WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:06.500 Workspaces are customizable groups of panels or editors that can be used for specific workflows. 2 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:11.500 Blender comes with predefined workspaces that can be found in the tabs at the top. 3 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:24.500 These are labeled as layout, modeling, sculpting, UV editing, texture paint, shading, animation, rendering, compositing, scripting, and an option to add your own. 4 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:30.500 If you can't see all of the tabs, just know that you can use scroll wheel or middle click drag to show more. 5 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:35.500 Simply left click any of these tabs to switch to them and you'll notice they look different. 6 00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:40.500 The modeling workspace is used for creating models by manipulating vertices directly. 7 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:45.000 This is why you'll notice that the vertices, or corners of your mesh, are now selectable. 8 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:53.000 That's because the modeling workspace automatically brings you into edit mode instead of object mode, as you can see in the top left hand corner of the viewport. 9 00:00:53.500 --> 00:01:00.000 You can change it into edit mode in any workspace viewport by changing the value of this drop down menu or pressing the tab key. 10 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:06.000 But the modeling workspace tries to make itself as convenient as possible for you to get started modeling. 11 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:11.000 It also removes the timeline as modeling typically does not require any animation. 12 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:19.000 The sculpting workspace is similar to the modeling workspace, but is used for creating models by manipulating meshes with a brush. 13 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:26.500 Sculpting is a more freeform method of creating models and typically results in higher poly counts not usable for animation. 14 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:32.000 However, it is a great way to start your creation process to then re-optimize your mesh later on. 15 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:40.000 This workspace automatically puts you into sculpt mode, which is also accessible through the same drop down menu in the top left hand corner. 16 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.500 However, there is no hotkey for this mode. 17 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 The UV editing workspace is used for editing your UV projection maps, which is another way of saying, 18 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.000 I skinned this object and stretched its skin across a flat surface. 19 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:03.000 Anyway, this is a very handy tool for texturing your objects as textures must be represented in 2D, but projected onto a 3D object. 20 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:08.500 You can see the 3D viewport on the right with an object's corresponding UV map on the left. 21 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:14.500 If there was an image linked to this UV map, that image may become visible on the 3D object on the right hand side, 22 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:18.500 which would show you visually how the 2D texture has been projected. 23 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:24.000 Texture paint is probably what some of you were thinking when I mentioned the complexity of UVs. 24 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:32.500 Why paint on a 2D surface and project that to a 3D surface when you can simply paint on the 3D surface directly like painting an Easter egg? 25 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:37.500 Well, in this case, you can paint any object like an Easter egg. 26 00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:47.000 With texture painting, you can paint directly onto the 3D object, and Blender will project your painted texture onto a 2D surface based on the UVs. 27 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:55.000 The shading workspace is a very important workspace used for manipulating materials, particularly with node-based shaders. 28 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:02.500 The workspace puts your viewport into LookDev mode, showing you in real time what your shaders would approximately look like at render. 29 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:07.000 You can also access this from any viewport window using these buttons here. 30 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.000 For hotkey users, simply press Z and use the pie menu that appears. 31 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.000 If you want a more accurate display of your shader, you can also change it to Rendered mode. 32 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:24.000 If you play around with the numbers in the node editor below, you'll be able to see some changes in real time in the viewport above. 33 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:29.500 It also includes an image editor and file explorer for any necessary image files. 34 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:36.000 The animation workspace is catered specifically for animators to have all the tools they might need. 35 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:45.000 The 3D viewport is where most of the animation will happen, but the dope sheet, which looks similar to the timeline, will be where all of your keyframe manipulation happens. 36 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.500 You may also notice that there is a sliver of the timeline editor below the dope sheet. 37 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:58.500 That is simply to provide all of the playback options, start and end frames, and keyframe navigation buttons the dope sheet does not have. 38 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:10.000 For example, you can click this circle slash record icon to start automatically recording changes in your object's location, rotation, or scale as keyframes for animation. 39 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:16.000 The camera view on the left is also a 3D viewport panel, but focused on the camera's perspective. 40 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:20.500 This is great for getting an idea of what the animation will look like at render. 41 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:24.500 Now there may be some of you who are wondering where the graph editor is. 42 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:31.500 If you want to use the graph editor, simply create a new panel and select graph editor from the editor options in the dropdown. 43 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:42.500 However, the dope sheet is so powerful with keyframe manipulation compared to other 3D animation software that the graph editor is not used nearly as often, but it can still be useful. 44 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:48.500 The rendering workspace is used for testing or finalizing the output of your file. 45 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:51.500 If you had a recent render, it'd likely be displayed here. 46 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:55.500 It's important to note that this is the same image editor that we see in other workspaces. 47 00:04:55.500 --> 00:05:04.500 However, the image selected is Render Result, giving you access to slots, which serve as great temporary render test comparisons. 48 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:14.500 These slots are accessible both through the top right dropdown, as well as the right-hand side quick menu, pulled up with the N hotkey, under Image. 49 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:25.500 For hotkey users, you can use J to toggle between the most recent two slots, or use any of the numbers on the number row to go to a specific slot corresponding to that number. 50 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:36.500 The compositing workspace is used for post-processing and after effects that would add beautification to your renders, such as glow, blur, masks, etc. 51 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:44.500 The compositor in Blender is node-based and is very similar to the shader editor in the shading workspace, but has its own editor in the dropdown menu. 52 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:50.500 In order to start using the compositor, simply check Use Nodes at the top here. 53 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:55.500 This will automatically generate a View Layer node and a Composite node. 54 00:05:55.500 --> 00:06:00.500 The Composite node is simply the end result receiver, your final output. 55 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:09.500 And the View Layer node represents how you can use view layers to combine different passes, such as character and background in this compositor. 56 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:15.500 Now you may notice that there is a Dope Sheet provided at the bottom, which is Blender's keyframe manipulator for animation. 57 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:29.500 So why is it here? Well, let's say you're doing an animation where you want one particular part of the animation to have heavy directional blur because the camera is moving fast, but you want to turn it off after a certain point. 58 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:37.500 In this case, you'll want to keyframe your blur property. The Dope Sheet is provided to help you keep track of those compositor-specific frames. 59 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:42.500 The scripting workspace is for those instances where we might have to write some code. 60 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:54.500 The text editor is very flexible. It can load and save files externally, enable syntax highlighting, enable Word Wrap, enable Word Lines, and a number of other useful coding tools. 61 00:06:54.500 --> 00:07:01.500 It can also provide easy-to-setup templates for common Blender script functions, such as UI elements or gizmos. 62 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:08.500 You'll notice there's also a Console panel provided on the left. This is for seeing error messages at runtime. 63 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:11.500 And at the bottom, we have what's called the Info panel. 64 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:21.500 This is a list of recent operations that have been performed by Blender, which usually correspond to actions the user has taken somewhere in the software. 65 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:28.500 For example, if you select an object in the 3D viewport and transform it, you'll notice a new line appear in the Info panel. 66 00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:35.500 You can copy and paste these operations onto your text editor for reference on how to use certain functions. 67 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:42.500 And finally, we have our Create New Workspace option. This will bring up a few options, but you'll notice many of them are grayed out. 68 00:07:42.500 --> 00:07:45.500 This is simply because they already exist in your tabs. 69 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:51.500 However, you can select Duplicate Current, which is a great way to start customizing your own. 70 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:56.500 Simply duplicate the workspace and double-click the tab to rename it to whatever you like. 71 00:07:56.500 --> 00:08:04.500 If you'd like to bring a certain workspace to the beginning of the list for easy access, you can right-click the tab and choose Reorder to Front. 72 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:10.500 You can also remove workspaces from the list by right-clicking and selecting Delete. 73 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:14.500 Keep in mind that if you delete a custom workspace, it will be lost forever. 74 00:08:14.500 --> 00:08:27.500 In order to save a custom workspace, I recommend setting up a custom startup file by opening up a new file, setting up your workspace, and then going to File, Defaults, Save Startup File. 75 00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:32.500 Your workspace will then be included in every new Blender file you create. 76 00:08:32.500 --> 00:08:40.500 However, while you are looking through the new workspace options, you may have noticed that there are a few workspaces in the creation options that we haven't seen yet. 77 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:51.500 We may go over these in another video, but I highly recommend looking into the strengths of Blender's 2D animation capabilities, as well as its powerful VFX and motion tracking capabilities. 78 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:59.500 And that's the general summary of how workspaces work. We'll be going over specific workspaces in more detail in their separate videos.