Blender 2.5 QuickTips #1

Zooming the Backdrop image in the Nodes Editor

Original size


Zoom Out the Backdrop with the V-key


Zoom In the Backdrop with Alt-V



Drag-Drop features

Drag-Drop materials using the Browse Material icon




Other areas that support drag-drop:

• An image from your desktop or folder onto the 3D View to add it as a background image
• An image from your desktop or folder onto the UV/Image Editor
• A .blend file to load it into Blender
• probably some others, so experiment!

Repeat functions

• You can repeat the last action by pressing Shift-R.
• You can display a menu for previous actions performed (History) by pressing F3. Selecting an item in the popup menu will repeat the action. You can then use Shift-R to continue repeating the item selected from the menu.
• Note: Currenetly, pressing Ctrl-Z to undo causes the History stack to be cleared! This is a documented bug.

Repeat buttons can be found in the Toolbar panel of the 3D View.

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Blender 2.55 Tip: Hiding the Console Window

There's a very simple, but nice new feature in Blender 2.55 that allows you to hide the Console window that appears when Blender first loads (for Windows users). Yay! It still loads, but at least you can toggle it off, now.



The Console Window is a great tool for debugging Blender and also seeing any error messages that get spit out from different functions. But, if you don't need it, it tends to get in the way.

Here's how to control it:

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Tip: Moving Objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View mode

In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to easily move objects out of the Local View without exiting the Local View.

This feature is found in both Blender 2.49 and 2.5.


Watch the video tutorial...

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Quick Tip: Aligning Objects in Blender 2.5

In this quick tip video, we'll take a look at how to align objects in Blender 2.5.



Watch the video tutorial...

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Tip: Optimizing Blender 2.5 UI Interaction

In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at probably one of the most important settings to control the smoothness of Blender’s UI interaction, the Window Draw Method.



This video is hosted on BlenderCookie.

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Shape Modeling Exercise Series - #1

This is the first video in a series of videos on modeling shapes in Blender.

The point of these videos is not to model a complete object but to rather focus on different shapes and issues that you may encounter while modeling. So, essentially, these are exercises.

Hopefully, these videos will help you better understand how to approach modeling certain shapes, and what tools are available in Blender to make things easier.

(The techniques demonstrated aren't intended to be the exact solution for every scenario.)

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Quick Tip: Creating Procedural Noise Textures that are Stable During Animation

In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at how to easily create a procedural noise texture that’s stable during animation, unlike the default “Noise” procedural texture that’s available in Blender.

Version Compatibility: 2.4x, 2.5 alpha zero
Tutorial Level: Beginner

You can check out the tutorial at BlenderCookie.com

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Blender 2.5.0 Tutorial: Changing the Keystroke for the Add Menu from Shift-A to Spacebar

Well, Blender 2.5 ALPHA 0 has been officially released! I think many people will be pleased to see that, even though there are plenty of new features, Blender is still Blender. And with some initial effort to get up to speed with the basic differences, you can quickly begin to feel at home with the knowledge gained from using Blender 2.4x.

Personally, I'll still use Blender 2.4x because of its stability, but it will be fun to explore the new Blender while it stabilizes.

I'll be posting occasional tips and tutorials for Blender 2.5.0, but I want to be careful about the subjects I cover until 2.5 stabilizes.

Having said that, here's a quick tip video on how to change the keystroke mapping for the Add Menu in 2.5 so it's the same as what you may be used to using in the 2.4x series.

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Tip: How to set bookmarks in Blender for your favorite project folders

When opening a file in Blender, you often have to navigate to the desired project folder over and over again every time you start a new Blender session. And, it gets to be a bit irritating after a while. In Blender 2.5, this irritation will be soothed with new bookmarking features in the file browser. Unfortunately, Blender 2.5 is quite a ways away so how do we be more efficient?

This question was recently asked in the BlenderNewbies Forums and forum member, "radialronnie", provided a great workaround that will allow you to bookmark your favorite folders within Blender and have them always available!

Check it out.

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Enabling Texture Visibility on Both Sides of a Face

By default, Blender will display uv-mapped textures on only one side of a face. To get them to be visible on both sides, do the following:

Here we have a Plane object with an image texture mapped onto it.


Here is the back side of the Plane with no texture visible.


To make the texture visible on the back side, Tab into Edit mode and select the face. Then, go to the Editing buttons window (F9) and locate the Texture Face panel as shown. Enable the Twoside option, and that's it!


You now have the texture displaying on both sides.

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QuickTip: Assigning a 3D Object to be Visible on Multiple Layers

You can easily assign a selected object(s) to be visible on a certain layer by using the M-key while in the Object mode. The following dialog will appear:



Simply select the desired layer button and click OK. The object will then be moved to that layer.

However, what if you want to make an object visible on more than one layer?

Well, it's simple. With your object selected, press the M-key to display the Move Object dialog. Now, hold down the Shift-key while selecting all of the other layers where you want your object to visible, then click OK.



That's it! You can now view that object on multiple layers.

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QuickTip: An Easy Way to Remember the Colors for the 3D Axis Lines in Blender

Admittedly, this is trivial, but it's the type of tip that can make life a little bit easier for the beginner trying to get up to speed in the world of 3D graphics.

The issue is how to determine your orientation within the 3d view while you're working on your scene. There's a 3d mini-axis icon located in the lower left corner of the 3d view, and the background grid has colored axis lines to help you understand the current orientation of the 3d view.

However, what if you keep forgetting the color associated with each axis? (It would be good if you didn't have to keep referring to the mini-axis icon.)

A simple solution:

The colors used are Red, Green, and Blue. Now, being involved in graphics, you quickly recognize that as the same order of the common abbreviation RGB.

The order of the axis letters are alphabetical, XYZ.

So, simply take those two easily remembered patterns and connect them.

(R)ed is the color for the X-axis.
(G)reen is the color for the Y-axis.
(B)lue is the color for the Z-axis.

That's it, no more disorientation! Hopefully, it will be of some use.

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3D Mesh Topology Tip: Cleanup Those Triangles on Capped Cylinders and Closed Circles

Hello there! It's been a while but, BlenderNewbies lives!

In this topology tip, I want to cover a very easy, but not so obvious, way to get rid of the collection of triangles found on capped cylinders and when you close a circle of vertices. Here's an example of what I mean:



As you may know, it's best to use quads (four-sided polygons) as much as possible in your modeling. In this short study, we'll be converting the triangles shown into quads. There are a couple of important points to note that make this a little tricky, but we'll get to that shortly.

Let's Begin

With your circle of triangles in place, press the A-key until all of the vertices are selected. Then, press Ctrl-N to recalculate the Normals so they all point outward. (Sometimes vertex/face normals can become flipped during the course of modeling and this can cause a number of issues later on so, it's always a good practice to just make sure they all are pointing outward.)



Press Ctrl-Tab to switch to the Face selection mode, making it a little bit easier to select the faces.


Now, as a test, let's see what happens if we select all of the inner triangles and try to convert them all to quads (Alt-J).


You can see that we still have some unconverted triangles. Not good! I'm not sure why all of the selected triangles aren't converted to quads but, let's focus on finding an immediate solution.


Press Ctrl-Z to undo until you get back to having all triangles again. Press the A-key until all faces are deselected. Now, select just two adjacent faces as shown.


Continue selecting pairs of adjacent faces while leaving a pair of unselected faces in between. You should end up with the following selected faces.


Now let's go back to the Mesh menu to try converting the triangles to quads again.


The selected triangles have been successfully converted to quads.


Now, simply select the remaining triangles and convert those to quads.



Here we have the finished version consisting of all quads!



That's All!

Here's a quick video of the entire process:

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Hidden feature in Blender dramatically reduces render times

This is a great way to dramatically reduce your Blender render times. It's a "hidden" feature in Blender that allows you to reduce the complexity of the render calculations WITHOUT having to change your parameter settings.

The trick is to go to the Scene buttons window (F10) and locate the Anim panel.


Directly to the right of the Play button, you'll see a mysterious little control labeled "rt".


Changing the value of this control does several things (more info on that later in this article), but we're going to focus on the access it provides to Blender's Render Simplification panel.

To reveal the Render Simplification panel, set the "rt" value to 1.


You'll notice that a new panel appears next to the Render panel called, "Simplification".


Simply go to this panel, enable Render Simplification by clicking the option button with the same name.

Now, you can drastically reduce the effects of several time-consuming aspects of rendering your scene! The great part about this is that you can really turn down many of the parameters with minimal change to how your rendered scene appears! Yes, there are some differences but the render still functions very well as a pre-visualization for your final full render. This will dramatically increase your productivity by allowing you to render far more high-quality test renders within the same amount of time, allowing you to try more ideas and designs before dedicating yourself to a more time-consuming full render.

Experiment and have fun with this and it will really have a positive impact on your Blender workflow!


For more info on the other "hidden" features revealed by the "rt" control, go here.

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Setting the Location for Blender's User Data Files

Here's a quick installation tip for Blender users on the Windows platform. This may be an issue for other platforms but, I have no way of testing.

The issue concerns the installed location of the "user data files" when using the Blender installer package. The data files in question are the python scripts, plugins, icons, etc.

You probably are used to having these files installed in subfolders within the Blender install folder. However, the default installation folder for these files (when using the installer) will place them in the "/Documents and Settings/USER/Application Data/Blender Foundation/Blender/" subfolder.

So, be sure to select your preferred destination for these resources when using the installer.

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Easy Access to Recently Opened Files in Blender

Here's a "hidden" keystroke that may save you a few miles on your mouse.

You can get quick access to the Recent Files listing by simply pressing Ctrl-O.

This will bring up a menu displaying the Recently Opened files in Blender. This works in both the Object and Edit modes. The only alternative for accessing this listing is to go to the File menu and view the Open Recent submenu.

While we're on the subject of the Recent Files listing, let's look at how you can adjust the number of recent files for Blender to track. Go to the Preferences window, and on the Auto-Save tab, you'll find the Recent Files parameter. You can track as many as 30 recently opened files.



Happy Blendering!

Video Tutorial: Showcase your 3D Models with a Basic Studio-Styled Setup

Hey there! Here's a quick tutorial that should help you create better renders to showcase your models. You'll understand a very simple technique that will allow you to achieve the type of results depicted in the before & after image below:



You'll understand how to render your model with a seamless background and soft shadows, without complicated lighting and backdrops. Once understood, this type of setup only takes about thirty seconds to implement!

Here are some more examples of the types of renders that are easily achieved using the techniques covered in the tutorial. The models used in these renders were generously provided by some of the members of the BlenderNewbies Forums. Thanks, guys!








This simple technique can also be used for animation tests and even serve as the basis for the stylized appearance of an animated short.

(Note: For more advanced users, set the ground object to only show shadows.)



Watch the tutorial online
(FLV streaming, Length - 5:29)

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Access your Custom Blender Settings and Layouts on Any Computer

You've grown accustomed to the particular face you've given Blender and, it can be a bit disorienting to sit down behind "someone else's" Blender. Well, here are some simple solutions to accessing your Blender settings on any computer.

First of all, as you may already know, your current user settings can be saved by pressing Ctrl-U.

The interesting thing to know is that these saved settings are stored within a normal .blend file called ".B.blend". This file is located in the ".blender" subfolder of your Blender installation.

When Blender loads, or when you press Ctrl-X to start a new scene, this special .blend file is what gets loaded.

So, to be able to take all of your custom settings (including your theme, screens, default parameters, etc.) wherever you go, simply copy the ".B.blend" file to your portable data device.

You might also consider uploading the file to one of the free online file repositories, GMail, or your own webspace.

Imagine, knowing that no matter wherever you may go, you can still be comfortable using "your own" Blender on any computer.

Very cool.


Important Note:
Remember to make a backup copy of any existing ".B.blend" file before copying your own file to someone else's .blender subfolder.


Additional Info:

• How to Setup Blender Default Settings
• Be Careful when Setting Defaults

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QuickTip Video: How to Animate a Cylinder along a Curve

Hey there,

Here's a quick tip video (with audio) that shows how to animate an object along a curve that will also cause the object to be deformed by the curve.

Note: There is no actual setting of keyframes covered in the tutorial.

Watch the tutorial online
(SWF streaming, Length - 5:28)

technorati tags: Blender3D, 3D, graphics, Blender tutorials

QuickTip Video: How to Make 3D Cables/Wires in Blender

Here's a super quick video (no audio or keystrokes) I created in response to a question I received via the Message feature of the Blender Toolbar.

Tal asks:

Is there a tutorial or guide for modeling cables/wires? Any suggestions?

View the Answer online.

Download the SWF file (3.07MB) to view offline (you can drag-drop the .swf file onto your browser to play it).

Are these types of videos helpful without audio and keystrokes?

Note: I won't always have the time to answer quick questions but, if I can, I will. Thanks.

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