Blender — Full Course

Download official builds from blender.org. Choose the stable release compatible with your OS and GPU drivers. Install or extract the portable build. Configure Preferences > System for proper CUDA/OptiX support if you have an NVIDIA GPU, or Metal on macOS. Enable experimental features only if you know what you need.

• Set file paths: Render output, add-ons, and temporary directories.
• Enable Auto Save and adjust file recovery settings.

Exercise: Install Blender and open a new default scene. Save a copy as first_scene.blend.

Understand objects vs data-blocks: meshes, curves, materials, textures. Learn file types: .blend for scene data, .obj/.fbx for interchange, .glb/.gltf for web-friendly formats. Know the Outliner and how Blender stores linked libraries.

Exercise: Export the default cube as an .obj and import it back. Inspect the Outliner and identify each data-block.

Get comfortable with the 3D viewport: orbit, pan, zoom (middle mouse / trackpad gestures). Learn selection modes (object, edit, pose), transform gizmos, and the header menus. Customize workspaces and switch between Layout, Modeling, Sculpting, UV, Shading, Animation, and Compositing.

Keyboard tips: G = move, R = rotate, S = scale, Tab = toggle edit mode, A = select all / none, B = box select, Ctrl+Z = undo.

Exercise: Create a simple scene: add a plane, cube and light. Move objects, switch to edit mode and extrude a face.

Create custom workspaces for tasks: modeling, sculpting, UVing, shading, animation. Save startup file (File > Defaults > Save Startup File) only after you are sure of your layout. Use split/merge areas, and link editors across multiple monitors.

Exercise: Make a modeling workspace with Tool and Sidebar visible and save it as a workspace preset.

Understand Blender's default keymap and how to remap keys. Use pie menus for quick access, and learn powerful shortcuts like Shift+D duplicate linked, Alt+D duplicate linked-data, and M to move objects to collections.

Exercise: Remap a key to a frequently used operation, and create a quick pie menu using add-ons.

Master extrude (E), inset (I), loop cut (Ctrl+R), bevel (Ctrl+B), knife tool (K). Use selection modes (vertex, edge, face) and toggles like proportional editing (O) for organic adjustments.

Exercise: Model a low-poly chair, paying attention to edge flow. Create nice bevels for edges to catch highlights when rendered.

Learn commonly used modifiers: Subdivision Surface, Mirror, Array, Boolean, Solidify, Bevel, Shrinkwrap. Place modifiers non-destructively and apply only when needed. Use collections to organize modifier-heavy scenes.

Exercise: Create a lamp model using Mirror, Array and Subdivision Surface to keep workflow efficient.

Retopologize high-poly sculpts into animation-friendly low-poly meshes. Use tools such as Shrinkwrap, Knife, and Poly Build. Maintain quads for deformation and even edge flow. Learn decimation for quick results and manual retopo for production quality.

Exercise: Take a sculpted head and retopologize a clean mesh suitable for animation.

Understand brushes: Clay, Draw, Grab, Smooth, Inflate, Crease. Tweak brush settings: strength, radius, autosmooth. Use dynamic topology (Dyntopo) for exploratory sculpting and Multiresolution modifier for production-level detail.

Exercise: Sculpt a stylized creature head and build up forms from large to small, finishing with skin pores using alphas.

Bake normal maps, displacement maps and ambient occlusion from high-res sculpt to low-poly mesh. Use these maps in shading to preserve detail without heavy geometry.

Exercise: Bake a normal map from your sculpt and apply it to the retopologized mesh in the shader editor.

Mark seams strategically to minimize visible texture distortion. Use Smart UV Project for quick results, but prefer manual seam placement for production. Learn to pin and relax UV islands.

Exercise: Unwrap a backpack model and pack islands efficiently for maximum texel density.

UDIM allows multiple tiled texture sets per mesh—essential for film-quality assets. Learn to paint across UDIMs in external tools (Substance Painter) or within Blender with proper setup.

Exercise: Create a multi-tile unwrap and export UVs for use in a dedicated texturing app.

Understand PBR maps: base color (albedo), roughness, metallic, normal, and ambient occlusion. Use texture references and physically-based values for realistic results. Learn to convert between different map types.

Exercise: Texture a simple metal can using PBR textures and tweak roughness to see specular differences.

Bake high-poly details to low-poly using Cycles. Bake maps: normal, ambient occlusion, curvature, position. Use proper cage or ray distance settings to avoid artifacts.

Exercise: Bake AO and normal maps for a weapon model and inspect in the shader editor.

Use the Pri