BLENDER SOFTWARE

(INTERFACES AND MESHES)

PREPARED BY: PG DELOS SANTOS
OBJECTIVES

 To identify the different interface of Blender Software

 To learn about the function of each panels and tabs.
 To identify different kind of meshes
 To gain knowledge of its toolbar
Blender: The Interface

 is indeed user friendly and users can easily

adapt to its environment. It is also
customizable based on what the user is
working on through the application.
 Blender: Splash screen

Part Description

Information Contains splash photo with the current

Region
version of Blender on the top right

Interactive Bottom half of the splash screen where

Region you can choose options to get started
New File Start a new project based on
one of its templates (General,
2D animation, sculpting, vfx,
video editing)
Open Allows user to open existing blend file
Recover Last Where Blender can try to recover latest
Session session based on temporary files
Links Link to official website
Blender: Window System

 The interface is divided into

three main parts
 Top bar – top (blue)
 Areas – middle (green)
 Status Bar – bottom (red)
 Significant Parts of the Top bar
Part Description

File Menu This contains options to manage file such New, Open, Revert,
Recover, Save, Save as, Link, Append, etc.

Edit Menu Contains undo, redo, and history and also allows users to do menu
search, operator search, renames, and lock object modes

Render Menu For rendering types: animation, image, audio, view render, and
view animation

Window Menu For windows and workspaces, open and customize them

Help Menu Leads user to Blender’s Help System

Workspaces Tabs used to select current workspaces and predefined window

layouts

Scenes and Data-block menus utilized for choosing current active scene and
Layers view layer
Workspaces

 Workspaces are essentially predefined window layouts. Blender’s flexibility with Areas lets
you create customized workspaces for different tasks such as modeling, animating, and
scripting.
Other workspaces added by default:

 Modeling
 For modification of geometry by modeling tools.
 Sculpting
 For modification of meshes by sculpting tools.
 UV Editing
 Mapping of image texture coordinates to 3D surfaces.
 Texture Paint
 Tools for coloring image textures in the 3D Viewport.
 Shading
 Tools for specifying material properties for rendering.
 Animation
 Tools for making properties of objects dependent on time.
 Rendering
 For viewing and analyzing rendering results.
 Compositing
 Combining and post-processing of images and rendering information.
 Scripting
 Programming workspace for writing scripts.
 2D Animation
 General workspace to work with Grease Pencil.
 2D Full Canvas
 Similar to “2D Animation” but contains a larger canvas.
 Masking
 Tools to create 2D masks for compositing.
 Motion Tracking
 Tools to motion track and stabilize footage.
 Video Editing
 Sequence together media into one video.
 3D Viewport on top left. (yellow)
 Outliner on top right. (green)
 Properties on bottom right. (blue)
 Timeline on bottom left. (red)
Status Bar

 The Status Bar is located at the bottom of the Blender window and displays
contextual information such as keyboard shortcuts, result or warning message
and statistical information.
 Keymap Information
 In editors with a Toolbar, pressing Alt shows the hotkeys to change to a desired
tool.
 Status Messages
 The middle of the Status Bar displays information about in progress operations.
 Running Task
 The progress of the currently running task is show when a computation is being
performed for example rendering, baking or playback.
 Report Message
 Blender operation results or warnings, such as after saving a file. They disappear
after a short time.
Areas

 Areas reserve screen space for Editors, such

as the 3D Viewport, or the Outliner.
 Areas can be customized to match specific
tasks called Workspaces, which can then be
named and saved for later use.
Action Description

Resizing You can resize areas by dragging their borders with LMB. Move your mouse cursor
over the border between two areas, so that the cursor changes to a double-headed
arrow, and then click and drag.

Splitting Splitting an area will create a new area. Placing the mouse cursor in an area corner
will change the cursor to a cross (+) to indicate that pressing down LMB will activate
splitting or joining operator. Dragging from area corner inward will split the area.
You define the split direction by dragging either horizontally or vertically.

Joining Dragging from an area corner outward will join two areas. The area that will be
closed gets a dark overlaid arrow. You can select which area will be closed by
moving the mouse over areas. Release the LMB to complete the join. If you press Esc
or RMB before releasing the mouse, the operation will be aborted.
Regions

 Regions can have smaller

structuring elements like
tabs and panels with
buttons, controls and
widgets placed within
them.
 Main Region (yellow)
 At least one region is always visible. It is called the Main region and is the most
prominent part of the editor.
 Header (green)
 is a small horizontal strip, which sits either at the top or bottom of an area. All editors
have a header acting as a container for menus and commonly used tools.
 Toolbar (blue)
 contains a set of interactive tools. T toggles the visibility of the Toolbar.
 Sidebar (red)
 contains Panels with settings of objects within the editor and the editor itself. N toggles
the visibility of the Sidebar.
 Adjust Last Operation Panel (purple)
 region that shows tool options when tools (operators) are run.
Tabs and Panels

 Tabs are used to control overlapping

sections in the user interface.
Contents of only one Tab is visible at a
time.
 Tabs are listed in Tab header, which
can be vertical or horizontal.
 The smallest organizational unit in the
user interface is a panel. The panel
header shows the title of the panel. It
is always visible. Some panels also
include subpanels.
Toolbar

 Hovering your cursor over a tool for a short time will

show its name, while hovering longer will show the full
tooltip.
 Resizing the Toolbar horizontally will display the icons
with two columns. Expanding it further will display the
icon and its text.
Popup Toolbar

 You can switch tools with a toolbar that will pop up

at the location of your cursor after pressing Shift-
Spacebar.
 Spacebar T for Transform, Spacebar D for Annotate,
Spacebar M for measure, etc.
Blender: Editors

 Blender provides a number of

different editors for displaying and
modifying different aspects of
data.
 The Editor Type selector, the first
button at the left side of a header,
allows you to change the editor in
that area.
Meshes: Primitives

 Mesh Modeling typically begins with a Mesh Primitive shape (e.g. circle, cube,
cylinder…).
 From there you might begin editing to create a larger, more complex shape.
PLANE

 The standard plane is a single quad face,

which is composed of four vertices, four
edges, and one face. It is like a piece of
paper lying on a table;
 It is not a three-dimensional object
because it is flat and has no thickness.
 Objects that can be created with planes
include floors, tabletops, or mirrors.
Cube

 A standard cube contains eight

vertices, twelve edges, and six faces,
and is a three- dimensional object.
Objects that can be created out of
cubes include dice, boxes, or crates.
Circle

 Vertices - The number of vertices that

define the circle or polygon.
 Fill Type - Set how the circle will be
filled.
 Nothing - Do not fill.
 Creates only the outer ring of vertices.
Nothing - Do not fill. Creates only the
outer ring of vertices.
UV SPHERE

 A standard UV sphere is made out of

quad faces and a triangle fan at the
top and bottom. It can be used for
texturing.
Icosphere

 An icosphere is a polyhedral sphere

made up of triangles.
 Icospheres are normally used to
achieve a more isotropical layout of
vertices than a UV sphere, in other
words, they are uniform in every
direction.
Cylinder

 Depth - Sets the starting height of the

cylinder.
 Cap Fill Type- Similar to circle (see
above). When set to none, the created
object will be a tube.
 Objects that can be created out of
tubes include pipes or drinking glasses
(the basic difference between a
cylinder and a tube is that the former
has closed ends).
CONE

 Radius 1 - Sets the radius of the

circular base of the cone.
 Radius 2 - Sets the radius of the tip of
the cone. Which will create a frustum
(a pyramid or cone with the top cut
off).
 Depth - Sets the starting height of the
cone.
 Base Fill Type - Similar to circle
TORUS

 A doughnut-shaped primitive created by rotating a circle around an axis.

GRID

 A regular quadratic grid which is a

subdivided plane.
 X Subdivisions - The number of spans in
the X axis.
 Y Subdivisions - The number of spans in
the Y axis.
MONKEY

 This adds a stylized monkey head to use as a test mesh, use Subdivision
Surface for a refined shape.
Toolbar

 Select (Select or move)

 Select Box(Select geometry by dragging a box.)
 Select Circle (Select geometry by dragging a circle.)
 Select Lasso (Select geometry by drawing a lasso.)
 Cursor(Change the location of the 3D Cursor.)
 Move (Translation tool.)
 Rotate (Rotation tool.)
 Scale (Scale tool.)
 Scale Cage (Change the scale of an object by controlling
its cage)
 Transform (Tool to adjust the objects translation,
rotations and scale.)
 Annotate (Draw free-hand annotation.)
 Annotate Line(Draw straight line annotation.)
 Annotate Polygon(Draw a polygon annotation.)
 Annotate Eraser (Erase previous drawn annotations.)
 Measure(Measure distances in the scene.)
Toolbar (Edit Mode)

 Extrude Region (Extrude the selected region

together freely or along an axis.)
 Extrude Manifold(Extrudes region and dissolves
overlapping geometry.)
 Extrude Along Normals(Extrude Region along their
local normal.)
 Extrude Individual (Extrude each individual
element along their local normal.)
 Extrude To Cursor(Extrude selected vertices, edges
or faces towards the mouse cursor.)
 Inset Faces (Inset selected faces.)
 Bevel(Create a bevel from the selected elements.)
 Loop Cut(Create a loop cut along the mesh.)
 Offset Edge Loop Cut (Add two edge loops on either side of
selected loops.)
 Knife (Create a knife cut in the mesh. Press enter to
confirm the cut.)
 Bisect(Bisect the mesh.)
 Poly Build(Create geometry by adding vertices one by one)
 Spin (Create new geometry by extruding and rotating.)
 Spin Duplicate(Create new geometry by duplicating and
rotating.)
 Smooth(Flatten angles of selected vertices.)
 Randomize(Randomize selected vertices.)
 Edge Slide(Slide edge along a faces.)
 Vertex Slide(Slide vertex along an edge.)
 Shrink/Flatten(Shrink selected vertices along their normals.)
 Push/Pull (Push or pull (scale) selected elements.)
 Shear (Shear selected elements.)
 To Sphere (Move vertices outwards in a
spherical shape around object center.)
 Rip Region (Rip Polygons and move the result.)
 Rip Edge (Extend vertices and move the
result.)