The Blender Bitesize Course - A complete guide

Learn to grab, rotate, and scale with the Blender 3-D gizmo. Transform location, rotation, and scale with red x, green y, blue z arrows in translate, rotate, and scale modes.

Learn to grab, rotate, and scale objects using the object tab in the properties panel, adjust transforms with numerical values, and view exact x, y, z axis coordinates.

Explore blender's viewport shading, including bounding box, wireframe, solid, textures, materials, and rendered previews; learn how each mode reveals geometry, texture, lighting, and a render-ready view.

Master undo steps in Blender by using Ctrl+Z to reverse actions and increase or decrease the undo stack in the editing preferences, balancing performance and memory usage.

Learn how to select islands, the disconnected parts of a single object, in Blender's edit mode using a keyboard shortcut to isolate each island's geometry.

Learn to add primitive objects in Blender using the add menu or shift-a, placing them at 3d cursor. Explore primitives like plane, circle, uv sphere, cylinder, cone, torus, monkey, icosphere.

Activate the Blender mouse emulator in file preferences, then use left click with the touchpad to orbit, shift-left-click to pan, and ctrl-alt-left-click to zoom in and out.

Learn how to enable and use Blender's number pad emulator, activating the emulated numpad in preferences, and use the top-row keys to navigate perspective, orthographic views, and panning.

Explore walk and fly mode in Blender, using keyboard controls to move through scenes like a video game. Learn how to enable these modes and compare their navigation approaches.

Enable fly mode in blender, navigate the scene with a bounding-box cursor, and control speed and direction using mouse movement and keys, including flight speed adjustments.

Learn to separate objects by loose parts in Blender, compare with the bisection and selection methods, and set origin to geometry to manipulate separated islands in edit and object modes.

Discover how to use the quad view in blender to split the viewport into four synchronized views, including top, front, side, and a custom view, for efficient modeling and editing.

Learn to name objects in Blender to give each one a clear identity in a scene. Use the 3D viewport, the Outliner, or the Object tab in the Properties panel.

Select objects in the Blender Fredy viewport with a different mouse button, use shift for multi selection, and pick the active object via the outline panel before moving them.

Use the 3D cursor to place new objects precisely in the scene by left-clicking to position it, then adjusting the x, y, and z coordinates in the 3D view.

Lock axes in Blender to prevent unwanted changes by constraining location, rotation, or scale on specific axes using the lock icons in the transform panel or gizmo.

Hide the 3d gizmo by clicking the menu bar icon that shows blue, green, and red axes. Click the icon again to bring back the gizmo and its axis buttons.

Select the object, then press the delete key to remove it, or press the x key as a delete hotkey when not performing other actions.

Learn how to move and flip menu bars in panels to customize layout, switching bars from bottom to top and back using a header click and the same method.

Learn how snapping in Blender lets you move objects in increments, using the magnet tool to snap along axes in object and edit modes for accurate placements.

Explore the lasso select tool in Blender, creating custom shapes by holding control and left-clicking in edit mode to draw a selection, with overlaps possible and release-to-select behavior.

Learn how to use inverse selection in Blender to quickly select most of your geometry by first deselecting unwanted vertices, then inverting the selection using the select menu or hotkeys.

Learn how to use the random selection tool to pick vertices in a mesh, adjust seed and percentage, and create bumpy surfaces.

Explore Blender's checker deselect tool to select geometry by math-based rules, enabling patterns like every second vertex. Learn to adjust selection type, skip, offset, and cutoff for precise mesh creation.

Explore more/less selections in Blender by expanding or shrinking the vertex selection. Use the numpad plus/minus keys with control (or command) plus to grow the selection to directly connected vertices.

Learn to select linked islands or parts of a single object in Blender using the L key in edit mode, then deselect with a selection box.

Axes based selection shows how to pick geometry by axis from a selected vertex using axis modes and thresholds.

Learn how to use Blender's shortest path selection tool by choosing start and end points to automatically connect geometry, create a path, and convert it into a selection.

Learn how shortest path selection works in blender by using face stepping, distance, and full region options to mix starts and ends and shape the results.

Apply matcaps to Blender objects to preview lighting, shading, and reflections during editing, using 24 different matcaps as reference to compare colors and effects before finalizing your model.

Learn how to import linked files in Blender, distinguish linked versus appended objects, and understand why linked files cannot be edited while appended files can be adjusted in your project.

learn to snap the camera to the viewport view by pressing ctrl alt zero, enabling quick, precise framing from the 3d view and adjusting for camera focal length.

Rotate the camera view on its own axis in Blender to pan around the scene using keyboard controls, delivering a human-like motion for precise, stylized shots.

Explore how changing the camera focal length alters perceived object size and distortion, demonstrating long and short lens effects and field of view changes.

Explore how camera clipping in Blender regulates what the camera can render, adjusting near clipping distance and clipping range to prevent objects from disappearing or tearing in large scenes.

Master depth of field in Blender by adjusting aperture and focus distance to keep the yellow cube sharp.

learn to change lamp color using the color picker and color wheel, adjust strength, and compare area versus point options to color a plane with sun and hemi lamps.

Explore how light sources cast shadows in Blender, and how to disable shadow casting to speed up renders, with notes on realism when shadows are turned off.

Adjust max bounces to balance indirect lighting and render times; default cap is 1024, with higher values boosting indirect light in complex scenes and lower values speeding renders.

Learn how to use Blender's extrude tool to create geometry from vertices, edges, and faces, and master selecting modes and hotkeys to lock extrusion along the Z axis.

Master extrusion in blender by using the vector option to place faces on x, y, z, applying axis constraints to global or local axes, and exploring proportional editing.

Explore the difference between extruding from a region and extruding individually by selecting multiple faces and using region versus individual options, illustrating how the midpoints angle shapes the result.

Master auto extrude to click positions, where screen view determines the angle and rotation, using control-left-click for precise, rapid geometry extrusion.

Loop cut and slide allow adding targeted geometry in Blender without distorting the object’s shape, using edit mode, edge selection, and precise cursor positioning for controlled subdivisions.

Master loop cuts in Blender by adding multiple cuts with precise placement. Refine geometry using number of cuts and smoothness, choosing linear for sharp edges or smooth for curved ones.

Learn to inset faces in Blender to subdivide a face and create a smaller face connected at the vertices, using the inset tool from the tools panel or the hotkey.

Explore the inset face tool in Blender, adjust boundary options and offset modes, and learn how fitness controls the inset size while keeping the operator panel active.

Master bevel techniques in Blender to create natural edges by adjusting segment counts with Ctrl+B, and apply single-edge or multi-edge bevels for smoother, artistic models.

Explore shrink/fatten and push/pull tools in Blender, how they scale faces along object normals or axes, and when to use them for faster, more accurate scaling.

Learn how to dissolve geometry to merge adjacent faces into a single flat face, instead of deleting edges that remove faces, and see how loop cuts illustrate the process.

Master edge and face fill in Blender by selecting vertices and connecting them to form edges, then creating faces to repair geometry, using the tool panel and keyboard shortcuts.

Learn how the spin tool duplicates selected geometry around a pivot to rapidly create symmetrical objects like wine glasses, adjusting steps, angle, and axis to shape the final form.

Master vertex construction to build symmetrical geometry by adding and connecting vertices in edit mode with control plus left-click; start from a blank plane to outline forms.

Explains the screw tool by extruding selected geometry around a center axis to form helical iterations, detailing steps, turns, center axes, and axis-based variations to create screw-like geometries.

Learn how parent and child objects in Blendr form a parent‑child relationship controlled by the parent, so the child follows movements, rotations, and scales, with orbit examples.

Learn how to move an object to a different layer in Blender using the End key and layer panel to organize objects, scenes, and export assets for game engines.

Master undo and redo in Blender to correct mistakes, restore or re-delete actions, and manage modeling steps like extrusions and subdivisions.

Explore the undo history feature to revert to a precise modeling point without repeated clicks, using the undo history tab to jump back before a rotation and redo as needed.

Explore global and local transform orientations in Blender, where world space and object space define the X, Y, Z axes for moving, rotating, and scaling.

Explore Blender modifiers and how they provide shortcuts to major object changes quickly. See how the solidify modifier adds thickness and the array modifier duplicates objects without extra steps.

Discover how the array modifier duplicates objects to create copies instead of a duplicate, positions them in world or object space, and is managed in the properties panel with naming.

Explore the Blender array modifier: control duplicate counts with fixed count, adjust relative and constant offsets, and position copies along the x, y, and z axes for efficient modeling.

Discover how the array modifier uses object offset with a reference object's location and rotation to create duplicates, and explore constant, relative, and alpha offsets plus merge behavior.

Explore the array modifier in Blender, focusing on start cap and end cap options, using different mesh objects to start and end, and how offsets and counts affect duplicates.

Explore how the bevel modifier adds beveled edges to a model, applying bevel across all edges and adjusting width, segments, and profile to control smoothness and shape.

Master the bevel modifier in blender by adjusting segment counts and ordering multiple modifiers, which determines priority and controls edge geometry.

Explore how to change the bevel modifier's width method using offset, depth, and percent to control edge smoothness, with depth offering the smoothest transition for natural object edges.

Explore the boolean modifier in Blender as a cutting and joining tool using mesh objects to shape target. Learn operation types like intersects and how applying the modifier edits geometry.

Learn how the boolean modifier's intersect option cuts a sphere from a cube, yielding a half-sphere, and remember to use object mode to apply and undo changes.

Explore the Blender mirror modifier to create symmetric models by mirroring one half across an axis, using the origin point and axis options to generate the other side.

Learn how the merge feature, used with collapse, fills gaps to connect tips and create a single blended unit, then apply to produce cap capsule type objects.

Apply the triangulate modifier to transform each face of a mesh into triangles, yielding game-ready geometry that's easy to map, texture, and modify.

Explore how the solidify modifier adds thickness to a mesh by adjusting the offset and choosing inside or outside geometry, with normals and high-quality options.

See how the solidify modifier affects a mesh, apply it in edit mode, and reveal new geometry to select inner and outer faces for a polished result.

Create a hollow box with a top hole by deleting or inserting the top face, then apply the solidify modifier to add thickness. Use the slider to achieve three-dimensional geometry.

Learn how to use the Blender wireframe modifier to create wireframe geometry with adjustable thickness and offset, explore boundary options, and apply edge creases and relative fitness for controlled results.

Explore the wireframe modifier in Blender through varying geometries, showing how to adjust thickness, edge extrusion, and vertex group targeting, then apply and edit the resulting mesh.

Learn how subdivision surface modifier increases geometry and smooths to a spherical shape for high quality meshes. Explore subdivision levels, face counts, and the two types balancing shape with smoothing.

Create a chair of any shape using extrusions, bevel modifier, and subdivision surface to add smooth edges for comfort, and use loop cuts to control smoothness and avoid over-spherical forms.

Study modifier stacking to see how the order of subdivision surface and solidify modifiers shapes geometry, with the top modifier priority producing holes, detaching geometry, and creating diverse forms.

Learn the basics of sculpting in Blender using the sculpt mode brush to drag geometry, adjust brush radius and strength, and compare high and low poly geometry by sculpting vertices.

Learn how symmetry lock in sculpting mirrors changes across an axis, enabling parallel edits on both sides. Turn symmetry off to sculpt freely and explore x and y mirroring.

Use the control key to reverse sculpting in Blender, dragging geometry with the left mouse to raise or push it down, adjust height and intensity for varied forms.

Learn to switch between add and subtract sculpting in blender, set the default tool to avoid holding the control key, and push geometry to form hills and mountains.

Dynamic topology lets you add or subtract geometry and manipulate detail during sculpting, providing flexibility to refine models as you sculpt with more geometry where needed.

adjust detail size in dynamic topology to control how much geometry blender creates during sculpting, with smaller values yielding more geometry and larger values yielding less

This lecture explains the detail refine method and its three options—subdivide, collapse, and collapse edges—showing how each adjusts mesh geometry for targeted refinement in blender.

Learn how the brush detail method uses brush size to determine geometry, guided by a detail percentage that varies with relative and constant detail modes.

Learn how smooth shading works across Blender's object, edit, and sculpt modes, with sculpt mode using its own smooth shading via dynamic topology settings to preview geometry while sculpting.

Use the inflate sculpting tool to quickly create smooth, consistent geometry and round bumps, comparing it with standard sculpting to shape terrain like canyons and craters.

Learn how to use the rotate sculpting tool in Blender to twist and rotate geometry within a circle, adjusting brush size, radius, and dynamic topology to control distortion.

Explore Blender's clay sculpting tool to shape like clay, smoothing and inflating geometry while maintaining consistent structures; compare with a faster, less accurate sculpting method that yields less smooth results.

Master the flatten sculpting tool to create a flat surface on a single axis by smoothing geometry with left clicks, adjusting radius and strength (e.g., 70 pixels).

Use the smooth sculpting tool in blender to smooth a mesh by reducing vertex distances, adjust radius and strength around 0.5, and apply gradual strokes to avoid destroying base shape.

Explore how the nudge sculpting tool subtly shifts vertices toward the brush, refining geometry with minimal surface area change, and serves as a precursor to hinge and smooth tools.

Learn basic uv unwrap in Blender by configuring 3D viewport and image editor, splitting panels, and using the U key to unwrap a cube onto the grid for texture mapping.

Learn why default UV unwrap stacks faces, causing identical textures on all faces, and discover practical alternatives to customize UV layouts for different objects.

Learn how to use projects from view to unwrap your objects in two dimensions, mapping the 3d view onto a grid and adjusting for angle and distance.

Explore the Baum's option project from view bounds, which uses the angle of view in the Fredy viewport to fill the uv map across the grid and ignore distance.

Learn to mark seams in Blender using edge selection and the mark seam tool, to manually create EUV maps and unwrap objects like cylinders with aligned seams.

Keep the museum map and its unwrap in sync by selecting a vertex in one panel to highlight its counterpart in the other, aligning faces and textures.

Master blender's selection modes in the 3d viewport, highlighting vertex and island selections and the sync option to switch between selecting individual vertices and grouped islands for quick geometry reshaping.

Create and compare multiple uv maps for a single object, then quickly switch between maps to find the best layout, using the mesh data panel to manage maps.

Discover how the Blender snapping tool works in two dimensions, snap vertices and islands, and learn when to use vertex select versus island select for precise snapping and moving.

Create a blank image in blender to start handmade textures, set the resolution (for example 4000 by 4000) and enable alpha for transparency, then use it as a texture backdrop.

Create a color grid texture map to preview how different colors map onto textures and materials, and explore how lighting, shading, and seams affect color distribution in renders.

Master advanced selection techniques in the uv image editor by using circle select, box select, and select linked objects, with hotkeys to quickly select all.

Unwrap the Suzanne monkey head using UV unwrapping on the base mesh, create multiple UV maps, and identify the best layout to share in discussions.

Apply the average island scale technique to keep textures evenly matched across islands in the UV grid and prevent mismatched tiling.

Learn to automatically pack multiple islands into the uv grid in Blender, organizing and scaling them and averaging their sizes to balance detail across the grid.

Enable proportional editing to move multiple vertices and shape the object's texture and geometry; scroll to adjust the affected area and use Ctrl to undo.

Add material to an object by opening the materials tab and clicking new. The first material created automatically applies to that object, and Blender names it dot 0 0 1.

Add and subtract material slots using the plus and minus buttons in the properties panel to manage reusable materials stored as data packets, with undo support via ctrl+Z.

Learn how Blender handles materials by deleting only unused data packets; inactive materials still exist until you close the file, and you can remove them by unlinking and reopening.

Turn a 3d object into a light source in blender with the emission shader by creating a new object, assigning a material, and connecting the shader to the surface.

Apply materials knowledge to design six distinct materials for a six-sided cube, coloring each face differently with unique colors.

learn how the mix shader combines two shaders, such as diffuse and glossy, to create complex materials by adjusting color, roughness, and the factor to blend inputs.

combine two shader nodes with a mix shader to create layered materials, placing one shader over another to achieve a glossy over diffuse effect.

Learn how to quickly select multiple nodes in a Blender node tree using a drag selection box, then move them together to create space and add shaders efficiently.

Color code your node knowledge by assigning colors to different nodes and levels, creating a clear hierarchy and color presets to distinguish inputs, samples, and outputs.

Activate the grease pen in the node editor to annotate complex trees, drawing notes and arrows, using straight and party lines, with additive drawing and erase for corrections.

Box select multiple nodes and copy them to the clipboard with Ctrl+C. Paste to duplicate the set in place or into another material, speeding up your node workflow in Blender.

Create and label frames to organize a node tree, grouping related notes into top half and bottom half, with frames resizing as notes move.

Explore the background node in Blender, used with the world tree to color the world background and light the scene without affecting objects.

Learn to build a hair shader in Blender by combining two shaders with a mix shader, balancing reflection and transmission to create realistic hair strands.

Explore hair shader controls for reflection and transmission, adjusting offset and roughness to color edges and strands under light, yielding more uniform color and realistic hair appearance.

Explore subsurface scattering in cycles, compare it to diffuse shading, and adjust scale, radius, and RGB values to create skin and wax realism, noting its noise and render-time cost.

Learn how the translucent shader creates a see-through effect while preserving the diffuse color. Mix it with diffuse or glossy shaders to control translucence and reflections.

Explore how the velvet shader adds soft reflective properties to cloth by combining with other shaders, adjusting sigma values, and influencing color and diffuse reflections in Blender.

Master the volume scatter shader in Blender by adjusting color, density, and anisotropic scattering to create smoke-like effects and realistic light diffusion.

Explore Blender's blackbody node for natural lighting by linking temperature to color and strength; use 1500 for candlelight, 3000 for sun, and 9000 for blue sky.

Learn texture painting in Blender, applying materials, and adding detail through textures and passes, while exploring brush types to prepare objects as canvases for painting.

Learn the basics of texture painting in blender: choose colors with the color wheel, adjust brush size and strength, and draw on the canvas to texture an avatar.

Learn how to use the filter to adjust the background color, manipulate the color wheel and brush strength, and apply left-click fills to the canvas for precise hues.

Learn to change the environment color in Blender via the properties panel and world color, with changes visible in render view and adjustable in preferences.

learn to make the background emit light in cycles by adjusting emissive strength and color through nodes, as a supplementary light—keep it dark and avoid blue, blinding effects.

Master blender rigging by building armatures (skeletons) and linking them to complex objects for accurate animations, including a human mesh, tested in post mode within the 3d viewport.

Learn how to name armatures in Blender to organize multiple rigs in one scene, using the same naming methods as meshes via the outliner or object data.

Learn to set correct rotation and scale in Blender by aligning objects to the front of the rig and applying rotation and scale to prevent later modifier issues.

Learn to name bones in a Blender rig by selecting a bone and giving it a single word with capitals to separate words, such as lower spine.

Explore rotating and scaling bones in Blender, focusing on how origin points and median points influence rotation, and how axis constraints and applying scale affect bone behavior and mesh results.

Explore the basic structure of a bone in Blender, including the head, body, and tail, and how rotation and scaling behave in edit mode compared with object mode.

Explore the five bone display types in the blender armature—octahedron, stick, bendy bones, envelope, and a larger-head variant—to see how display affects selection and aesthetics in the 3-d viewport.

Learn to display bone axes in Blender and understand how bone local axes differ from global object axes, influencing how you edit, rotate, and extrude bones.

Practice creating and positioning bones for a human model in a Blender challenge, extruding and aligning the right arm and left leg while keeping limbs separate and clipped.

Create a spider rig to practice controlling many limbs with a uniform structure. Start with a basic model, verify proper positioning, connections, naming, and simple extrusion or pan movements.

Discover how to turn scenes into animations in blender by using keyframes, the timeline, and the dope sheet editors, and manipulate these tools for more complex animations.

Learn to insert keyframes in Blender to animate properties like location, using the timeline and 3D viewport. Observe how frames fill between keyframes to create smooth animation.

Explore timeline controls to play, pause, reverse, fast-forward, and jump between keyframes, mastering precise animation timing from the start to end of the sequence.

Learn how to change the frame rate in the blender properties panel, adjust frames per second, and understand how frame count and frame rate determine animation duration.

Enable automatic keyframes to insert keyframes when you change a property's location on the x- and y-axes. Watch playback and learn to remove keyframes and undo mistakes in the timeline.

Learn how keying sets in Blender streamline animation by quickly generating keyframes for location, rotation, and scale with a single action and the available options.

Delete unwanted keyframes by selecting the correct keying set and pressing the delete button, removing only the location data without changing rotation to maintain smooth animation.

Learn to set frame ranges in Blender using multiple methods: use the timeline to select start and end frames, press the s key, or type numbers.

Set the preview range in the timeline by pressing the p key, dragging start and end frames to focus on a specific two-second portion of your animation.

Start rotation at frame 65 and end at 200, applying keyframes for rotation and scale, then test the animation to ensure correct timing.

Explore the Blender graph editor to insert and delete keyframes, control how keyframes interact, and edit data properties like location, rotation, and scale across x, y, z axes.

Learn to move and edit individual keyframe data in Blender's graph editor, adjusting the Y location, locking to the X axis, and previewing live animation changes during playback.

Zoom and pan in the graph editor panel using the scroll wheel and middle mouse button, with shift for two-dimensional panning, and note the differences from 3-D viewports.

Edit the cube's z rotation by adjusting keyframes in the graph editor; slide along the x-axis to change timing, or drag up and down to change rotation degrees toward 90.

Learn to manipulate scale in Blender by adjusting the object's scale timing and values in the graph editor, observing how changes affect the animation across frames.

Rotate data points in the Glafira project to see how subtle changes to keyframes shape animations, with graph editor previews and descaling techniques that create crisper, cleaner motion.

Learn to create a custom render preset in Blender by configuring resolution, aspect ratio, and framing, then save the preset and optionally save a startup file for reuse.

Learn to adjust hair length in Blender by changing the emission length value in the properties tab, converting long strands to a practical length in the scene units.

Adjust the hair count on objects in Blender by changing the number value, using 4000 as a starting point, and test render times to avoid overloading the system.

Tackle a blender challenge by creating an additional portaloo system and using particle systems to enhance your monkey with a long hair and optional color via the white painting tool.

Explore Blender's physics to create water and smoke effects, set up scenes, and craft objects that interact with or restrict physics like flowing water on a river bed.

Add cloth physics and collision in Blender to make gravity act on a plane and interact with objects, then boost collision quality by increasing simulation steps.

Explore five cloth presets—cotton, Leva, denim, rubber, and silk—and learn how each preset changes cloth physics, from fall and bounce to cling and stiffness.

Explore how geometry influences physics simulations in Blender, with a focus on cloth collisions and subdivision levels. See how adding geometry improves realism but increases render time, illustrating the trade-off.

Explore how the cloth speed multiplier changes fall speed and bending in Blender, compare fast and slow settings, note artifacts, and emphasize higher steps for better quality.

Learn to pin vertices in Blender to freeze cloth areas during animations, enabling flag-like effects with cloth physics by creating a vertex group, assigning it, and enabling pinning in physics.

Discover how collision absorption lets wind interact with collision objects, reducing frame weight and changing how the wind pushes against the cloth simulation.