BlenderKeys
Blender
Basic editing
Quit Q
Abort command ESC
Erase CTRL-X all
X selected
Editmode on/off TAB, ALT-E
In editmode the changes apply to vertices (cursor is a cross)
in selection mode to the object as a whole (cursor is an arrow)
Add SHFT-A, SPACE
If you add in edit mode, you add into the same object.
If in selection mode, you add a new object.
Refresh NUMPAD 9
Confirm a command ENTER, SPACE
Cursor Lclick
Snap to grid (SHFT-S 3) or to selected object (SHFT-S 4)
Selection
(De)Select All A
Select Rclick
Extend selection hold SHIFT while selecting
Many objects can be selected, only one active (brighter)
Border select B
drag a box with mouse, left button extends,
right deselects, also holding ALT deselects
Circle select BB
drag with left mouse (ALT deselects)
grow/reduce radius with NUMPAD +/-
Linked vertex select L
deselect SHFT-L
Swap selection button in F9, in edit mode special menu w 7
selects unselected and vice versa
Windows & Files
Resize window Ldrag pane
Split / join windows Mclick pane, Rclick pane
The side you approach pane determines which
side is is split / remains after join.
Fullscreen / smaller CTRL-UP / CTRL-DOWN
Prev / next Screen CTRL-LEFT / CTRL-RIGHT
Header (icons)
hide,top,bottom Rclick on header
add back on split/join menu
Blender to fore / background on header, lclick / lclick+CTRL
View buttons SHFT+F7 in a 3D view
Allows setting a background image, grid size and extent,
clipping and focal length for the 3D view (each view has own)
Function keys
F1 File open, F2 File save, F3 Image save, F4 Lamp,
F5 Material, F6 Texture, F7 Animation, F8 Realtime,
F9 Edit, F10 Display, F11 Hide/Show Render, F12 Render
with SHIFT:
F1 Load lib, F4 DataView, F5 3D, F6 Ipo, F7 View Buttons,
F8 Seq.Editor, F9 Oops, F10 Image, F11 Text, F12 Sound
F3+CTRL save active window as image (type in F10)
F3+CTRL+SHFT save whole screen as image
Other exports
SHFT-F2 DXF, CTRL-F2 VRML 1.0, ALT-w VideoScape
Save CTRL-W
+/- increases/decreases the version count
Save over last saved CTRL-S
Open last saved CTRL-O
Info window reveal by draggin top window down
auto saves, 2-button mouse, tooltips, ...
Make current state default CTRL-U
Viewing
Perspective mode
Toggle persp/ortho NUMPAD 5
Camera view NUMPAD 0
Interactive
Spinning Mdrag, ALT-Ldrag
you can emulate middle mouse button with ALT-leftbutton
Panning SHFT-Mdrag
Zooming CTRL-Mdrag, NUMPAD +/-
Fixed
Top, Front, Right NUMPAD 7,1,3
Bottom, Back, Left SHFT NUMPAD 7,1,3
Center to cursor C
View all HOME, SHFT-C
Rotate around axis
Z-axis NUMPAD 4,6
Perp to Z and view NUMPAD 2,8
Concentrate on selected
Zoom & hide others NUMPAD /
Zoom NUMPAD ,
Orient NUMPAD *
Draw mode
bbox, wire, solid, shaded D 1-4, Z, SHFT-Z
show axis, texspace, name in F9
Rendering
Render F12
Image size from Display buttons (F10)
SizeX, SizeY, 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, AspX, AspY, Presets
Display in view or window (DispView / DispWin)
Oversampling
Render window F11
Image zoom Z
Editing objects
General modifiers for editing and sliders
hold CTRL for discrete steps
hold SHFT for slowing the edit
hold CTRL-SHFT for smaller discrete steps
clicking on left side of slider decreases, right side increases
Grab (move) G, Rdrag straight
axis-aligned constraints with Mclick
Grab, rotate, scale work on both objects and vertices.
Snap SHFT-S
selected to grid (1) or cursor (2)
Rotate R, Rdrag curved
normally perp to cam, with ALT the other rotations
hitting x,y,z constrains rotation around those axes only
around center (,) cursor (.) median or indiv. centers (icons)
can be cleared with ALT-r
Scale S, Rdrag wiggled
axis-aligned with Mclick
around center (,) cursor (.) median or indiv. centers (icons)
can be cleared with ALT-S
mirror with x,y (uses the axis closest to horiz[x] or vert[y])
Apply size/rot CTRL-A
apply the scale & rotation of object to the vertices
Shear CTRL-S
works only on vertices, always on horizontal screen axis
Numeric control N
SHFT-Lclick for numeric entry (then SHFT-BACKSPC to clear)
Undo U
works only in edit mode, reloads the data as it was
when edit mode was entered (so TAB-TAB "refreshes undo buffer")
Special menu W
replicates many edit buttons
Changing center
In F9, Centre, Centre New, Centre Cursor
Duplicate (copy) SHFT-D
Duplicate (instancing) ALT-D
Spin F9 Spin-button
surface of revolution
select verts to spin and the degrees and steps from
sliders in F9
spin is perp to view direction, around 3d cursor
only meshes (conv beziers to mesh in edit mode by ALT-C)
Screw F9 Screw button
similar to spin, but must have two open ends on the
polyline
after the spinning, the lower end of the next level
coincides with the top end of the previous level
Proportional editing O
when you have selected some vertices and modify them,
the neighboring vertices are also modified
SHFT-o toggles sharp/smooth fall off of influence
NUM-MINUS and NUM-PLUS modify the radius of influence
Join objects CTRL-J
works in select mode
Separate objects P
in editmode, selection is removed and placed into new object
Make/clear parent CTRL-P / ALT-P
The selected will move with the current (becomes parent)
Make/clear track CTRL-T / ALT-T
The selected will orient themselves to current
Hide / Reveal verts H / ALT-H, buttons in F9, special menu W 5/6
Recalculate normals CTRL-N
Clear origin ALT-O
DupliFrames button in animation buttons
animate an object by parenting it to a curve
creates virtual instances of the object along the path
DupliVerts button in animation buttons
parent an object to polygon or particle system
creates virtual instances of the object at vertices
with rot button aligns obj with parent's normals
Make dupli's real CTRL-SHFT-A
Metaballs
if different OB base name, don't affect each other
if same OB base, but differs, can animate independently
Curves and Meshes
Add curve/mesh Add menu: SPACE -> Add -> Curve/Mesh
Extrude E
Add Face F
curve: create vertex and connect selected
mesh: connect 2 verts with edge, 3 or 4 with face
Subdivide W 1, also in F9
Linked select/deselect L / SHFT-L
Erase selected X
Buttons
Width move the interpolated points wider or closer
Ext1 depth of extrude
Ext2 depth of standard bevel
BevResol resolution of bevel (converges to quarter circle)
BevOb use another curve as bevel
Mesh only:
Fill selected SHFT-F
fill a closed polygon with triangles
Beauty fill ALT-F
swap edges so triangles become more uniform
Make triangles CTRL-T
convert selected faces to triangles
Hiding H hide selected (W 5)
SHFT-H hide not selected
ALT-H reveal (W 6)
Select linked selected CTRL-L
Calc normals CTRL-N try pointing them outside
SHFT-CTRL-N try pointing them inside
Split Y
break selected apart, keep faces (duplicate some verts)
Curve only:
Add vertex CTRL-Lclick
Cyclic make/brake C
Handle type (4 types)
vertex (sharp) V
free / aligned H
auto (symmetric)SHFT-H
calc handles CTRL-H
Convert ALT-C
text to curve, curve & metaball to mesh,
uses extrude values
Conversions
Poly, Bezier, Nurbs In F9
Tilt set/clear T / ALT-T
Layers
Select layer hit layer button
layers 1-10: keys 1,2,...,9,0
layers 11-20: ALT-1, ... ALT-9, ALT-0
you are working on the last selected layer
Add/remove one layer hold SHFT when selecting
Move to layer(s) M
or select the layer from the edit buttons (F9)
Camera
You can select, grab and rotate the camera like any other object.
With camera and camera view (NUMPAD 0) selected, try
Rotate VUP R
Rotate view direction R + Mclick
Move laterally G
Move back'n'forth G + Mclick
Properties in F9
Clipping start & end, persp / ortho, focal length, draw size
Toggle showing limits for clip and mist (set in World buttons)
Fix to a target
Select camera, then the target (maybe an Empty from Add)
Make camera track the target by CTRL-T
Clear the rotation of the camera by ALT-R
Now move the target, camera will follow
In case you have many cameras
Make selected active CTRL-NUMPAD 0
Go back to previous ALT-NUMPAD 0
Set border SHFT-B
Lights F4
Add light SPACE -> Add -> Lamp
Lamp types
Lamp Default type, the only directionless
Spot The only type with shadows, opening angle (SpotSi),
angular attenuation (SpotBl)
Similar to camera, can aim it the same way (select
with CTRL-NUMPAD 0), clip start&end
Sun Softer than spot, directional
Hemi Like Sun but comes from a hemisphere
Volumetric lights Halo button activates
Need to use a spot light
Halo step gives quality (0=off, 1=high qual, 12=low qual)
Haloint gives intensity of halo rays
Distance falloff For lamp & spot only
With Quad activated (Quad1=Quad2=0 => no dist falloff)
Intensity = Dist / (Dist + Quad1*d + Quad2*d^2)
Without Quad a linear falloff
Intensity = Dist / (Dist + d)
Lamps can have colors and even textures. You can change Energy.
Layer
Constrain to effect only objects in the same layer.
Shadows
Works only with spot lights. Need to hit the Shadows button
both in F4 and F10.
Radiosity
Collect meshes use selected meshes for calculations
Materials that have nonzero "Emit" work as light sources
Hit Gour to see progress, ESC when good enough
Add new meshes and m to move new meshes into some layer,
Free Radio Data, now the materials should have VCol Light to
denote the colors have precalculated illumination.
Materials F5
Color spaces RGB or HSV
3D Coefficients Diffuse (Color), Specular (Spec), (Mir)?
Specularity Two components: Intensity (Spec) and Glossyness (Hard)
Emit Intensity of emissive term, the diffuse color
Alpha Attenuate or transparency (with ZTransp)
Rendermode Wireframe/solid (Wire),
shading off/on (Shadeless).
Indices Each mesh object can have up to 16 material indices.
In F9, select faces, create a New material index (or
select an old one, e.g. "3 Mat: 2" means that 2nd out
of 3 indices was selected), Assign.
An unassigned face has index 1.
In F5 you can assign a material to each index.
Buttons
Traceable Object can cast shadows
Shadow Can receive shadows
Shadeless Ignore light & shadow
Wire Only render edges (for meshes only)
VCol Light Use vertex cols as extra light (esp. radiosity)
VCol Paint Replace material with vertex colors
Halo Render verts as halos, not faces (with flares)
ZTransp Allow alpha to affect transparency
ZInvert Render only if behind occluders
Env Environment option
OnlyShadow Draw shadows but not object
Textures F5 & F6
Multitexturing SepT not pressed = on, pressed = off
Textures are compounded in left-right order,
SepT allows viewing the effect of single stage.
Switch order by copying into/from stack (arrows next to SepT).
Mapping
Global mapping modes Flat, Cube, Tube, Sphere
For mapping the whole object with a single texture
Get txtr xform from object
Choose "Object" and type in object name, the transform
is copied from object. Empties are good for this.
Texture space T
Allows to size & move the texture coordinate space.
Buttons _XYZ, ..., ofsX, ..., sizeX, ...
Switch mappings of coordinates, add offsets / scalings.
Animation
Play animation ALT-A current window only
ALT-SHFT-A all windows
Insert key I
Move frame cursor keys
left & right move by one
up & down move by ten
SHFT left & right move to first and last frame
Text
Add text Add menu
Python scripting
Text editor SHFT-F11
Execute script ALT-P
Open or New script ALT-SHFT-F (in text editor)
Reload a script CTRL-R (in text editor)