Notes

General

• F3: command search
• n: show properties sidebar (includes view options)
• Ctrl+Space: maximize editor pane under pointer
• m: move to collection
• F2: rename selected object
• Shift+a: open Add menu
  • when adding a mesh, use the lowest resolution you can get away with (less vertices to deal with), and try to keep the faces roughly square
  • circles have a Fill Type, set to Ngon to add a face
• Shift+d: Duplicate
  • canceling while using tools with a movement step after (like Duplicate and Extrude) does not cancel the tool, only the movement, so there will still be duplicated vertices (undo to avoid this)
• Alt+d: Duplicate Linked
  • in Edit mode both the original and any linked duplicates will be affected, but in Object mode only the selected instance will
• Tab: switch between Object and Edit modes
• Ctrl+Tab (hold) - open mode select menu

Viewport

• Mouse3: orbit (rotate) camera
• Shift+Mouse3: pan camera
• ~: open view selection menu
• Numpad 1: front orthographic view
• Numpad .: focus on selected object
• z (hold) - open rendering mode menu

Cursor

• the cursor controls where new objects are added, and affects how some tools work
• Shift+Mouse2: move cursor
• Shift+s: cursor movement menu
  • Cursor to Selected will move the cursor to the center of the selected object
• Shift+c: center scene and reset cursor

Selection

• a: select all
  • Alt+a: deselect all
  • Ctrl+i: invert selection
• w: activate Select tool if another tool is active, cycle through Select modes if already active
  • Shift+Mouse1: add to selection
  • Alt+Mouse1: select loop
• when working in orthographic views, drag select instead of just clicking to select so that you get the vertices behind the front-most one
• Alt+z: toggle x-ray mode
  • allows you to select "through" a mesh
• h: hide selection
  • Alt+h: unhide
• x: delete selection (can also use Delete)
  • Dissolve will merge the surrounding geometry to fill in the space
• Numpad /: toggle local view (show only selection)
• p: separate selection
• Ctrl+p: parent objects
  • select the child first, then the parent-to-be, and select Keep Transform

Camera

• Numpad 0: toggle camera view
• Ctrl+Alt+Numpad 0: move camera to current viewport position
• Properties sidebar > View > Lock Camera to View lets you move the camera by moving the view
  • or with the camera selected use g as usual, and use Mouse3 to "zoom" (move along local z axis)
• F11: bring up most recent render
• F12: render

Tools

• g: Move (g for grab)
• r: Rotate
• s: Scale
• t: Transform
• Shift+Space: open tools menu
• While a tool is in use:
  • x/y/z: restrict to that axis
  • Shift+x/y/z: exclude that axis
  • hold Mouse3: snap to nearby axis
  • hold Ctrl: snap to increments
  • hold Shift: slow down
  • can enter numeric values, and - for negatives

Object mode

• Right click > Shade Smooth/Flat
• Right click > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry to move origin to center of each selected object

Edit mode

• 1/2/3: enter vertex/edge/face select mode
• Ctrl+l: select all connected (linked) vertices
• o: toggle proportional editing
  • affects the area around the selection (scroll bar to adjust radius)
  • use menu in toolbar to change falloff type
• Shift+Tab: toggle snapping (use menu in toolbar to change what it snaps to)
  • Project Individual Elements allows all the vertices to snap when using proportional editing
• Right click > Subdivide (can adjust smoothness from popup)

Edit mode tools

• Ctrl+r: Loop Cut (adds another "line" of vertices around the shape)
• i: Inset (like loop cuts but for the vertices of a single face)
• e: Extrude
  • Alt+e: open Extrude tools menu
  • s while extruding along normals - make extrusion even
  • extruding duplicates vertices - to move existing vertices, use the Move tool with only those vertices selected
• Spin: extrudes vertices in a circle around the 3D cursor
  • after spinning, can adjust center coordinates from popup menu
  • Scroll wheel: increase loop count
  • right click when moving to cancel and place in middle
• Shift+e: add crease to selected loop
• f: add face between selected edges
  • to do the same between edge loops use Bridge Edge Loops (Ctrl+e)

Sculpting

• f: change brush size
  • Right click on header > Tool Settings to see brush settings
• Shift+f: change strength
• Ctrl (hold): push in instead of out

Particles

• takes an object or collection and scatters it over the surface of another object (ex. sprinkles on a donut)
  • if using a collection, check Use Count to adjust the frequencies of different objects
  • checking Whole Collection will treat the collection as if it is one object
• use Emitter for animated particles, Hair for static
• to use an object as the particle, change Render > Render As to Object, and then select the object under Instance Object (same with a collection)
• Render > Scale Randomness will randomly scale, but along all three axes
• check the Advanced box to make rotation & other settings appear
  • under Rotation, Randomize adjusts rotation along all three axes, Randomize Phase adjusts rotation along relative X and Y (I think)
• check Emission > Source > Use Modifier Stack to improve results
• to limit the particles to the weight painted area, under Vertex Groups change Density to Group (the name of the vertex group created when you start weight painting)
  • disable particle rendering while weight painting to avoid slowdown

Modifiers

• found under the wrench icon in Properties (bottom right)
• applied top to bottom, order matters
• can control visibility of modifiers in different modes
• use Apply in dropdown (next to delete button) to apply the changes to the mesh (good idea to make a copy first)

Available Modifiers:

• Subdivision Surface: non-destructively smooths the surface by subdividing faces
• Solidify: adds thickness (extrudes)
  • offset controls direction
  • use crease (under Edge Data) to adjust generated shape
• Array: creates arrays of the same object (use multiple Array modifiers for multi-dimensional arrays)

Materials

• Roughness defines how reflective the material is
• Subsurface allows light to enter and bounce around within the object, like skin or icing (need to set the subsurface color)
  • Subsurface Radius defines how deeply the light penetrates the object (separate values for R/G/B)
  • for the donut icing, set the subsurface color to a bit deeper shade than the base color, and set the Subsurface Radius for the channel matching the icing color to 0.3 and the others to 0.15
• Emission makes a material "glow"

Shading

Ctrl+Shift+Mouse1 on a node: "preview" by connecting to Material Output/Surface

• to randomize base color of a material: Object Info/Random > ColorRamp/Fac (customize gradient as desired), ColorRamp/Color > Principled BDSF/Base Color
  • change Gradient Type to Constant (from Linear) to avoid interpolation
• to apply bump mapping: Texture Coordinate/Object > Noise Texture/Vector, Noise Texture/Fac > Displacement/Height, Displacement/Displacement > Material Output/Displacement
  • To actually affect the mesh, in Material properties change Settings > Surface > Displacement to Displacement & Bump (change Scale in Displacement node if it looks like a porcupine)
• use a MixRGB node to combine multiple textures (Fac slider controls the "strength" of the second input)
  • use Blend type Add with Fac 1.00 to "merge" B&W textures

Texture Paint

• n: bring up brush options & color picker
  • can change blend types too
• x: swap colors
• s: sample color
• Alt+s with cursor over texture: save image
• purple is the "missing texture" color
• use a Texture Mask in the brush options to paint with a texture - set the mask type in Texture properties on the right
  • in brush options set Mask Mapping to Random to avoid perfectly tiling the texture
• use Shading mode to hook up the texture (as an Image Texture node) to the Base Color (or any other property) of a material

Rendering

• hiding objects from viewport does not disable them in rendering
• use the Cycles rendering engine for path tracing (but much slower and noisier preview than Eevee)
• sun lights do not have any fall off
• light angle affects shadow sharpness (0 = sharp, higher = smoother)
• can adjust exposure in Render Properties tab under Color Management
• change Color Management > View Transform to False Color to check brightness - everything should be gray or green (see https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/195862)

Compositing

• denoising through compositor seems to give better results than using checkbox in Properties

Links

Blender Beginner Tutorial - Part 1

Become a 3D illustrator in one hour!