Blender for dummies

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
	About This Book
	Foolish Assumptions
	Icons Used in This Book
	Beyond the Book
	Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Wrapping Your Brain Around Blender
	Chapter 1 Discovering Blender
		Getting to Know Blender
			Discovering Blender’s origins and the strength of the Blender community
			Making open movies and games
		Getting to Know the Interface
			Working with an interface that stays out of your way
			Resizing areas
			Maximizing an area
			The menu that is a pie
	Chapter 2 Understanding How Blender Thinks
		Looking at Editor Types
			General editors
			Animation editors
			Scripting editors
			Data editors
		Understanding the Properties editor
		Navigating in Three Dimensions
			Orbiting, panning, and zooming the 3D Viewport
			Changing views
			Selecting objects
			Taking advantage of the 3D cursor
		Extra Features in the 3D Viewport
			Quad View
			Regions
			Collaborating (with others and yourself) with annotations
			Don’t know how to do something? Hooray for fully integrated search!
		Customizing Blender to Fit You
			Using preset workspaces
			Blender workflows
			Setting user preferences
			Using custom event maps
			Speeding up your workflow with Quick Favorites
	Chapter 3 Getting Your Hands Dirty Working in Blender
		Grabbing, Scaling, and Rotating
		Differentiating Between Coordinate Systems
		Transforming an Object by Using Object Gizmos
			Activating object gizmos
			Using object gizmos
		Saving Time by Using Hotkeys
			Transforming with hotkeys
			Hotkeys and coordinate systems
			Numerical input
			The Sidebar
	Chapter 4 Working in Edit Mode and Object Mode
		Making Changes by Using Edit Mode
			Switching between Object mode and Edit mode
			Selecting vertices, edges, and faces
			Working with linked vertices
			Still Blender’s No. 1 modeling tool: Extrude
		Adding to a Scene
			Adding objects
			Meet Suzanne, the Blender monkey
			Joining and separating objects
			Creating duplicates and links
			Discovering parents, children, and collections
			Saving, opening, and appending
Part 2 Creating Detailed 3D Scenes
	Chapter 5 Creating Anything You Can Imagine with Meshes
		Pushing Vertices
			Getting familiar with Edit mode tools
			Adding geometry by insetting
			Cutting edges with the Knife
			Rounding your corners by beveling
			Spiraling new geometry into existence with the Spin tool
		Working with Loops and Rings
			Understanding edge loops and face loops
			Selecting edge rings
			Creating new loops
		Simplifying Your Life as a Modeler with Modifiers
			Understanding modifier types
			Doing half the work (and still looking good!) with the Mirror modifier
			Smoothing things out with the Subdivision Surface modifier
			Using the power of Arrays
	Chapter 6 Sculpting in Virtual Space
		Adding Background Images in the 3D Viewport
			Mastering the types of image objects
			Changing image object properties
			Adjusting your image objects
		Setting Up Your Sculpting Workspace
		Sculpting a Mesh Object
			Understanding sculpt tool types
			Tweaking brush properties
			Refining control of your tools
			Creating custom brushes
			Using Blender’s texture system to tweak brushes
		Sculpting with the Multiresolution modifier
		Freeform Sculpting with Dynamic Topology (Dyntopo)
		Understanding the Basics of Retopology
	Chapter 7 Using Blender’s Non-Mesh Primitives
		Using Curves and Surfaces
			Understanding the different types of curves
			Working with curves
			Understanding the strengths and limitations of Blender’s surfaces
		Using Metaball Objects
			Meta-wha?
			What metaball objects are useful for
		Adding Text
			Adding and editing text
			Controlling text appearance
			Deforming text with a curve
			Converting to curves and meshes
	Chapter 8 Changing That Boring Gray Default Material
		Understanding Materials and Render Engines
		Quick ’n’ Dirty Coloring
			Setting diffuse colors
			Assigning multiple materials to different parts of a mesh
			Using vertex colors
		Setting Up Node Materials
			Adjusting your workspace to work with materials
			Working with nodes
			Understanding shaders
		Playing with Materials in Blender
			Demystifying the Principled BSDF
			Combining shaders with the Mix Shader node
			Playing with the Shader to RGB node
	Chapter 9 Giving Models Texture
		Adding Textures
		Using Procedural Textures
		Understanding Texture Mapping
			Making simple adjustments with the Texture Mapping panel
			Using texture coordinates
			Understanding Object coordinates and the UV Project modifier
		Unwrapping a Mesh
			Marking seams on a mesh
			Adding a test grid
			Generating and editing UV coordinates
		Painting Textures Directly on a Mesh
			Preparing to paint
			Working in Texture Paint mode
			Using textures on your Draw tool
		Saving Painted Textures and Exporting UV Layouts
	Chapter 10 Lighting and Environment
		Lighting a Scene
			Understanding a basic three-point lighting setup
			Knowing when to use which type of light
		Lighting for Speedy Renders
			Working with three-point lighting in Blender
			Using Look Dev to set up lighting
		Setting Up the World
			Changing the sky to something other than dull gray
			Understanding ambient occlusion
		Working with Light Probes in Eevee
			Baking from your light probes
			Understanding the limitations of light probes
Part 3 Get Animated!
	Chapter 11 Animating Objects
		Working with Animation Curves
			Customizing your screen layout for animation
			Inserting keys
			Working with keying sets
			Working in the Graph Editor
			Editing motion curves
		Using Constraints Effectively
			The all-powerful Empty!
			Adjusting the influence of a constraint
			Using vertex groups in constraints
			Copying the movement of another object
			Putting limits on an object
			Tracking the motion of another object
	Chapter 12 Rigging: The Art of Building an Animatable Puppet
		Creating Shape Keys
			Creating new shapes
			Mixing shapes
			Knowing where shape keys are helpful
		Adding Hooks
			Creating new hooks
			Knowing where hooks are helpful
		Using Armatures: Skeletons in the Mesh
			Editing armatures
			Putting skin on your skeleton
		Bringing It All Together to Rig a Character
			Building Stickman’s centerline
			Adding Stickman’s appendages
			Taking advantage of parenting and constraints
			Comparing inverse kinematics and forward kinematics
			Making the rig more user friendly
	Chapter 13 Animating Object Deformations
		Working with the Dope Sheet
			Selecting keys in the Dope Sheet
			Working with markers
			Recognizing different kinds of keyframe indicators
		Animating with Armatures
			Principles of animation worth remembering
			Making sense of quaternions (or, “Why are there four rotation curves?!”)
			Copying mirrored poses
		Doing Nonlinear Animation
			Working with actions
			Mixing actions to create complex animation
			Taking advantage of looped animation
	Chapter 14 Letting Blender Do the Work for You
		Using Particles in Blender
			Knowing what particle systems are good for
			Using force fields and collisions
			Using particles for hair and fur
		Giving Objects Some Jiggle and Bounce
		Dropping Objects in a Scene with Rigid Body Dynamics
		Simulating Cloth
		Splashing Fluids in Your Scene
		Smoking without Hurting Your Lungs: Smoke Simulation in Blender
			Creating a smoke simulation
			Rendering smoke
	Chapter 15 Making 2D and 2.5D Animation with Grease Pencil
		Getting Started with the 2D Animation Workspace
		Working with Grease Pencil tools
			Drawing with Grease Pencil
			Sculpting Grease Pencil objects
			Editing Grease Pencil objects
		Understanding Grease Pencil Materials
		Mastering Grease Pencil Layers
		Automating Your Drawings with Grease Pencil Modifiers
		Animating with Grease Pencil
			Using a hand-drawn animation workflow with Grease Pencil objects
			Rigging Grease Pencil objects for animation
		Integrating Grease Pencil with a 3D Scene
Part 4 Sharing Your Work with the World
	Chapter 16 Exporting and Rendering Scenes
		Exporting to External Formats
		Rendering a Scene
			Creating a still image
			Creating a sequence of still images for editing or compositing
	Chapter 17 Editing Video and Animation
		Comparing Editing to Compositing
		Working with the Video Sequencer
			Adding and editing strips
			Adding effects and transitions
		Rendering from the Video Sequencer
	Chapter 18 Compositing Images and Video
		Understanding Nodes
		Getting Started with the Compositor
		Rendering in Passes and Layers
			Discovering Passes Available in Eevee and Cycles
			Understanding Cycles-only Light Passes
			Meet Cryptomatte
		Working with Nodes
			Configuring the backdrop
			Identifying Parts of a Node
			Navigating the Compositor
			Adding nodes to your compositing network
			Grouping nodes together
		Discovering the Nodes Available to You
		Rendering from the Compositor
	Chapter 19 Mixing Video and 3D with Motion Tracking
		Making Your Life Easier by Starting with Good Video
			Knowing your camera
			Keeping your lighting consistent
			Having images in good focus
			Understanding the scene
		Getting Familiar with the Motion Tracking Workspace
		Tracking Movement in Blender
			Adding markers and tracking
			Solving camera motion from tracker data
			Setting up your scene for integrating with your video footage
		Where to Go from Here
Part 5 The Part of Tens
	Chapter 20 Ten Tips for Working More Effectively in Blender
		Use Tooltips and Integrated Search
		Take Advantage of the Quick Favorites Menu
		Look at Models from Different Views
		Don’t Forget about Add-ons
		Lock a Camera to an Animated Character
		Name Everything
		Do Low-Resolution Test Renders
		Use Annotations to Plan
		Ask for Help
		Have Fun, but Take Breaks
	Chapter 21 Ten Excellent Community Resources
		Blender.org
			Blender ID
			Blender manual
			Developer blog
			Bug reporting and developer discussions
			builder.blender.org
			Blender Cloud
		BlenderArtists.org
		BlenderNation
		BlenderBasics.com
		blender.stackexchange.com
		CGCookie.com
		Blend Swap (blendswap.com)
		Blender.community
			Blender Today
			Right-Click Select
			Blender NPR
		Social Media
		Blender.chat
Index
EULA