Introduction to using Blender 3D

First you must have Blender installed on your computer, which can be obtained from the Blender website . Simply click on the link appropriate for your operating system, such as Windows, Linux or Mac, and follow the instructions provided. You may also need to download Python, a programming language that Blender runs on, which is available for free at python.org. Again choose the link appropriate for your operating system and proceed with the installation.

When you have both Blender and Python installed, open Blender by double clicking the desktop icon for it. You do not need to open Python as Blender should run it automatically. Figure 1 is my opening screen, the view is originaly set to a defult veiw looking at the top of the cube and the background will be grey.Place your cursor on the bottom border (cursor becomes double arrows) of the menu at the top of the screen and click and drag it down, this is the User Preferences window. The window in the middle of the screen is the Viewport window, and at the bottom of the screen is the Tools window. There are many options for customization and your screen may be different colors or it may be in orthogonal view, which means the objects shown will not get smaller as they get farther away, this is used mostly for more advanced sculpting and may be confusing to a newer user. Perspective view is when objects do get smaller as they get farther away. To toggle between orthogonal view and perspective view push the 5 key on the number pad or go to the view menu, located at the bottom left of the Viewport window, and click orthographic.

You can hold the middle mouse button (push down the scroll wheel) while moving the mouse to rotate the view. If it rotates in an odd manner you may have trackball view rotation enabled. To change this pull down the Preferences menu again. Go to the View and Controls menu on the left hand side and click Turntable, which is under the subcategory of View Rotation (figure 2). This should make rotation much more intuitive and is a good setting for newer users.
You can set background colors in the Themes menu. When you have made all adjustments to your preferances you can save them by clicking File then Save Default Settings, even the veiw of the cube is saved. Hide the Preferences menu again, when you are done, so that you have a bigger Viewport.

Now that your view and rotation is set we can progress to the actual modeling. The cube in the center of the view is what appears as a default object whenever you open Blender. To edit this we must enable Edit Mode by either hitting the tab key or using the small window at the bottom of the Viewport, which should be set to Object Mode by default. Object Mode is used for positioning an object within the world and linking objects together while Edit Mode allows you to use node points to manipulate the shape of the object.
To select all the points in the object, while in Edit Mode, hit the A key, this will also deselect all points. When a point is selected it will turn yellow. You need to select the entire top side of the cube only, there are a few ways to do this but the fastest is to hit ctrl+tab+3. This switches to Plane Select Mode. You should now see small orange dots in the center of each side of the cube, right-click the dot on the top side of the cube and it will be selected (figure 3). There is a Vertice Select Mode, ctrl+tab+1, and Edge Select mode, ctrl+tab+2. These modes can also be selected using the buttons at the bottom of the Veiwport, next to the magnet button, that look like dots, a line, and a triangle.

Pressing the E key will extrude a side. With the top side selected press the E key then press the Z key, which constrains the extrusion to the Z axis, then type 0.35 and hit enter. This should create a square "cap" on top of the cube (figure 4). You can adjust the height manualy by moving your mouse after you constrain movment to the Z axis, but entering in a number insures consistancy between my salt shaker and yours.

This may not look much like a salt shaker now but this next step will bring it a lot closer. Select all by pressing the A key. Look in the Tools window, click on the Edit Panel, which appears as a square with orange dots at the corners, at the upper left of the window, and under the subcategory of Modifiers click on Add Modifier. Click on Subsurf in the drop down menu that comes up. Now the material should have formed a strange octagonal prism type shape but the original cube should remain as a wire frame (figure 5).

In the same Tools subcategory increase the Levels to 4, this should give a relatively smooth, round object (figure 6). The Subsurf modifier allows you to use very few points to manipulate a much more complex object. You generaly want your subsurf levels set high enough for you to be able to visualize the final product but not so high as to slow your computer down. Setting the subsurf to a higher level for renders will allow you to see a very smooth image. For the render pictured in the the introduction I have the render levels set to six.

Now the salt shaker has a rounded base and we need to change that so that it will stand upright and not roll onto its side spilling salt everywhere. To do this you must have the bottom side selected, then you can press shift+E and move your mouse, or go to the Mesh menu, in the lower left of the Viewport, look under Edges, and click Crease Subsurf. Try to leave a bit of a curve in the edge as perfect corners look unnatural(figure 8).As you can see this does not modify your mesh only the subsurf.

Select the planes the make up the edges of the cap, all at the same time, to do this select one plane and shift+right-click the subsequent planes. With all four planes selected press the subdivide button, under Mesh Tools in the Tools window. This drastically changes the shape of the entire piece by dividing each selected plane into four; any attached planes must then accommodate that change and then divide themselves in order to do so (figures 8-9).

The cap is now very flat, to make it more rounded switch to Vertex Select mode by pressing ctrl+tab+1 and select the center point on the cap. Press G to grab the point after you have selected it, press Z to constrain movement to the Z-Axis, press 1 to designate the amount you wish to move it, and press enter. You can also move points by moving your mouse while a point is grabbed, but for consistancies sake on this model type 1.

Now we need to make the salt shaker hollow. Press A to select all then press E as if you were going to extrude it. A small menu will appear at your cursor asking if you want to extrude the region or the individual faces, click region. Do not extrude the piece, simply right-click and the extrusion will remain as an exact copy of the original which is connected to and occupies the same space as the original. Press S, to scale the selection, and type 0.95, this makes the copy 95% of the size of the original (figure 10).

All that's left is to make the base look like glass. This looks rather impressive but is fairly easy to do. First you must create a new material, press the new button under the Links and Materials subcategory in the Edit panel. Select everything but the cap of both the inner and outer planes, by turning the veiw to look at the side of the salt shaker and pressing the B key, then click and drag a box around everything but the cap. Making sure you have material 2 selected, click the Apply button in the Links and Materials subcategory. Open up the Shading panel, which looks like a little grey ball, and select material 2 in the Links and Pipeline subcategory. Adjust the slider labeled A, at the bottom of the Material subcategory, to around 0.25, this adjusts how transparent the material is. In the subcategory Mirror Transparency click the button called Ray Transparency, adjust the slider labeled IOR to 1.52, and the Depth to six (figure 11). IOR refers to the refraction rate of the light that passes through the glass and depth tell it how many times the light can pass through planes within that material. You won't be able to see the glass until you render the image, hit f12 to do so. The rendering in the intro is a salt shaker that has had a bit more work put into it. The additions of the table, holes and metalic look of the cap will be explained in the next tutorial.

The techniques explained here build a foundation for many more features of Blender such as animation and texturing. Even if you are only using it as a hobby 3D modeling can be rewarding. Video games are only one application, your images and animations could be used on web pages, in reports, or even sold on EBay. For more advanced proffesional training check out Illusion Mage