Now that we understand Blender's basic viewport navigation and selection tools, let's take
a look at of course one of the most fundamental tools, the transform options.
So transform tools in Blender are done one of three ways, either the 3D viewport manipulators,
the buttons in the toolbar, or via hotkeys.
So first using the manipulators, these are just like any other manipulator, we're just
left clicking on any one of the handles will allow you to manipulate the object along that
axis.
Clicking inside the white circle will allow you to just do a freeform transformation,
and then you can switch between the different manipulator types using the buttons in the
viewport header down here at the bottom, where you can either toggle the manipulators on
or off, and then switch between the manipulators right here.
So first we have our translate, then we have our rotate, and then our scale.
If you wish to use multiples of these at the same time, simply hold down the shift
key while pressing the toggle buttons and allow you to get any one of these, then you
can simply use your mouse as expected.
Next we also have the option, if we just turn these off, we can also use the toolbar right
up here for translate, rotate, or scale.
And with each one of these, as soon as you press the button it'll act on whatever is
currently selected in the 3D view.
If you wish to confirm the selection, simply hit either the enter key or left mouse button,
or if you wish to cancel the transformation, use either the escape key or the right mouse
button.
Thirdly, the most common way to transform an object in Blender is to use the hotkeys,
and these are, for one, if you hover over these buttons here, you can see the shortcut
listed in the tooltip.
So for grab or translate, it's G on the keyboard, S for scale, or R for rotate.
Now each one of these will just put you into a freeform transform mode.
However, if you wish to constrain to a specific axis, such as if I wish to move the cube along
the Y axis, I'll first activate the transform, either by using the toolbar, or by pressing
the hotkey, in this case I'll press the hotkey of G, and then I can immediately follow up
by pressing the axis that I wish to constrain it to.
So if I press Y, it'll constrain to the Y axis, X, Z, etc.
If you double tap any one of the axes, such as by pressing Y, Y, it'll set it to that
local axis.
So double tapping Z will set it to the local Z axis, or just a single tap will set it to
the global axis.
Next, if you wish to exclude a single axis, such as if I wish to scale this cube around
all axes except the Z axis, I can just hit S to scale, and then hold down shift and press
the axis that I wish to exclude.
So in this case, I exclude the Z axis, so I hit shift Z, and it will exclude that axis.
If I hit shift Z, Z, so press it twice, it will exclude the local Z axis and transform
along the local X and Y axis.
Having just showed you the basic transform tools, now let's look at how to change the
current space that we're working in.
This is easily demonstrated by if we just re-enable the manipulators, and you can change
the current orientation of your transforms by using the menu right here.
So you can switch between global, local, gimbal, normal, or view.
If you switch to say local, you'll notice that your widgets now show up in the local
space.
What this also does is this also affects the double tap mode.
So you remember that when I hit G, and if I double tap X, it will now constrain along
the local X axis.
However, if I switch this to say view, and now hit G and double tap X, it will constrain
to the view X axis.
So this changes both the manipulator orientation and the behavior of the double tap axis.