Book Image

Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition

By : Gordon Fisher
Book Image

Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition

By: Gordon Fisher

Overview of this book

This book teaches you how to model a nautical scene, complete with boats and water, and then add materials, lighting, and animation. It demystifies the Blender interface and explains what each tool does so that you will be left with a thorough understanding of 3D. This book starts with an introduction to Blender and some background on the principles of animation, how they are applied to computer animation, and how these principles make animation better. Furthermore, the book helps you advance through various aspects of animation design such as modeling, lighting, camera work, and animation through the Blender interface with the help of several simple projects. Each project will help you practice what you have learned and do more advanced work in all areas.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
3
Controlling the Lamp, the Camera, and Animating Objects
Index

Time for action – making a simple animation with keyframes


In animation, keyframes are the beginning and end of a transition. This transition could be a movement, rotation, or scaling of an object. It can also be a change in the color of an object, the brightness of the light, or almost anything that you can set in Blender. The animation is a sequence of keyframes. So let's start by making a simple animation:

  1. If the cube is not selected, select it with the RMB.

  2. With the cursor over the left-hand side of the 3D View window, press the I key, (I for Insert), to insert a keyframe. A menu will appear, as shown in the next screenshot.

  3. Select Location and press the LMB.

  4. In the Timeline window below the 3D View window, drag the green current frame indicator right until it is over 20. As you do that, the current frame text fields in the lower left of the 3D Views will change, as will the current frame button in the Timeline window.

  5. Grab the green 3D manipulator in the left-hand 3D View with the LMB and...