The Blender 2.8 Encyclopedia

Get to know the software by first taking a tour of everything you see when we first open up Blender. See how Blender organizes it's areas, headers, and toolbars in this casual start to learning about the program.

Blender's window layout is very customizable, and in this lecture you'll learn how to customize the layout to suit your workflow and preferences.

Now that we learned about layout customization, we'll go over how you can save custom layouts and switch between existing layouts already in Blender. Having quick access to multiple layouts can be extremely useful when performing different tasks.

This begins our tour through Blender's different Editor types. There are different types of Editors in Blender used for different tasks. There's a 3D Viewport for example, which is used for building your 3D scene and interacting with all of your 3D objects. There's various animation editors too, as well as other types that we'll begin to go over.

Now we'll go over the different Animation Editors. This lecture contains an intro to how animation keyframes work, as well as a general overview of the different Animation Editors, such as the Dope Sheet, Graph Editors, and Drivers.

Here we'll go over the different editors for scripting, including the Text Editor which can be used to actually create things like Python scripts, or just use to leave yourself notes in your blend file.

Now we'll go over the Data Editors, including the Outliner which can be used to keep track of all of your objects, as well as organize them all into Collections(or "layers"). In these editors is also the Properties Editor, which is especially important as it contains all of the information about your objects, their relationships to other objects, effects you can add to them such as modifiers and particle systems, and a lot more.

In this lecture we'll browse through the different User Preferences available that help you customize Blender to suit your workflow. I also make a few suggested changes, especially when it comes to navigating your 3D scene. This can often be frustrating to get the hang of, so I offer some suggested preference changes to help you roam about your 3D world more comfortably.

We'll go over the basics of saving and loading here, including some tips on saving multiple iterations of your project, as well as saving bookmarks of your most used folders for quick access.

Sometimes Blender crashes, sometimes you forget to save your work, or sometimes you saved over existed work, doh! Blender tries its best to make sure you have access to backup versions of your files in multiple ways. In this lecture you'll learn how you can recover data that may have been lost for various reasons.

Learn how to import and export files from other formats. I'll also show you how to enable extra formats in Blender's User Preferences in case the default options don't offer the format you're looking for.

One of the most important things to get the hang of first, is navigating through 3D space. This can often take some time to get used to, and it's essential to master in order for modeling and building scenes to feel natural and fun. I offer some suggestions in the User Preferences lecture to help navigation feel more intuitive, so I would definitely check that lecture out as well.

Now we'll go over the purpose of the world axis and the grid spanning throughout the 3D world. These are mainly used for reference purposes to show an objects location, scale, and orientation in the world, and can be used for a feature called Snapping, which allows you to do things like move an object in increments.

Now we'll go over how you can change the units of measurement used by your scene, and the various ways you can customize this. For example, the grid is typically split into 10 blocks for each larger block. If you're using Imperial units I show you a trick for splitting large 1 foot blocks into 12 smaller blocks instead of 10, so that they can be used as inches.

In this lecture I'll show you all the different shading types available in the viewport. We'll go over how to switch between solid shading, wireframe shading, material preview, and rendering. This is an important lecture in order to understand how to work with and customize the different shading types.

And we'll also go over a lot of Viewport Shading options, like how to enable MatCaps, which are a material that can be applied to your scene for fast previewing. These can be very helpful for things like surface analysis.

I'll also give you suggestions on how to tweak the X-Ray settings to be more like the "Limit Selection to Visible" option from 2.79. X-Ray allows you to be able to see through, and more important select through, an object. I'll show you how it works and why it makes more sense to change the default settings.

There are lots of options we'll go over, such as how to enable a feature called cavity, which can highlight sharp edges and darken concave edges. This is essentially an ambient occlusion feature for the viewport, and it's extremely handy.

Now we'll go over some options that help you customize the 3D Viewport. This includes object type visibility, gizmo visibility, object information visibility, and also how to fix a common camera clipping issue. Often times you'll zoom into an object real close and the camera starts to go right through it. This is a common problem and has an easy fix.

Before we jump into working with Blender, let's take a tour of the different work modes we can use. These are essentially different tool modes, such as Edit Mode for modeling, Sculpt Mode, Pose Mode for animating, and more. Each task has its own work mode, and I'll take you on a tour through them all and demonstrate what they're capable of.

This is just an introduction to this section, including a mention of how many tools that we'll work with in Object Mode also work in other work modes.

We'll start off with selection basics. I'll go over the basic selection tools, like how to select, and how to add or subtract from a selection. I'll go over all the basic selection tools and how they're different from each other, and I'll also show you what "active selections" are and why they're so important.

Now we'll go over the basic object mode tools, such as moving, rotating, scaling, and adding or deleting objects. I'll also explain how the 3D Cursor is used for adding new objects in, and how to move the 3D cursor around.

We'll also cover proportional editing in Object Mode, and we'll learn how to change and work with the Transform fields in the right-side toolbar. For example, using a robot arm as an example, we'll learn how to lock multiple rotation axis' so objects can only rotate in one direction.

No we'll go over what those oranges dots are in the middle of your objects. These are called Object Origins, and they're useful for many different reasons like for rotating and scaling, and location reference. We'll also go over the options in the "Set Origin" menu which allows us to move the origin point in various ways.

This is a very important lecture on the differences between the Global Axis(the World's axis) and the Local Axis(the Object's axis). I'll go over the differences and demonstrate the usefulness of both axis'. This is definitely a good lecture to watch in order to avoid some confusion in the future, because there are many different circumstances in which one type of axis is used instead of another, so understanding the differences is key.

Learn about the funky red and white target in the 3D View. This is mainly used as a reference point in space, and is useful for many reasons.

Transformation Orientations are different ways that you can move, rotate, or scale your objects. There are various options for this, such as moving an object along the global axis, the local axis, or even the axis of the view itself. Very useful info in this lecture.

Now we'll go over more options for transforming your objects. Pivot Points are points in space that transformations happen around. For example, you can pick a point in space that you can then rotate objects around. That point in space is called a Pivot Point, and there's lots of useful options for this that come in handy in different circumstances.

Learn how to duplicate, or copy, objects. Also how to link duplicates together. Linking duplicates allows you to connect all objects so that if you change one, the linked objects change as well, which can be very handy.

Now we'll learn how parenting works. Parenting is when you connect one object to a separate parent object. Then whenever you move, rotate, or scale the parent object, the objects parented to it will change along with it.

Blender has a ton of snapping options that allow you to do things like snap objects to a grid, or even snap objects onto the surface of other objects. You can even have objects snap to slanted surfaces and make the objects rotate to match the angle of those surfaces. Lots of fun options here that come in handy often.

A newer feature in Blender is the ability to transform ONLY an object's origin, meaning you could do something like move an object's origin point without moving the object. This can come in handy and I demonstrate how.

We also now have the ability to transform a parent without transforming the children along with it. We can briefly ignore that relationship in order to move, rotate, or scale the parent without affecting the children.

Now we'll learn about the different kinds of surface shading in order to make our models look smooth or faceted. There's also a tool that can be used to smooth small angles and keep sharp angles sharp. This is called auto smooth and we'll learn how it works.

Since Blender 2.8, the old "layer" system has been replaced with Collections, which is far more versatile and capable of much better organization. It's similar to the layer system in painting software, where you can add objects to separate folders, or Collections in this case. So it's a really useful way of organizing your scene into groups.

We'll also go over View Layers, which replaces the old "Render Layers", but it's also very useful for scene organization alongside Collections. We'll learn how it all works in this lecture.

Now that we know about Collections, we'll go over Scenes, which can be thought of as separate projects within a single blend file. The great part about this is how easy it is to share assets between scenes. For example, you could create separate game levels, one in each scene, and be able to easily share assets like models and materials between the scenes. It's also generally great for organizing larger projects which can be split into multiple scenes.

In this lecture we'll go over the basics of bringing external models and assets into your current blend file. This is extremely useful when working with teams, or when working with any kind of re-usable asset.

Adding background images such as blueprints has changed since 2.8. I'll show you everything you need to know in order to add in background or references images into the 3D View, and how to set them up.

There's a menu of other selection tools that are used for more specific circumstances than the general selection tools we've already covered. These include things like selecting by type, or selecting objects that are linked in various ways.

Blender has a cool measuring tool that let's you draw rulers right in the 3D View. You can measure length and angles with this tool, and easily snap the ends of the ruler to faces, vertices, and edges for precise measurements.

This tool is a simplified version of grease pencil that let's you draw in the 3D View. This is super useful for things like drawing quick concept art or writing messages in the 3D View. This can even be animated, which is super fun and easy.

A quick lecture but an important tool that let's you add your favorite and most used tools (and settings!) into a quick access menu.

In this step by step project we'll be taking everything we learned in this section and the last section and actually creating a 3d toy train. This project includes using Blender's new Workbench render engine, which is a super fun render engine to use for quick renders and preview renders.

A quick intro before jumping into the world of 3D modeling.

Now let's dive into what elements a 3D model is actually composed of, which are vertices, edges, and faces. And we'll also cover a few terms that you'll hear occasionally in 3D art.

No joke. Even quads and n-gons are triangles in the end. It's better to work with Quads, and you'll learn why in this section, but in the end, everything is converted to triangles when it's shaded and rendered. This is important to understand and be aware of for various reasons.

Before we go over all the tools, let's build something first in order for you to get the hang of the basics. It'll make understanding all the other tools a little easier, plus you'll learn enough from this lecture to be able to play around with 3D modeling on your own. So let's build a low poly axe!

In short, normals are simply the direction a face or a vertex points. It's very important to at least have a basic understanding of what normals are and what they're used for in Blender, and that's what we'll go over. They're used primarily for smooth shading, but have other purposes as well.

In this lecture we'll go over selection tools specific to Edit Mode. Many Object mode selection tools also work in Edit Mode, but Edit Mode has some of its own tools as well. For example, there is a tool called "loop select" that allows you to select an edge and all the edges connected to it. It's a very important tool too. And there are also different selection modes that you can switch between, like Vertex select, Face select, and Edge select, that make it easier to select particular elements of your model.

Now we'll go over some of the most basic and fundamental tools you'll be using to model with.

There are actually a number of ways you can remove elements from your mesh in Edit Mode. You can delete only specific elements from a selection, or you can dissolve and collapse them. Dissolving will remove something like an edge from the model, but it'll fill the area with a face instead of creating a hole in the mesh. Collapsing will take something like a face and collapse it into a single vertex. This is an interesting chapter to at least skim through to get an idea of what options exist and how they work.

You can take two objects and join them together into one, or even separate multiple meshes in on object into separate objects. We go over all these options in this lecture.

Extruding is one of the most important tools for modeling. It allows you to make a selection and extend it, which allows you to draw shapes and make extensions to existing shapes.

Now we'll learn the various ways we can create faces and edges between vertices in order to create a solid 3d object. In this lecture we'll learn about the basics, and also more complex tools like loop cutting, and how to select two vertices on a mesh and automatically draw edges from one to the other.

In this lecture we'll start going over the tools in the Face Tools menu. This includes inset, poke, triangulate, converting tris to quads, solidifying faces, converting your faces into 3d wireframes, and fill tools which help you fill an area between edges with faces.

Now we'll finish going over the Face Tools by starting off with Grid Fill which doesn't just fill an area with faces, but instead fills it with a grid of faces which can come in handy. We'll also go over the intersect tools, welding edges into faces, and shading options that allow you to smooth shade or flat shade selected faces in Edit Mode.

Now we'll begin going over the tools used for editing Edges. We'll go over beveling, bridge edge loops, subdividing, and subdividing edge rings.

Now we'll finish going over the Edge Tools. We'll go over un-subdivide, rotating edges, edge sliding, and the mark sharp options.

These are very cool tools that help you cut through your mesh by pulling the selected edges away. For example, you can select an edge on the top of the cube and rip it away and it'll be like opening a box lid. You'll also learn how you can selecting vertices of a mesh, and split them apart into their own mesh.

The knife tools allow you to draw a line over you mesh that will cut right through your mesh, adding extra edges along the cut line. This allows you to add extra custom geometry to your mesh that will give you the extra geometry you need to create more complex shapes.

Knife Project basically allows you to draw a shape, and project that shape in a direction on your mesh to create cuts, like a cookie cutter.

And Bisect allows you to draw a cutting line through your mesh, adding extra edges through your mesh, but also allows you to delete that portion of your mesh too.

In this lecture we'll go over the tools used for editing vertices. We've covered a lot of these already, but we'll go over connecting vertex pairs, smoothing vertices, and merging vertices. We'll also cover auto merge, which is a function you can enable that will automatically merge vertices together when they get close enough to each other.

And finally we'll cover vertex parenting, which is a super cool feature where you can parent external objects to vertices within another object. I'll demonstrate how this can be useful too.

Blender has various mirroring tools that can help you mirror your mesh horizontally or vertically. There is a mirror modifier that achieves this as well, but we'll be going over the manual tools for this too, because some of them are a little different and come in handy for a quick operation.

We'll also be going over X-Mirror as well as Topology Mirror. These options can come in handy if you want to edit one side of your mesh and have it automatically edit the other side too.

Now we'll cover some miscellaneous tools starting with convex hull, which simply creates a covering over your selection. Then we'll learn how the spin and spin duplicate tools work. Spin allows you to take a shape and spin it in a circle. So you could take the profile of a wine glass and spin it 360 degrees to create a fully 3 dimensional glass. And spin duplicate will take a selection and duplicate it while it spins it around. We use this to create the studs on a studded bracelet.

Now we'll go over the rest of the selection tools. The tools in this lecture are used for more specific circumstances, like making random selections, or making checkered selections.

Subsurf modeling is one of the most important and most used techniques for modeling. In this lecture you'll learn exactly what it is, how to add it to your object, and why it's awesome.

Now we'll go over some guidelines you should follow when subsurf modeling. Because subsurf modeling works a specific way, there are things you'll need to be aware of when building your models. We'll also learn about edge creasing, which is a way you can select an edge and turn down the smoothing effect of the subsurf modifier.

Now we'll take what we've learned in the previous two chapters and we'll build a coffee mug using the subsurf modifier. Putting these techniques into practice will help in understanding them and how to go about using them in your projects.

You can organize your vertices into groups, which can be useful for quickly selecting different parts of your mesh. Vertex groups are also used for rigging purposes, and they can also be used in a lot of different modifiers to have the modifier only affect certain vertices. It's a very handy feature.

In this lecture you'll learn about the various ways you can analyze properties of your mesh, such as angle sharpness and area thickness. You'll also learn how you can toggle on and off different measurements such as edge length and face area.

Once you're finished modeling something complex, there may be a few things to fix, such as stray edges not connected to anything, or even accidental holes left in your mesh. This lecture goes over the cleanup tools you can use to fix many different issues.

If you're interested in learning more about normals and how to manually edit them, then this lecture's for you. I'll go more in depth about normals, and show you all the different ways you can manually edit them in Blender.

Learn Blender's Curve Objects. These are vector lines you can draw out in either 2D mode, to trace out a flat shape and fill it in. Or 3D mode, which will generate a tube-like Mesh out from and around the Curve.

Some benefits with Curve Objects:

• Generate mesh from the Curve and shape it all sorts of ways.

• Map out a 2D logo and turn it into 3D.

• Curves have procedural options:
  - Change the resolution of the Curve (and generated Mesh) at any time.
  - Adjust the shape and thickness of the Mesh, and it will still map smoothly along the curve (even if you edit the line).
  - Change the Twist or Radius along different points in the curve to spin or scale the generated Mesh.

• Deform a polygon Mesh along a Curve with Curve Deform.

• Move any other Objects along the Curve line with Follow Path and Path Animation.

Try out some of the Example Files in the resources if you'd like. Then the next lecture will go through the process of adding and editing curve objects.

Let's add a curve object in and go through how to edit them. Covering some of the differences and similarities to traditional mesh modeling.

Curve objects have Control Points to edit the Line, with a Handle each side to manipulate the Segments of the curve between each Control Point.

There's a few different ways handles can shape the line.

Choosing a Handle Type will change how they are connected to each other, to smooth the curve out or make a sharp turn.

This lecture will cover the Handles in more detail, so you can modify the Curve shape just how you want.

Curves can be used to create flat 2D Vector shapes. Let's have a look at this 2D version of the Curves, and the different tools for this mode.

This lecture will cover the 3D mode of Curve Objects.

This lecture will cover the Custom Bevel feature for Curve Objects. Using another Curve to shape the generated mesh that pushes out from the line.

This lecture will cover the Custom Taper feature for Curve Objects. Like the Custom Bevel, it will use another Curve but now to change the shape of the thickness along the generated mesh.

This lecture will cover the Follow Path feature for Curve Objects. You can attach various other objects in your scene to a curve and animate them along the path set by it.

Surfaces are an alternative to mesh modeling.

This unique object type is great for precise Models. Learn about Surface Modeling in this Section.

Learn about the main editing tools of the NURBS Surface mesh types. A more controlled calculation of polygons that uses control points with weighting factors to allow smooth surfaces without moving every single vertex.

A deeper look into Surface meshes, with its various properties and Surface only modifiers.

This lecture is an introduction to what drivers are and what you can use them for.

In this step by step project I'll take you through setting up your first driver, and tell you all the basics you need to know for setting up drivers in general.

In this lecture we'll go over all the different areas of the Drivers Editor in order to get more familiar with the Editor we'll be using before diving into the rest of the section.

In this lecture I'll show you how you can edit F-Curves which are used in several different graph editors such as the Drivers Editor. F-Curves are animation curves that can be modified similar to bezier curves.

The first type of driver we'll be going over is Scripted Expression, which allows you to use math equations to affect the final driver value.

Now we'll be going over the rest of the driver types and how they can all be used to combine multiple inputs.

Now we'll start going over the input variables, starting with Transform Channel, which is an input variable that allows you to use location, rotation, or scale as the input.

Rotational Difference takes the difference in rotation between two objects or bones and uses this as the input.

This variable takes the distance between two objects or bones and uses that as the input.

Single Property allows you to use custom properties as the input. Custom properties can be found in many places in Blender's Properties Editor, and these can be incredibly useful especially for controlling things like shape keys.

In this step by step project we'll set up constraints and drivers to allow a dimmer switch on the wall to control the brightness of a lamp for a room.

In this step by step project we'll be using constraints and drivers to set up a camera rig that will automatically follow a boxing match while keeping both fighters in frame.

In this step by step project I'll show you how drivers can affect shader values by setting up drivers to affect the RGB values of a sphere's shader.

In this step by step project we'll be using drivers to control muscle flexing shape keys depending on how bent or extended an arm is.

Constraining an object or bone can allow you to copy, limit, modify or connect objects in different ways!

There are quite a few constraints, and they all can be used on different objects and bones, and together! The possibilities, just like with drivers, becomes endless.

Constraints are useful in 3 main ways:

1) Restrict an object (a piston, or locking rotation inside an analogue joystick), they may also 'limit' the object in some way

2) To reference another object or data in some way (such as copy transforms, or 'transform' with an animation data block

3) Tracking another object. Slightly different to referencing another object, tracking constraints will rotate to point towards and look at a 'target'

Let's add our first constraint, the Copy Location, and go through it in a little more detail.

Next, the Copy Rotation Constraint! Have one object rotate with another you select.

The Copy Scale, which has some great extra parameters to narrow down the transposing. Such as Axis toggles and a 'Power' value.

Copy Transforms is a Copy All, Location, Rotation, and Scale.

A demo scene of all the Copy Transform Constraints. A statue can be fragmented into pieces and moved around with visual controls.

This is quite an interesting Constraint. We can limit inside, outside, or 'on the line' to a specific Blender unit distance.

Globally or locally. We can limit the minimum and maximum position in 3D space the constrained object can move.

Globally or locally. We can limit the minimum and maximum rotation in 3D space of the constrained object.

Globally or locally. We can limit the minimum and maximum scale in 3D space of the constrained object.

A fascinating constraint that uses the combination of axis scales, to always keep the same volume.

This constraint is more versatile than the other “transform” constraints. It allows you to map one type of transform to another!
For example, you can make the scale of one object move or rotate another.

The Transform Cache Constraint is used to translate Alembic (.abc) files into Blender, and onto Objects. These are used for physics like 'rigid body'.

[ Alembic on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alembic ]

You can export these from physics focused 3D software like Houdini, or make them in Blender.

Open an Alembic file with Import to automatically add a Transform Cache, or load the Constraint and add one manually.

The Track To constraint applies rotations to the constrained object, so that it always points to a Target.

The Locked Track constraint is a track to with more restriction. Great for a paddle or hinge type effect, as it will spin only around one axis.

The Damped Track constraint constrains one local axis, always pointing towards the Target. In other 3D software you can find it with the name “Look at” constraint.

The Stretch To constraint will track a target object and also pull and stretch towards it!

The Action constraint is powerful. It allows you control an Action using the transformations of another object.

The underlying idea of the Action constraint is very similar to the one behind the Drivers, except that the former uses a whole action (i.e. multiple F-curves of the same type), while the latter controls a single F-curve of their “owner”…

Child Of is the constraint version of the standard parent/children relationship between objects (the one established through the Ctrl-P shortcut, in the 3D Views).

The Floor constraint allows you to use its target position (and optionally rotation) to specify a plane with a “forbidden side”, where the owner cannot go. This plane can have any orientation you like. In other words, it creates a floor (or a ceiling, or a wall)! Note that it is only capable of simulating entirely flat planes, even if you use the Vertex Group option. It cannot be used for uneven floors or walls.

The Follow Path constraint places its owner onto a curve target object, and makes it move along this curve (or path). It can also affect its owner’s rotation to follow the curve’s bends, when the Follow Curve option is enabled.

The Pivot constraint allows the owner to rotate around a target object. It was originally intended for pivot joints found in humans e.g. fingers, feet, elbows, etc.

The Shrinkwrap constraint is the “object counterpart” of the Shrinkwrap Modifier. It moves the owner origin and therefore the owner object’s location to the surface of its target.

In this lecture you'll learn about what modifiers are, how they affect your objects, and how the ordering of modifiers can change the results. We'll also go over settings in modifiers that are common among many modifiers, that way I won't have to bore you with repetitive details in every lecture for modifiers that have the same options.

Now we'll dive into the modifiers starting with Data Transfer modifier, which allows you to transfer lots of different types of information from one object to another. For example, you can transfer vertex weights from one object to another which is helpful when rigging. You can also transfer normal data and a lot more.

In this lecture you'll learn how you can bake and store animation data using the Mesh Cache modifier, like from a cloth simulation for example, and then reuse that data on other objects. The example in the lecture shows reusing cloth simulation data on many different curtains, and we change some parameters to make all the curtains look different. This is faster than using cloth simulations for everything because once we bake the simulation to a file, we no longer need any simulations at all. The information in the file is used to quickly animate other curtains we apply it to. Very cool stuff.

The Normal Edit modifier can be used to modify the direction of normals on your object. This is especially useful for low poly game models like grass and trees, because you can fake a more rounded look on them to hide the fact that they're just planes with textures.

The Weighted Normals modifier is a super useful modifier that can fix a lot of issues that arise from using beveled corners. Weighted normals simply bends vertex normals in the direction of larger faces, leading to better results for beveled edges on lower poly models.

The UV Project modifier allows you to use other objects, such as Empties, to project UV coordinates at your object. This can be a practical alternative to UV unwrapping because you can literally do things like project a brick texture onto a wall by pointing an object at the wall. Very cool and easy to use. And since you're using another object to control texture project, this means you can also easily animated the textures.

The UV Warp modifier can be used to change or even animate UV coordinates. If you already have an object UV unwrapped, you can use this modifier to move those UVs around your texture map. In the case of a low poly tank for example, you can use this modifier to move the UV coordinates of the treads in order to make them look like they're moving.

The Vertex Weight Edit modifier gives you extra control over vertex group weights. So basically if you're using vertex groups for anything, you can affect their weights in various ways using this modifier.

The Vertex Weight Mix modifier allows you to mix different vertex groups together in different ways.

The Vertex Weight Proximity modifier is a cool modifier where you can affect vertex group weights depending on how close another object is to an object or surface.

The Array modifier creates duplicates of your object and offsets those duplicates. In this lecture we use train tracks as an example and we create many planks of wood underneath the tracks, all spaced out evenly. This is a really useful modifier that comes in handy in a lot of different circumstances.

Ultra useful modifier that let's you bevel sharp corners so they're nice and round. There is a ton of different options for this modifier, and they're all pretty useful. There's also a new feature where you can customize the shape of the bevel by drawing your own shape. This is fantastic for things like moulding for walls.

The Boolean modifier allows you to add, subtract, and intersect multiple objects. This allows you to easily create holes in objects, or join two objects into one airtight mesh.

The Build modifier is an animation modifier which makes an object appear one face at a time until it's completely built. You can also make an object disappear one face at a time as well.

The Decimate modifier is used primarily to optimize the face count of a mesh. If an object has 1000 triangles for example, you can use this modifier to make it only have 500 in the end, and it'll simplify the mesh the best it can while maintaining details as best as it can.

The Edge Split modifier splits parts of a mesh away from the rest of the mesh depending on the angle between them. For example, you can split the top and bottom part of a cylinder away from the body of the cylinder with this modifier. This can be useful for various reasons explained in the lecture.

The Mask modifier allows you to hide certain areas of your mesh. This can be useful for editing, or can be used for animation effects like you'll learn about in the Acid Burn Effect lecture at the end of the section.

The Mirror modifier will simply mirror one side of your mesh to the other side. Incredibly useful for things like making characters or cars since you'll only need to build one side and then you can mirror that to the other side.

The Multiresolution modifier is an incredibly useful modifier for sculpting especially, and also for creating levels of detal(LOD) for game models. This modifier has subsurf functionality but also allows you to sculpt on the highest level of subdivision. With the subsurf modifier you can't sculpt on anything but the original mesh, but with multiresolution you can.

This modifier also has an amazing option that allows you to generate a multi-res model from a model that's not multi-res. For example, if you sculpt a character with Dynatopo enabled you need to retopologize it take make sure you have clean topology. When you do this you do not end up with a multiresolution model, so you won't have different levels of detail. The multi-res modifier can fix this problem for you.

The Remesh modifier rebuilds your mesh's topology using quads only. It has a lot of limitations, but can be very useful in certain circumstances.

The Screw modifier can be used like the spin tool where you can take a wine glass profile for example, and spin it around in a circle to create the rest of the glass. It can also take a spun mesh and shear it upwards, like the threads on a screw for example, or like a spring.

The Skin modifier can add thickness to your edges. This can be used to quickly create a base mesh to then sculpt on. For example, you can create a very fast and simple monster character with this modifier, and then further sculpt on that base mesh to create your finished character.

The Solidify modifier simply adds thickness to your objects. It's especially useful because it allows you to assign different materials to the thickness that it creates.

The Subdivision Surface modifier is one of the most used modifiers in 3d modeling. This modifier will subdivide your mesh so it has extra geometry, while also physically smoothing the mesh. It uses your original mesh as a cage to calculate the smoothing, so you'll have a high resolution result but still have the simpler original mesh to use when editing, which is a lot more convenient than having to edit a high resolution mesh.

This is an experimental feature in the Subdivision Surface modifier that subdivides the mesh more when it closer to the camera, and subdivides it less when its farther from the camera. This is a very efficient way of adding extra geometry where it's needed the most (up close), and is most often used for something called Micropolygon Displacement, which you can learn more about in the project at the end of the Shaders section.

The Triangulate modifier simply splits all of your quads and n-gons into triangles. This is especially useful when exporting models to other software.

The Weld modifier is a newer modifier in blender that functions exactly like the Merge options in the vertex tools menu. It'll merge vertices together when they're close enough, and this is super useful to have in modifier form.

The Wireframe modifier converts your mesh's edges into 3d wireframes. this is really useful for creating a wireframe overlay for your objects to show off their topology, but has other uses as well.

The Cast modifier can change the shape of your objects into spheres, cylinders, or cubes. It can also be used to distort the shape of objects using other objects. The example in the lecture shows a large sphere going through smaller pipes, and it's bulging out the pipes as it passes through.

The Curve modifier can be used to change the path or shape of other objects. With this modifier you can make other objects, or arrays of objects, follow and bend around a winding path

The Displace modifier can be used to move vertices on the surface based on a black and white texture, where dark parts of the texture displace vertices downward, and lighter parts of a texture displace vertices upward. This can be used to transform a plane into a landscape with mountains for example.

The Hook modifier can be used to attach vertices to Empty objects. Then you can modifier those vertices by simply moving those empties around, allowing you to control the vertices of a mesh with external objects. Very cool and very useful.

The Laplacian Deform modifier can be used to reshape and repose your meshes without having to rig them with armatures. This is especially useful for quick character posing, but can be used on anything. The results of the mesh deformations are exceptional as well.

Lattices can be used to deform and reshape your meshes, or even just parts of your meshes. Basically you surround your object with a lattice like it's a cage, and then editing this cage will modify the object inside of it as well.

Vertex groups are one way to deform meshes with an Armature skeleton in Blender.

But using a Mesh Deform Modifier, it's easy to attach a higher detail mesh to a lower poly 'cage' , and it deforms using the volume inside.

You can then even add vertex groups to the mesh deform cage, to easily get smooth deformations for squishy or bouncy characters.

The Shrinkwrap modifier is quite a literal one. It will shrink one object on top of another, wrapping it up. This can be insanely useful for hard surface modeling, but also for literal interpretations like shrink wrapping plastic onto a 6 pack of soda.

The Simple Deform modifier can be used to bend, twist, and taper objects. You can do things like bend things around into circles, which is especially useful for car tires, or twist them around like rubber. This modifier has a lot of uses, and it's really fun to play around with.

The Smooth modifier simply smooths out all the geometry. So sharps points become soft for example. This is the same as the Smooth tool in the Vertex Tools menu.

The Smooth Corrective modifier is extremely useful for deformed objects. It's very handy when trying to keep decent deformations around things like arm and leg joints. It works by trying to maintain the original shape and volume as best as it can around areas of deformation, to prevent things like excessive intersection or problems caused by bad weight painting.

The Smooth Laplacian modifier is similar to the Smooth modifier, but this modifier tries to maintain the shapes of the mesh better. While the Smooth modifier smooths everything without worrying about details that should remain sharper, the Smooth Laplacian modifier maintains details a lot better, though it calculates slower as well.

The Surface Deform modifier is a cool one. This can be used to bind one mesh to another. In the lecture we use chain mail as an example. Instead of having to use a physics simulation on a high poly chain mail mesh which would be complicated and take a while, we can simply use a cloth simulation on a plane, and then bind the chain mail to the plane. Then however the plane is deformed by the cloth simulation the chain mail will deform the same way.

The Warp modifier is sort of a combination of the Hook modifier and the Displace modifier. This allows you to use external objects to move vertices on your mesh. You can use two Empties as warp points for example, and vertices near one of the empties will move towards the other Empty. Because both emptys can be moved freely, this offers a unique kind of control over how the mesh is deformed.

The Wave modifier literally generates waves throughout your mesh. For simpler water this can be used instead of creating a full water simulation. This can also be used for things like sending shockwaves through your objects.

In this step by step project we'll combine a few different modifiers to create the effect of acid burning through an object.

In this step by step project we'll combine modifiers like the Hook modifier and Curve modifier in order to create a customizable kitchen island. The customizing includes automatically adding extra bar stools when the island is stretched out longer.

In this step by step project we'll create a metal grate. This is a simple project but shows you an interesting way to use modifiers creatively for practical purposes.

In this step by step project you'll learn how to instance objects. This means that all the faces of one object will be replaced by another object. This is useful for making arrays of objects follow a curve path without being distorted by the curve modifier. This technique replaces the "dupli frames" technique of older versions of Blender, and this is an important and interesting lecture to watch.

In this step by step project we'll use the lattice and shrinkwrap modifiers to easily and perfectly get a windshield wiper blade to fit snugly up against a windshield. Very satisfying techniques in this lecture.

Rigging is the process of attaching 3D meshes to a virtual skeleton. So that a character can move and be animated more naturally. In Blender, this object type is called an Armature.

Starting with a single Bone, they can be drawn out as digital joints underneath a character model. Then, after attaching the character model to the bones, it can be posed and animated. This is the best way to get a character moving for a game or animation.

Let's start with an overview of Blender's Armatures. This lecture covers adding and editing bones. Then drawing out the joints to create a skeleton.

Once you've drawn out a skeleton with the Armature tools in edit mode. Next is to set the bones into solid joints and begin testing poses. We can do this by switching to Blender's third mode, Pose Mode.

This lecture covers the features of Pose Mode, how it's similar to Edit Mode, and also how they differ.

Let's go through the quickest way to Rig and Export a Character with a new Armature Skeleton.

Now that you understand the Edit Mode of Blender's Armatures used to draw joints, and Pose Mode, where the joints become solid bones and can be animated..

In this lecture, I cover the most efficient way to get a character and skeleton working and attached, then ready for Export.

Let's start our look at the Armature Properties with the top Skeleton panel. You can toggle reset the pose back to how it is in Edit Mode. Or manage Bone Layers with Protected Layers, which are helpful to avoid breaking a rig when it's linked in another file or scene.

Bone Groups are great, and serve two purposes which you can give to your rigs:

1 - General selection sets. You can make a list, maybe calling one 'arm bones' and add only the arms to that group. Then you can select them any time you want

2 - Group colors. Along with grouping bones together to quickly select or deselect. You can change the Color Theme of any group with the pop down menu. All sorts of pre-made options exist to give your bone group a 3 color set (Normal, selected, actively selected). There's also a custom theme to add your own color combination.

If you have custom shapes (covered soon) on your bones, they will be colored too!

The Pose Library is a panel in the Armature Properties. Here you can save poses and apply them back onto the character later.

You can take snapshots and capture the pose at a certain frame, or make up some poses and hold onto them.

Motion Paths for Armatures give us a line trace of the bones path of movement. Select the bones you want to see motion paths for, in the Panel. Click Calculate, and you can choose to track the base or tail of the bone, and set the frame range of the paths.

The Viewport Display Panel for Armatures gives you all the helpful options to work with a skeleton or building an animation rig.

You can toggle the names of each bone listed next to it, or the axis to check which direction each bone is facing.

There's also a list of different ways to display Armatures. Like as blocks, or thin wire to see the mesh easier.

Now we're in the single Bone Properties tab. The Transform Panel will give you the current location, rotation and scale. Similar to the Side Panel of the 3D View.

There's locks for each axis. So you can limit the bone to only move or rotate certain ways.

And for Rotation, there is a Mode switcher, to use Quaternion or Euler. Which are different calculations for animating rotations, and each have different strengths.

Bend or B-Bones are a way to split and segment a bone. Essentially making it act like a spine. It will curve and twist to smoothly match the bone before and after it.

And you can change all the curve and bend amounts for each bone here.

This panel in the Single Bone Properties contains info related to connections between the other bones.

Such as:
The Layer the bone is on.
Its Parent
Its Bone Group

And some options for how the rotation and scale from other bones in the chain will affect this one.
It's here, for example, that you can uncheck 'Inherit Rotation' on Arm bones, to have them stay at the character's side, and not follow when the torso turns or bends.

Deform holds some information about the older legacy deforming method called Envelope Weights.

But the most important part of this panel is the checkbox in the panel header itself.

Checking 'Deform' off for a bone will disable it from deforming a character model. And it won't export as part of the skeleton, if you send it to a game engine or other software.

This Viewport Panel has the display options for each bone individually. But it's here you can set custom bone shapes for Armatures.

Bones can have Constraints just like Objects. And for rigging they can be used in combination with Bone Parenting.

It's possible to attach Objects of all kinds to a Bone, using the Parent To Bone option.

With Parent To Bone, the entire Object attached will transform as one. But using the Armature Deform, you can move one Mesh with many Bones.

The three elements that make up an Armature Deformation (or Bind):

1. Object Parented to the Armature

2. An Armature Modifier targeting the Skeleton you want to deform with

3. A set of Vertex Groups with the same name as each Bone. With some Vertices Assigned

Learn Vertex Groups in more detail for Armature Deform.

Once larger chunks of Vertices have a Vertex Group, use the Per Vertex Weights Panel to see what groups are assigned in detail. There's also some tools to change assignment on the fly, and copy all the Vertex Groups and Weights of one Vertex to others.

A more intuitive way to Assign Vertex Groups is by Weight Painting. For smoothing out deformations, the Paint tools have ways to mask areas based on its current weight, and balance Weights of many Vertex Groups of one Vertex.

With a Character Mesh deforming with an Armature, adding Animation controls can make posing easier. Let's start with the portrait area and Rig the Head and Neck.

The Shoulders will be both Deforming Bones and also Animation Controls.

The Arms will be Rigged to pose in FK (Forward Kinematics), bone by bone. Or in IK (Inverse Kinematics) to pose by placing the Wrist, and the rest will bend to match.

We can Rig the Fingers and Thumb to auto-curl when rotating the first digit. Then allow further finger posing on top.

The Legs almost require an IK Rig to avoid dropping under the ground. But can be switched into FK for any swinging or airborne animation.

To complete the main body Rig, the Hips and Spine will be separated with their own Controls for posing the center of the Character's mass.