Creating Objects

As you open Blender, you’ll find the familiar “default cube” sitting in the middle of the scene. You can use that cube to build your model or you can delete it. To delete objects in Blender, just select them and press X or Del and click Delete in the dialog box that will appear to confirm the deletion.

First, you want to create an object and there are different ways to do it.

In the 3D View, in the Tools Region (press T if the Tools Region is hidden), on the Create tab, click the object type you want to create.

In the 3D View header, choose the Add Menu and from it select the object you want to create from the different object categories.

With the cursor in the 3D View, press Shift + A and the same Add Menu from the header will appear.

In any of the options above, the object will be created in the position of the 3D cursor inside the 3D scene.

Once you create an object, in the Operator panel (at the bottom of the Tools Region) you’ll be able to find parameters to modify it, such as adjusting the depth and radius of a cylinder. Make sure you have made any adjustments you want to the object before moving it or performing any other action on it because after you create the object it is converted to a mesh and you’ll no longer have access to those parameters. The parameters of the last performed action will appear in the Operator panel, so pay attention to this area as you’ll find really cool options there! As an alternative, you can press F6 with the cursor over the 3D View to see those options in a pop-up.

Animation software often has a “test” object; in Blender, it’s the monkey head (called Suzanne), and you’ll use it for the test scene in this chapter. Create a monkey mesh using any of the three methods described above that you prefer. Then, create a plane, as this will later serve as the floor of your scene. Don’t worry if the head and plane intersect in the middle of the scene and are not aligned; you’ll correct that in a moment.