Blender Notes

3D Navigating Around Blender

Zoom to Mouse Position

• Edit > Preferences > Navigation > Zoom > Zoom to Mouse Position

• The main advantage of this is you can navigate around the whole scene just zooming in and out with one hand using the middle mouse scroll wheel

• Rhino users will be very used to this

• Some people activate Orbit Around Selection but I tend to move around and select many things so I find it frustrating when I try to orbit and forget to deselect the previous object

  • shortcut key to deselect all is Alt + A

• Some people activate Depth as well which makes it so when you are zooming with your mouse it keeps getting closer to the object in front of the mouse

  • Very good workflow when you are just modeling something big with fine detail because it doesn’t fly past the model, just gets closer

  • Very annoying workflow if you are world creating because you can’t just fly past a wall

  • Makes it very annoying in the automotive world to do things like get into the interior because you wont move past the glass.

Zoom to Selected

• Period key on Numpad

• Zooms to whatever is Selected

• Orients rotation around Object

NUMPAD to change views

• 5 Activates/Deactivates Perspective

• 0 Activates Camera Perspective

• 7 is Top View

• 9 is Bottom View

• 1 is Front

• 3 is Right

• 4 8 6 2 all rotate the view incrementally

• +- signs zoom in and out

Workspace Tip

Workspace is the overall layout of the areas and how you are using them.

Blender has default Layouts made for certain workflows. The default is “Layout”

Every window you see is called an “Area” with a certain Editor type

• The ones you will be most familiar with are 3D Viewport, Outliner and Properties

Every Area can be changed to another editor type by clicking on the top left icon

• For example changing it from a 3D viewport to Shader Editor

To add an Area go to any corner and when the mouse turns into a + crossbar, LMC and drag towards the inside of the area

To join Areas you go to the same corners but you drag out, away from your area to the other area

• If area you are joining is not lined up Blender will think you are just reorganizing the layout not merging areas

• If you merging and you decide you wanted the other window merged, just drag out and then back in

To make a pop out window with an Area, hold down shift + LMC and drag the crossbar towards the inside

• Especially useful for DUAL MONITORS

To interchange one area for another hold down ctrl+LMC

Remember you can save your custom layouts by clicking on the plus sign, in the layout selection bar

Shading Notes

Normal Map

Whenever a render engine activates, you can think of the camera like a cannon of light rays. The more rays, aka samples, you have, the better the image.

When those little tiny adorable rays shoot out they hit a 3d surface, from their, depending on the angle, they will bounce to their next destination.

That angle is called the normal angle. We can use textures to change the direction of that bounce, giving us the ability to do things like add bump maps, car paint flakes and surface details without having to actually model them.

What is a normal? A normal is the direction light bounces where it hits the object.

A normal map is a texture that render engines use to apply custom normals to the 3D data.

• World Space

  • These normal map is dependent on being the right orientation. If you have a static model that wont move, like a building, this normal map is ideal

  • The basic logic is that when a camera ray hits it, it will see the normal map and use that normal regardless of the angle it hit it. Making it a very easy for the render engine to calculate.

• Object Space

  • This normal map is best for things that wont deform but can freely rotate.

  • The basic logic is that when the camera ray hits it, it just has to take into consideration the objects rotation and apply it to calculation. Making it easier to calculate because it applies the rotation globally not on each individual ray

• Tangent Space

  • This normal is the most accurate and is best for things that deform

  • The basic logic is that when the camera ray hits it, it finds the tangent of that where it hit and then applies that to the normal map. So every Ray needs to calculate this which is fairly normal but isn’t as simple of a calculation as the above

Mix Rgb NoDe Notes

• Mix goes from one layer to the other.

  • Good for adding layers with an alpha mask like decals

  • Good for adding a bit of influence to the first layer by using a small factor

  • Also good just for basic layer mixing

• Linear Light

  • Best used in procedural shading where you want to add distortions in a linear way

  • Best used when you want to add a vector movement, adding 0,1,0 to another vector map will move it to the y direction

• Multiply

  • Good use for this is when you want to add grungy texture to a pattern.

• Value

  • Takes the value from the second layer and applies it to the first.

  • Good for adding different values to a colored pattern.

• Add

  • Literally adds the values together, final result tends to be blown out

  • Adds the value and not the hue

  • Adds the higher values of the second layer. So if you want to add just the white values use this.

• Screen

  • I think they call it a screen because it starts looking like a screen, with the lighter reflection taking over.

• Color

  • Keeps the Value of the first Layer and mixes the colors of the second

• Difference

  • Doesn’t effect color with other color

  • Color on top of BW values will make white invert colors and black stay the same

• Hue

  • Hue Adds the colors but keeps the first layers values

• Color Dodge

  • Applies color of first layer in the dark values of the second layer.

  • Sort of like making the white values a mask and the dark values see through

• Darken

  • Whatever layer has the darkest value gets shown.

  • Good if you want to add only the dark parts of a layer