse pointer fullscreen / Back to previous

Ctrl + Space

Change view mode: wireframe / shaded

Z

Quick tools

Feature

Quick Tools

Tools (ToolBox)

Access

Hotkeys: G, R, S

Toolbar

Persistence

Modal: active once, then disappears

Permanent: remains active, reusable anytime

Gizmos

None

RGB Gizmos

Speed

Very fast

Slower, but more visual

Custom settings

Keyboard-based adjustments

Tool options in UI

Quick Move

G

Quick Rotate

R

Quick Scale

S

Rotate along X

R + X

Rotate by 5° steps

R + Ctrl

Rotate using the local axis

R + X + X

Edit mode

../_images/editmode.png

Standard tools

Inset

I

ico1

img1

Extrusion

E

ico2

img2

Scale

S

img3

Loop cut

Ctrl + R

ico3

img4

Bevel

Ctrl + B

ico5

img7

Knife

K + click + … + Enter

ico4

img5

Specific tools

Delete

Del

Remove selected vertex/edge/face

Create Face

F

Merge

M

Select edge loop

Alt + click

3D Text

  • Shift + A + Text

    • Later, you can press Tab to edit the text content again

  • In the Property editor, select the a icon

    ../_images/text3D.png

  • Increase the Extrude value to adjust the text depth

  • Change the Round > Depth value to round the edges of the text

    ../_images/3Dtext.png

Boolean operation

Union

  • Create two overlapping cubes

  • Select the main cube

  • Click on the 🔧 wrench icon

    ../_images/union.png

  • Click on Add Modifier > Generate > Boolean

  • Set Operation to Union

    ../_images/union.gif

  • Click on the field named Object and select the name of the second cube

    ../_images/cube2.png

  • Click Apply

    ../_images/apply.gif

  • Delete the second cube

  • Move the new volume

    ../_images/test.gif

Difference

../_images/diff.png

UV editor

Export UV layout

  • Shift + A and create a 3D cube

  • Switch to Object Mode (Tab)

  • Select your object

  • Switch to Edit Mode (Tab)

  • Press A to select everything

../_images/everything.png

  • Open UV Editor window (Menu > UV Editing)

../_images/uveditor.png

  • In the UV Editor, go to the top menu and select UV > Export UV Layout

../_images/export.png

  • Open PNG image in mspaint

    • Decorate each face

    ../_images/decor.png

Apply texture

  • Select the cube

  • Go to the Material Properties tab (red sphere icon in the right-hand panel)

../_images/mat.png

  • Click the yellow dot next to it

  • Choose Image Texture

  • Click the Open button, and select the painted image you created

  • In the top right corner of the 3D view, activate shading:

../_images/shading.png ../_images/rotcube.gif

Create Normal Map

More panels

  • Move the mouse in the top left corner on the bottom panel

  • Click and drag to create a new panel

../_images/split.gif

  • In the top left corner, click on the round white icon

    • Select Image Editor for the left window

    • Select Shader for the right window

../_images/split.png

Spiky plane

  • Shift + A and create a plane

  • Switch to Edit Mode (Tab)

  • Right click on the plane

    • Select Subdivide

    • Repeat twice

    ../_images/sub.png

  • Submenu > Face > Poke Faces

    ../_images/poke.png

  • Select a poked vertex

  • Shift-G > Amount of Adjacent Faces

  • Select Move tool and move vertices upwards

    ../_images/spiky.png

Flat plane

  • Shift + A and create a 3D plane

  • Set center to 0,0,0 ; the two objects must overlap

    ../_images/overlap.png

Output texture

  • Select the flat plane

  • In the shader window at the bottom, click on new to create a new material

  • In the shader window, press Shift + A > Texture > Image Texture

    • Click on the New button

    • Name it NormalMap

    • Set its resolution

    • Click on New Image to validate

    ../_images/imagetexture.png

Baking setup

  • In the property Editor (right window), select the Render Property tab (camera icon)

    • Select Cycles as the Render Engine

    • Locate the Bake section

    ../_images/cycles.png

    • In the Bake Type field select “Normal”

    • Enable “Selected to Active” and deploy this section

      • Set Extrusion to 0.1

      • Set Max Ray Distance to a small value (e.g., 0.1)

    ../_images/bake.png

Bake ready

  • Check that the image texture is selected in the shader window

  • Select your spiky plane first (highlighted in lighter orange)

  • Ctrl-select your flat plane

  • Click the “Bake” button in the Render Properties

  • Wait for the baking process to complete

../_images/NM.png

  • Export image to disk

Source

Soon to come

  • Snap

  • Pivot