Design Visualization Software Introduction / Review

View Types, Menus, Frames

Blender View types Perspective View – distant objects appear smaller Orthographic View – objects stay the same size regardless of the distance To change the view type, put the mouse in the middle of the active screen and press “5” on the numpad.

Blender View types Camera View – displays the scene as it will be rendered Note: Everything in the orange dotted lines will be rendered. If the objects in the scene are to big, they might not show in the camera or the rendered image.

Window (Frame) Types in Blender The blender interface is highly customizable. There are 16 window types. 3D-View – shows a graphical view of the scene Timeline – used for animation playback and setup UV/Image – edit images and use UV mapping to apply textures Node Editor – use nodes to create and texture materials Outliner – displays all objects as an outline Info Window – main menu bar (contains File, Help

3D-View Has a header that contains the menu, mode type, transform manipulators, layers, and other useful options. 3D-View is the oldest feature and has more options than other frames.

Timeline View Displays the time cursor, keyframes, and markers Allows you to: Control the animation Add markers to mark important parts of the animation Go to specific frames

UV/Image View View used to add a 2D texture to a 3D model. The most flexible way is called UV mapping. To use UV mapping, you must first add a seam in the 3D model. Then you lay out the unwrapped model as a 2D image and apply the texture. U represents the horizontal coordinates and V represents the vertical coordinates X, Y, and Z are used in 3D space Examples of UV mapping using a globe. It depends on the location, frequency, and number of seams in the model.

Node Editor Allows you to modify properties related to material, texture, or compositing images There are several types of nodes that are all grouped by categories. You can also use “Search” to find a specific node.

Outliner Allows you to easily navigate a complex scene by displaying objects as an outline. When you have an item selected, the symbol in front of the name will light up. Clicking the eye icon on the right will toggle the ability to see the object. The mouse icon on the right will toggle the ability to select the object. The camera icon on the right will toggle the ability to render the object.

Info Window Contains the Menu options Current screen Current scene Current engine Resource information

Frame (Window) Arrangement The frames can be rearranged to suit the user’s needs. By clicking and dragging the splitter icon, the use can join or split frames. When trying to merge frames, the two frames must be the same dimensions in the direction you are trying to merge. The 3D-view (User Persp) frame cannot be combined with info or properties. The info frame can be combined with properties. The splitter icon is usually located in the top-right and bottom-left corners of a frame

Manipulating Objects in 3D

Screen Manipulation (Preset viewing angles) Camera View – 0 (numpad) Top – 7 (numpad) Bottom – Ctrl + 7 (numpad) Front – 1 (numpad) Back – Ctrl + 1 (numpad) Right – 3 (numpad) Left – Ctrl +3 (numpad)

Selecting Objects To select an object, “Right-Click” the object. “Left-Click” will move the 3D cursor. Shift + Right-Click will add an object to the selection. Border Select (B) – allows you to draw a rectangle with left-mouse. Any object that lies partially within this rectangle becomes selected. Adds to the previous selection There are other selection methods than those listed here.

Transform Manipulators There are 3 basic manipulators in blender. Translate (G) – allows you to move an object to a different location Rotate (R) – allows you to rotate an object in place Scale (S) – allows you to increase or decrease the size of the object Toggles the 3D manipulator’s visibility Note: these can be combined into one tool by “shift-clicking” on the manipulator icons.

Transform Trick When using the transform tools, you can lock the axis and only transform on that axis. EX: selecting scale and locking “Z” axis will allow you to scale only in the Z direction but not X or Y

Advanced Transformations Mirror (Ctrl + M) – can be used to create a reverse of the selection. Position of the mirrored version is based on the pivot point. Warp (Shift + W) – can be used to warp objects around the 3D cursor. Shrink / Fatten (Alt + S) – displaces vertices without scaling the entire form

Linking and Attaching files Blender has the ability to reuse data by linking and attaching files. Linking – the new object is not separated from the original location. Changing the original object will change all files with the object linked Appending – the new object is completely separated from the original location. Changing the original object will NOT change the other objects. Note: Linking and attaching works for almost everything in blender; including cameras, materials, textures, notes, and meshes. Link/Append can be found in the File menu under the info header