Blender Help

[TheGrayK]

Ok so I am going to make a Huge
Blender Help Resource and hopefully turn it into a .PDF
and make it available for download but until thats done
i will post all of my work here 
Right now theres not a whole lot of order but im
working on it
P.S. this is in animation because blender does that 

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BASIC DEFINITIONS

Vertex:
(plural=vertices)
a corner point of a polygon, polyhedron,
tesselatia corner point of a polygon,
polyhedron, tesselation, etc.on, etc.

Edge:
a one-dimensional line segment
joining two vertices.

Face:
Any polygon that makes up a boundary
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CHANGING VIEWS

MMB=Middle Mouse Button
RMB=Right Mouse Button
LMB=Left Mouse Button

Click and hold MMB and drag to orbit your view
CTRL+MMB will zoom your view but you can do the same with the scroll wheel
SHIFT+MMB will pan your view

2,6,4,and 8 incrementally orbit your view in the direction represented
by the corrosponding number
2-Down
6-Right
4-Left
8-Up

1,3, and 7 will change your veiw to
1-Front
3-Right side
7-Top
CTRL+1,3, or 7 will cange your veiw to the opposite side of the original
CRTL+1-Back
CRTL+3-Left Side
CRTL+7-Bottom

5 will switch your view between orthographic and perspective

Orthographic:
an affine, parallel projection of an object onto a perpendicular plane.

Perspective:
the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes;
or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects.

0 will change your veiw to the camera's perspective

.(on the numpad)-Center view on selected object
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HELPFUL HOTKEYS

Throughout blender there are many Helpful HOTKEYS
F12-Render Current Frame
CTRL+F12-Render Animation
TAB-Enter Edit/Object mode
SPACEBAR- Functions menu (mainly used to add objects)
SHIFT+D-Duplicate
ALT+D-Creat New Instance of selected Object
ALT+A-Play Animation in Current Window
A-Select/Deselect All
G-Grab Selection
R-Rotate Selection
ALT+R-Clear Object Rotation
S-Scale Selection
ALT+S-Clear Object Size
B-Border Select
N-Open/Close Transform Properties window
C-Center View on 3D cursor
SHIFT+C-Center 3D Crusor
x/DELETE-Delete current selection
H-Hide selection
ALT+H-Reveal
I-Insert KeyFrame Menu
ALT+I-Delete KeyFrame Menu
CTRL+Z-Undo
CTRL+Y-Redo
Z-Toggle between Solid and wireframe view types

Edit Mode Only-these only work in edit mode
E-Extrude
CTRL+R-Loop Cut
K-Loop Cut Menu
ALT+M-Merge
CTRL+E-Edge Special Menu
BB-Cirlcle Select
F-Create Face/Edge (with correct number of Vertices Selected)
CTRL+N-Recalculate normals to the outside
CTRL+SHIFT+N-Recalculate normals to the inside
O-Toggle on/off Proportional Editing Tool
P-Seperate Vertices to create a new object
CTRL+SHIFT+S-Shape Selection To Sphere
W-Specials Menu

Object Mode Only-these only work in object mode
CTRL+J-Join Selected Objects
M-Move Object to different layer
W-Boolean Tools Menu
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CONSTRAINING YOUR SELECTION TO AN AXIS

While modeling you will come across a scenario in which you
will need to constrain your actions to a single axis
there is a simple and logical solution
simply press x,y, or z to constrain your actions to the corresponding axis
this works with Extrude (E), Grab (G), Rotate (R), and Scale (S)
_____________________________ ________
USING THE MOUSE PROPERLY

In Blender your mouse is a powerful tool but can be a little confusing at first
so lets go over using the mouse.
To select an object whether it be vertex, edge, face, or even a camera you will right-click.
Left-clicking will only simply move your 3D cursor to a new position (wherever you clicked).
If you left/right-click and hold it for 3 seconds the add object menu will appear.
While editing you can right-click to cancel and left-click to confirm your action.
If you left-click and drag you can "Draw" gestures to influence the object
This gesture scales:

This gesture rotates:

This gesture grabs:


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THE 3D CURSOR

The 3D Cursor is extremely helpful but can be very annoying if you dont
understand it all the way (luckily its not that complex).
First off wherever your 3D cursor is that is where your objects will be created
so make sure you know where it is and it is where you want it.
[To put your 3D cursor back to the center of the 3D space press SHIFT+C]
Secondly you can center your view on the 3D cursor by pressing C.
and thats about it for the 3D cursor
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SPLITTING YOUR WINDOWS

Most Profesional 3D editing software enables you to
see what your doing from several different angles (most people prefer 4)
in blender it would seem that it were impossible to acheive this function
but it is not simply hover your mouse over the border of a window and you should
get the double pointed cursor

right-click and select "Split Area" you should then see
a line dividing the window you've selected to split. now simply left click where you want
the split to occur and now you've split your window
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I think I should Post A link Aswell so here
Download Blender

[Trottimus]

Awesome man, thanks for taking the time to make this!

Keep it coming, we all appreciate it for sure

[TheGrayK]

Thanks I was getting a little discouraged
I needed a little pick up like that 

[TheGrayK]

well a glimpse of what I've got going tell me what you think


Ok so your completely new to Blender and have never used another 3D suite or maybe you have but Blender confuses you to the point of driving a car into a ravine and blaming the local butcher(dont ever do that by the way). Dont worry everbody starts where you are,  Blender can seem to be impossible to learn everything feels so jumbled and disorganized, but as you become more and more acquainted with Blender it makes more and more sense!
So lets get started!

Chapter ~1~
Welcome to Blender

Well I've opened Blender now what?
first off lets breakdown the UI or User Interface to help you get a little more familiar with blender.

So when you open Blender you are presented with what appears to be a square and some other stuff?
So when you first start using blender it is a little uninformative. But thats why I made this! First of all lets start with how to adjust your view inside the 3D window. If you have a mouse with three buttons you are ready but if you only have a two button mouse there are some adjustments you need to make but never fret they are very simple enough.
The Header marked special is the header for your user preferences window it is pretty well hidden. Drag the header down and
you should see the user preferences window! If you arent already on the "view & controls" tab/button go there
from there you should see a button asking if you would like to emulate a three button mouse click it and now all you need to do is
alt-left click to simulate a middle mouse button.

To move your view around inside the 3D window click and hold the middle mouse button(MMB)/alt-Left Click(ALC) then drag.
Ta-Dah! Now on to some other MMB/ALC functions if you use SHIFT+MMB/ALC you will pan rather than orbit your view point.
If you press CTRL+MMB/ALC you will zoom your view point.
Another way to move your view point is using the numpad, this is an essential tool  it is something i find my self using all the time!
Keep in mind we are using the Numpad numbers and not the 1-0 keys at the top of your keyboard they hold a seperate purpose which we will talk about later.If your using a laptop and do not have a Numpad Blender has a way to fix this too! Again lets go to the user preferences window and this
time click the "System & OpenGL" tab/button now just click Emulate numpad and youve got it, the actions do not make as much sense as the do with a numpad but it is easy enough to ge used to.
Which Numbers Do what
1,3, and 7 will change your veiw to
1-Front
3-Right side
7-Top
CTRL+1,3, or 7 will cange your veiw to the opposite side of the original
That means
CRTL+1-Back
CRTL+3-Left Side
CRTL+7-Bottom

2,6,4,and 8 incrementally orbit your view in the direction represented
by the corrosponding number
2-Down
6-Right
4-Left
8-Up

If you are not happy with the increments that Blender is using you can change them
in the user preferences window if you are not already in it click the "View & Controls " tab/button
and in the mouse wheel menu you should see a button called "Rotation Angle" that is the number
of steps the numpad will take when rotating your view.

5 will switch your view between orthographic and perspective
to help you understand the difference between orthographic and perspective
here are some definitions

Orthographic:
an affine, parallel projection of an object onto a perpendicular plane.

Perspective:
the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes;
or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects.

and simply enough I would say that Orthographic is a flat or 2D view
and Perspective is a 3D view

Moving on to the Buttons window

[TheGrayK]

as of right now this is what the style of the book will look like

Image removed because of redesign.

[Salter1701]

Wow, thank you so much for this. Once I get some time I do plan to learn blender.  This will be great help, cheers!

[TheGrayK]

Hey No problem man
thank you for checking it out
Im glad you liked it stick around because as I get more and more done I will be posting it.
And eventually i will have a book available to download for free 

[TheGrayK]

Some reasoning as to why this project has come to a standstill.
With the release of 2.5 just around the corner a whole new way of doing things comes with it so
I am waiting for 2.5 and then I will update this and finish it.

[TheGrayK]

Hey Guys I made this very basic Video tutorial
Let me know what you think about it and how I can make it better.
(P.S. Sorry for the horrible Audio quality I really need a new microphone  )
<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8848232&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8848232&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1</a>

[Snowman]

Man, 2.5 is way different than 2.49. Thanks for the intro tutorial, it'll make upgrading easier to understand.

[TheGrayK]

No problem I will have more coming that I plan on packing in with the book that will come of all this.
Of course this is not on the top of the priority list of things to be finished.

[TheGrayK]

http://vimeo.com/15243105
<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15243105&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=1&amp;amp;color=00ADEF&amp;amp;fullscreen=1&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;loop=0" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15243105&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=1&amp;amp;color=00ADEF&amp;amp;fullscreen=1&amp;amp;autoplay=0&amp;amp;loop=0</a>