WEBVTT

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Selecting objects in Blender is quite simple. We already went over it in the

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viewport navigation video, but to quickly review, left-click an object to select it

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and left-click empty space to deselect. But there are other selection tools as

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well. You can press A for example to select all and Alt A to deselect all.

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However, what if I want to select multiple objects but not all of them? Well

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for that there is the Select Box tool. This is turned on by default and with it

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selected from the Quick Tools menu you can left-click drag to select multiple

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objects at once. To deselect multiple objects at once, simply Ctrl-click drag

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in the same way. You can also enable the Box Select tool with the B hotkey, but in

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that mode you'll be using middle-click drag to deselect objects. An alternative

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to the Select Box is to press C for circle select, which acts more like a

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selection brush and only extend selection by default. You can however

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still use middle mouse drag to deselect while in circle select mode. Another way

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to select multiple objects is by simply holding Shift and left-clicking objects

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individually. To deselect using this method, simply Shift left-click the object

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again until it's no longer highlighted. You may notice that while you Shift

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left-click these objects, the most recently selected one is always

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highlighted in a slightly brighter orange outline. This denotes which object

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is the active object. The active object is the object whose properties will

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appear in the Properties Editor. Now just a quick tip, if you have objects or

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geometry obscured by other objects or geometry, it may be difficult to select

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them. To help with this, I recommend using wireframe mode located here to see

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through your objects. This makes things easier to select and also allows for

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selection tools like box and circle select to include otherwise obstructed

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objects or geometry. Now it's important to know that each of these selection

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tools can be used for almost every context in Blender, including edit mode,

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pose mode, and many of the editors. However, in some editors you will be

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required to press B before entering box selection mode, such as the outliner. You

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may have also noticed a select menu in the top left of the viewport. If you

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open this menu, you'll notice several selection options laid out for you, as

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well as some viewport specific selection options, such as select all by type,

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select active camera, select linked, and more. Feel free to try these out

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yourself, but it's important to know that select more slash less only works in

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edit mode, which we'll get into in a separate video. Now that we know how to

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select objects, let's start transforming them. Transformation refers to moving

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things, rotating things, or scaling things. So let's say I want to push or pool my

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cube to a different location. This would be classified as moving the cube or

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translating the cube. I can open the quick tools menu and select the move

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tool. You'll notice three colored arrows and three colored squares appearing on

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your selected object. This will allow me to click and drag any of the arrows to

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move the selected object along that axis. If you select any one of the three

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squares, it will move the object along two axes, excluding the axis of its

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corresponding color. For example, the blue square excludes the blue z-axis movement,

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but moves your object along the x and y axis simultaneously. But you can also

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left-click drag anywhere in the viewport to move the object along your

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viewing plane. Now in case you change your mind about moving your object after

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you've already started dragging it, simply right-click before letting go of

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your left mouse button. This will work for all transformations. For hotkey

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users, you can press G as in grab to initiate the move along your viewing

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plane. You can then press X, Y, or Z to move it along a specific axis like the

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colored arrows did. Or you can hold shift and press X, Y, or Z to move it along the

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other two axes like the colored squares did. You can right-click at any time to

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cancel the move or left-click to apply the new location to your object. Fun fact,

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if you initiate any transformation with the mouse click instead of the hotkey,

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you can still use the X, Y, or Z hotkeys to perform similar axis-specific

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constraints on your transformation before you release your left mouse button.

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You can also switch your transformation entirely to a different one such as

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rotation or scale with their respective hotkeys. Please read the display at the

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bottom of your window while dragging your object around for more information.

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To reset the location of your object back to its origin point, simply press Alt G.

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Now what if we want to tip our cube over or roll it around? In order to do that

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we need to rotate our cube. Let's check our quick menus for that. Aha! Yes, it

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seems we do have a rotate tool here as well. This will display a gizmo over the

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selected object or objects showing each rotational axis. Just like the move tool,

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you can left-click drag any of the colored rings to rotate along a single

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axis. But you'll notice there are two new areas, the outer white ring and the

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inner sphere inside of the colored rings which you'll notice if you hover over it.

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The outer white ring can be used to rotate the object along your viewing

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vector. Imagine your eyes drilling a hole into the center of the object and

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spinning the object around that axis of rotation. The inner sphere is what you

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see when you hover over the space in between the colored rings. This can be

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left-click dragged to enter a free rotation mode which opens all three

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axes to rotation kind of like a trackball on a trackball mouse. This is my

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favorite mode of rotation as it's the most flexible. For hotkey users simply

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press R as in rotate to initiate the rotation along your viewing vector. You

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can then once again press X, Y, or Z to rotate along the specific axis like the

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colored rings did. But you can also hit R again to initiate a free rotation like

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the inner sphere trackball did. And again you can right-click at any time to

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cancel the rotation or left-click to apply the new rotation to your object. To

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reset your object's rotation at any time simply press Alt R. Now let's say we

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want to make R cube much bigger or much smaller which can be the difference

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between say a tissue box and a house. This would be known as scaling R cube. So

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let's go check our quick tools menu again and yes a scale tool. Selecting

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this scale tool displays a gizmo very similar to the move tool except instead

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of colored arrows it's like colored arrows with cubes of cheese stuck on the

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tips of them. Mmm cheese. These work exactly the way you might expect. Simply

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left-click drag any of the colored axes to scale the object along that particular

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direction big or small. You can also left-click drag the colored squares to

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exclude one axis from the scaling process. But what if you want to scale

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the entire object evenly? Just like moving you simply left-click drag

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anywhere in the viewport. For hotkey users press the S key as in scale to

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initiate the size change evenly for all axes. Press X Y or Z to scale along only

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a single axis just like the colored arrows with cheese on them did or press

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shift X Y or Z to exclude an axis from the scaling just like the colored

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squares did. You can right-click at any time to cancel the resizing or left-click

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to apply the new size of your object. To reset the scale of your object back to

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its original scale simply press Alt S. Now you may have noticed that during the

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rotation and scale procedures there was a definitive center or pivot to the

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transformations. This is usually what the orange dot on your object signifies.

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However what if you don't want to rotate or scale based on the objects

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pivot point? What if you want to rotate from the world origin or scale upwards

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relative to the floor level? That's where the 3D cursor comes in. This red and

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white circle is called the 3D cursor. It can act as the pivot point of any object

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as long as you click this drop down menu here and select 3D cursor. Try it out

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with rotation and scale modes. You can move the 3D cursor throughout your scene

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by selecting the 3D cursor tool in the quick tool menu and left-click dragging

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anywhere in your scene or pressing shift right-click. You can change the pivot

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point back to the default median point at any time with the same menu as before.

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The 3D cursor can also be used for moving your object. I personally love

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this feature for quick moving your object to a specific point. Simply move

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your 3D cursor to where you want your object to go. Then go to object, snap,

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selection to cursor. For hotkey users you can simply press shift right-click and

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then shift S and use the pie menu to select selection to cursor. Just a

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friendly reminder if you ever need to re-center your 3D cursor, cursor to world

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origin is also in the same snap menu. Okay now let's say I've run into the

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issue where I've rotated my object but now I can't move the object along its

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own upwards axis. I'm stuck moving directly up and that's not helpful.

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Don't worry, all you have to do is change this drop down menu up here from global

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to local. This will change all gizmos to display the object's local axes instead

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of the global axes for all transformations. For hotkey users you can

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access local axes simply by pressing X, Y, or Z twice instead of once after

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initiating your transformation. Another helpful tip for transforming your

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objects is to hold shift when trying to be more accurate. Holding shift while

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moving, rotating, or scaling your object will reduce the sensitivity of your

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cursor affecting the transformation values. In other words, it'll change

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slower as you move your cursor, giving you more nuanced control over the end

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result. In fact, holding shift will achieve the same effect for cursor

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dependent values in most other editors as well, for example dragging a number

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along a slider. Alright, but what if I have a bunch of boxes that need to be

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perfectly aligned? Eyeballing it isn't very practical or helpful. This is where

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you can use the snapping options located at the top here. This magnet icon

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toggles snapping on and off, but you can also press shift tab. The drop down menu

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to the right of it allows you to snap to increments, vertices, faces, volumes, or

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edges. This way you can align your boxes perfectly to each other without relying

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on guesswork. Selection and transformation are the foundation of

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manipulating your 3D scene in Blender.