Blender : Installing, Viewport Navigation and Adding Objects

Introduction

Blender is a free software that allow you to create 3D contents just like Autodesk's 3Ds Max and Maya. When I was using 3Ds Max and Maya, I thought Blender is a very poor application and one cannot do everything that he/she can do with blender. Yes my fellow blender users, there are still so many users who don't even know about Blender, or think its to hard to switch to. So for all these Max and Maya users, who wants to do some professional work but don't have enough money to buy 3Ds Max or Maya, I am suggesting you to use Blender.

Don't worry, its not that hard, Yes I accept that the UI of Blender and workflow is a little different, but for dealing with that worth it. And I am here to help you cut through the process of switching. I am again telling you that its so easy. I have switched from 3Ds Max and Maya to just only Blender. And believe me you also can easily switch.

So if you have made your mind to give it a try, follow me along and never hesitate to ask anything you dont understand, I am always here to help you.

Installing Blender

First thing is that you need to download the blender. Use the following link to download your free copy of blender. Use 32bit or 64bit version, whichever version your operating system is :

http://www.blender.org/download/

Choose the installer or zip file to download. If you have downloaded the installer then you need to double click the installer to install the Blender. And if you have downloaded the zip file then you need to extract it to a safe location and you are ready to use blender.

Now open the blender and you will see something like this:

Viewport Navigation

Click anywhere out of splash screen to hide it. Unlike Max or Maya the Blender by default contains some objects into its scene which are a cube, a camera and a point light. The Blender uses the camera for rendering and the light to illuminate the scene, unlike Max or Maya it doesn't uses the view to render the scene. So if you will delete the light the objects in the scene will be rendered as black, and if you will delete the camera there will be no rendering, the blender will prompt you that scene has no camera. So never delete the camera or light unless its intended to.

Now here is something for you to start with :

• Right click on any object to select that object
• After selecting an object press x and enter to delete that object 
• Middle click drag to rotate the view 
• Ctrl+Middle Click drag to zoom in or out
• Sift+Middle Click drag to pan the view

Adding Objects

First delete the default cube. To delete right click on the cube to select it. Now press x and then enter to delete it. Now press sift+A in viwport to add a object. Click on Mesh and then choose cube or sphere or any other object you want to add. 

See, Its so easy. More will come in the next post. Feel free to ask if anything in this post is confusing. And at last here is a quick tip for you to experiment, you can press Tab while your newly added object is selected to toggle the edit mode and you can modify the shape of the object.

Good Bye for now, and Happy Blending :)