Blender For Dummies

From Blender For Dummies by Jason van Gumster

Blender, the application that helps you create 3D animated movies (not the margarita-making appliance), is such a unique program that you need a Cheat Sheet to tell you what all you can do with the mouse. You also make use of the numeric keypad quite a bit, and you'll want to get familiar with all the hotkeys that can help you in the 3D view.

How to Use the Mouse with Blender 3D Animation

Blender, on top of providing a platform for your animation urges, offers shortcuts that combine mouse action and keystrokes to achieve effects, choose an image, move things around, and much more. This list tells you what mouse action to take to get the desired result with Blender software:

Common Blender Mouse Actions
Action	Result
Left-click	Place 3D cursor
Ctrl+left-click	Quick extrude
Right-click	Select
Shift+right-click	Add to selection
Alt+right-click (edit mode)	Edge/Face loop select
Middle-click+drag	Rotate view
Shift+middle-click+drag	Pan view
Ctrl+middle-click+drag	Zoom view

How to Use Blender's Numeric Keypad

As you create 3D animated movies with Blender, you use the numeric keypad to show all sorts of different views — front, back, left, right, up, down, and even bird’s eye. This table shows what each number key can do on its own and in combination with the Ctrl key and what the plus, minus, and other keys can do as well:

Numeric Keypad Hotkeys in Blender
Hotkey	Description
1	Front view
Ctrl+1	Back view
2	Rotate view up
Ctrl+2	Pan view up
3	Left side view
Ctrl+3	Right side view
4	Rotate view left
Ctrl+4	Pan view left
5	Toggle perspective/orthographic view
6	Rotate view right
Ctrl+6	Pan view right
7	Top view
Ctrl+7	Bottom view
8	Rotate view down
Ctrl+8	Pan view down
9	Redraw screen
0	Camera view
Shift+0	Set camera to viewport
/	Toggle local view
. (dot/period)	Zoom on selection
+	Zoom into view

Blender Hotkeys in the 3D View

When you’re creating 3D computer animation with Blender, you spend a lot of time in the 3D view. And, just to accommodate you, Blender supplies hotkeys you can use in three-dimensional graphics to do almost everything — select, toggle views, play, rotate, as well as the more technical tasks such as extrude, mirror, and link vertices (to link or not to link — it’s not really even a question).

Common Keyboard Hotkeys in the 3D View
Hotkey	Description
A	Toggle select all/none
Alt+A	Play animation in view
B	Border select
B-->B (edit mode)	Brush select
Shift+D	Duplicate
Alt+D	Linked duplicate
E (edit mode)	Extrude
F (edit mode)	Create face/edge
G	Grab/move
Alt+G	Clear location
Hide	Hide selected
Alt+H	Reveal all
I	Insert keyframe
Ctrl+J	Join selected objects
L (edit mode)	Select linked vertices
Shift+L (edit mode)	Deselect linked vertices
M	Move selection to layer
Ctrl+M	Mirror selection
N	Show floating panel
Ctrl+N	Calculate normals outside
O (edit mode)	Proportional edit mode
P	Run game engine
Ctrl+P	Make parent
Alt+P	Clear parent
R	Rotate
Alt+R	Clear rotation
S	Scale
Alt+S	Clear scale
U (edit mode)	Unwrap mesh
V	Toggle Vertex Paint mode
W (edit mode)	Specials menu
Ctrl+W	Save file
X	Delete selection
Ctrl+X	New Blender session
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
Spacebar	Show toolbox
Shift+Spacebar	Maximize window
Ctrl+Spacebar	Toggle manipulator
Alt+Spacebar	Change manipulator orientation
Tab	Toggle Edit mode
Shift+Tab	Toggle snapping

The numbers across the top of the keyboard show the first ten Blender layers. Alt+Any number shows the last ten layers. Shift+Any number allows you to show more multiple layers simultaneously.