Left Button Selection (LBS)

Before version 2.8, by default , object selection was done with the right mouse button.

Considering other benchmark software such as Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, etc., Blender developers changed the default selection method to the left mouse button. However, the user can alter the selection method to the right mouse button if that is its preference.

Asset Browser and Pose Library

A modification introduced recently is the Asset Browser. This local user library makes assets available from one Blender file to another and lets us drag and drop them directly into the 3D Viewport editor.

Figure 1-2 shows the Asset Browser interface.

There are different types of assets within Blender: materials, objects, textures, etc. With this new type of editor, we can import them directly.

Workspaces

Workspaces are another substantial modification that replace the old layouts. They are in the Topbar, next to the main menus, as shown in Figure 1-3.

The primary workspaces are Layout, Modeling, Sculpting, UV Editing, Texture Paint, Shading, Animation, Rendering, Compositing, and Scripting. We can use each of them for a specific function.

We can also customize these default workspaces and create our own based on our needs; to do this, we click the + sign on the right of the menu.

For example, by switching from Layout to the Modeling workspace, we enter directly into the subobject modification mode called Edit mode, speeding up the work. The Sculpting workspace takes us straight to Sculpt mode, and shows only the tools needed for that mode; in addition, the Timeline disappears, and the 3D view expands.

The Blender 3.0 Toolbar (T)

A significant feature, especially for those using Blender for the first time, is the Toolbar, which we can find on the left of the Blender interface, as shown in Figure 1-4.

In Blender 3.0, in Object mode, the Toolbar is divided into four parts, from top to bottom:

With the toolbar, we can immediately move our objects in the 3D space, scale, and rotate them easily with gizmos.

In the toolbar in Edit mode, we can find the transformations and the most critical tools for subobject modeling. Again, these tools help Blender users because they don’t need to learn the keyboard shortcuts for these operations immediately.

With this tool, we can perform the essential modeling operations by simply clicking the icon of the desired device and performing the procedure in the 3D window. Only a left-click and drag action is required.

Most of these tools also have customized manipulator widgets, making the devices more accessible and more intuitive to use. This change is significant for beginners, but we still recommend learning the keyboard shortcuts that allow a faster workflow.

Eevee

Another phenomenal change included in the Blender 2.8 version is Eevee , the new real-time rendering engine. In version 3.0, this renderer has been improved and made a lot faster, as you will see later in this chapter and in Chapter 6.

With the introduction of Eevee, Blender’s 3D Viewport became interactive and allowed us to work in real time in rendered shading, just like the best game engines.

The Cycles render engine is the previous renderer of Blender. It’s a path tracer, and it is currently irreplaceable for the realism that a path-tracing engine produces.

Eevee is a lot faster than Cycles.

For some materials or effects, we have the same results in Cycles and Eevee; however, in other cases, Eevee does not have the same realistic and high-performance rendering results as Cycles.

For example, rendering transparent objects with real-time engines like Eevee does not give the same photorealistic rendering quality as Cycles. Eevee also needs more interface settings to be fixed before starting work.

Cycles X

Cycles X is a facelift of Cycles and has a redesigned architecture. The source code of Cycles X is different, so it is much faster than Cycles. Since the interface has not been altered, how we set up our work does not change.

We will discuss Cycles X in more detail in Chapter 6.

Workbench

Another renderer that comes to our aid to model in the viewport is Workbench .

It is for quick preview rendering, dedicated to precisely rendering and defining the model. With well-defined shadows, different colors, and cavity shading, the details of the objects we model are more apparent, and we can work with greater ease and precision.

Scene Collections

Another fundamental change that allows us to work in a much more orderly way is the introduction of Scene Collections instead of layers. Before version 2.8, Blender allowed us to use up to 20 layers; now, we can add as many collections as we need, give them a name, and organize them as we prefer.

We will discuss scene collections in detail later in this chapter when we speak of the Outline Editor.

Grease Pencil

The Grease Pencil was already present in previous versions of Blender, but it was a simple tool, usable only for writing and making notes in the viewport. However, since version 2.8, it has emerged as an exciting painting and animation tool.

We can continue to use the Grease Pencil for annotations. Still, now we can also do much more: we can use Draw, Object, and Edit modes for Grease Pencil brushes, and we can add dedicated modifiers and new materials.

In version 3.0 of Blender, the Grease Pencil provides many tools such as points, lines, and strokes, as well as a new workspace, modifiers, visual effects, materials, and many more features capable of producing entire 2D animated films.

In addition, with this tool, we can draw strokes and turn them into meshes or three-dimensional objects.

Geometry Nodes

Another exciting feature in Blender 3.0 is the Geometry Nodes modifier , which is helpful in editing objects’ geometry by procedural modeling.

These nodes join and partly replace the modifiers and exponentially increase the possibilities of building objects having much more complex geometry.

With this tool we can create rich scenes from simple assets and then modify them and make them more complex through the modification of parameters.

In 2019, the Blender Foundation started working on Everything Nodes’ critical project. It aims to extend the control of nodal systems to geometry, particles, simulations, collections, textures, materials, animations, etc. We can say that geometry nodes are part of this.

We will learn about the principles of this new modeling system in Chapter 3.

USD Importer

Universal Scene Description (USD) is an open source standard developed by Pixar for its animated films and used to create complex scenes collaboratively in a 3D world.

Pixar released USD as an open source file format.

Nvidia, starting from this file format, has built Omniverse. This application allows the real-time collaboration of many creatives on three-dimensional scenes and renders it with real-time path tracing.

Therefore, this format is significant and could be the future of 3D modeling production.

Blender already exports in the USD format, and the Blender Foundation and Nvidia have the ability to import USD files in version 3.0.

In this first section, we briefly explored the main innovations introduced in the new interface of Blender 3.0. These features make the software more robust and improve the user interface. In addition, the workflow is optimized.

The approach of this book is practical; to explore all the topics more technically, we can refer to the online Blender 3.0 Reference Manual here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/index.html.

For any questions about using the software, we can also refer to Blender Stack Exchange at https://blender.stackexchange.com/; this is a great site where users quickly respond to questions.

Now let’s learn how to install the software on our computer .

The Blender Foundation Website

The first thing to do when we start using Blender is to connect to the site https://www.blender.org/ where we can download all the installation files and a lot of materials to use and extend Blender.

The site also contains a series of information and updates essential for those who want to use the software from beginner to expert levels.

In the menu at the top of the page, we can find the sections Features, Download, Support, Get Involved, About, and Store.

Let’s not forget Donate, where we can make a small donation to support software development.

Figure 1-5 shows the page of the support section.

As Figure 1-5 shows, we can quickly access this page’s documentation, tutorials, and community support.

This page allows access to several international communities worldwide, ideally according to this motto: “It’s all about people. Anywhere you are, there’s a community for you.”¹

Installing Different Versions of Blender 3.0

Now let’s install Blender.

We will start with the official version, the stable one. It is straightforward, and the software takes up very little space on our computer’s hard disk: the current zipped folder is about 200 MB.

Figure 1-6 shows the download page for the many official versions for different operating systems and the source code.

As you can see in Figure 1-6, we can install two versions for each operating system: the executable one, which installs the software on our computer’s hard disk, and the portable, or zipped, which we can also use from a memory stick. On this page select Looking for Blender LTS? to find the link to install Blender LTS.

This installs the recommended, stable version.

Instead, if we want to install a more recent but not yet stable version, we go to the bottom of the download page and click the Download Blender Experimental button. This operation will redirect us to another page that shows several experimental software versions, as shown in Figure 1-7.

From here, we can download both the official beta and alpha versions, called the daily builds. In addition, we can download the release candidate. These are specific versions to test the subsequent releases of the software.

Not all of these versions are stable. In fact, the page says, “The following builds have the latest features and cool bug fixes. However, they can be unstable and mess up your files. Use it at your own risk.”²

There is also a dedicated page to download previous versions of Blender, including the 2.7 series and every earlier version of Blender; see https://www.blender.org/donload/previous-versions/.

Now we can open our software by clicking the Blender icon on the screen if we have installed one of the stable versions with the installer package. We do not have to install the experimental versions on the computer. Instead, we start them by clicking the Blender icon inside the main folder; the Blender application is the only one with the Blender icon visible.

So, we can have two or more different Blender versions on the same PC.

This section taught us how to install the stable release of Blender and the experimental versions. Now let’s start getting to the heart of the chapter by analyzing the user interface.

Main Areas

The Blender interface was developed in OpenGL and has several excellent possibilities for personalization so that everyone can organize their own working space to operate most efficiently and quickly for them.

The new Blender 3.0 interface is orderly and user-friendly.

First, we’ll look at the areas, editors, menus, and workspaces in Blender to understand the software more effectively.

Let’s start by looking at the main elements of Blender’s interface, as shown in Figure 1-9.

After a quick look at the general structure of the interface, we will now see how the main toolbars and windows are structured, and we will study in more detail the editors and views.

Topbar, Header, Toolbar, and Status Bar

The Topbar, header, toolbar, editor area, and status bar are the elements that make up the Blender 3.0 interface when we launch the platform.

When we open Blender, there are four editor types. In the center, we find the 3D Viewport editor, on the right are the Outline and Properties Editor. Instead, the Timeline is at bottom of the interface.

Across all platforms, Blender’s user interface is consistent.

The Topbar

Let’s start with the Topbar, the first line at the top of the interface containing the main menu, default workspaces, scenes, and layers.

On the left of this bar, the main menu contains File, Edit, Render, Window, and Help, as shown in Figure 1-10.

File collects the most important File operations. Edit contains the editing operations and the Preferences window, which allows us to customize the interface, which we will learn about later. Render includes the processes related to making a rendering. Window collects the actions on the windows. Finally, Help connects us with Blender sites, including the manual, the tutorials, and a lot of informative material.

Another vital part of the Topbar is the one containing different workspaces, as shown in Figure 1-11.

Multiple workspaces and their default settings help speed up workflow. In the next section, we will see how.

With the Scenes section, we can organize our work much better.

From the New Scene button in the Topbar, we can create multiple scenes with different objects within the same Blender file, as shown in Figure 1-12.

As we can see in Figure 1-12, we can build a new scene differently from the default scene or replicate a scene already present in Blender and then modify it. In addition, working with other scenes allows us to create different versions of the same environment within the same file. Then we can change those scenes independently.

Next to the scenes, we find the render layers on the right, dividing the rendered image into several levels to edit them separately and subsequently merge them into a final image. We will see render layers and passes in Chapter 6.

Now let’s learn about the tools of the editor type’s header.

The Header of the Editor Type

On the second and third lines from the top, we find the header of the editor type composed of two bars, as shown in Figure 1-13 .

At the top, we find the Toolbar Information Header, and below we can see the Tool Settings. Both these bars contain essential tools for working in Blender.

On the left of the header, the Editor Type Selector is the button to switch between the different editors, as shown in Figure 1-14.

We can switch between the various editors that we will learn about one by one in the “Introducing Editors and Views” section of this chapter.

Next, we find the Object Mode selector and the Header menu, as shown in the figure.

Object Interaction Mode Button

In the Object Interaction Mode button, we can choose our working mode.

Next, the 3D View Header menu changes according to the editor type. For example, in Object mode, we find View, Select, Add, and Object; instead, in Edit mode, we have View, Select, Add, Mesh, Vertex, Edge, Face, UV, etc. We will learn about these menus in this chapter’s “Menus and Workspaces” section.

Let’s learn about the different object modes now; each has specific functions to perform certain tasks with 3D objects, images, videos, etc.

In Figure 1-15, we see a complete list of all the object modes summarized in brief.

Figure 1-15 shows only the modes related to the mesh objects. But there are others associated, for example, with the Armature objects, etc.

Let’s look at each mode individually:

• Object mode is the default modality available for every type of object. In this mode, we work on the thing as a whole, and we modify the entity’s position, rotation, and dimension, the so-called object data-block editing, while the topology does not change.

• Instead, we use Edit mode for subobject editing. In this modality, we work on the individual elements of the object; for example, vertices, edges, and faces for meshes and control points for curves, surfaces, etc. Thanks to the main transformations and other modification tools, we can modify the object’s geometry by acting on its subobjects.

• Sculpt mode is a mesh-only mode for creating organic shapes in real time and realistic sculptural modeling with virtual clay. In this mode, the tools are brushes/chisels like Draw, Clay, Flatten, etc., and work on the Blender’s meshes by changing the mesh’s topology.

• Vertex Paint Mode is a mesh-only mode, where the tools become brushes that allow us to change the color of the mesh’s vertices. This operation gives vertices color without affecting the surface, geometry, texture, or material. We will use this color to apply different changes, as we will see in Chapter 5.

• Weight Paint mode is a mesh-only mode that assigns a weight to each vertex defined with a scale of values ranging from blue to red, from 0 to 1, and from the absence of influence to the maximum weight value. We use it for rigging and animation, for particle systems, and for each modification in which we need a change in the value of the amendment itself.

• Texture Paint Mode is a mesh-only mode; it allows us to paint meshes or create textures in various ways with multiple tools.

Let’s see some other editing tools of the header now.

Transformation Orientation, Transform Pivot Point, Snap and Proportional Editing

We can find other essential tools even further to the right, as shown in Figure 1-16.

Figure 1-16 shows the buttons for multiple features, from left to right, including Transformation Orientation to modify the alignment of the transformation axes, and the Transform Pivot Point and Pivot Center tools for rotating and scaling, which precisely establish the center of modification of the transformations.

Next, we find the Snap system and the Proportional Editing panel, which we can activate with the shortcut O.

Here we have different snaps available when performing the main transformations, as shown in Figure 1-17. In addition, snaps help move the selection to any defined point.

The defined points are Increment, Vertex, Edge, Face, Volume, Edge Center, and Edge Perpendicular. Each gives us a different snap function that we will explore throughout the book.

By contrast, the Proportional Editing panel makes a balanced selection of objects in Object mode and subobjects in Edit mode, as shown in Figure 1-18.

The selection takes place according to the selected object and the falloff type. Then, by rotating the mouse wheel, we proportionally increase or decrease the size of the sphere of influence of the selection.

On the right of the interface, we can see a few more visualization tools: View Object Types, Show Gizmo, Show Overlays, Toggle X-Ray (Alt+Z), and Viewport Shading.

Visualization Tools

In this section we’ll learn about the Visualization buttons of the header.

There are five elements related to visualization on the right side of the 3D view’s header, as shown in Figure 1-19.

Let’s look at each of these in more detail:

• The View Object Types list controls the visibility and selectability of each type of object. Visibility is indicated by the eye shape image button, while the arrowhead image button indicates the selection. By clicking this button, we can turn on or off the visibility or restrict the selection for each object such as Mesh, Curve, Grease Pencil, Armature, Light, etc., as per our requirements.

• The Show Gizmo list shows gizmos of all types, including Viewport, Object, Empty, Light, and Camera gizmos. From here, we can show or hide all the gizmos.

• The Show Overlays list displays overlines as gizmos and outlines. Thus, we can check the visibility of the grid, the axis, the 3D cursor, etc.

• The Toggle X-Ray button, which we can also access with Alt+Z, allows us to hide or show the back of our objects in 3D view in both Object and Edit modes. With the button active, the objects are displayed as transparent. The tool is handy in Edit mode because it also acts on the selection, and it also allows us to select the hidden subobjects.

• Viewport Shading controls the display of 3D view and allows us to change the type. We have different types of shading:

  • The Wireframe shading is the so-called “wireframe” display that shows only the outlines and edges of objects.

  • In Solid shading, we display the thing as a solid; it is the best shading mode for modeling and editing the elements.

  • Material Preview represents the objects with the materials applied, displaying the textures, transparency, reflection, etc.

  • The Rendered shading presents the 3D View workspace with the same characteristics as the final render, with materials, reflections, lights, and shadows reproduced in the selected render engine.

Then, we can control some visualization characteristics in the Properties Editor, which will be explained later in the chapter.

In the Viewport Display window of the Object Properties panel of the Properties Editor, we can control different characteristics of our objects; for example, we can show the name in the 3D view. Furthermore, in the Viewport Display window of the Material Properties of the Properties Editor, we can change the object’s color in 3D view to Solid viewport shading regardless of the material’ color applied.

But now, in the second bar, let’s look at the Tool Settings on the left.

Tool Settings

The second line of the header contains the Tool Settings, shown in the white rectangle in Figure 1-20.

In Object and Edit modes, as shown in the figure, we can see the Select functions, whereby we can directly perform different types of selection.

In the Tool Settings, we can decide what kind of selection to make: extend, subtract, invert, or intersect the current selection.

We find the tools to create and edit brushes and chisels in the same bar in Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, Texture Paint, and Draw modes.

Depending on the visibility requirement of the 3D Viewport editor, we can change the position of the tool settings. We can do this by right-clicking the Tool Settings and then selecting Header; this will pop up a toolbar. Next, we can choose Flip to Bottom. With this done, the Tool Settings will move to the bottom-left side of the 3D Viewport editor such that we can have a clean 3D Viewport on the top side. We can also revert this change.

Let’s look at the toolbar now.

The Toolbar

The toolbar is an essential instrument of the new Blender interface that is especially useful to those who are just starting to use Blender. The toolbar contains several tools.

This window has other instruments according to the various object modes. So, it will always have several characteristics in Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, and Texture Paint modes.

We can show the various devices, functions, and keyboard shortcuts by hovering the mouse over the icons, as shown in Figure 1-21.

Figure 1-21 shows the Add Mesh function with its different tools: Add Cube, Cone, Cylinder, etc.

In Object mode, the toolbar has the following tools in order:

• Selection to select objects.

• Cursor to switch from selection to cursor mode and move it; we can also access this tool with the Shift+spacebar shortcut.

• The main transformations are Move, Rotate, Scale, and Transform, and we can also access these tools, respectively, with G, R, S, and T.

  We can perform all three basic transformations simultaneously with a complete interactive gizmo.

  We use Ctrl to make precision changes in increments of 1 grid unit or press Shift+Ctrl to allow 0.1 grid units. We can modify the increments by opening the Viewport Overlays panel from the Overlays button in the 3D view header and changing the Scale. For example, if we set the Scale value from 1 to 0.1, the Ctrl increments will be 0.1 grid units instead of 1 grid unit. If we set Scale to 5 increments will be 5 grid units.

• The Add Mesh tools, as shown in Figure 1-21.

In Object mode, we also have the following:

• The Annotate key to make annotations directly in 3D view

• The Measure key to inspect the distances and angles of the created objects

In Edit mode, there are several tools for modifying and modeling the mesh such as Extrude Region, Inset Faces, Bevel, Loop Cut, Knife, Poly Build, Spin Smooth, Edge Slide, Shrink/Fatten, Shear, and Rip Region.

In Sculp mode, we have all the chisels or brushes.

Finally, in Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, Texture Paint Mode, we have brushes for editing vertices and textures.

In the Tool Settings of the 3D Viewport header, we have the controls for the toolbar tools we have just seen.

The Status Bar

At the bottom of the interface, we find the status bar. It changes depending on what editor our mouse cursor is in. It shows suggestions for keyboard shortcuts on the left. On the right it shows information relating to the objects.

This bar can be helpful if we don’t know or remember some keyboard shortcuts. For example, when we move an object, the left part of the status bar in Object mode looks like Figure 1-22.

Figure 1-22 shows the shortcuts to perform operations on objects.

On the right side of the status bar, we have all the information relating to the objects, as shown in Figure 1-23.

Figure 1-23 shows the name of the collection of the selected object, the object itself, the number of vertices and faces, the number of tris (triangular faces), the weight of the scene in the computer memory, the RAM usage, and the installed version of Blender.

We can access this information by right-clicking the status bar and activating what we are interested in the window that appear, for example, the Scene Statistics box.

This section has studied the essential tools to work effectively with the Blender 3.0 interface. Since version 2.8, the developers have modified the interface to work more practically and effectively.

In the next section, we start to see two fundamental Blender tools in more detail: editors and views.

Editor Types

The editors are the heart of Blender. Each of them is a window with tools for different purposes. These instruments give the software great flexibility and perform many disparate functions with similar interfaces.

In most cases, we can use the same keyboard shortcuts for similar tools in different editors. For example, if we need to move an object in the three-dimensional space of the viewport, we use the G key; we also use the same key to move an armature in Pose mode or move a strip in the Video Sequencer.

There are four groups of editors: General, Animation, Scripting, and Data.

We can see all the types of editors available in Blender 3.0 in Figure 1-24.

We also see the keyboard shortcut to open each editor type in Figure 1-24.

After a brief overview of the different editor types, let’s look at a fundamental one in more detail: the Properties Editor.

Properties Editor

The Properties Editor allows us to edit the active object’s properties and scenes and related data blocks. Many Blender functions are gathered in this editor.

Arranged vertically, on the right of Blender’s interface, this editor enables us to access different tabs that contain almost all the main functions of Blender.

This provision replaces the previous version with a more straightforward and rational distribution of the commands shown in Figure 1-25.

Each of these tabs has a specific function different from the others; let’s look at each in more detail:

Blender sets a bitmap texture, which is an image.

Then we can assign the image, in the Settings window, from the New or Open button.

We have to create an image from scratch with Blender’s Texture Paint tools with New. Instead, with Open, we can import an existing image.

If we want a procedural texture, we can choose the type by clicking the Image or Movie button and selecting one of Blender’s procedural textures, as Clouds, for example. We will discuss the topic in more detail in the Textures section of Chapter 4.

Here we have introduced the Properties Editor summarizing its main features without listing all the functions; refer to the Blender 3.0 Manual for a complete list.

Let’s now learn about menus and workspaces.

Menus and Workspaces

Let’s look at these four elements in more detail.

The Topbar Menu

The main menu in the Topbar contains the items File, Edit, Render, Window, and Help. The names already give us an idea of their functions, but let’s look at them one by one carefully.

File

In the File window, we have the New item (Ctrl+N) to create a new file and the Open item (Ctrl+O) to open an existing file. The Open Recent item opens a recently opened file.

Then we have the Recover Last Session and Autosave menu items; the files are automatically saved by Blender every few minutes in a temporary file that we can access if necessary.

Tip

In the File menu, we can recover lost files using File ➤ Recover ➤ Last Session or File ➤ Recover ➤ Auto Save. With the first function, we retrieve the last session, while with the second one, we open a window from which we can open different files saved automatically by Blender.

Next, we can use Save, Save As, and Save Copy to save the current file in different ways.

We use Link and Append to import objects, materials, etc., from other Blender files.

With Append, we can import an independent copy of the asset. In contrast, we can import a linked duplicate that we cannot directly modify with Link. With this, we can reuse already created stuff as per our requirements.

In Blender 3.0, we will use the Asset Browser, an agile content management tool that we will learn more about in Chapter 3.

Then we have the Import and Export items, which we use to import and export files from other software into Blender.

The most important file formats are already available in the menu that we open by typing Import or Export, as shown in Figure 1-26 for Import.

We can activate other file formats in the User Preferences from the add-ons window (in the Topbar menu, select Edit ➤ Preferences ➤ Add-ons ➤ Import Export ➤ search and enable the file format you need).

Another critical item in the File menu is External Data to pack external data into the Blender file in use.

Also, we can embed different data types, such as textures, inside the .blend file by clicking Pack Resources. This command is crucial if we have to move the file, put it on a thumb drive, or upload it to the cloud so we don’t lose the external data such as textures.

Edit

Let’s move on to the Edit item.

The Edit item opens a window with essential entries such as Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Shift+Ctrl+Z), which, as in other software, are used to cancel or repeat the last operation performed.

Undo History opens a window with the procedures performed and allows us to recover them.

Finally, we will find the Preferences button at the bottom of this menu item. This fundamental button opens the User Preferences, from which we can customize practically all the functions of this software.

Render

Let’s go to the Render window with its two menu items: Render Image (F12) and Render Animation (Ctrl+F12). These render the video or the image. We can also use View Render (F11) and View Render Animation (Ctrl+F11) to see the rendered clip or picture.

Window

In the Window menu, we can open a new window through the command New Window.

We can show or hide the status bar at the bottom of the screen by checking Show Status Bar.

We can also take a screenshot of the Blender interface with the Save Screenshot item.

Help

The Help item contains links to open the Blender 3.0 Reference Manual, the Support website, the User Communities, the Developer Community, and the Python API Reference. In addition, we can open the Blender 3.0 Python API Documentation to help familiarize ourselves with the Python Blender language.

Now let’s look at the 3D View Header menu.

Pie Menus

The pie menus are interactive functions that open directly in the interface.

They are a fundamental innovation since Blender 2.8 because they introduce a new, quick way of working with menus and keyboard shortcuts.

It’s a slightly different system of working that requires a little mnemonic effort, but it’s worth it to speed up the work.

The shortcuts are similar to that of standard actions, but they open entire menus.

For example, usually shortcut A allows us to select all the objects present in the scene. If we enable the pie menus, shortcut A opens a menu for all types of selection, as shown in Figure 1-27.

Before obtaining the window shown in Figure 1-27, we must activate the pie menus. So, we open the Blender User Preferences and select Add-on 3D Viewport Pie Menus (in the Topbar menu, select Edit ➤ Preferences ➤ Add-ons ➤ Import Export ➤ Interface: 3D Viewport Pie Menus), as shown in Figure 1-28.

Next we need to learn the keyboard shortcuts to open these menus directly in the 3D Viewport.

In the current version, we have 15 pie menus. First, let’s see a brief description of each menu.

• The Animation menu (Shift+spacebar) allows us to control the Timeline, insert keyframes, and activate the auto keyframe.

• The Apply Transform menu (Ctrl+A) enables us to apply the selected object’s location, rotation, and scale transformations or clear them.

• The Edit Align menu (Alt+X) works in Edit mode (Tab) and aligns vertices/edges/faces on the axis.

• The Edit Delete menu (X), in Edit mode, allows us to delete or dissolve subobjects. It also contains the commands Merge by Distance, Delete Edge Loops, and Edge Collapse.

• We can use the Editor Switch menu (Ctrl+Alt+S) to change the editor type quickly.

• The Interface menu (Ctrl+U) allows us to save/open files.

• The Manipulator menu (Alt+spacebar) shows and hides manipulators.

• The Mode Switch menu (Ctrl+Tab) changes between different object type modes.

• The Origin menu (Ctrl+Alt+X) allows us to change the origin of the selected object, which usually is in the geometric center of the thing itself.

• The Save/Open menu (Ctrl+S) opens, saves, and imports files into Blender.

• The Proportional Edit menu (Shift+O) applies proportional selection to an object or subobject.

• The Sculpt menu (W) quickly opens brushes in Sculpt mode.

• The Select menu (A) selects and deselects each object type.

• The Shading menu (Z) changes the display in the 3D view.

• The View menu (Alt+Q) edits views in the viewport.

All these menus are exciting and allow a faster workflow inside Blender.

Now let’s see another important innovation of the last Blender version: workspaces.

Blender Customization

The User Preferences window allows us to modify the default configuration of our software.

We can access it from the Edit item of the main menu in the Topbar (Topbar ➤ Edit ➤ Preferences).

We can see the different functions on the vertical menu on the left through the tabs Interface, Themes, Viewport, Lights, Editing, Animation, Add-ons, Input, Navigation, Keymap, System, Save and Load, and File Paths, as shown in Figure 1-29.

Slowly we’re covering all the essential elements of the user interface by following Blender’s graphical layout. First, we saw the main areas, such as the Topbar, Tool Settings, toolbar, status bar, and primary tools. Then we saw the heart of Blender: the editors where we do all the creation and editing work.

The following section will explain the navigation techniques, selection tools, and new features of version 3.0 of our software.

Navigation Techniques

Knowing how to navigate in 3D view is essential and allows us to work quickly and easily. The best thing is to get used to employing the mouse together with the keyboard shortcuts so we can work with one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard.

By clicking the Ctrl+spacebar key combination, we can maximize or minimize 3D view. With the shortcuts T and N, we can open or close the bars on the right or left —the toolbar and the sidebar— and work with the 3D Viewport that occupies the whole screen using the full-screen definition.

Blender 3.0 makes editing the user interface easier, and we can change the layout of the window’s interface more quickly.

When the mouse cursor is on a window’s dividing black line, a double arrow appears, and we can press and drag the left mouse button to adjust the dimension of the window.

When we right-click the line when the double arrow appears, we open the Area Options menu. So, we can create other windows by clicking the Vertical Split and Horizontal Split buttons: a line appears that we can move with the mouse. When satisfied with the window’s dimensions, we click the left button to split the existing window into two parts at the chosen point.

We can join two areas by right-clicking the Join Areas button in the same window and clicking again with the left key.

Finally, using the Swap Areas button, we can invert the contents of the two windows.

This system inside the 3.0 version is faster and more intuitive than the previous one and makes the UI more user-friendly.

We can use almost identical keys and the same movements to navigate the panels or the other windows: by rotating the middle mouse wheel, we zoom; by clicking and moving it while holding down Shift, we pan.

In the 3D Viewport, using the Numpad keys, we can modify the various views: by clicking 5, we change from Perspective view to Orthogonal and vice versa; with 7, we enter Top view; with 1, we enter Front and with 3, we enter Right view.

With identical keys, but keeping Ctrl pressed, we have opposite views to those mentioned: Ctrl 7 Bottom; Ctrl 1 Back; Ctrl 3 Left.

If our laptop does not have a Numpad, we can use, as shown previously, the option Emulate Numpad in the Input panel of User Preferences.

We can also navigate the 3D Viewport using the tools on the right side of the interface, with the Navigate gizmos, as shown in Figure 1-30.

As Figure 1-30 shows, we rotate the object’s view by clicking the LMB and dragging the mouse on the gizmo’s sphere. We can move in the respective Orthogonal view by clicking the corresponding letter: X, Y, Z or -X, -Y, -Z.

Below this gizmo, there are the buttons to zoom in/out, pan the view, toggle from camera/orthographic view and, the last button, to toggle from orthographic projection to perspective.

Now let’s begin to explore the selection methods.

Selection Methods

In Blender, many selection methods work in Object and Edit modes simultaneously.

As we have seen, we can also select the objects with the Select menu in the header of the 3D Viewport, but it is faster with keyboard shortcuts.

We can also choose the different selection modes from the window that opens by clicking the A shortcut if we activate the pie menus as we have seen before (in the Topbar, select Edit Preferences ➤ Add-ons ➤ Interface: 3D Viewport Pie Menus).

But let’s see what the main keyboard shortcuts for selection are.

Basic Transformations

In the 3D Viewport, we can apply three fundamental transformations: Translation, Rotation, and Scale.

These changes allow us to move, rotate, and scale our objects in Object mode. In Edit mode, we can do the same operations and transform subobjects, as we will see in Chapter 2.

Now that we have learned to navigate the view, select, and transform objects, let’s see what we can do with the Object context menu.

The Object Context Menu (RMB)

Using the left button instead of the right one for the selection in Blender 3.0, we can use the right button for the Object context menu.

In this menu, we find specific actions. It is interactive with the chosen object mode and the type of object we select.

So, the Object context menu in Object mode with a cube selected presents the essential features for that object. Instead, in Edit mode, we can open some subobject features for a vertex, edge, or face.

In Figure 1-31, we can see the Object context menu in Object mode. We can see this by right-clicking the selected object.

If we select an object, we have a menu related to the object’s characteristics.

For example, if we select a light, the menu will change and have features to modify that light, the same as a camera, etc.

In the Object context menu of an object, we can modify how to visualize the object, switching from Shade Flat to Shade Smooth.

We can convert an object to another, such as a Bezier curve to a mesh.

We can establish the object’s origin to the geometry, the cursor, etc. Then, we can copy and paste one or more objects and duplicate them.

We can rename the active object, apply a mirror, perform a snap, or create a relationship with other elements with parent.

Also, we can move one or more entities from one collection to another with the Move to Collection command. Finally, we can insert keyframes to animate the selected objects or delete them with the Delete item.

This section has deepened our knowledge of navigation, transformation, and selection techniques in Object and Edit modes. Then we saw the Object context menu tool: a right-click menu for particular actions for faster and easier workflow.

In the next section, we will see a different way of working with keyboard shortcuts.

Eevee, Cycles, and Cycles X

Blender 3.0 implements Cycles X, the new Cycles version, with new source code that makes rendering faster but keeps the same features and Cycles’ default interface.

In version 3.0 of Blender, we can choose the internal rendering engine from a drop-down menu in the Render panel of the Properties Editor, as shown in Figure 1-33.

As we can see in Figure 1-33, we can choose between three engines: Eevee, Cycles, and Workbench. Workbench is used only to give a better display in 3D view for modeling.

In Eevee and Cycles, materials are created and edited directly in the Shader Editor or the Material Properties window of the Properties Editor; the nodes are also almost the same.

Both renderers support the Principled BSDF shader. This shader allows us to obtain various types of material by connecting different textures for each physical characteristic of the multiple elements, as shown in Figure 1-34.

In Figure 1-34, we can see this particular node; BSDF stands for Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function. It is a mathematical function that calculates the reflection of a material.

We can control the parameters of both renderers in the Render Properties panel of the Properties Editor; some parameters for Eevee are different from those in Cycles.

We have seen the main features of the Render Properties panel of the Properties Editor regarding Eevee.

Let’s now, more concretely, briefly analyze the main elements of our rendering engine based on the nodal system.

Node-Based Materials

The nodal system plays an essential role in Blender, not only for materials. We have to use nodal materials to start working with Eevee and Cycles. Each node has a specific function, and the different nodes have to be combined to achieve and modify effects; thus, they have input, output, and other connection channels.

In Blender 3.0, two nodes work only with Eevee: Shader to RGB and Specular BSDF. Otherwise, nodes are common to both Cycles and Eevee.

We can edit nodes in the Shader Editor, created especially for this purpose.

Materials, lights, and backgrounds are all defined with nodes divided into different categories: Input, Output, Shader, Texture, Color, Vector, Converter, Script, Group, Layout. Each type has its functions specific nodes.

We use these nodes to modify the characteristics of the nodal materials (Color, Contrast, Bitmap, or Procedural Texture) through different systems that we will learn more about when discussing the Materials section in Chapter 4.

In the Shader Editor, we can use the same object’s keyboard shortcut of the 3D Viewport: Shift+A to add a new material node.

The primary type of node is the Shader node, which describes the interaction of light with the volume or surface of the object. There are different types of shaders. Currently, we have 16 shaders for Eevee and 20 for Cycles, as shown in Figure 1-35.

But let’s see the most important ones:

For an in-depth analysis of the nodal system, we can refer to Chapter 4.

This section has seen the main principles of Eevee, which is the renderer that has brought real-time visualization in the 3D Viewport into Blender.

We have seen the main differences between Eevee, Cycles, and Cycles X.

We will develop these concepts in the following chapters.