BLENDER INTRO (Mac)

These are the basics on using Blender 2.8 on a Mac. Just the very basics.

This is for you to mark up---be sure to underline anything that feels counter-intuitive to you as you use the software, because this is the stuff you’ll come back to, and you’ll need your paper+pen markup to help you remember where it is. The big thing you’ll want to do as you learn is to practice each step (each shortcut key, each mouse move, each sequence of operations). It’s more like learning a new dance step than learning the capital of Ohio[^1]--it’s not enough to just hear and understand the information. It’s about knowing-how rather than** knowing-that** . . . and know how, you actually need to train your body to make the right movement.

TRACKPAD-NAVIGATION

MOUSE-NAVIGATION

KEYBOARD-NAVIGATION

SHORTCUT KEYS

THE SELECT AND EXTRUDE DANCE

EXTRAS TO KNOW ABOUT

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CREATING A SIMPLE SCREEN IN BLENDER FOR UNITY

The easiest way to create a “screen” in Blender is to create a simple plane. On its own, it won’t do much that a quad generated in Unity can’t do, so if all you need is a flat surface, you may want to stick with Unity alone. So we are going to create a slightly wavy plane to make it more interesting: starting by adding a simple plane, then deforming it just a bit, and then bringing it into Unity.

  1. In your new Blender scene, right click on the cube and delete it (forward delete key, or fn + delete on macBook).
  2. In the Create menu, click Plane. And then, BEFORE you do anything else, look for the “add plane” menu and make sure that you select “generate UVs”--it’s possible to fix things if you forget to do this; it just takes some extra steps that add complexity, and we’re trying to keep this simple.
  3. Find your “transform” tab (if you can’t see it, hit the letter “N” while your mouse is hovering over your 3d view [i.e. your main editing window]). With your screen selected (right click on it), rotate it 90 degrees around the X axis in one of these three ways
    1. Click in the X Rotation field and type in 90
    2. With the screen selected and your cursor hovering over the 3D view, type “R” for rotate, then type “X” to constrain your rotation to the x-axis
    3. Click the little arc in the toolbar at the bottom of your 3D view and rotate the object
  4. Export the object as an .fbx file (if you don’t want to export the whole scene, including the cameras, lights, etc., then select the object and check “export selected objects” when in the export .fbx view)
  5. In Unity, import the .fbx file. When you click on it in the assets folder, you will see a materials tab in the inspector. Click on this and select your Video Material. If you don’t have a Video Material, create a new material, call it VideoMat or some such, and follow these steps:
    1. Drag your .fbx object (the one that you just applied VideoMat to) from the assets folder into the hierarchy to add it to the scene.
    2. Then select the object in the hierarchy to reveal its properties in the inspector
    3. Click “Add Component” => Video Player.
    4. Choose your video in the “Video Clip” box
    5. Change “Render Mode” from “Material Override” to Render Texture
    6. Change

2.8 NOTES

EXTRAS

mesh separate

mesh join

EXTRUDE

right click in the middle of extrusion to snap to original face

left click to confirm extrusion

extrude to cursor, especially from orthographic view = amazing

loop cut

click and slide

SHADERS

HOTKEYS

opt + G = resest position of object

N = toggle on/off transform numers

T = toggle on/off tool palette

modeling in the blender manual.

Notes

[^1]: And, to tell you the truth, learning the capital of Ohio may be more like learning a dance step than we think!