In this Blender tutorial for beginners, Talented Tutorials takes a look at how to make animation using Blender. Blender has opened the potential for a lot of people to create professional-quality animations for both film and video games. Talented Tutorials shows you some ways to use blender so that you can create your own animation.
The Ultimate Guide Blender Animation for Beginners is a step-by-step guide to learning how to use blender animation for beginners, with free downloadable video tutorials. You will learn the basics of how to use blender software as a beginner, and how to create your first animation using 3D tools in the Blender software.
We’ve all got dreams. If you’re into animation, you might want to become a masterful 3D artist, create exotic worlds, and meet all of the weird characters rolling around in your brain. These may seem like lofty ambitions, but they’re completely possible with the right attitude, a few snacks, and a lot of practice.
Many 3D artists got their start in Blender, a program that many consider as the best 3D animation software available. As with any other open-source software, Blender empowers its community by inviting artists from all skill levels and walks of life to hop into the fray. If you’re new to the software, each Blender animation tutorial mentioned here will help you get the hang of things.
Important Features
Now that you’re familiar with the user interface, let’s dive into the software’s most important features for animation:
- Navigation in Blender can be done with the help of a tracking device such as a mouse, but if you want to navigate faster in the 3D space, the keyboard shortcuts come in handy. The Navigation Gizmo, located on the top right of the 3D Viewport, lets you pan and zoom the 3D Viewport.
- 3D View helps you to navigate, add, edit, snap, and do various other things to interact with the 3D scene. Another vital tool is the 3D Cursor, a position in 3D space, which is used to place objects precisely. You can use and move it with the help of the snap tool. There is also a second type of snap operation that you can use during various transformations.
- Animation header, located at the bottom of the interface, contains the timeline, keyframe properties, and frame rate. By default, this rate is set to the standard 24 frames per second (FPS). If you want to change it to something else, open the Render settings and set up your desired FPS.
- Keyframes are definite positions that denote the starting and ending point of a specific transition. A sequence of such transitions makes up a complete animation. Keyframes are represented by small black squares and become orange when selected. You don’t need to fill the rest of the frames between the keyframes, Blender does that for you. It produces a smooth motion over such intervals, known as interpolation.
- Graph Editor helps you to tweak your animation curves, known as F-curves. An F-curve is simply the corresponding curve after you’ve added keyframes. With the Graph Editor, you can modify and monitor these to give the animation your desired transitions.
Getting Started
To begin animating in Blender, you could start with the default cube and animate it by scaling, rotating, changing its location, or any combination of simple transformations. Or, you could use a more complex 3D model and go through some rigging.
Rigging is nothing but adding controls to the model or object that provides control and elaboration at the selected points. Once rigged, the 3D model can be animated as desired.
In this tutorial, we’ll use a rigged character from Blender Cloud to do some basic animation, which we’ve broken down into six steps. Make sure to follow all the steps carefully, especially setting up keyframes and modifying them.
Also, remember that practice makes perfect: Repeating each of the steps and playing around with different iterations will definitely help you become a better animator in Blender.
Step 1: Opening
This is what blender looks like when you open it.
You are faced with a toolbar to the left an right, file operations to the top, timeline on the bottom, and the 3D view in the center.
Blender’s default starting mesh is a cube, we will be demonstrating basic functions on this.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 2: Basic Navigation
To rotate around in the 3D view, hold down the middle mouse button and move the mouse.
To move up and down or to and fro, hold shift+middle mouse, and and move the mouse.
Use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
To select an object right click, to de-select right click away from the object.
To select multiple objects, hold “SHIFT” and select the objects.
To select everything press “A” or to de-select everything press “A”
Notice that when you select something, it will be highlighted orange.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 3: Object Mode and Edit Mode
The two modes we will be using in this tutorial are:
Object Mode
This lets you select objects and move them around as you please.
Edit Mode
This allows you to select individual vertexes, lines, and planes. you can modify the mesh in this mode.
to switch between these two modes you can either go down to the menu below, or just press TAB.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 4: Rotation Scaling and Translating
First I want to make note of the arrows that appear when you select an object.
those are the Axes. The red arrow is the X axis, green is the Y axis, and blue is the Z axis.
These arrows allow you to move things more accurately.
Translating
There are three ways to do this, one is to simple right click and drag. Another is to just select the object and press “G”
Or, you can left click on the axis you want to move the object on, and drag.
Rotating
Rotating is very simple, all you have to do is select the object to be rotated, and press “R”
If you want to rotate around a specific axis, first press “R” then “X”, “Y”, or “Z”. Each letter corresponds to it’s respective axis.
Scaling
To scale an object, simply press “S”. if you want to stretch an object along a certain axis press “X”, “Y”, or “Z”, after pressing “S”Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 5: The 3D Cursor
The 3D cursor is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a cursor in the 3D view. By default it starts in the origin, but you can move it by left clicking.
If you add an object, such as a cube or sphere, it will appear where the 3D cursor is.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 6: Adding a Mesh
to add a mesh, go to the “Add” menu, from there you will find many sub menus, the top one being “Mesh”.
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Step 7: Selecting in Edit Mode
In edit mode there are three ways to select things, you can either select individual vertexes, lines or planes.
To switch, click the three buttons at the bottom.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 8: Merging
In edit mode you can select two or more vertexes, and merge them together.
To do this, go into edit mode, select the vertexes you want to merge, press “W”, then, merge.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 9: Extruding
In edit mode, you can select a line, vertex, or plane, and extrude, or, extend it.
to do this, select the thing you want to extrude, then press “E”Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 10: Edge Loop Slide
This allows you to make a “cut” in a mesh, letting modify it further.
to do this, press “CTR+R” and select the spot you want to cut, then it will allow you to slide that cut, then place it.
This is handy when you want to extrude only a certain part of a plane.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 11: Modifiers
Switch back to object mode.
Modifiers modify your mesh (go figure).
One that you will use often will be the “subdivision surface” modifier.
This modifier makes your model all smooth.
The modifier properties are in the right tool bar.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 12: Stuff I’ve Made
GDI logo
NOD logo
Light HouseAdd TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload
Step 13: Additional Sources
http://www.blenderguru.com/
http://cgcookie.com/blender/
Conclusion
Blender is a 3D animation software tool that is widely used for computer graphics and game development. It was designed for interactive creation of animated media and to enable users to take advantage of the unlimited creative potential of its all-in-one and user friendly interface. Blender animation tutorial pdf is widely used by professionals and non-professionals, personal computers and gaming consoles. On the other hand, blender animation tutorial pdf contains detailed steps including the proper way to use blenders shortcut keys and other tips.