WEBVTT 00:04.000 --> 00:11.540 So let me start here after the splash screen by answering very quickly three questions 00:11.540 --> 00:14.460 that you may have when first encountering Blender. 00:14.460 --> 00:18.180 Now the first is what is this 3D scene that we're looking at? 00:18.180 --> 00:21.900 Potentially we're expecting just a blank scene but it looks like we've gotten started with 00:21.900 --> 00:23.580 this cube already. 00:23.580 --> 00:29.020 So basically this is just a fundamental scene so it just gives you something to work with 00:29.020 --> 00:31.240 and maybe build from here. 00:31.240 --> 00:33.640 We've got three different types of objects in this scene. 00:33.640 --> 00:38.120 We've got this mesh object which is currently selected which we can see means that we have 00:38.120 --> 00:40.720 this orange outlining to it. 00:40.720 --> 00:45.000 And then we've also got this camera object on the left hand side which allows us to see 00:45.000 --> 00:47.280 or at least render our scene. 00:47.280 --> 00:52.720 And then we've also got this lamp object on the right hand side which is going to illuminate 00:52.720 --> 00:54.720 our object in our scene. 00:54.720 --> 00:58.460 Now if you don't want them in the scene you can actually delete them, it's not really 00:58.460 --> 01:02.060 a big problem, it's only going to take a few seconds to add them back in. 01:02.060 --> 01:06.140 But usually this just gives us a slightly faster running start as it were. 01:06.140 --> 01:10.560 If you want to change the default file in any way you can actually just come up to the 01:10.560 --> 01:16.280 file menu and then save that as the startup file which is this option down here. 01:16.280 --> 01:22.700 So feel free to delete everything and then have that as a startup file if you'd prefer. 01:22.700 --> 01:26.340 The next question you may have is why you can't select anything with the left mouse 01:26.340 --> 01:30.420 button when you try and maybe interact with these other objects in the scene. 01:30.420 --> 01:34.220 In fact the only thing that really seems to happen is you get this little target crosshair 01:34.220 --> 01:37.440 thing appear at the location of where you click. 01:37.440 --> 01:38.980 So what's that all about? 01:38.980 --> 01:44.700 Well this is called the 3D cursor and without going into it in too much detail right now 01:44.700 --> 01:48.820 this basically can be used as a kind of universal pivot point. 01:48.820 --> 01:53.660 It's also the location at where new objects get added and while painting it can be used 01:53.660 --> 01:55.300 as a clone source. 01:55.300 --> 01:59.860 And there's also certain modeling operations that need a 3D point to control the way that 01:59.860 --> 02:03.580 they're going to behave as well and so the 3D cursor is used with those. 02:03.580 --> 02:07.820 So that's all I wanted to touch on it about it in a moment but we will be seeing more 02:07.820 --> 02:09.740 about it as we go. 02:09.740 --> 02:13.620 Incidentally I'll just show you one last thing which is a little snap menu which is shift 02:13.620 --> 02:18.260 and S together and we get our snap menu there and you can see we get these cursor options 02:18.260 --> 02:19.340 there. 02:19.340 --> 02:23.580 And I'm just going to put cursor to the center and just to put it back. 02:23.580 --> 02:27.820 Then the other half the question as to how exactly do we select anything then. 02:27.820 --> 02:31.600 In Blender selecting is done by default with the right mouse button. 02:31.600 --> 02:35.180 So this can take a little time to get the hang of but can happen surprisingly quickly 02:35.180 --> 02:36.520 if you can give it a chance. 02:36.520 --> 02:40.400 If you want to switch it though we can launch the main gateway into our interactions with 02:40.400 --> 02:45.820 Blender which is the user preferences which can also be found on the file menu and we 02:45.820 --> 02:50.900 can see user preferences here or we can launch it with the hotkey control alt and U. So let's 02:50.900 --> 02:56.180 just do that let's just click there and then if we take a look under the input tab we can 02:56.180 --> 03:00.380 see that we've got select with and we can see by default it's set to right so you can 03:00.380 --> 03:03.220 switch that to left if you'd rather. 03:03.220 --> 03:07.380 The third and final question that somebody might have when encountering Blender is the 03:07.380 --> 03:10.940 fact that they've actually already seen somebody else using Blender and when they get it for 03:10.940 --> 03:13.620 themselves it looks completely differently. 03:13.620 --> 03:18.380 So that's probably because they've been using a different theme or just to customize their 03:18.380 --> 03:21.740 own theme and that brings us back to the user preferences. 03:21.740 --> 03:26.660 So let's just launch that with the control alt and U this time and just before we jump 03:26.660 --> 03:31.560 away from the input tab I just wanted to point out that's part of the thing with Blender 03:31.560 --> 03:33.900 is how customizable it really is. 03:33.900 --> 03:38.660 So even with all these fundamental aspects of such as what you're actually selecting 03:38.660 --> 03:43.540 with that we just covered with the left and right you can see down here with the 3D view 03:43.540 --> 03:50.500 for example here's all the various hotkeys that we can change if we wanted to or we could 03:50.500 --> 03:55.120 add our own and there is a very very long list here and you're obviously not expected 03:55.120 --> 03:59.940 to know all these necessarily because Blender is a pretty big program. 03:59.940 --> 04:06.260 So let's just scroll right back up to the top and we'll jump over to the themes and 04:06.260 --> 04:12.020 this is where the presets are if you prefer a flat theme we've got some things like that 04:12.020 --> 04:17.860 for you if you prefer more of a darker theme there's perhaps this and then there's some 04:17.860 --> 04:22.500 other themes which show you know you've got your gradient in the 3D view there in fact 04:22.500 --> 04:27.260 that then allows you to customize all the various different aspects of it so we can 04:27.260 --> 04:33.060 see our 3D views gradient so if we come down to the 3D view this is all the 3D view related 04:33.060 --> 04:38.500 theme parts that can be changed so if we just scroll down a little bit further we can see 04:38.980 --> 04:45.140 gradient here and the gradient low and high so we can just change whatever our gradient low color 04:45.140 --> 04:50.580 is there so something like that and that's just a very very simple change so feel free to just 04:50.580 --> 04:57.220 go crazy or as subtle as you like on any aspect of the interface really I'm just going to reset 04:57.220 --> 05:02.820 it back to the default theme just so that hopefully I'm in a line with as many people as possible 05:03.380 --> 05:07.380 as we go through what we're going to learn so that's it for the user preferences just for the 05:07.380 --> 05:10.260 moment and we'll take a look at some other aspects of blender