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 the basics of materials within Blender.















I recently discovered Blender a few days ago and now i am really interested in it. Thankyou for the wonderful tutorials.
for some reason, it will not show the preview at all. what should i do?
oh wait, never mind XD
i clicked the wrong circle
I was wondering why when you change the color, the preview AND the selected object automatically change, yet when you adjust the transparency, ONLY the preview changes. How do you apply that change to your selected object too?
Hi Brock,
Transparency will only show in the viewport if you select the object, go to the Object properties and enable “Transparency” under the extra draw modes.
-Jonathan
Hey, thanks Jonathan!
One more question…
I am trying to learn this all while also learning the python code behind it by <> and watching what it displays with my actions…
But I only see that a materal is added, not of any properties…
more specifically, how can I, only scripting, apply transparency and also view it (per my previous question)?
Thanks again for your reply
Hi Brock,
These would actually be very good questions for Patrick Boelens. I don’t know anything about scripting. If you send a email to support@cgcookie.com then I can forward it over to him
-Jonathan
bpy.data.materials['Material'].use_transparency = True will turn on transparency for the material named ‘Material’. I’m not sure what you mean by viewing the transparency. If you mean by seeing it in the viewport go down to Display in the properties tab and turn on GLSL mode and click the box for textured solid. Then on the 3D Viewport header click the box next to the one that says which mode your in and select “textured”
I hope that helps and wasn’t too confusing.
Hello I was wondering if you could teach me how to import this stuff into FCPX for a green screen
If you render it out to an Image Sequence with RGBA and “Premultiply” enabled for the Sky you should be able to import it no problem.
-Jonathan
Hi Jonathan I can´t see the VIMEO videos, i dont know what is… but that sucks please change to utube or fixx the problem nice day!!
Hi Ric, are you able to watch the videos on Vimeo? http://vimeo.com/cgcookie
-Jonathan
Hello, I was wondering how I open up .jpg and .png images. I’m really new to this thing, and very confused on how to do these things.
Thank you.
Hi. How are you scrolling through the properties icon on the right to get to the material icon? Thanks
By Middle Click and drag or by holding ALT and scrolling with the scroll wheel
-Jonathan
Can I adjust the resolution of the final rendered image to be high resolution for printing?
Everything I do winds up in print not the web. Is this software suitable for that?
Hi Joe,
You can definitely render out for print. This is most easily done by using the Render to Print add-on that you can find here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts/Render/Render_to_Print
Thanks. I searched and cannot find that folder. I am on an Apple, OS 10.5.8
I have had Blender for about a month now. Can you provide additional info?
hi, i was watching this video when i noticed i didnt have some of the tools that you did but i have seen them on my screen b4 now i cant find them. Do you have to like go on a certain mode or something?
What tools are you missing?
When I change the transparency the preview changes, but the actual object does not. How can I fix this? Transparency is enabled by the way. Thanks!
How do you use thetexturing brushes. I’d really appreciate if you could respond.
why cant I select face? It allows to select just the vertex and edge. Is there something I am missing?
Hi Parth, to select faces you can press CTRL + TAB while in Edit Mode to switch into Face Select Mode.
-Jonathan
Is there a way to see the textures applied to the object in the viewport? I see the texture when I render, but where do I turn on the viewport display of the texture on the object?
i cant find the small red circle which change the color of object
the bar doesn’t move!
Are there Material Libraries available to load materials ala 3DsMax. thanks
When is the blender 2.5 tutorial coming? Great job guys, this is easily one of the best software I’ve seen so far.