visualdesign:blender:info

BLENDER

Most of the basics are from

Command	Result
Tab	toggle between edit and object mode
Numpad 1/3/7/0	choose view (top/left/front/cam)
Numpad 5	toggle ortho/perspective
Z	toggle wireframe (easy to see all verts)
Ctrl+up	toggle maximized window
F12	render
F11	toggle between render view and 3d view
Mouse3	rotate view
Shift + Mouse3	pan view
T	toggle tool shelf (the menu on the left side of the 3d-view)
N	toggle properties (the menu on the right side of the 3d-view)
Ctrl+Space	toggle X+Y+Z drag handles
Space	Search for a command by name
Ctrl+U	Save current UI layout
Bottom left	Context menu with tons of options for the current mode
M	Move selection to a layer (select multiple with shift, object can be on many layers)
Ctrl+M	Change currently visible layer (select multiple with shift)
Number keys	Change currently visible layer (select multiple with shift)

Command	Result
Shift+D	duplicate (copy)
Alt+D	linked duplicate (instance)
Alt+C	Convert curve/text to mesh etc

Command	Result
A	select all OR deselect all (used a lot to deselect)
B	select box
C	“paintbrush” select - drag over objects, use mouse wheel to adjust size
Right click	select single object
Ctrl+drag mouse	lasso select
Ctrl+tab or toggle at bottom	switch between vertex/face/edge selection
toggle at bottom	switch between select-through or not
Ctrl+L	select single unconnected object
Shift+S	move cursor to selection or selection to cursor
Alt + Right click	select loop. Click again to choose the other loop.
O	toggle soft selection (aka proportional editing), choose curve at bottom.
Mouse Wheel	while soft selecting, this changes the range of the selection.

Command	Result
E	extrude
R	rotate
S	scale
G	move
Alt+S	scale from normals (fat/skinny)
G/S/R, X/Y/Z	constrain to a specific axis (ex. G,Y will move only in the Y axis)
Shift+X/Shift+Y/Shift+Z	constrain scale to everything EXCEPT a specific axis
S, 0.5, ENTER	scale by 0.5 (this is just an example)
Shift+D	duplicate
W - > subdivide	subdivide
W - > switch direction	change which end of the bone is the pivot (essentially changes parent for the child)
Alt-m	merge vertices (usually choose merge in middle)
dropdown in bottom left	choose sculpt mode (grab/smooth/etc)
Select 3/4 verts, F	create a new face
Ctrl+R	Create/slice loop
P	“punch” - separate selected verts/faces into a new mesh
Ctrl+J	Merge - join selected objects into a single mesh (last object stays)
Ctrl+F	Tons of face manipulation options
Ctrl+E	Tons of edge manipulation options

Command	Result
W	subdivide bone
Shift+A	add bone
Ctrl+R	rotate bone on axis
Ctrl+Alt+S	Scale bone thickness
R,R	Switch from “viewport space rotation” to “point at mouse rotation”
Bone properties → Xray	show bones through mesh
Set bone parent, turn on “Connected”	attaches bones
Alt+R	Clear rotation from pose
Alt+G	Clear position from pose
Ctrl+N	Reset the roll of all the selected bones. Only works in edit mode
Ctrl+Shift+C	Add constraint, such as “stretch to”. Only works in pose mode.

Rigging an alien - Rigging an alien face - great videos with tons of tips
Name all your bones descriptively.
Name bones that will be mirrored like “Arm.L” “Arm.R” etc. When mirrored the names will switch (if you use flip names)
In the bone properties section, you can set bones to *not* inherit rotation and position. Useful for hips.
Select multiple bones, then press Ctrl+P. The *last* selected bone becomes the parent. Choose “keep offset” to keep them in relative positions to parent.
With bones, you want to use “bone constraints”, not normal constraints
Use the gimbal selector at bottom, choose “rotate around normal”
To connect mesh to armature, select mesh, then armature, then press Ctrl+P and choose “automatic weights”
Use Bone Constraints → IK Constraint to make bones up-the-chain follow that bone.
Use Bone Constraints → Xpos and YPos to make bones stick to another bone
When mirroring bones to the other side, turn on X-axis mirror on the left menu. After mirroring, while still selected, use the Armature menu at the bottom and got to Armature → Flip names
Make sure to know the difference between pose mode and edit mode. You can copy a pose from the right over to the left in pose mode
To add IK, go to pose mode, and add bone constraints (Tracking → Inverse Kinematics)
Under bone properties, increase the “curved bones” segments to make the bones bendier and smoother (spine+neck, for example).

Don't just use Timeline View, use the Curves View and Dope Sheet View as well.
Alt+A to play
Move to the new frame, then move the object to the new position, then press the keyframe button. I usually use LocRotScale.
V to change handle type in the curve editor

To test UV maps, press N (properties, right side menu in 3D view) and enable go to Display → “Textured Solid”. Might want to check “Only Render” too.
For cell-shaded, try using “toon” but with smoothing set to 0. Also, you can use “ramp”, but try changing the ramp's input (shader/result/etc)
Oren-nayar diffuse with zero-intensity specular and a nice ramp set to “shader” looks really good.
Turn on “ambient occlusion” and “indirect lighting” under the “world” properties. Then down below under gather, choose “approximate”.
Under “render” properties → “output”, you can choose “PNG” and “RGBA” to get a transparent image.
The options you choose under “output” will only happen when exporting an animation (otherwise it opens in the image editor)
To view the texture in the viewport, there's a little selector at the bottom with a white sphere, choose “Textured” instead of “Solid”
Bake is at the bottom of the render panel. Choose “ambient occlusion”. Doesn't work in edit mode, only object mode. Might want to use normalized if you want a black and white AO texture.

For characters, use mirror so you only have to model half (delete half the mesh, then go to modifiers>mirror)
Use dropdown at the bottom to switch pivot. EX: to mirror, change pivot to cursor, then scale -1 in X axis.
Use constraints for things like path following and “look-at”.