Make your 3D world a reality Some of the dramatic visual effects you've seen in top-grossing movies and heralded television series got their start in Blender. This book helps you get your own start in creating three-dimensional characters, scenes, and animations in the popular free and open-source tool. Author Jason van Gumster shares his insight as an independent animator and digital artist to help Blender newcomers turn their ideas into three-dimensional drawings. From exporting and sharing scenes to becoming a part of the Blender community, this accessible book covers it all! Create 3D characters—no experience required Build scenes with texture and real lighting features Animate your creations and share them with the world Avoid common rookie mistakes This book is the ideal starting place for newcomers to the world of 3D modeling and animation.  

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 4 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender 7 Chapter 1: Discovering Blender 9 Getting to Know Blender 10 Discovering Blender’s origins and the strength of the Blender community 11 Making open movies and games 12 Getting to Know the Interface 15 Working with an interface that stays out of your way 17 Resizing areas 19 Maximizing an area 20 The menu that is a pie 22 Chapter 2: Understanding How Blender Thinks 25 Looking at Editor Types 25 General editors 26 Animation editors 28 Scripting editors 29 Data editors 29 Understanding the Properties editor 30 Navigating in Three Dimensions 32 Orbiting, panning, and zooming the 3D Viewport 32 Changing views 35 Selecting objects 40 Taking advantage of the 3D cursor 40 Extra Features in the 3D Viewport 44 Quad View 44 Regions 45 Collaborating (with others and yourself) with annotations 48 Don’t know how to do something? Hooray for fully Integrated search! 49 Customizing Blender to Fit You 50 Using preset workspaces 51 Blender workflows 55 Setting user preferences 57 Using custom event maps 58 Speeding up your workflow with Quick Favorites 61 Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty Working in Blender 63 Grabbing, Scaling, and Rotating 64 Differentiating Between Coordinate Systems 64 Transforming an Object by Using Object Gizmos 67 Activating object gizmos 68 Using object gizmos 69 Saving Time by Using Hotkeys 72 Transforming with hotkeys 73 Hotkeys and coordinate systems 73 Numerical input 76 The Sidebar 76 Chapter 4: Working in Edit Mode and Object Mode 77 Making Changes by Using Edit Mode 77 Switching between Object mode and Edit mode 78 Selecting vertices, edges, and faces 79 Working with linked vertices 84 Still Blender’s No 1 modeling tool: Extrude 85 Adding to a Scene 90 Adding objects 90 Meet Suzanne, the Blender monke 92 Joining and separating objects 93 Creating duplicates and links 95 Discovering parents, children, and collections 101 Saving, opening, and appending 108 Part 2: Creating Detailed 3D Scenes 111 Chapter 5: Creating Anything You Can Imagine with Meshes 113 Pushing Vertices 114 Getting familiar with Edit mode tools 116 Adding geometry by insetting 117 Cutting edges with the Knife 122 Rounding your corners by beveling 126 Spiraling new geometry into existence with the Spin tool 130 Working with Loops and Rings 131 Understanding edge loops and face loops 132 Selecting edge rings 134 Creating new loops 135 Simplifying Your Life as a Modeler with Modifiers 137 Understanding modifier types 140 Doing half the work (and still looking good!) with the Mirror modifier 147 Smoothing things out with the Subdivision Surface modifier 149 Using the power of Arrays 153 Chapter 6: Sculpting in Virtual Space 157 Adding Background Images in the 3D Viewport 158 Mastering the types of image objects 159 Changing image object properties 160 Adjusting your image objects 162 Setting Up Your Sculpting Workspace 163 Sculpting a Mesh Object 166 Understanding sculpt tool types 166 Tweaking brush properties 173 Refining control of your tools 174 Creating custom brushes 176 Using Blender’s texture system to tweak brushes 176 Sculpting with the Multiresolution modifier 177 Freeform Sculpting with Dynamic Topology (Dyntopo) 180 Understanding the Basics of Retopology 184 Chapter 7: Using Blender’s Non-Mesh Primitives 189 Using Curves and Surfaces 190 Understanding the different types of curves 192 Working with curves 193 Understanding the strengths and limitations of Blender’s Surfaces 212 Using Metaball Objects 213 Meta-wha? 214 What metaball objects are useful for 217 Adding Text 217 Adding and editing text 218 Controlling text appearance 219 Deforming text with a curve 227 Converting to curves and meshes 228 Chapter 8: Changing That Boring Gray Default Material 229 Understanding Materials and Render Engines 230 Quick ’n’ Dirty Coloring 233 Setting diffuse colors 233 Assigning multiple materials to different parts of a mesh 235 Using vertex colors 240 Setting Up Node Materials 247 Adjusting your workspace to work with materials 248 Working with nodes 249 Understanding shaders 250 Playing with Materials in Blender 251 Demystifying the Principled BSDF 252 Combining shaders with the Mix Shader node 258 Playing with the Shader to RGB node 263 Chapter 9: Giving Models Texture 267 Adding Textures 267 Using Procedural Textures 268 Understanding Texture Mapping 272 Making simple adjustments with the Texture Mapping panel 272 Using texture coordinates 273 Understanding Object coordinates and the UV Project modifier 278 Unwrapping a Mesh 281 Marking seams on a mesh 282 Adding a test grid 283 Generating and editing UV coordinates 284 Painting Textures Directly on a Mesh  287 Preparing to paint  288 Working in Texture Paint mode  290 Using textures on your Draw tool  292 Saving Painted Textures and Exporting UV Layouts  295 Chapter 10: Lighting and Environment  297 Lighting a Scene  297 Understanding a basic three-point lighting setup 298 Knowing when to use which type of light 301 Lighting for Speedy Renders  317 Working with three-point lighting in Blender 318 Using Look Dev to set up lighting  318 Setting Up the World  320 Changing the sky to something other than dull gray  320 Understanding ambient occlusion  325 Working with Light Probes in Eevee  328 Baking from your light probes  330 Understanding the limitations of light probes 332 Part 3: Get Animated!  333 Chapter 11: Animating Objects 335 Working with Animation Curves 336 Customizing your screen layout for Animation 338 Inserting keys 340 Working with keying sets  345 Working in the Graph Editor 351 Editing motion curves  352 Using Constraints Effectively  356 The all-powerful Empty!  357 Adjusting the influence of a constraint 360 Using vertex groups in constraints  361 Copying the movement of another object  361 Putting limits on an object  363 Tracking the motion of another object  365 Chapter 12: Rigging: The Art of Building an Animatable Puppet  367 Creating Shape Keys  368 Creating new shapes  368 Mixing shapes 370 Knowing where shape keys are helpful  372 Adding Hooks  373 Creating new hooks  373 Knowing where hooks are helpful 375 Using Armatures: Skeletons in the Mesh  375 Editing armatures  376 Putting skin on your skeleton 390 Bringing It All Together to Rig a Character  396 Building Stickman’s centerline  396 Adding Stickman’s appendages  397 Taking advantage of parenting and constraints  400 Comparing inverse kinematics and forward kinematics  403 Making the rig more user friendly 407 Chapter 13: Animating Object Deformations  411 Working with the Dope Sheet  411 Selecting keys in the Dope Sheet 412 Working with markers  415 Recognizing different kinds of keyframe indicators  416 Animating with Armatures  418 Principles of animation worth remembering 420 Making sense of quaternions (or, “Why are there four rotation curves?!”)  423 Copying mirrored poses  424 Doing Nonlinear Animation  425 Working with actions  426 Mixing actions to create complex animation 429 Taking advantage of looped animation  430 Chapter 14: Letting Blender Do the Work for You 433 Using Particles in Blender 435 Knowing what particle systems are good for 436 Using force fields and collisions 440 Using particles for hair and fur  442 Giving Objects Some Jiggle and Bounce  446 Dropping Objects in a Scene with Rigid Body Dynamics  449 Simulating Cloth 450 Splashing Fluids in Your Scene 452 Smoking without Hurting Your Lungs: Smoke Simulation in Blender  457 Creating a smoke simulation  457 Rendering smoke  458 Chapter 15: Making 2D and 2.5D Animation with Grease Pencil  461 Getting Started with the 2D Animation Workspace  462 Working with Grease Pencil tools  464 Drawing with Grease Pencil  465 Sculpting Grease Pencil objects  470 Editing Grease Pencil objects  472 Understanding Grease Pencil Materials  473 Mastering Grease Pencil Layers 478 Automating Your Drawings with Grease Pencil Modifiers  482 Animating with Grease Pencil  488 Using a hand-drawn animation workflow with Grease Pencil objects  488 Rigging Grease Pencil objects for animation  492 Integrating Grease Pencil with a 3D Scene 495 Part 4: Sharing Your Work with the World  497 Chapter 16: Exporting and Rendering Scenes 499 Exporting to External Formats  499 Rendering a Scene  502 Creating a still image  502 Creating a sequence of still images for editing or compositing  509 Chapter 17: Editing Video and Animation  513 Comparing Editing to Compositing  514 Working with the Video Sequencer  514 Adding and editing strips  518 Adding effects and transitions  525 Rendering from the Video Sequencer 527 Chapter 18: Compositing Images and Video  531 Understanding Nodes  531 Getting Started with the Compositor  534 Rendering in Passes and Layers  535 Discovering Passes Available in Eevee and Cycles  536 Understanding Cycles-only Light Passes  540 Meet Cryptomatte  542 Working with Nodes  544 Configuring the backdrop 545 Identifying Parts of a Node 547 Navigating the Compositor 548 Adding nodes to your compositing network  549 Grouping nodes together  550 Discovering the Nodes Available to You 550 Rendering from the Compositor  552 Chapter 19: Mixing Video and 3D with Motion Tracking  553 Making Your Life Easier by Starting with Good Video  554 Knowing your camera  554 Keeping your lighting consistent  556 Having images in good focus  557 Understanding the scene  558 Getting Familiar with the Motion Tracking Workspace  559 Tracking Movement in Blender  561 Adding markers and tracking 563 Solving camera motion from tracker data  569 Setting up your scene for integrating with your video footage  573 Where to Go from Here  575   Part 5: the Part of Tens  577 Chapter 20: Ten Tips for Working More Effectively in Blender  579 Use Tooltips and Integrated Search  579 Take Advantage of the Quick Favorites Menu  580 Look at Models from Different Views  580 Don’t Forget about Add-ons  582 Lock a Camera to an Animated Character  582 Name Everything  583 Do Low-Resolution Test Renders 583 Use Annotations to Plan  586 Ask for Help  586 Have Fun, but Take Breaks  587 Chapter 21: Ten Excellent Community Resources  589 Blender org  589 Blender ID  590 Blender manual  590 Developer blog  590 Bug reporting and developer discussions  590 builder blender org  591 Blender Cloud 592 BlenderArtists org  592 BlenderNation  592 BlenderBasics com  593 Blender Stackexchange com 593 CGCookie com  593 Blend Swap (blendswap com)  593 Blender community 594 Blender Today  594 Right-Click Select  594 Blender NPR  595 Social Media  595 Blender chat  596 Index  597