Blender: Intro to Animation

by Jonathan Williamson

In this blender video we will cover the basics of animation within Blender.

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Discussion

29 Responses to “Blender: Intro to Animation”
  1. ilija
    Posts: 3

    thn man your great help :)

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    1
     Sep 17, 2011 at 7:49 am
    Reply
  2. Alice
    Posts: 2

    I have a problem :(
    Whenever I got put in a key frame a hit I and I select LocRotScale but an error message comes up saying ‘no suitable context info for active keying set’.
    What do I do?
    Thanks for the help and the tutorials

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    2
     Sep 29, 2011 at 11:13 am
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Hi Alice,

      Is the object you wish to keyframe selected? When you insert a keyframe it only affects the currently selected object by default.

      -Jonathan

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      2.1
       Sep 29, 2011 at 11:45 am
      Reply
      • Marian D.
        Posts: 1

        hello! this tutorial is great. i have been trying to expand so i made this head and shoulders out of a sphere, tried making the head rotate like if looking from side to side but the keyframe would only show the last position of the head. like if there was no animation. any ideas?

        Thanks!

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        2.1.1
         May 13, 2012 at 9:41 pm
  3. Alice
    Posts: 2

    Thank you Jonathan! I can’t believe I missed something so simple! Your tutorials are really helpful and I’m getting the hang of Blender. Thank you :)

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    3
     Sep 29, 2011 at 2:19 pm
    Reply
  4. Zeke
    Posts: 1

    How do u delete a keyframe??

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    4
     Oct 12, 2011 at 3:52 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Move to the frame it is on and then press ALT + I in the 3D view. Or you can do it in the Dopesheet by selecting it with Right Click and then pressing X > Delete Keyframe.

      -Jonathan

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      4.1
       Oct 12, 2011 at 4:03 pm
      Reply
  5. portgas d ace
    Posts: 5

    hi jonathan,can u tell me how to move the screen???….Argh..actually im not expert in english…just look at 3:17-3:18 :)

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    5
     Oct 17, 2011 at 9:21 am
    Reply
    • portgas d ace
      Posts: 5

      and one more thing,can u teach me how to create a male character,a weapon n texturing… from a-z..

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      5.1
       Oct 17, 2011 at 9:40 am
      Reply
  6. Nick
    Posts: 1

    First, your tutorials are tremendously helpful. They are clear, concise, and really well organized. (I think they are the best I’ve encountered, and I’m learning a lot! Thank you!)

    Second, is there a way to move, rotate, or scale just part of an object rather than the entire object? For example, could I make just two sides of a cube swell out at one keyframe and then go back in at another? (Thank you.)

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    6
     Oct 17, 2011 at 2:53 pm
    Reply
  7. Michelle
    Posts: 1

    Hello, these tutorials are very helpful. Thank you.

    I was wondering how I can have a second object appear later in the time line in my animation. For example I want a sphere to appear only after frame 80, and not before. How do I tell the object to do that?

    I am sure this is probably a very simple solution, I just haven’t seen it addressed in any of the tutorials I have been watching.

    Please help! thank you for your time. :)

    -M

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    7
     Oct 26, 2011 at 10:22 pm
    Reply
  8. jackisback
    Posts: 1

    Whenever i press the “I” key to insert a key frame, there is no menu showing up, only a little dialog box pops up with the “Insert Keyframe Menu” written on it but there are no options to choose. Why is that?

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    8
     Nov 5, 2011 at 5:30 am
    Reply
  9. Yorick Tran
    Posts: 2

    Hey,

    can you only move the camera too?
    i was doing this:
    http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/08/24/creating-a-scene-from-space/
    Then i wanted to do an animation where the planet flies nearer, but because there are different objects, its too hard to move them, would be easiier to move the camera closer…this is possible too?

    thx cheers

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    9
     Nov 13, 2011 at 9:59 am
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Yes you can animate the camera. This is actually the recommend way of doing it. Unless your objects are specifically supposed to move, they should stay still; let the camera do the moving.

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      9.1
       Nov 13, 2011 at 3:06 pm
      Reply
      • jayson
        Posts: 1

        how to do use this blender??

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        9.1.1
         Mar 14, 2012 at 2:01 am
  10. zsphotographic
    Posts: 4

    How do I delete or move points on the timeline?

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    10
     Jan 14, 2012 at 9:26 pm
    Reply
    • zsphotographic
      Posts: 4

      I mean keyframes

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      10.1
       Jan 14, 2012 at 9:27 pm
      Reply
      • defis
        Posts: 1

        Move to the frame it is on and then press ALT + I in the 3D view. Or you can do it in the Dopesheet by selecting it with Right Click and then pressing X > Delete Keyframe.

        This way you can delete keyframes.

        #
        10.1.1
         Feb 6, 2012 at 4:45 pm
  11. Kevrack1999
    Posts: 1

    How do You animate a figure that is composed of several objects but you only need to move one?

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    11
     Feb 8, 2012 at 5:10 pm
    Reply
  12. joepro11
    Posts: 2

    I can import my vector outlines from Adobe Illustrator but I can not extruded them in to solid shapes. They extrude only as outlines, how can I extrude them as solids?

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    12
     Feb 26, 2012 at 7:05 pm
    Reply
  13. kritkat
    Posts: 1

    Thanks for the blender tutorials it really helps, though i’am using Blender 2.62, so in some parts that they have updated, i don’t understand. Like for example in the extrude, I couldn’t do it freely.Luckily, i figured it out. I wanted to ask, I’am on a laptop, and when i click seven to go to top view, all it does is deletes my object! PLEASE HELP!!!!

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    13
     Mar 11, 2012 at 12:01 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Hi Everett,

      By default the top number keys change your layers. Press the “`” key to get your objects back. In order to change views with the top numbers you need to enable “Emulate Numpad” in the Input section of the User Preferences.

      Cheers,

      -Jonathan

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      13.1
       Mar 11, 2012 at 4:09 pm
      Reply
  14. ajames
    Posts: 3

    I can’t find out how to toggle, and my Keyframes are undefined. How do i set them to -5 like yours

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    14
     Mar 16, 2012 at 7:19 pm
    Reply
    • ajames
      Posts: 3

      Also i don’t know how to get to my user preferences, so i can’t change it, 7 or other numbers will delete my cube

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      14.1
       Mar 16, 2012 at 7:27 pm
      Reply
  15. leifthor
    Posts: 1

    Great video! Having also learned SolidWorks, Blender can also be daunting only because of it’s depth which is a luxury problem I like to have. Also Blender being free while SolidWorks is $6,000 doesn’t hurt as well, and the Blender interface is better by a long shot.

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    15
     Mar 26, 2012 at 2:54 pm
    Reply
  16. Robert
    Posts: 1

    If you want to “zoom” into an object would you scale the object up or is there a separate key for zooming??

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    16
     Apr 12, 2012 at 7:22 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      You can zoom by using your scroll wheel or by using the “-” and “+” keys.

      Cheers,
      Jonathan

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      16.1
       Apr 12, 2012 at 10:38 pm
      Reply
  17. Sander
    Posts: 3

    Hey Jonathan,

    When i press “I” no insert keyframe option appears.
    What to do?

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    17
     Apr 23, 2012 at 7:24 am
    Reply
    • Sander
      Posts: 3

      Nevermind, i found out you have to be in object mode.

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      17.1
       Apr 23, 2012 at 7:25 am
      Reply

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