Blender

How can you create 3D models for your 3D graphics application? Use Blender, of course! Blender is an excellent FREE 3D modeling and animation software tool available on all major operating systems (including Windows, Mac OS and Unix). It is light weight (just a few Kbytes), runs very fast, and can produce Pixar quality films. Watch this Blender movie (15 mins long) to see what Blender can do.

You may also check out these shorter (under 5 mins) youtube Blender demo reels highlighting Blender works of artists worldwide: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Blender Resources

The official Blender site is blender.org. The most recent stable release is 2.73, however in this class we will be using Blender 2.7 (released april 2014) to match the Blender 2.7 Tutorial Series developed by Colin (BornCG on youtube). This tutorial series is aimed at the absolute beginner and takes you from navigating around Blender to modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and more advanced topics.

To Do

Install Blender 2.7a on your laptops.
Forewarning: at first glance, the Blender interface looks intimidating. Keep in mind though that it is one of the best and most intuitive modeling interface designs. Modeling in general is a time consuming game and it takes some patience and dedication to learn it, regardless of the type of software you use.
Blender's interface is designed to work best with a three-button mouse and a numpad keyboard. Although a bit more difficult, it is quite possible to use Blender with a laptop touchpad and a keyboard without numpad keys. If you decide on the latter, you need to configure Blender as follows. Open the Blender application, then select File/User Preferences, click on the Input tab, then check the options "Emulate 3 button mouse" and "Emulate numpad". Click on "Save User Settings", then close the preferences windows. The middle mouse button (MMB) will be emulated with Alt-LMB (Left Mouse Button).

Watch and follow along the first BornCG tutorial:

Tutorial 1: Navigating in 3D and The Basics (20 mins)
Blender is very keyboard shortcut oriented. This tutorial introduces a few shortcuts that you will be using A LOT this semester:

Number pad 1 Front view

3 Right view
7 Top view
5 Perspective / orthographic view
g grab or move the selected object
r rotate the selected object
s scale the selected object
x delete the selected object
Shift-c place cursor to origin (0,0,0) and change view to include ALL objects. Think of it as "HOME"
Shift-a Bring up the "Tools" menu to add new meshes, etc.

Play with these shortcuts and get comfortable with them. In addition, make sure you learn how to zoom in and out using the mouse wheel (or emulator), rotate the scene using the middle mouse button MMB (or emulator), and translate the scene using Shift-MMB. The time you put into this now will pay off later.

Watch and follow along the second BornCG tutorial:
- Tutorial 2: Understanding the User Interface and Preferences (24 mins)
  This tutorial explains how to split and join windows, and how to change the window layout and other preferences in Blender. It is a bit early for you to decide what layout would work best for you, until you've gained some experience with modeling in Blender, so keep in mind that you can always rewatch this video once you decide that the default layout is not ideal for you.

Number pad	1	Front view
	3	Right view
	7	Top view
	5	Perspective / orthographic view
g	grab or move the selected object
r	rotate the selected object
s	scale the selected object
x	delete the selected object
Shift-c	place cursor to origin (0,0,0) and change view to include ALL objects. Think of it as "HOME"
Shift-a	Bring up the "Tools" menu to add new meshes, etc.