Blender Warmup for University of Insubria

A Quick Exercise!

By working through these examples, it should get you familiar with some very useful and basic skills in working your way around the 3D View and the Outliner. It will also give you some insight into the Tools Panel and the "N Panel" within the 3D View.

Download the Base File

warmup.blend

It should look like this when you open it.

Rename it with your name.

• File -> Save As -> lastname_firstname_warmup.blend

Challenge 1: Make Box Original look like Box_1. Video

The goal of this challenge is to get familiar rotating objects in the 3D View as well as rotating and panning the viewport itself.

• Right click "Box_Original" in the 3D View or Left Click "Box_Original" in the Outliner
• 'Shift + D' to duplicate it. 'Left Click' to place it somewhere, or 'Right Click'to leave it in original location
• 'G' to grab the box and move it toward 'Box 1.' 'Left Cick' to confirm, or 'Right Click' to cancel
• Use 'Middle Mouse' (hold it and move mouse) to rotate the view
• Use 'Shift + Middle Mouse' to pan the view
• 'R' to rotate the cube in the view plane. 'Left Cick' to confirm, or 'Right Click' to cancel
• 'R' 'R' (hit R twice) to rotate the cube as if touching it. 'Left Cick' to confirm, or 'Right Click' to cancel
• 'S' to scale. 'Left Cick' to confirm, or 'Right Click' to cancel
• 'Z' to toggle wireframe view to help visualize

Challenge 2: Precise Manipulation Video

• Duplicate Box_Original, rename it "Aligned Precise"
• Select "Box_1" and press the "N: key so that the panel at the right appears. There, under the "Transform" tab, you can read out the location, rotation and scale values. Copy them to your new "Aligned Precise" object
• When done, "Lock" this objects transform by pressing the padlocks beside each of the items. This will prevent accidental scaling of the object later. A useful trick!

Challenge 3: Edit Mode Manipulation Video

• Duplicate Box_Original and rename it "Challenge 3"
• Enter edit mode by pressing 'Tab'.
• Use the same scale/rotate/grab functions on the box as you did before
• Watch the video to see how you can use the "snapping" feature
• Exit Edit Mode by pressing 'Tab' when done
• Hide this object by pressing "H" or by pressing the "eye" in the Outliner. This is useful for keeping your scene organized or helping navigate through complex scenes!

Challenge 4: Grease Pencil Video

• Re-open the N-panel if it is not already
• Create a new Grease Pencil Datablock
• Create a new Layer
• Change the color to Blue
• Press "T" to open the tool panel
• Press on the Grease Pencil Tab
• Change the stroke placement to "Surface"
• Draw a smiley face on the red side of Box_5

Challenge 5: Measurement Video

• Notice the "Ruler/Protractor" below the Grease Pencil tools
• Use it to measure the distance between Box_1 and Box_3
• Record that distance HERE:________
• Use it to measure the angle between Box_1, Box_5 and Box_3 .
• Record that angle HERE:________
• Hit Esc to exit the measure tool

Challenge 6: Constrained Manipulation Video

• Duplicated Box_Original, rename it "Aligned Constrained"
• Scale it by Z-axis 5.5. 'S' -> 'Z' -> '5.5' -> ENTER
• Scale it by Y-axis 2.5 'S' -> 'Y' -> '2.5' -> ENTER
• Rotate it aorund Z-axis by 20 degrees 'R' -> 'Z' -> 'ENTER'
• Move it along it's LOCAL X axis by -5 units 'G' -> 'X', 'X', -> -5 -> 'ENTER'

Save your .blend file in the format lastname_firstname_warmup.blend Please email it to me for review!