Something we realized is though there are plenty of amazing video blender tutorials all over our site, there wasn’t a clearly defined starting point. As with anything there has to be a beginning or an initial handshake of “Hey, nice to meet you” to really get started on the right foot.
This is why we have created this dedicated “Getting Started with Blender” page to help break the ice and get introductions out of the way.
In this blender video we will cover where the basics of the interface and how to navigate through it.
Craving more Blender?
Finished with the getting started series? Be sure to visit these next Citizen Membership courses
Hi I am new to Blender as well, and I read many of the comments but for some reason whenever I click on “User Preferences” it just opens a black window screen and does not load the preferences. I really would like to learn how to use blender, but so far, I am already stuck with the navigation. Any suggestions?
Ok, everytime I click on user preferences it opens a window that is just black. Then in turn make the whole program go black forcing me to close it out…I am running on 32 bit windows 7 and reinstall Blender making sure I had installed the 32 bit version.
Any ideas?
Thank you so much
Hi Jimmy,
A fair number of people have had problems with this. I do not know precisely what causes it, but the first thing I would recommend is that you update your video card driver to make sure its up to date.
-Jonathan
Hmm…I have a 1 year old netbook…I was assume it has the best graphics card possible for the limited system….
I have the same problem
Laptop, Hp pavilion G6
How do you do it on laptop?
I did a little research to change the settings for keypad (I have a laptop with an external keyboard – that, you guessed it – does NOT have a keypad..oh well!).
Here’s how to switch over and use your top numeric keys:
1. In your bottom left editor type, choose “User Preferences”.
-> Your main view should now show User Preferences (instead of the normal 3-D View (of the cube).
2. On the left pane area, just about in the middle, you’ll see a checkbox, “Emulate Numpad”. Check it.
3. Finally, at the bottom of the “User Preferences” window, click the “Save As Default” button.
-> Your top row of numbers on your keyboard will now act the same as the keypad numbers for ortho/perspective viewing.
Hope this helps!
- Jerry Palmroos
Vivacior Development
Charlotte
Can anyone tell me what is the keys for the views (top, bottom, left etc.) for those who don’t have a number pad. Please and Thank you
Just go to File->User Preferences and click on “Emulate Numpad” on the left pane. now the numbers 1-9 will emulate number pad.
great tutorial, and for free.. thanks bilion times!
Hello. Is there a key that will bring you back to a “home view”? I work with AutoCad and Autodesk inventor at work and I find it nice to be able to return to my home view with a click. And is it possible to set a home view? Thanks.
My version doesn’t have that side bar. I also don’t have a mouse… is there any other buttons that will let me rotate the view?
For the side bar be sure to upgrade to the latest Blender 2.6x version from http://blender.org
As for the mouse, you can substitute ALT+LMB for the MMB by enabling “Emulate 3 button mouse” in User Preferences > Input.
-Jonathan
Ok thanks, I’ll try that.
Wow thanks. That really helped. Tell the truth though I had to look up what LMB was real fast first, but now that I know its the left mouse button I can actually get somewhere instead of randomly hitting buttons.:)
Hi what are the hot keys to navigate in Blender 2.64 on a mac? Specifically Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Im having the hardest time getting started. I’ve dug into the user preference but I dont know if Im saving my changes because the only action box is save as default. not save my new changes.
There is no alt key on the Mac keyboard. We have option, command and control. I can get the emulate keypad to work but I cant navigate around the 3d view and once I change to an ortho view i cant change back to persp without just quitting the app and restarting.
I tried using the three button mouse I have with my wacom tablet but that doesnt work either. Only thing I can is use the scroll to zoom in and out but that’s about it
Is there any chance of finding actual written tutorials for Blender? My hearing is bad and my brain has a hard time registering spoken tutorials. Other than that, great tutorials, guys. Keep it up. (Almost had the head one down, but it kept screwing up on me.)
I am loathe to bring up the same question resonating throughout the comments section, but the emulate 3 buttom mouse option doesn’t work for me. I presume I’m doing this right, on my laptop I hold down alt + LMB, and then use the mousepad to rotate? All that does is change the mouse to a hand symbol and let me pick up the window that is blender and move it about the screen. Halp plez? I can always resort to my minny usb mouse, that works at least.
Hi Pete,
The reason you’re having trouble is because your operating system is overriding the hot key with an internal command. Are you using Linux by chance? You’ll need to go into your OS hotkey settings and try to disable it.
Cheers, I’ve figured it out, if any one else has this problem on ubuntu 12.04 you can try downloading compizconfig-settings-manager and on this go down to window management, select the ‘move window’ plugin and either disable it or change the initiate move window hotkey.
Thanks Jonathan for videos that anyone can understand easily. Thanks for your efforts..
Jonathan,
You have the patience of a saint. Same question over and over and you never get upset. I am impressed!
Hi Jonathan,
First : thanks a lot for this good job done !
Second : I use the v2.63 and the “orbit with LMB” behavior seems to be really different than you show there in this video.
Within my Blender the “Y” axis always stay vertical (never go to right or left) when I move round my LMB, except when my mouse goes up and down then it (the Y axis) goes forward and backward ! I tried some times but never found what was different from your screen in this video.
Can you help me to understand why this difference please ?
Hi Jonathan (bis
and all,
Found the solution for my issue !
I publish it here to save your time and help others a bit :
“User preferences, Input” : “Turntable” was choosen instead of “Trackball”.
So choosing “Trackball” solves my issue since the behavior becomes as the yours within your video.
Cheers,
Guy
I’m sure this a setting somewhere, but I can’t figure it out.
holding shift and scrolling mmb pans object up and down (y axis from top), holding ctr and scrolling mmb pans object left and right (x axis from top).
Lmb+ctrl draws a selection lasso, and lmb+shift, rmb+ctrl do nothing.
Holding mmb and panning around screen has no effect on the interface in any way.
Any ideas?
Got it, mostly. even though im on a 3 button mouse, i need to emulate 3 button as well, and then alt+lmb will pan around freely.
Whenever I save my blender file, Blender adds a “@” to the end of the file
name.
Then when I try opening it, Blender doesn’t recognize it.
Am I doing somthing wrong during the Save??
BTW & FYI : the link to this page in notification messages for comments is
“http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/08/31/blender-interface-and-navigation-2″
but it does not work as the “-2″ is added, it should be :
“http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/08/31/blender-interface-and-navigation”
I have told this to support, hoping this will help.
Hey i have a mac and my mouse doesn’t have a middle button, is there any other option or way to move the whole screen?
Enable “Emulate Three button mouse” in User Preferences > Input. This will substitute ALT+LMB for the MMB.
Just downloaded your program and excited to use it. thanks! i have an iMac and 2 button mouse, your explanation worked for me so thanks!
Blender
File
User Preferences
Input Options
Presets
I checked Emulate 3 Button Mouse
Right
i checked the Emulate Numpad
Turntable
I now can use the Option button and RMB to rotate grid
also to move grid up and down do shift, option, LMB or LMC (left mouse click)
oh i wanted to edit my comments but unable to but i said in the 1st post RMB (right mouse button) instead it’s Option and LMB (left mouse button) or LMC (left mouse click) to rotate
and shift, option, LMC to move grid up and down.
Thank you, you are so great
I use a two button laptop and when I went to File> User Preferences, I saw a black box and occasionally words would pop up on the bottom of the screen once I hit the X button. You can get to user preferences by going to the upper right box, clicking the first button before the camera, and scrolling down to it. I hope this helps anyone that was stuck.
Hi Liliana, this likely means you need to upgrade your video card drivers.
you can split the viewport by dragging the corner and select user prefs there.
Some cards cant open two windows like within blender, seems to be a bug.
In Windows 8 though on the same machine, the issue was gone
how can i download the videos posted in here?
Hi! I have a macbook pro, and I’d really like to use blender, but I can’t figure out how to get LMB and RMB with a trackpad. I also can’t find user settings. Is it the same as system settings?
Thanks for you for your time. Sorry for being a total noob.
Hi Izzy, first you need to enable Right Click from your system settings by going to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Mouse/Trackpad. You can then enable the “secondary click”.
Next switch back to Blender and go to File > User Preferences > Input and enable “Emulate 3 button mouse”.
This will let you substitute Alt+LMB for the MMB and Ctrl+LMB for the RMB.
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
Hello there! I have problems with getting the basic commands to work. I´m using an Apple Bluetooth mouse that doesn´t seem to work in Blender. I cant use the mouse to rotate the board, i cant use the mouse to scale or rotate etc. Do I have to buy a different kind of mouse to be able to work efficient, or is there something this noobie misses completely?
Perra
Hi Perra,
Is it simply the right clicking and middle clicking that’s not working for you? If so you can enable “Emulate 3-button mouse” in the input section of the User Preferences. This will allow you to substitute ALT+LMB for the MMB.
my middle scrool button doesnt orbit when i press it:( so in other words i cant navigate with my mouse? where can i change the setting to let me navigate via mouse like ni the vid?
Hi Kiba,
You can enable “Emulate 3 button mouse” in the Input section of User Preferences. This will enable you to use ALT+LMB in place of the MMB.
What version of Blender is in the video? Mine does not seem to match it at all, and I can’t find anything.
Hi Jacob,
The version in the video is Blender 2.5x. It is likely you’re using Blender 2.4x, which is much older and way out of date. I would highly recommend upgrading from http://blender.org
Cheers,
Jonathan
Help. I’m watching your video on character meshs and can’t find how to drag a box to select multiple things
You can box select by pressing B > LMB Drag.
What version of blender is being used by these tutorials I have 2.6 The latest and a lot of things work differently.I tried learning Truspace which had the same issues the tutorials for that used different versions which did not relate so gave up on that.
ah scratch that i see its 2.5 I`ll get that version
I’m looking to redo this complete series very soon to account for all the changes in recent versions of Blender. Most of the things are the same but there’s a lot of additions that would be great to cover. My hope is to get this done before the end of the month.
Hi, I was wondering if there are setting you can import for mac laptops, kind of difficult trying to navigate, figured out the emulate middle button thing, how about zooming, etc.
Thanks
Hi Raul,
The “Emulate 3 button mouse” will give you want you need, allowing you to substitute ALT+LMB for the MMB.
Hi I’m new to blender and i have a problem. Blender starts up and works ok but when I try to change it to the “object, material or world’ section on the menu or change it to blender game or try anything to do with rendering it freezes and does tht whole send error report thing. How do I fix this?
Hi Anthony, what version of blender are you using?
if you start a ticket at [email protected] we will be able to assist faster.
-Alex
Thanks a million for all the free tutorials
. I’m going to learn this step by step… even if it means watching endless tutorials. This was very informative, I learned a few things that I didn’t know about the Interface.
The tutorials for beginners keep talking about rotating the view by pressing the middle mouse button which is for Mac computers. I don’t have a middle mouse button so the function is not working for me. I only have two mouse buttons which are the left and right buttons. Blenders gives tutorials for people that own the Mac system, they completely leave out the people that own windows system.
most computers have a three button mouse so that’s why they generalize to this,however for those with a two button mouse you can go to user preferences, input and enable emulate three button mouse which means alt becomes your middle mouse button
-Alex
Thanks for tutorial
Hi thanks for the helps videos
I am using a Mac so a lot of the controls aren’t the same. Are there any Mac Blender tutorials?
Hi Samantha,
Actually all the controls are identical on a Mac. In fact most of the tutorials on CGC are produced on a Mac!
I’ve looked at 3 starter tutorials so far and none of the tools/panels etc. resemble what I downloaded (V 2.65) So many buttons and tabs and panels, it’s bewildering!
Hi there,
Is there anything in particular you’re having trouble with? I’ll be happy to see what I can do to help.
Cheers,
Jonathan
The panels can float I understand. They may not be missing, but in a place I can’t locate or identify. I tried wiki lesson #1 again yesterday. Once again couldn’t find Modifiers panel. Eventually located something top right. (Understood it was bottom left.) Hit everything ’til I found a spanner. There’s no spanner in the tutorial that I can decipher. It took 3 days to spot this. Went on, got to extrude, hit the next wall. Tried to extrude everything was distorted. I did check a “limit selection” button – I think. With murky icons in the tutorial barely recognizable on an interface spread that’s been customized, groping along is tough on a newbie. But this software is the best and I’m going to keep trying! Thanks.
To be more specific, the wiki manual offers a 30-minute jump start to setting up a basic figure. The control panel used does not resemble that on the 2.65, no problem if you’ve used earlier versions (you wouldn’t be needing this tutorial anyway). I look for a button that isn’t there, and a panel I can’t find. 30 minutes? I’ve been trying for 2 days to get past lesson 1. Tutorials and manuals need to be updated for updated software. Not everybody gets onto the elevator at the sixth floor!
All the basics have remained the same since 2.50a, which panel are you missing?
-Alex
Alex – Maybe nothing’s missing. I just can’t find items via the tutorials – they all show different layouts. The You Tube stuff is too small and murky made large. The PDF wiki offers hands on which is the best and stresses that you have to know your way around the controls but doesn’t show enough of them. I found the spanner but there’s nothing about that in the interface section. This sounds more like a rant against the tutorials than a cry for help but this is an S.O.S. I’m still trying to make it through this first lesson. The steps still aren’t clear enough to me. I’ll make it, it’s worth it. Thanks for the reply.
I’m still not sure where you are stuck. If you give me a timecode in the video you are stuck I can tell you what is happening.
-Alex
Hi Alex – I’m using the Wiki PDF tutorial. Rooted out a Limit Selection button I think – not the same as on my interface and color doesn’t change when I hit it but think it’s the one. Found the spanner/modifier. Messages different (no Do Change.) Managed this time to get to extrude but why the Undo/Redo bit? It’s confusing. Is it part of the procedure or an aside? Then I came up against a “Region Menu Button.” What???? Despite all this managed to get a sort of man: nobbly topside, flat lower half. Then I got lost again. If you’re an expert, you can adjust. If you’re absolutely new to this, and what you’re told doesn’t match what you see your end, it’s very difficult. Even if you looked at the PDF tutorial it wouldn’t match your interface, likely. Thanks for the reply. I’ll keep going until it works.
Alex – I’ve just stumbled on Jonathan’s tutorials. What a relief. I’m going to go through every one. Thanks so much.
its blender, not blunder…atleast say it right
hello, really appreciate the free help & tuts
1) I just can’t find a simple way to remove or “close/delete” individual panels.
((OK i understand how they can be added->holding mouse in corner & when a “plus” sign shows-up-hovering, you click it, very cool)).
- HOWEVER, i cannot find a way to JUST delete panels.
I’ve used similar apps like C4d which allow this “customizable panels” scenario but as a noob to Blender,
i worry about a “large animation/modeling project” slowing down my system if multiple-panels are just “slid over out of view” rather
than actually closed/deleted.
2) What is the actual “default number of panels”??
There seems to be at least 1 “master panel”: the top with the LOGO on it’s bar).
SO :
is the only solution to “drag a panel over another–
[[whereby u hold the top or bottom "bar" of a panel & as u slide-it-over another panel it shows the "transparent-giant-arrow
on the panel you're dragging-over."]]
–does that leave a panel below it intact or “close” the panel that was dragged-over so to speak?
-[Example: when clicking to go to quad-split-view, it can become tricky if i already had a number of panels open].
-Thanx 4 any feedback / advice.
1. you can click and drag those little triangles across to another panel to merge it over.
2. 5 – Info, 3D, Timeline, Outliner, Properties
3. it closes the panel
-Alex
hi thanx Alex, thanx
yes i found a video few hours ago that covered it, however, was still interested to know what the “default” or official panels were, hhhmmm, just a geek interest i admit!
–however :
The issue that seems locked (no preferences option) is the Z-as-vertical axis,
do u know a method of changing it?
I’m reading the main blender forum & seems to be set in stone.
–i’ve never done coding, outside of a bit of MEL script in Alias/Maya waaaaay back in the day,
but if there’s a
python script that i could copy/paste or similar, i’d give it a go.
Btw, i’m just toooo old to get used to Z axis-vertical.
—i used to work in 3ds/max & C4d & just got used to the option/use of z-as-depth;
i really am impressed w/ blender, so any advice?
((i’d hate to think the option is literally rotating scenes, whew…))
I can not even begin to comprehend why you would do not have the “undo” and “redo” options that every other sane software in the world has.
Blender has both undo and redo, same as other software. If your version does not have it then you’re likely using a very old version. I highly recommend getting the newest version, Blender 2.66.
Cheers,
Jonathan