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Blender provides a lot of information with its interface and can be flexible

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enough to fit the workflow you need. Let's go over some of the basics on how

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to interpret and interact with Blender's UI. Before we begin I want to point out

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that there is a very handy display at the very bottom of the user interface.

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This is an informative display that lets you know what each click can do in the

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context your cursor is at the moment. It also applies to when certain hotkeys

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are being held down to change the function of certain clicks. For example,

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if you hold shift you can see the information at the bottom changing. It

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tells us that without holding shift your middle mouse button rotates your

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perspective but holding shift pans your perspective. Feel free to refer to this

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display at any time while watching this series or playing around with Blender to

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learn more of its features. As a quick reference here are what some of the mouse

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icons translate to. Now the next big thing you'll notice is that each

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important section of the UI is separated into panels. These panels are scalable if

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you click and drag any of the boundaries and they can also be whatever you'd like

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them to be. Simply click the drop down menu in the top left or bottom left of a

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panel and select a different type of editor. You can also create more panels

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by right clicking a boundary, clicking split area, and then left clicking at a

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position of the screen you desire. To delete a panel simply right click a

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boundary, click join area, and left click over the panel you'd like to overwrite.

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Additionally, if you would ever like to maximize a panel to focus on it simply

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mouse over an area and press control space. You can also press control space

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again to return. While this is extremely powerful, Blender also provides default

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workspaces you can choose from that set up the appropriate editors for specific

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workflows. You can find these workspace options in the tabs above. For hotkey

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users you can press control page up or control page down. We will be going over

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each of these workspaces in future videos, however for this video we will

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focus on the primary editors of the layout workspace. Further introduction of

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other editors will be given in editor specific videos. So let's begin. If you

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saw our viewport navigation video then you already know what the viewport is.

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This is where our 3d scene is displayed. In this editor you can perform a

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variety of tasks that interact with your 3d scene and its objects. However it's

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important to note that there are two helpful quick menus in the viewport.

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Simply press T as in tools or left click this arrow here to expand the quick

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tools menu for the viewport. This includes tools such as the select box,

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move, rotate, and scale. For hotkey users keep in mind you can also use

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shift space at any time to bring up the same tools menu but labeled and at your

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cursor location. This works similarly to a pie menu in that you have the option to

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hold the shift space hotkey, move your cursor to the tool you want, and release

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the hotkey to select a tool. You can also press N as in number or left click the

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arrow on the right to open additional quick settings which include your items

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transformation data, tool specific settings, and other viewport options.

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You'll notice here there is an option for the 3d cursor. This is a very powerful

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tool which you can see right here. This red and white circle acts as the

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spawning point for any new objects and can be used as a reference for pivoting

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which we'll go over in another video. To place it around your scene simply hold

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shift and right click. To re-center the cursor simply press shift S and select

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cursor to world origin from the pie menu or adjust the location and rotation

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settings in the right hand side quick menu. Now this feels like a good time to

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explain what pie menus are for those who are unfamiliar. Pie menus are quick wheel

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menus that appear around your cursor after a hotkey is pressed. You have three

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options when navigating a pie menu. The first option is to right click to cancel

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in case you changed your mind. The second option is to press and hold the hotkey

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to initiate the pie menu, drag your cursor to your desired choice, then let

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go of the hotkey to select with no clicking necessary. Or the third option is

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to let go of the hotkey that initiated the pie menu before moving your cursor.

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Then use your cursor to left click select the option you like. After you get

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used to where each option is this can greatly speed up your workflow while

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also making several options available with less keystrokes. Throughout the

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series you will see pie menus quite often for various different contexts. Now

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below the viewport we have the timeline. This controls playback of your animation.

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You can zoom in and out with your scroll wheel, drag the timeline with your middle

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mouse button, change the start and end frames for your output, and create and

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manipulate keyframes, all of which will go over in another video. The properties

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editor contains several tabs vertically to display the properties of your scene,

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your current tool, and whatever object you have selected. To start at the top

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this first tab represents the options you're currently selected tool in the

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viewport may have. In this case the select box tool gives you a few different

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selection options. The next few tabs which you can see are separated by a

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small gap contain your scene specific properties. Just to clarify your scene

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refers to your entire 3d scene, however you can create more than one scene in a

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single blender file by clicking up here. You can also select a scene from

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existing scenes using this drop-down. This back facing camera icon is your

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render tab. This allows you to change render engines, sampling, engine specific

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properties, and other properties that affect your final image and how it's

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interpreted from the 3d scene. The next icon looks like a printer and this is

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your output tab. This is where all of your output settings can be tweaked

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before render resolution, frame rate, file path, file type, and much more. The

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icon that looks like a stack of photos is the view layer tab and is similar to

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what used to be called render layers. View layers are typically used to

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separate background and character passes for example for easy compositing after

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render. However you'll notice this is only the pass properties not the objects

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and it's for only one view layer the one we're currently in. To select a

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different view layer to change its properties you'll need to go up here

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similar to creating a new scene. You can create and select existing view layers

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here. While we're on the topic I'd like to point out what this panel above

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properties is for. In order to specify which collections of objects are

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rendered out in each view layer you can check and uncheck collections here in

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what's called the outliner. I highly recommend using descriptive names for

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your collections and view layers by double clicking them but we will go over

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this in another video. Next we have the general scene tab. This has other

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miscellaneous scene properties that affect your scene such as your active

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camera, your units, and rigid body settings. Finally the globe icon is the

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final tab of this section and is called the world tab. This includes properties

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for the sky and air of your scene. In other words the surface option for your

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world is the shader used for your sky or background color. While volume allows for

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volumetric lighting throughout the atmosphere of your scene as a whole such

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as fog or mist. For the next section the property tabs will be specific to the

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active object you have selected so in this case I will select the cube. Our

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first tab is the object tab. This contains basic information such as

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location, rotation, and scale of the object. You can also specify parent-child

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relationships which collections it belongs to and visibility of the object.

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The next tab is a very important tab for Blender. Represented by a wrench icon the

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modifiers tab allows for powerful manipulation of objects using

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predefined modifiers. Simply select a modifier from the drop-down menu to add

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it to the stack below. You can use as many modifiers as you like and change

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the order or application of these modifications using these arrows. For

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example the subdivision surface modifier and the bevel modifier. This next tab is

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the particles tab. You can see the icon looks like an object shooting particles

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out from its main body. In here you can create particle systems and add them to

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the object you have selected. Next is the physics tab which looks like an orbiting

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planet icon. This contains several different types of physics simulations

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and physics manipulators including cloth, rigid body, smoke, fluid, collision, and

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force fields such as wind. The next icon looks like two objects wrapped together.

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This represents the constraints tab. This tab is very similar to the modifiers tab

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but deals more so with relationships of the objects you have selected with

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other objects or values rather than manipulating the object by itself. You

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can have an object copy the location of another object with the copy location

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constraint, stay above the ground with the floor constraint, or point at another

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object with the tracking constraints. The green triangle icon is for your objects

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mesh data. To explain what mesh data is I can tell you that the reason why our

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cube is a cube is because of the mesh data. If I were to take this exact same

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object and change the mesh data its shape would not be the same but its

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object properties such as its location would remain the same. Here you can

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manipulate your vertex groups also known as weight maps, your shape keys also known

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as blend shapes, and your UV maps. Other geometry specific settings belong here

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as well. And finally we have our material tab. This is represented by a

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material sphere icon and is where you control much of how your object is

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shaded during render. The material you choose here will affect how shiny your

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object is, what color it is, and how rough it may appear to be. The final tab is

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actually in a different section as you can see. There's a small gap there. This

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is the texture tab represented with a checkered canvas icon and is not object

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specific. Textures exist as separate entities that can be referenced for a

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number of things including the world aka skybox, materials, or brushes. Because

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of this ubiquity they are in a separate section. Before we move on let's go ahead

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and left click to select our lamp object. This is the dotted circular thing you

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see next to our cube. Once you have that selected you'll have access to its lamp

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properties which looks like a light bulb. This is where you can tweak its

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brightness, the radius of light, whether or not it casts shadows, and what type of

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lamp it is. We can also left click to select our camera object which is this

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sideways rectangular pyramid shape we have here. Now you should have access to

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the camera options which include focal length, perspective type, and much more.

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And that's the summary for the default layout workspace we see when we open

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Blender. I hope this is helpful for you and I'll be going into more detail about

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the other workspaces and what each editor does in separate videos.