BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BLENDER

by Sandra Kolar, 2024

 Beginners guide to Blender

Disclaimer and legal notice

No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form without

the written permission of the author.

For more information, contact the author at skolar7@gmail.com.

Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate

legal action.

Copyright © 2024 by Sandra Kolar aka

SaTales.
All rights reserved.

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 Beginners guide to Blender

How can this e-book help you?

Hello everyone! I am Sandra Kolar or as you may know me from my other social
media, SaTales.
I started to publish YouTube Blender tutorials, tips and tricks for fun, but when I
realized how much people enjoy them, I decided to take it all to the next level and
write a real guide for all beginners.
I often get messages and comments that there are not many tutorials for those who
are just starting their 3D modeling journey and opening Blender for the first time.
I was also once a beginner, and I know how hard it was for me to learn 3D without
any previous knowledge.
So this ebook is for all of you who want to learn Blender, but don't know how and
where to start.
I hope you will enjoy learning with me and that this book will help you in your 3D
journey.
Now, it is time to start with our lessons!
Have fun everyone!

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Where can you find me, and my 3D models?

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SaTales3D
Blender Market: https://blendermarket.com/creators/satales
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/satales3d/
Cara: https://cara.app/satales
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@s_andra_91
Facebook page: https://web.facebook.com/satales3D
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/share/f8rK9zqwP1MFV9uj/
LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9375096/
BlenderKit assets:
https://www.blenderkit.com/asset-gallery?query=satales+order:
_score+author_id:795350

This guide may contain affiliate links, where I may receive a small
commission if you purchase something through the following
BlenderKit link, at no cost to you.
BlenderKit 10% discount:
https://www.blenderkit.com/r/satales3d

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 Beginners guide to Blender

Index

Disclaimer and legal notice 2

How can this e-book help you? 3
Where can you find me, and my 3D models? 4
Index 5
Chapter 1- Why should you choose Blender if you are learning 3D modeling? 7
What is the story behind Blender? 7
WHY choose BLENDER? 8
Chapter 2 - Installing Blender on your computer 9
Chapter 3 - You Installed Blender, Now What? - Moving and Deleting Objects 13
AXES IN BLENDER 21
How do you move a cube along the axes? 23
Moving a cube with the MOVE button 25
Chapter 4 - Rotating and Scaling (Resizing) Objects 28
How to rotate a cube by using a shortcut (angle rotation)? 28
How to rotate a cube by using a shortcut (axis rotation)? 29
How to rotate a cube without using a shortcut (axis rotation)? 31
How to scale (resize) a cube by using a shortcut? 34
How to scale (resize) a cube along an axis by using a shortcut? 34
How to scale (resize) a cube without using a shortcut? 37
HOW TO APPLY SCALE TO THE OBJECT? 40
Chapter 5 - Transform, annotate, measure and add a cube button 42
Transform button 42
Annotate button 43
Measure button 45
Add a cube button 46
Chapter 6 - What is a 3D Cursor For? 47
Origin point 47
3D cursor 48
Chapter 7 - Adding the object to the scene 50
Chapter 8 - Copying an object to the scene 52
Copying an object without using the shortcut 52
Copying the object by using the shortcut 54
Chapter 9 - Edit mode 57
Vertex selection 58
Chapter 10 - Extrude 63
EXTRUDING WITHOUT USING THE SHORTCUT 64
Extrude region 64
Extrude manifold 71
Normals 74
Extrude along normals 82

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Extrude individual 87
Extrude to cursor 88
Chapter 11 - Inset 92
Chapter 12 - Bevel 96
Chapter 13 - Loop cut 103
Chapter 14 - Your first 3D model 108
Modeling with a picture reference 109
Chapter 15 - Let’s model a plate 137
Modeling a plate 137
Chapter 16 - Let’s model a cake 157
MOVING THE VIEW 167
ADDING MATERIALS TO THE OBJECTS 180
Chapter 17 - Let’s learn how to render 190
Chapter 18 - Your first animation 195
Chapter 19 - Rendering your first animation 211
Chapter 20 - Modeling a book 224
Chapter 21 - Texturing a book 248
How to add a new node? 261
Chapter 21 - Modeling a hay bale 288
PARTICLES 298
Chapter 22 - Texturing a hay bale 305
Chapter 23 - Modeling and texturing of a pumpkin 317
Chapter 24 - Modeling and texturing of a bowl with a pasta 346
Difference between ALT+D and SHIFT+D? 371
Chapter 25 - Modeling, texturing and animating a magic potion 411
(Blender Version 4.2.1) 411

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Chapter 1- Why should you choose Blender

if you are learning 3D modeling?
If you are just starting your 3D journey and still deciding which program you want to
use, I am here to help you make the right choice.

You probably already know there is a lot of software for 3D modeling, texturing, and
animation, but how do you choose the right one?

Should you choose Maya, ZBrush, or 3ds Max… the selection is big.

I won’t tell you anything specific about the software I just mentioned because each
one has its strengths.

However, I will share information about my all-time favorite 3D modeling software and
reasons why you should at least give it a chance once — Blender.

What is the story behind Blender?

Blender was officially launched on January 2, 1994, but the first version, 1.00, was
released in January 1995.
On January 1, 1998, Blender became free open-source software, and as its founder,
Ton Roosendaal, stated, it would remain that way FOREVER.
Until now, it has been improved in so many areas, and little by little even bigger
studios are starting to use it.
The current stable release is Blender 4.0 and it was a game changer.
I could write about Blender’s features such as geometry nodes, simulation, and more,
but if you’re a beginner, you won’t understand half of it.
Therefore, I’ll focus on aspects that everyone can understand.

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 Beginners guide to Blender

WHY choose BLENDER?

❖ Blender is free, and it will remain free forever, so you don’t have to worry about
the price.

❖ Blender has an amazing community, so if you have any questions, just ask,
and I promise you’ll get your answer.

❖ Blender has many free and paid add-ons that can speed up your modeling,
texturing, or animations.

❖ You can earn by creating models in Blender, animations, materials, etc.

❖ You can create your own add-ons and earn money from them.

❖ There are numerous free and paid 3D models available for Blender.

❖ Blender is compatible with other 3D software, allowing you to import and

export 3D models without worrying.

❖ Blender is advancing so fast because only passionate people are working so

they want what is best for users.

❖ I am sure there are even more reasons, but I believe this is enough to pique
your curiosity about Blender.

❖ If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, and I will try to help or direct
you to somewhere you can get assistance.

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 Beginners guide to Blender

Chapter 2 - Installing Blender on your

computer
Before starting your 3D journey, you need to download Blender, a completely free,
open-source program for 3D modeling.
Here are some instructions for those who might need help with the downloading.
Navigate to this page and click on the download button.
https://www.blender.org/

Screenshot from page

Screenshot from page

Download Blender 4.0.2.

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Here, you will always find the latest stable versions, which I always download.
After you download it, and open the file, you will see this window.

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Here, click “Next,“ and the following page will appear.

Check the “I accept the terms…“ box and click “Next.

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Click “Next” if you want to install Blender in the location where it is written, or browse
to choose another location.
After that, click “Next.”

Click Install.

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That is it! Now you have Blender installed, and we can start your 3D modeling
journey! Let’s go!

Chapter 3 - You Installed Blender, Now

What? - Moving and Deleting Objects
Now it’s finally time to open the Blender.

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Blender start screen. Screenshot by author.

First, what you will see in your scene are three objects: the camera, the cube, and
the light.

Camera, cube, light. Screenshot by author.

Before we start doing anything in Blender, there are two important things to know:

1. You can model one thing in Blender in various ways, and most of the
time, they are all correct.

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2. There are many shortcuts in Blender. Try to use and learn them from the
start because your modeling will be much easier that way.

Screenshot by Author.

If you click here, you will get a dropdown menu with different modes.

First, we will talk about OBJECT MODE:

In object mode, you can move, rotate, and scale (resize) objects, but without

changing their geometry.

So let’s select our object, THE CUBE.

You can select things in Blender by clicking the left mouse button (LMB) on it.

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If there is no orange outline,the object in this case the cube, isn’t selected.

Screenshot by author.

If there is an orange outline, the cube is selected.

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If you want to deselect the cube, click outside of it.

When you do that, the orange outline disappears.

Before we move on, I will show you another way to determine which object is

selected.

This is an outliner. It is used to organize all data, select and deselect objects,

hide or show objects, and much more.

Outliner. Screenshot by Author.

I will explain another time about other functions, but for now, I wanted to tell you

about active objects and selecting and deselecting objects.

This is a sign for a mesh in Blender.

Sign for a mesh in Blender.

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You can see this gray background around the mesh sign ( we will talk about

what mesh is a bit later).

That gray background means that your object is active.

For now, it is enough to know that there is something that is called an active

object.

Cube is selected. Screenshot by Author.

Just as you selected a cube previously with LMB by clicking directly on it, you

can also select it by clicking LMB in the outliner on the name of your object

(mesh).

In this case, your object is called a Cube.

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You will know that a cube is selected by seeing the orange outline on the

cube, but also by seeing the blue background behind the name of the object

(in this case a Cube.)

Cube is selected. Screenshot by Author.

Now when you know how to select a cube, let’s try to move it.

But before that, let’s try to delete the camera and light because they are not

important now.

To delete an object (in this case, the camera), select the camera and press “X”

or “Del” to remove it from your scene. You can delete the light in the same

way.

Selecting the camera.

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As you can see, you can delete any object by selecting it with the LMB and

pressing “X” or “Del.”

Now that your scene is clean, let’s finally move the cube.

It is time to learn your first shortcut in BLENDER!

Are you ready? Ok, let’s do it!

How to move a cube by using a shortcut?

Moving a cube.

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1. Select the cube with the LMB.

2. Press G.

3. Now, move the cube with your mouse to the position where you

want it to be.

4. Confirm the position with the LMB.

AXES IN BLENDER

X and y axes. Screenshot by author.

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X and Z axes. Screenshot by author.

Gizmo showing x,y, and z axes. Screenshot by Author.

In Blender, we have three axes: X (the red one) — for left and right,

Y (the green one) — for front and back,

and Z (the blue one) — for top and bottom.

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How do you move a cube along the axes?

As you already learned, we move a cube with G.

If we want to move it along an axis, just press G + (one of the axes).

Moving a cube along the X axis. Screenshot by author.

Moving a cube along the Y axis. Screenshot by author.

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Moving a cube along the Z axis. Screenshot by author.

G + X — to move it along the X-axis.

G + Y — to move it along the Y-axis.

G + Z — to move it along the Z-axis.

In the end, confirm the position with the LMB.

As I mentioned before, there are many ways to do the same thing in Blender.

We can move the cube in one more way.

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Move button. Screenshot by author.

Moving a cube with the MOVE button

1. Click here (where the arrow is showing) —and turn on the Move button.

Axes. Screenshot by author.

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2. Three arrows will appear, each color representing one axis.

3. Select the arrow you want, then while holding it, move it in the direction you

want (and can).

Moving a cube along the X axis. Screenshot by author.

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 Beginners guide to Blender

Moving a cube along the Y axis. Screenshot by author.

Moving a cube along the Z axis. Screenshot by author.

Congratulations! Now you know how to move your cube in Blender!

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Chapter 4 - Rotating and Scaling (Resizing)

Objects

Last time, we learned how to move and delete a cube in Blender.

Today, we will learn how to rotate it and scale it.

How to rotate a cube by using a shortcut (angle

rotation)?

This is the angle of the rotation.

The value of a rotation angle. Image by author.

You can see in the left corner the value of a rotation angle.

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How to rotate a cube by using a shortcut (axis

rotation)?
1. Select the cube with the LMB.
2. If you want to rotate it along the axes, just press R+ (one of the axes).

R+X — to rotate it along the X-axis.

R+Y — to rotate it along the Y-axis.

R+Z — to rotate it along the Z-axis.

3. In the end, confirm the rotation with the LMB.

Rotating a cube along the X axis. Screenshot by author.

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Rotating a cube along the Y axis. Screenshot by author.

Rotating a cube along the Z axis. Screenshot by author.

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How to rotate a cube without using a shortcut (axis

rotation)?

Rotating a cube without using a shortcut. Image by author.

1. Click on the toolbar (where the arrow is pointing) — and click on the Rotate
button to enable it.
2. Three colored circles will appear—each color representing one of the axes.
3. Select the axis you want, then while holding the LMB, rotate it in the direction
of the selected axis.

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Rotating a cube without using a shortcut along the X axis. Image by author.

Rotating a cube without using a shortcut along the Y axis. Image by author.

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Rotating a cube without using a shortcut along the Z axis. Image by author.

We learned how to move and rotate a cube (or any other object).
Now it is time to learn how to scale (resize an object).

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How to scale (resize) a cube by using a shortcut?

1. Select the cube with the LMB.

2. Press S, and scale the cube with your mouse to your desired size.
3. In the end, confirm the scale with the LMB.

Scaling a cube with S. Image by author.

How to scale (resize) a cube along an axis by using a

shortcut?
1. Select the cube with the LMB.
2. If you want to scale it along the axes, just press S+(one of the axes).

S+X — to scale it along the X-axis.

S+Y — to scale it along the Y-axis.
S+Z — to scale it along the Z-axis.

3. In the end, confirm the scale with the LMB.

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Scaling a cube with shortcuts along the X axis. Image by Author.

Scaling a cube with shortcuts along the Y axis. Image by Author.

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Scaling a cube with shortcuts along the Z axis. Image by Author.

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How to scale (resize) a cube without using a

shortcut?

1. Click on the toolbar (where the arrow is pointing) — and click on the Scale
button to enable it.
2. Three colored lines will appear — each color for the one axis.
3. Select the axis you want, then while holding it, scale it in the direction you
want (and can).
4. In the end, confirm the scale with the LMB.

Scaling a cube without using a shortcut. Image by author.

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Scaling a cube without using a shortcut along the X axis. Image by author.

Scaling a cube without using a shortcut along the Y axis. Image by author.

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Scaling a cube without using a shortcut along the Z axis. Image by author.

You learned how to transform objects (move, rotate, and scale) in the Object mode.

IMPORTANT THING!

Make sure you apply the transforms before editing the mesh in the edit mode.
Otherwise, the values between the object mode and the edit mode will not
match.

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HOW TO APPLY SCALE TO THE OBJECT?

Scale. Image by Author.

As you can see here, the scale of X = 1, the scale of Y = 1, but the scale of
Z= 3,473.

What does that mean?

We didn’t change the scale of X and Y, so those numbers stayed the same.
Numbers here represent percentages. 1=100% which represents the original size,
2=200%, 3=300% and so on.

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We have scaled the object along the Z-axis, so the value changed and isn’t the
default 1 anymore.
Scale values of X, Y, and Z need to be 1 the whole time.

Applying the scale. Image by author.

To apply the scale of Z (or X or Y if needed) click “CTRL+A” and apply the scale.
When you click that, all values are applied. You don’t need to do it for each value X,
Y, and Z separately.

Scale is applied. Image by author.

Congratulations! Now you know how to move, rotate, and scale your cube in Blender!
I will stop here so you don’t feel overwhelmed.

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Chapter 5 - Transform, annotate, measure

and add a cube button

Transform button

There's only one button left in Object mode that you can use to transform objects.

Unlike the move, scale, and rotate buttons, which you use to perform only one action
at a time, the transform button supports any combination of move, rotate, and scale
at once.

All
transforms at
once after
clicking the
Transform
button.

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I used this button maybe three times in the beginning while I was still learning
Blender, but nowadays, I do not use it at all. Still, it is good to know what it is for.

Annotate button

This is a button that I started to use while writing Blender guides.

Before that, I didn’t use it at all. It is for making annotations on the active data.
If you click on the Annotate button, you will get a dropdown menu.

You can choose between Annotate, Annotate Line, Annotate Polygon and Annotate
Eraser.

All of these tools are easy to understand, so I won’t explain them in more detail.

You can even change color, opacity and thickness, stabilize stroke, etc…

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Annotation color. Image by author.

Annotation opacity and thickness. Image by author.

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Measure button
The Measure button measures distance and angles.

Measure button. Image by author.

Click LMB and drag it around to measure what you want.

Measuring the cube. Image by author.

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Drag ruler segment to measure an angle.

Measuring the angle. Image by author.

If you click “X” you delete the active ruler.

To snap, hold “CTRL” while dragging a rule.
Hold “SHIFT” while dragging the ruler to measure the thickness of the surface.

Add a cube button

Add a cube button. Image by author.

This button is easy to understand, so I won’t explain it in more detail.

You just need to choose what you want to add to the scene
(Cube, Cone, Cylinder,UV Sphere or Ico Sphere),
and then draw it to the scene.

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Chapter 6 - What is a 3D Cursor For?

Origin point

Today, you will learn what a 3D cursor is and how to use it.

To understand better about a 3D cursor, I will first explain to you what is an origin
point in Blender.

Origin point. Image by author.

This small orange dot is something that we call the origin point in Blender.
It is located in the center of the object geometry.
You can make all transforms (move, rotate, scale) around the origin, but you can also
change the origin point.
If you want to change the origin point, go to object —> set origin —> and choose one
of the options below.

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Geometry to Origin - move object geometry to object origin.

Origin to Geometry - calculate the center of geometry based on the current pivot
point (median, otherwise bounding box).
Origin to 3D cursor - move object origin to the position of the 3D cursor.
Origin to Center of Mass (Surface) - calculate the center of mass from the surface
area.
Origin to Center of Mass (Volume) - calculate the center of mass from the volume
(must be manifold geometry with consistent normals).

Don’t worry if you don’t understand what is written here. I will show you in the future
all examples and again explain all that stuff when the time comes for that.
Until then, it is enough to know what kind of options there are.

3D cursor
This is a 3D cursor, a point in space that has both a location and rotation.
Left arrow is pointing where you can activate it.
The right arrow is pointing where it is located currently.

3D cursor location. Image by author.

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When you activate the 3D cursor, you are moving it around the scene by clicking
LMB.

Moving 3D cursor. Image by author.

When the 3D cursor is not activated, you can still move it around the scene by
pressing and holding “SHIFT” and clicking RMB at the same time.
Now if you are wondering why you should move a 3D cursor here is one of the
examples.
We have a scene and on the scene is the default cube. If we want to add another
cube (or any other object), but in a different place, we just need to position the 3D
cursor to that place.
But how do we add a new object?
I guess it is time to finally learn that, but in the next chapter.

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Chapter 7 - Adding the object to the scene

When you open Blender, a default cube is always waiting for you.
Some of us delete that cube and add a new one, some of us use that cube for our
scene, and some of us delete the cube and add another object.
Either way, you need to know how to add new objects because at some point, you
will need something else besides the cube.
So, how do you add a new object?
There are a few ways.
The first way is without using any shortcut.
Just go to Add —> Mesh —> and choose any object that you want to add
(plane, cube, circle, UV sphere, ICO Sphere, Cylinder, Cone, Torus…).

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The second way is by using a shortcut (try to remember this method for easier
and quicker modeling).
Just click “SHIFT+A” and you will get this menu. Choose Mesh and add the object
that you want.

Adding a new mesh - shortcut. Image by author.

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Chapter 8 - Copying an object to the scene

It is time to learn how to copy an object to the scene.
There are a few methods, but try to remember the one that uses the shortcut.

Copying an object without using the shortcut

1. Select the cube with the LMB.

2. Click on it with the RMB and choose “Copy objects” from the menu.

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If you click the RMB again and choose “Paste Objects” from the menu,
your object (in this case, the cube) will be copied, but it will be in the
same place as the original cube.

One way to know that you have copied the object is by noticing that you
now have two cubes in your outliner: Cube and Cube.001.

Another way is to select the cube and see that there is another one in
the same place.

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Copying the object by using the shortcut

1. Select the cube with the LMB.

2. Press “CTRL+C” to copy the object.

3. Press “CTRL+V” to paste the object

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Now, before I teach you about edit mode, you need to learn about a few things.

This part in the bottom right contains some important scene statistics.

If it is not showing, just click on that black bar (Status bar) with the RMB and choose
Scene Statistics.

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First, you will see the name of your selected collection - Collection, the name of your
selected object - Cube, the number of Vertices of that object - 8, the number of faces
of that object - 6, and the number of objects in the collection. After that, other
important information includes memory and VRAM, but we will talk more about that
when we start modeling and rendering.
The last number is the version of Blender that you are currently using - for me, it is
currently 4.0.2.

When you are copying the objects,the numbers of vertices, tris and faces increase
as they should.

But is there a way to have, for example, a thousand cubes in the scene and still have
the number of vertices, faces and tris be the same as if we have only one cube in the
scene?
Yes, there is. You will learn about that cool trick in one of the next chapters.

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Chapter 9 - Edit mode

There is a lot of stuff to show you in the object mode, but a lot of it is connected to the
edit mode, so it is time to switch from object mode to edit mode.

You can switch from object mode to edit mode from this menu by clicking on the Edit
mode.

Or you can just press “TAB” to switch from object mode to edit mode and vice versa.
When you were in object mode, the cube didn’t look like this, but now that we can
edit it, its look has changed
In the object mode, you can only move, rotate or scale your object, add and apply
modifiers and change its material, but in the edit mode you can actually edit the
topology.

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Vertex selection
First, let’s learn what a cube is made of.
This arrow is pointing to the vertex selection.

So what is vertex or vertices?

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Vertices are represented as all those small dots that you can see.
So our cube has 8 vertices.

If you want to switch to vertex selection, you can do that by selecting this part or
simply pressing 1 on your keyboard (not numpad).

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If you want to switch to edge selection, you can do that by selecting this part or
simply with 2 on your keyboard (not numpad).

But what is an edge?

An edge connects two vertices. That means that this cube has 12 edges.

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And this is a face.

If you want to switch to face selection, you can do that by selecting this part or simply
with 3 on your keyboard (not numpad).
A face is the area between: three vertices - triangles, four vertices -
quadrangles or more vertices - n-gons with an edge on every side. That means
that this cube has 6 faces.

Maybe you realized how I was showing in those examples the transparent cube (as I
can see through it). That is called X-ray.

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You can activate it by clicking where the arrow is pointing or simply by pressing
“ALT+Z”. You can turn it off the same way , either by clicking on the screen or by
keyboard.
You are already familiar with the move, rotate and transform buttons, so I don’t need
to explain them again. What is different is that in the edit mode you can move, rotate
or scale instead of the whole cube, parts of the cube.
So you can move vertices, you can scale faces, or rotate edges.

In the next chapter, you will learn a new tool, but until then, try to play around with
those tools that you are already familiar with in edit mode just to get a feeling.

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Chapter 10 - Extrude
It is finally time to learn the first tool with which you can add a geometry to the object
- EXTRUDE.

You can extrude vertices, edges and faces.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB”. You can activate “Extrude” by clicking where

the arrow is pointing.

If you click and hold LMB after you activate it, you will get this menu for some extra
possibilities.

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EXTRUDING WITHOUT USING THE SHORTCUT

Extrude region

First, choose a type of selection: vertex, edge, or face.

Activate the “Extrude region” button with LMB.

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Now, depending on what you chose in the first step, you can extrude that.
If you chose vertices, you can extrude vertices.
When you select vertex, you will get this.

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If you want to extrude it along the vertex normal, just click on that plus sign
and drag it with the LMB, and you will get a second vertex.

If you want to extrude it freely, don’t click on the plus sign. Instead, click
somewhere inside the white circle and drag the vertex with the LMB.

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To extrude edges instead of vertices, switch to edge selection.

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Just as with vertices, to extrude it along the axes, click the plus sign and drag
it with the LMB.

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If you want to extrude it freely, just click somewhere inside the white circle and
drag the edge with the LMB.

If you want to extrude faces, switch to face selection.

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Extruding faces works just like it does for vertices and edges.

All that was “Extrude Region”. As you just saw, you can extrude it freely or along an
axis.

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Extrude manifold

Second option that you have is “Extrude Manifold”. As it says here: extrude, dissolves
edges whose faces form a flat surface and intersect new edges.

Let me show you the difference if you extrude region and if you extrude manifold.
This is extruding region faces. As you can see when I extruded the face, I got more
faces separated with the loop from the first face.

But when I extrude manifold, I don’t get additional faces. It is all one face without a
loop.

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Can you now see the difference? The left one is extruding manifold, the right one is
extruding region.

You can also see how the number of polygons are different between those two
options.

Extrude region - vertices 12, edges 20, faces 10, tris 20.

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Extrude manifold - vertices 8, edges 12, faces 6, tris 12.

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Normals

(disclaimer: from this chapter on I will be using Blender version 4.2)

To know what it means to extrude along normals, I need to first explain what normals
are.
Normals show which way a vertex or face is pointing.
To see normals and their direction, switch to the edit mode with a “TAB” and click on
the Mesh Edit Mode Overlays.

After that click on normals, and choose the first one Display Vertex Normals and the
third one Display face normals as lines. I will increase the size of normals so I can
explain to you better what they are.

Those light blue lines that are coming out from our cube are face normals and those
dark blue lines that are coming out from our cube are vertex normals.
Face normals are just showing you which way the face is pointing.

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This cube has two sides: inside and outside. Normals are showing us which part of
our cube is outside (blue line) and which part is inside (there is no line in the inside
part, just outside and that is how we know sides).

You can see that more clearly in the next example.

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But if it looks like this, you can already see that something strange is going on.

The bottom side is flipped ( I did this on purpose, but you will sometimes have this
case while modeling so it is good to recognize it).

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The second way (easier and quicker at least in my opinion) is to check face
orientation.
Click on Viewport overlay and turn on “Face orientation”.
Before we see our cube, the most important thing to remember is that red means
inside and blue outside.

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As you can see, even colors are not matching on our cube. Just as we could see
from normals orientation, we can also see from the face orientation that the bottom
part should be inside, not outside.

So how do we change that?

Select all with “A” go to mesh → normals → recalculate outside or after selecting all
with “A” just click “SHIFT+N”.

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As you can see, now all faces are as they should be.

! ALERT !
In some cases, recalculate outside doesn’t work, and you need to choose a
face and flip it by yourself.
How to do that?
Select the face you want to flip with LMB.

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Go to Mesh → Normals → Flip.

Now everything is correctly orientated again. You can turn off normals and face
orientation just like you did turn them on.

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I hope you understood this part because normals are important in a lot of cases. You
will learn one of those cases soon.
Now let’s finally learn how to extrude faces along normals.

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Extrude along normals

Just as you did before, choose “Extrude” button, and now choose “Extrude Along
Normals”.
Extrude along normals means to extrude region together along local normals.

I will turn on face orientation again just to show you something.

If you want to extrude along normals, just choose the face that you want to extrude
with LMB and click on that yellow circle and drag it for how much you want to extrude
the face.

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When faces are showing the correct side (blue is outside), extrude along normals is
also working correctly. But if you have a face on the wrong side like this, you can see
that this yellow circle is also showing on the inside.

That is why your faces should always be correctly orientated.

If you still didn’t realize how you can make your modeling easier by using extrude
along normals, let me show you a good example.

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Imagine you want to extrude all those faces.

If you use the extrude region, you will get something like this.

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But if you use extrude along normals, you will get this.

But if one of our faces were on the wrong side, like this

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You will get this.

So don’t forget, face orientation is VERY IMPORTANT!

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Extrude individual

Just as you did before, choose “Extrude” button, and now choose “Extrude
Individual”.
Extrude individual means to extrude each individual face separately along local
normals.

Let me show you an example.

Select the whole cube with “A”, and select “Extrude Individual”.
Now drag yellow circle with the LMB to extrude it as you did in previous examples
You will get something like this.

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Or if you choose those two faces, you get something like this.

Again, it is important that all faces are showing the right direction, so check Face
orientation before extruding.
It is an easy and self explanatory tool, so I don’t think I need to say more about it.

Extrude to cursor

Just as you did before, choose “Extrude” button, and now choose “Extrude To
Cursor”.
Extrude to cursor means to duplicate and extrude selected vertices,edges or faces
towards the mouse cursor.

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Let me show you an example of how fun this tool is.

Switch to vertex selection with 1 on your keyboard.
Select the vertex that you want, and select “Extrude to Cursor”.
Now you just click with LMB on your scene and you are extruding that vertex where
you click with your LMB.

You can select more than one vertex as well.

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Now, if you want to extrude edges, switch to edge selection with 2 on your keyboard.
Select the edge that you want, and select “Extrude to Cursor”.

Now you just click with LMB on your scene and you are extruding that edge where
you click with your LMB. You can select more than one edge as well.

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And if you want to extrude faces, switch to face selection with 3 on your keyboard.
Select the face that you want, and select “Extrude to Cursor”.
Now you just click with LMB on your scene and you are extruding that face where
you click with your LMB.

You can select more than one face as well.

That is it!
Now you know how to use an extrude tool! In the next chapter we will learn another
tool, and then I will teach you how to make your first 3D model.

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Chapter 11 - Inset
It is time to learn the second tool with which you can inset new faces into selected
faces - INSET.
Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.
You can activate “Inset” by clicking where the arrow is pointing.

Activating the inset. Image by author.

As you could probably realize from the explanation, the inset tool can only inset
faces.
So if you choose vertices or edges, nothing will happen.
So let’s activate the “Inset” tool and select one face on our cube.
As you can see, the yellow circle appeared.

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If you hold an LMB and move it inside that yellow circle, you can inset new faces like
this.When you are satisfied with the size of your inset, release LMB.

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To be honest, it is much easier to inset faces with a shortcut, so remember that

shortcut for it is “I”.
So just select face, press “I” on your keyboard and move it with LMB to scale the
inset. In the end just confirm it with LMB.
You can inset more faces at once at the same time.

If you are inseting more faces at once but they are connected, if you press “I” only
once, you will get this.

But if you want to inset both faces separately, just press “I” two times from the start
and you will get this.

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Chapter 12 - Bevel
It is time to learn the third tool - BEVEL.
Bevel means to cut into selected items at an angle to create bevel or chamfer.
This sounds complicated so let me show you.
Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.
You can activate “Bevel” by clicking where the arrow is pointing.

If you switch to vertices, you will see that it is impossible to bevel them, but don’t
worry, I will teach you a trick on how you can bevel even vertices, because it can
become very useful while modeling if you know it.
Select the vertex that you want to bevel and instead of activating the Bevel with a
button, use the shortcut.
Press “SHIFT+ CTRL +B”at the same time.

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Move with your LMB to decide the size of your bevel.

If you scroll the mouse wheel up, you can increase the number of vertices.

And if you scroll it down you can decrease the number of vertices.

When you are satisfied with the number of the vertices, just confirm it with LMB.

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I will teach you one more trick.

Did you see this part in the left bottom corner where it says “Bevel”?

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If you click on that you will get even more options.

Because I am currently explaining vertices, we won’t change Affect from vertices to

edges.

You can change width type from absolute to width, depth, or percent.

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As you change width type, other options are changing as well.

I won’t explain to you separately what each of those parts do because you can see it
if you play around with it. The best way to learn something and remember it, is to
explore it by yourself.
ALERT!
Whenever you get any menu at the left bottom, if you finish with your action (in this
case beveling) or click somewhere else, that menu will disappear.
But don’t worry, you can bring it back with F9 as long as you are in the same mode in
which you did an action(in this case edit mode) and you didn’t do anything other than
deselecting the object.

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If you switch to edge selection, the bevel button will work.

When you activate the bevel tool through the button, this yellow circle with a yellow
line will appear.

If you select the yellow circle and move it with LMB, you will bevel the edge and get
this.

While you are holding the LMB , if you scroll the mouse wheel, segments will
increase or decrease, depending on whether you are scrolling up or down.

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If you want to bevel faces,you can do it in the same way just like you did with the
edges, just instead of the edge selection switch to the face selection.
Everything else is the same.

REMEMBER!
Shortcut for beveling edges and faces is “CTRL+B”.

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Chapter 13 - Loop cut

It is time to learn the fourth tool - LOOP CUT.
Loop cut - cut mesh loop and slide it.
Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.
You can activate “Loop cut” by clicking where the arrow is pointing.

When you activate the “Loop cut” tool and move the mouse near the object, in this
case a cube, loops will appear.

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You can confirm the loop cut with the LMB.

I will show you the shortcut for the loop cut right away because it is so much easier to
use it while modeling.

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Shortcut for the loop cut to appear on your object is “CTRL+R.”

When you confirm it with LMB, you can move it by moving the mouse left, right, up or
down, depending on the position of your loop cut.
When you are satisfied with the position, just confirm it with LMB.

Before confirming it with LMB if you scroll the mouse wheel up or down, your loop
cuts will increase or decrease.

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After you click LMB once again you can move them with the mouse, and if you click
the LMB for the third time, you will confirm the position of your loops.

Maybe this tool doesn't look fun at all, but you will see later what you can do with it.
Actually I will show it quickly right away.

EXAMPLE:
You have a cube on the scene like this.

If you add a loop cut like this

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And then grab this top edge with “G+Z” up, you will get a….

HOUSE!
Well kind of…it is hard to make a house in just two steps, but you get a point.
I will now stop with explaining without modeling. There is a lot of stuff that I didn’t
show you, but the easiest way to learn is while actually modeling something, so it is
time to learn how to model in Blender.

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Chapter 14 - Your first 3D model

I was thinking about what should be the best first model for you to understand
modeling in Blender, and decided to start with chess pieces.
It is really fun and satisfying when you see in the end that you can model all those
chess pieces.
So let’s start!

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

First we will find an image reference.

I found it on Pixabay.com.
(https://pixabay.com/vectors/knight-pawn-chess-figures-game-158457/).
You can download this one or any other pictures that you want, just be sure that it is
front side.

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Modeling with a picture reference

We are currently doing everything in the object mode.

First we will delete everything from the scene with an “X.”

After that we will click on -Y on gizmo, so we can position everything correctly from
the start.

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Then we will go to Add → Image → Reference.

After that a new window will open, and you will find that image that you just
downloaded. Choose the image and click that “Add Image” button when you find it.

We added the image.

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On the right side you will see a lot of tools, but the only tool that is important to us
right now is Data - Object data properties.

Here you can change size, offset, depth, side, opacity of a picture.
We want to change Depth to Back, and decrease opacity a bit.
We also want to move the picture up so the bottom of our pawn would be on the
X-axis.
Click on the Y Offset, and change the numbers until your pawn from the picture isn’t
on the X-axis. You can also move it a bit to the left so the middle of the pawn is on
the Z-axis.

Before we add an object, let’s think which object would be the best for modeling a
pawn based on pawn shape.
We have: plane, cube, circle, UV sphere, ICO sphere, Cylinder, Cone and Torus.
The most similar are circle and cylinder.
You can choose whichever you want from those two. I will start with the cylinder.

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When you add the cylinder, you will get this extra menu in the bottom left.
Here you can change the number of vertices, radius, depth align, etc.

Depending on what you are modeling sometimes you will need less or more vertices.
We won’t change anything for our pawn, so just leave the settings as they are.

There are a few things that you need to remember before starting to model our pawn.
Don’t move your view from the -Y, model it from the view from the start from the
finish.

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When you are modeling something ALWAYS turn on X-ray mode if your object has
more than one side, because otherwise your model instead of this

will look like this because if you aren’t in the X-ray mode, you won’t be selecting all
vertices, and for example while extruding, you will extrude only half of the vertices.

Ok, now we can really start with modeling.

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As you can see, the cylinder is currently too much down so we need to move it up so
it will be aligned with the bottom of the pawn. So move it up along the Z-axis.
If you don't see it well, you can scroll the mouse wheel up to get closer or down to
see it from a bigger distance.
Also if you are using picture reference as I, you will see that this pawn isn’t exactly
symmetrical.
It is good for exercise because your picture references will often be like this. In that
case choose the left or the right side of the pawn, and extrude and scale it only while
watching that one side.
I chose to look only on the right side of the pawn reference image. But first try to align
your cylinder to the middle as much as you can.

You don’t need to apply the scale of this cylinder because we didn’t scale it in object
mode.
Now you can switch from the object mode to edit mode.
If you aren’t in the vertex selection mode, switch to it with 1 on your keyboard.
Now, we will just follow the shape of our reference.

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First, scale the cylinder so it fits to the pawn reference as much as possible.
Select all with “A” and scale with “S”.
Now you need to move up a bit again your cylinder because we scaled it and
changed its size.

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We are first doing this part.

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So we need to select all top vertices and move them down along the Z-axis.

You can see that this next part is becoming more narrow, and that is when we are
using scale. Extrude a bit all those selected vertices so you can scale it, like this.
First extrude with “E” like this

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and then scale it to the inside with “S” like this.

Extrude it again a bit.

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And scale it with “S” to the outside.

Extrude it again.

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And scale it with “S” to the outside to align with this part.

Try to make similar distance between the loops so your object looks nicer.

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Extrude it again.

And scale it with “S”.

Now try to do it a bit by yourself. I will continue to explain the rest of it in the case you
are stuck, but the best way to learn is to do it by yourself.

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Extrude it again.

And scale it with “S” to the inside.

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Extrude it 2x.

And scale to the inside.

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Extrude it again.

And scale it to the inside.

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Extrude it again.

And scale it to the inside.

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And extrude it again, and scale.

Extrude it again and scale a bit.

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Extrude it 2x.

Extrude it again, but after extruding press “ESC” so your loops will stay at the same
place as the previous loop.
Now scale it “S” to the outside.

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And extrude it with “E” 4x.

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Scale it with “S”.

Extrude with “E” and scale with “S.”

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Extrude it with “E” and scale with “S”.

Extrude it with “E” and scale with “S”.

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Extrude it with “E” and scale with “S”.

Extrude it with “E” 2x.

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And scale it with “S”.

Extrude and scale again.

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Extrude once again and scale.

Extrude once for the last time.

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And at the end press “M” and select merge to center so all your vertices become one
at the center.

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In the end switch to object mode.

Click RMB and choose Shade smooth to smooth your object.

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Great job! You just made your first 3D model!

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Chapter 15 - Let’s model a plate

Now that you know some basic modeling techniques, it’s easier to show you more
fun and advanced stuff.
For today’s lesson I’ve decided to teach you how to model a plate.

While modeling, you will repeat what you’ve learned about insets, bevels, and loops,
but you will also learn some new techniques involving bevels, modifiers, and more.
Are you ready?
Let’s get started!

First, we will model a plate.

Modeling a plate

Select everything with “A” and then delete it by pressing “X”.

Now, press “SHIFT+A”, go to Add mesh → Circle

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Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Click “F” to fill the whole circle.

Extrude it with “E” along the Z-axis a bit.

Something like this.

Select the bottom face and scale it with “S”.

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Inset a new face with “I”.

Do it one more time.

Now, it is time to learn something new.

Last time, you learned about loop cuts and loops.
Today, you will learn how to select loops.
I want to select this loop here.

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How to do that?

You select loops while holding “ALT” and clicking LMB.

But there is one catch.

If you select this face, you won’t get loop selection, but this.

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To select any “circled” loops, you need to select edges instead of a face.
If you click on any of those edges, you will get the right selection.

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Now, a question: If I want to select this loop, how do I do it?

Exactly! Just like in the previous case, hold “ALT” and while holding it, click LMB on
any of the middle edges that are part of that circled loop.
Any of those blue-colored edges will work.

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But if you select this edge, you will get this result.

Ok, now we can continue with modeling our plate.

We selected this loop with “ALT” and LMB.

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Extrude it down a bit with “E”.

Then, select the top face of the plate and inset a new face with “I”.

Extrude it down with “E”.

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Scale it with “S”.

Now it is time to learn about modifiers.

Switch to object mode with “TAB”.
Click on the wrench icon that says “Modifiers”.

Modifiers allow you to change the geometry of an object in a non-destructive way.

I will demonstrate this using a bevel modifier as an example,so you can better
understand how modifiers work.
(Don’t apply any of these steps unless you first copy your plate, as we won’t be using
the bevel modifier - this is just for demonstration purposes.)
We learned about bevels last time
If we want to bevel those edges using the bevel tool or the “CTRL+B” shortcut, we
would select the edges and bevel them. After we did that, there’s no going back
(except by using undo).
However, if you’ve made too many steps, you might not be able to undo that action,
leaving you stuck with the bevel. In that case,you’d have to start modeling from
scratch if that wasn’t the result you wanted.

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But if you add Bevel modifier, click Add modifier → Generate → Bevel,

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you will get this.

And here

you can change the amount and segments of bevel as you want.

Yes, you can achieve similar results when beveling with a bevel tool, but with a
modifier, you can adjust the bevel segments and amount at any moment – unlike
when using the bevel tool, where changes are fixed once applied.
CAREFUL!
In some cases, you may need to apply modifiers. Once you apply them, you
lose the ability to make further changes, and your bevel is no longer
non-destructive.

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And how do you apply the modifier (in this case, the bevel?)
Click on the dropdown menu arrow, and you will see the “Apply” option.
But why can't you click on it?
It is because you are currently in edit mode and modifiers can only be applied while
in object mode.

To apply a modifier, make sure to first switch to object mode.

Now that you know about modifiers, it is time to add a modifier to the plate.
I just explained the bevel modifier, but we won’t be adding that one. Instead, we’ll add
a new modifier called the subdivision modifier.
So, what does this modifier do?

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The subdivision subsurface modifier split the faces into smaller parts, giving it a
smoother appearance.
Let’s add it to the plate so you can see what I mean.
Add modifier → Generate → Subdivision subsurface

This is how our plate currently looks.

But you can see some additional options. For now, I won’t explain what render
means, so just concentrate on levels viewport number.

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It is currently 1. But what if you change it to 2?

And what about 3?

Much better, right? Just remember that the higher the number, the more faces your
model will have. Fewer faces are generally for performance, but your model also
needs to look good, so you need to find a perfect balance to achieve both a good
appearance and an efficient number of faces.
For this example, I will set it to 3.
Now, switch to edit mode, and inset a new face on the bottom with “I”.

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If you encounter the same issue I did– where you can’t see what you’re selecting
because of the subdivision modifier
just click here and you will switch off modifier in the viewport (everything in object and
edit mode is your viewport). You haven't applied or removed the modifier; you’ve just
temporarily hidden it so you can easily see what you are doing.
To disable it, just click on this third “screen” icon

and now you can see what you are doing.

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So let’s finally inset a new face on the bottom with “I”.

And one more time.

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Now you can turn on the subdivision modifier again so you can see how your plate
looks.

Now click “M” and merge at center.

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Bottom of plate is finished,

Now go to the top of the plate.

You can switch off the modifier again in the viewport so you can see what you are
doing.

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Select the top face and make an inset with “I”.

And do that two more times.

Now you can turn on the subdivision modifier again so you can see how your plate
looks. Now click “M” and merge at center.

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In the end switch to object mode.

Click RMB and choose Shade smooth to smooth your object.

You have a plate!

We will stop here now, but next time you will learn about texturing and modeling a
cake.
I hope you enjoyed learning with me.

Oh before I forget, I finally started my Youtube serials for Beginners in Blender based
on this guide, and you can check out the first episode on this link if you are
interested.
https://youtu.be/vpV8H6Xc93Q

Thank you for all downloads, ratings and support.

Wish you happy Blending!
Byeee!
See you next time!

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Chapter 16 - Let’s model a cake

Now, you have a plate.
It is time to add a cake.
Position the 3D cursor on the plate by clicking “SHIFT+RMB” on the place you want
to add your next object

or if you want to do it more precisely, switch to the edit mode with “TAB”.
Select the faces where you want to your 3D cursor to be

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Press “SHIFT+S” to get this pie menu

and choose Cursor to selected.

Now your 3D cursor is in the middle of a plate.

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Switch back to object mode and add a new object.

This time you will add a cylinder because it's the best shape for making a cake out
of.
Click “SHIFT+A” —> add Mesh —> Cylinder.

Scale it with “S” until you think it is the perfect size for the cake.

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Move it up with “G+Z” and apply scale with “CTRL+A” — apply Scale.

You want to have your cake on the plate, right?

So it is time to teach you something called SNAP.
Select the object you want, in this case cylinder, and turn on snap tool by clicking
where the arrow is pointing
or simply turn it on (and off) by pressing “SHIFT+TAB”.

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Now move it down along the Z-axis and place the mouse on the face to which you
want it to snap and confirm it with the LMB.

You can snap to the face, vertex, edge and much more. I will show you more
examples of snapping in the future, but for now, learn at least face snapping. So be
sure that for a snap target is selected the face before you snap.

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Now you can switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Change the view to the top orthographic with 7 on the numpad or click on this blue Z
in the top right corner.

Select vertices as shown

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and join them with “J”.

Select the other two vertices

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and joined them again with “J”.

Select these two vertices and join them with “J”.

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Turn on X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”so you can select all vertices.
Select this left part,

and delete vertices with an “X”.

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Repeat previous steps until you get this.

I just realized that I didn’t teach you about moving the view until now. So let’s correct
that because you will need it in the next step.

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MOVING THE VIEW

If you want to zoom in something, you scroll your mouse wheel up.

If you want to zoom it out, scroll your mouse wheel down.

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When you are holding the mouse wheel, and moving the mouse you can see all
different views.

If you are holding “SHIFT+mouse wheel” you can move the view without rotating the
object.
You can also zoom in/out the view if you click where the arrow is pointing and hold
LMB while moving the mouse up or down.

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You can also move the view if you click where the arrow is pointing and hold LMB
while moving the mouse around.

Now you can move on with the cake.

After you delete all those vertices, move the camera while holding the mouse wheel
and delete those vertices with “X” as well.

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Select all with “A”.

And extrude it down along the Z-axis with “E+Z”.

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Switch to object mode with “TAB” and turn off X-ray with “ALT+Z.

Position the 3D cursor with “SHIFT+RMB” to the bottom of the cake as it is shown.

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Go to object —> set origin —> origin to 3d cursor.

And you will see that the origin is moved where the 3D cursor is.

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Click on the wrench icon and then add a modifier.

Add modifier —> generate —> Bevel.

Change Amount to around 0.021 and segments to around 3. (You can change those
as you want. Adjust the numbers as you think it would look the best).

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Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Switch from selecting vertices to selecting faces with 3 and select those faces.

And now you are encountering something new and useful again - duplicating faces.
If you press “SHIFT+D” you can duplicate the face.

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So press it to duplicate selected faces. You want those duplicated faces at the exact
same position as they were so just click RMB to return it to the original position.

Click “ALT+E” and choose Extrude Faces Along Normals.

Last time, I think I didn’t mention about Even thickness off and on.

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You can see that currently after you started extruding along normals, cake shape is a
bit off.

Because Even thickness is turned off, this happens.

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To turn on Even thickness, either press S (for turning it off and on) or hold ALT.
And this is the result after turning on Even thickness.

Much better, right?

Now you can extrude your cake as much as you want.

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Select this part of the cake by showing your pointer somewhere on the inside part of
the cake and then click “L” for linked.

Click “CTRL+R” to add loops to that part of the cake.

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Scroll the mouse wheel how many loop cuts you want to add. In this case, I added 4
loop cuts.

Click LMB to confirm the number and then ESC or RMB to center them.

It is time to learn some basics about adding materials to the objects.

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ADDING MATERIALS TO THE OBJECTS

If you want to add material to your objects,click where the arrow is pointing - Material
properties.

Switch to a rendered view so you can see all materials that you add.

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I don’t want to bother you with adding light for now, so just click here and turn off the
Scene world. This will do for a start.

Before you add materials,let’s rename your objects.

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So instead of a cube and cylinder,you can rename it to the plate and cake.
Double click with the LMB on the object that you want to rename. When letters look
like this, type your new name.

Try to rename your objects from the start because it will be much easier to work like
that and you will save yourself a lot of time.
Now you can add a material.

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Select this part with “L”.

Click this + to add a new material slot.

Click Assign to assign material to the selected face.

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Click “NEW” to add new material.

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Choose the base color as desired. I chose yellow.

Switch to selecting faces with 3. Press “ALT” and select this first loop.

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While holding “SHIFT+ALT,” select two other loops.

Click + again to add a new material slot, assign, and new.

Choose the base color as desired. I chose a lighter shade of yellow.

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Switch to object mode. Select the cake. Turn on snap. Make sure that for a snap
target is selected the face before you snap.
Click “G+Z” and snap it to the plate.

Change the view to the top orthographic with 7 on the numpad.

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Duplicate the cake with “SHIFT+D” click “ESC” or RMB to return it to the original
position.
Click “R” and rotate it as you want. When you decide your new position for a piece of
cake, confirm it with the LMB.

It is time to learn a new fun trick.

If you want to repeat the same action again, you don’t need to duplicate and rotate it
again, but just click “SHIFT+R” to repeat this step with as many pieces as you want
to create.

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Congratulations! You just made your 3D cartoony cake!

I think it is time to learn how to render.

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Chapter 17 - Let’s learn how to render

Go to render properties, and switch from Render engine Eevee to Cycles.

Also if you have a good graphics card, you can switch from CPU to GPU.

Turn on the viewport denoise to get rid of the noise and make things easier for the
eyes.

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Add camera.

Click on the camera icon.

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Click “N” to open the sidebar, go to view, and turn on camera to view.

Now you can adjust the view far or close by scrolling up or down the mouse wheel,
and rotating the view while pressing the mouse wheel and moving the mouse left or
right.

If you want to move the whole camera, hold “SHIFT” and press the mouse wheel
while moving the mouse up or down.

Change samples in render to 512 or even 256, because there is no need for 4096
samples in this case.

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When you are satisfied with it, turn off the camera to view, click Render, and render
the image.

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Congratulations! You just made your first render 🙂

If you'd like, you can send me your cake renders along with your social media
handle. I'll share them later on my social media and YouTube channel when I make
videos about cake modeling.
Send all your works to skolar7@gmail.com

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Chapter 18 - Your first animation

This part, at which the arrow is pointing, is called the timeline.
And those numbers are frame numbers.
We can animate objects in different ways.
Today I will show you one of the easiest ways in my opinion - animating by changing
the location of the object.
Your goal will be to get your pieces of cakes, to fall down from the air, straight onto
the plate.

So how to do that?

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First, select all pieces of your cake and move them up with “G+Z”.
I moved them like this.

Before starting to insert any keyframes, make sure that your blue pointer(also known
as scrubber) is positioned on 1.
There are some cases when you will need to position it on 0 or even negative
numbers like in cases when you want to have animation of falling snow, but I will
explain that in later chapters. It can also be positioned on 2,5,10, etc.
Depending from which frame you want your animation to start, insert the keyframe to
that location.

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In my animation, I want my first piece of cake to start to fall from the first frame, so
that is why I positioned the scrubber there. After you position the scrubber, select the
first piece of cake.

Because this is your starting location, you want to keyframe that location for the first
piece on the 1st frame.
Click “K” (in previous Blender versions it was “I” so don’t let that confuse you if you
are using older Blender versions) and choose Location from “Insert Keyframe
Menu.”

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This means that your animation will start on the 1st frame and that location of your
first cake piece will be up in the air.
!ATTENTION! In Blender version 4.2 (the one that I am using currently), if you click
“I” you will insert at the same time location, rotation and scale. Even if you do it like
that, it is not a mistake but it’s lots of unnecessary data since we’re not animating
neither rotation nor scale.
In this example I am not planning on doing any of that, I will just move the cake down
on the plate, so this is why I inserted only the location.!ATTENTION!

You know that the keyframe is inserted when this orange/yellow rhombus appears on
your timeline.

Now drag the blue scrubber from the first frame and move it to the frame you want
your piece to be on the plate.
I want my first piece on the plate on the 30th frame. So I will move the scrubber
there.

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If you want your pieces of cake to fall slower, you will make your second keyframe
further from the first one. If you want them to fall quicker, you will make your second
keyframe closer to the first keyframe (like on the 10th frame or 15th or something like
that).
Play around with this so you can understand better what I mean.

Now when you position the scrubber, make sure that your first piece is selected.
As I said, I want it on the plate.
So to position it correctly, turn on snap and snap it to the plate. Then keyframe the
location with “K” and choose the location.
Because your final location is the plate, you are finished with animating the first piece
and you can now move to the second piece of the cake.

My previous animation ended on the 30th keyframe. I want that my piece of cake
starts to fall immediately after the first piece lands down onto the plate.
If you don’t want that, just start with some further frame like 35,50… depending how
much of a delay you want.

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To have your piece falling, without delay, select the second piece of the cake, position
the scrubber to the 30th keyframe (you are positioning it to the keyframe that was the
ending keyframe in your previous animation),and again, press K and keyframe the
location.

Now drag the blue scrubber from the 30th frame and move it to the frame you want
your piece to be on the plate.
I want my second piece on the plate on the 60th frame. So I will move the scrubber
there.
If you want your pieces to fall with the same speed, you will always make sure that
the distance between the frames are the same (30-60-90-120..). That is why my
second keyframe is on the 60th frame.

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Now when you position the scrubber, make sure that your second piece is selected.
Snap it to the plate. Then keyframe the location.

If you click where the arrow is pointing, you will be automatically moved to the first
frame. Now click either play button or “SPACEBAR” to start your animation.
The same way is to stop the animation.

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If your animation looks good to you, you can continue with the next piece of cake.

If you want your animation to be a bit quicker, you can do it easily in this way.
Select rhombus from the second frame (in my case 60th frame) and just drag it
where you want it to be instead.
You can check your animation again,and if you are satisfied with it, you can move to
the next piece of the cake.
When you select any piece, you will see that you have only one keyframe. It is
because inserted keyframes are only showing for pieces that are currently selected.

It is time for the next piece of the cake. You will do the same thing.
Select the third piece of the cake, position the scrubber to the 60th keyframe.

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Keyframe the location.

Move the scrubber to the frame you want your piece to be on the plate.In my case
that is the 90th frame. Snap the piece to the plate. Keyframe the location to the 90th
frame.

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I think you now understand how to do it for the rest of the cake.
Try to do it by yourself until the end, and I will continue to explain so you can check
out the final result and correct it if you make any mistakes.

Fourth piece of the cake is coming. Select it. Keyframe the location to the 90th frame.
Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your fourth piece to be on the plate. I
will select the 120th frame.
Now snap the piece to the plate, and keyframe the location to the selected frame
(120th frame in my case).

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If you want to move the timeline to see more numbers, just move it by clicking LMB
where the arrow is pointing while moving the mouse.

You can also zoom in and out by scrolling the mouse wheel up and down.

Time for the fifth piece.

Select it. Keyframe the location to the 120th frame.
Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your fifth piece to be on the plate. I
will select the 150th frame.
Now snap the piece to the plate, and keyframe the location to the selected frame
(150th frame in my case).

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Time for the sixth piece.

Select it. Keyframe the location to the 150th frame.

Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your sixth piece to be on the plate. I
will select the 180th frame.
Now snap the piece to the plate, and keyframe the location to the selected frame
(180th frame in my case).

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Time for the seventh piece.

Select it. Keyframe the location to the 180th frame.
Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your seventh piece to be on the
plate. I will select the 210th frame.
Now snap the piece to the plate, and keyframe the location to the selected frame
(210th frame in my case).

Time for the eighth piece.

Select it. Keyframe the location to the 210th frame.
Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your eighth piece to be on the plate.
I will select the 240th frame.

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Now snap the piece to the plate, and keyframe the location to the selected frame
(240th frame in my case).

Time for the ninth and last piece.

Select it. Keyframe the location to the 240th frame.
Move the scrubber to the frame where you want your ninth piece to be on the plate. I
will select the 270th frame. Keyframe the location.

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Even if you can add a keyframe to that frame, if you start animation, your animation
will go only until 250 frames.
To add more frames, just change this number “END” to some higher number.

I will change it to 600.

Now you have more frames.

If you start your animation again, you will have enough frames to play your entire
animation.

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So just after you finish your whole animation, like you did just now, change the end to
the number of your last frame. In this case to the 270.

Your animation is finished! You can start it again to check if everything is good.
If you are satisfied, you can render it.
If you don’t know how to render animation yet, don’t worry. I will cover that in detail
next time.
—---------------------------------------------------
I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I just wanted to say that I am so grateful for all
likes, reposting, commenting, downloads, ratings and even donations! Also, I know
that my YouTube subscribers also increased thanks to all of you, so I am grateful
from the bottom of my heart!
I never expected that much positive feedback and support from everyone!
Also, I often see comments about “not giving me anything in return” you are wrong,
you already gave me more than enough. Your comments, likes, subscriptions,
reposting or even just the fact that I helped you or made you learn Blender again is
more than enough for me.
I wanted to write a longer chapter, but this week went so fast, so I didn’t have time for
more stuff! I will try to make a longer chapter in the next update!

Thank you once again for all the support and love!
Happy Blending and see you next week 🙂
p.s. I am planning to start discord channel soon, probably at the end of August, but I
will make an update about it in the guide and on my social media, so don’t worry.

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Chapter 19 - Rendering your first

animation
Add camera.

Click on the camera icon.

Click “N” to open the sidebar, go to view, and turn on camera to view.

Now you can adjust the view as you already learned.

Before doing anything else, first adjust the render animation settings.

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Go to render properties.

and change render samples to 512 or even 256.

The important thing to remember is that less samples means less quality, but shorter
rendering time. This is just an example so that is why I am putting that low number of
samples.

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You can change the render resolution to 1024x1024, 1920x1080 or whatever else fits
your needs. This is entirely up to you and your wishes.

I will leave it 1920x1080.

Frame rate is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured
or displayed. It is mostly expressed in frames per second or fps.

The more fps an animation has, the smoother it is but that also comes at a cost of
rendering times (because you have to render out more frames per length of
animation) and also increased file size.

Change frame rate from 24 fps to 30 fps.

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Start and End on the left is the same as Frame Start and End on the right and they
are both changing at the same time so you don’t need to change anything there.

Go to output - a place where your animation will be saved.

Click on folder on the right

and when you choose where you want to save your animation click accept.

For example, I want it here.

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Next part is choosing a file format.

There are different options, but I will explain two most common ones for now.

You can either render your animation as an Image (jpeg, png, bmp…) or a Movie
(FFmpeg vide)

So what is the difference?

If you are rendering your animation as an Image that means you will get a picture for
each frame, and you will need to connect them together in Blender image sequencer
(or any other video editor).

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What are some pros for rendering as an Image?

● you can stop and continue your renders at any moment

● you can fix the animation more easily if something is wrong on a

few frames by just rendering those frames again

● you have more control in general over your animation

● increased video quality

What are some cons for rendering as an Image?

● there is some work that has to be done after the animation has been
rendered (turning all the separate frames into a video using a sequencer)

● depending on the file type, folder size can grow very large

If you are rendering your animation as a Movie ( “FFmpeg video”) that means you will
get one video for the whole animation, and you won’t need to connect it together.

What are some pros for rendering as a Movie?

● it is much quicker

● not much work afterwards if you aren’t doing any compositing in

third party software

What are some cons for rendering as a Movie?

● you can’t stop and continue your renders at a whim

● if something goes wrong with the animation during the rendering

process, you usually have to start all over again and you can end up
losing hours or potentially days of progress

● you have less control in general over your animation

This time, I will render it as a Movie.

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When you choose that option, you will get new options such as Encoding.

Open the container.

and choose MPEG-4 (.mp4).

Change the output quality to High Quality if you have a good computer and graphics
card. Otherwise choose medium quality or less.

This is just for practice so you don’t need to render your animation in the highest
quality. But in the future, if you have an important project, you will probably need to
render it in higher quality even if it will take a lot longer to render.

You will probably use other options as well, but you will learn more about them in the
future lessons and through practice.

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Those were basic rendering settings. Now you can go back to preparing your render
scene.

Add a plane as a background so your cake isn’t just floating in the air(unless that is
what you want).

Shift+A -> Mesh -> Plane

Turn on the camera to view

and scale the plane according to the camera view.

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Something like this.

Now you can switch to edit mode to extrude the plane and bevel it so it looks even
better.

Extrude that edge behind the cake along the Z-axis.

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Select this middle loop

and bevel it with “CTRL+B” while scrolling the mouse wheel to add more segments.

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If it’s necessary, select all with “A” and scale the plane more along the y-axis.

Switch to object mode, select the plane -> RMB -> shade smooth.

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Start your animation again and check if everything is ok with the camera angle.

I want it to be like this, so I won’t change anything.

You can switch now again to Rendered view and see if you can do anything to make
your render better.

For example, I want my plane to be some different color, so I will change it.

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Select plane, go to material properties, click New.

Rename material to “Background” or anything you want.

And choose the base color to any color you like.

If you are satisfied, click Render - Render animation and just wait until it’s finished.
Depending on your settings it can take a while but since it’s a simple little animation it
shouldn’t take that long.

That is it! Now you know how to make a plate with a cake and animate it.

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Chapter 20 - Modeling a book

Time to practice modeling and texturing more.
This time you will learn how to model and texture a book in Blender.
Let’s start!
This time you will not delete the cube, but you will use it from the start because you
are modeling a book, and the most similar shape to the book is a cube.

Select the cube with the left mouse button (LMB) and click “S+Z” to scale it along the
Z-axis.

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After that, scale it once more but this time with “S+Y” along the Y-axis.

You can adjust its thickness, and size more by scaling it along the y and z-axis if
necessary.
Click “CTRL+A” and apply scale.
IMPORTANT!
You are doing this because if you do not apply the scale when you enter the edit
mode the object will behave relative to its original size despite it visually being
different.
So it will neither scale nor move properly within the edit mode.
You should always apply scale unless your object mode edit of the object is
supposed to be temporary.
If you haven’t applied your scale/location/rotation you can always press ALT+S/G/R
to reset it to the original shape.

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Switch from object mode to edit mode with “TAB” so you can add and edit some
geometry.
You want to add some loop cuts. I want to have 6 loops (you can have less or more),
so I will scroll the mouse wheel up 6 times and confirm it with LMB.
You want these loop cuts to be centered so click the right mouse button (RMB) to
keep it centered.

Switch from selecting vertices to selecting faces with 3.

Select this face with LMB

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rotate the scene by holding the pressed mouse wheel, and hold “SHIFT”

and select this face with LMB.

It is time to learn a new tool -> proportional editing.

Proportional editing is used to edit nearby vertices proportionally to the distance from
the selected vertex, edge, or face.
The nearer something is to the selected vertex, the more it will be influenced by your
edit.
So if you have a grid of vertices, selecting one and moving it will also affect nearby
vertices depending on how near they are to the selection.

Let me show you so you can understand what I am talking about.

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Turn on the proportional editing with “O” or by clicking here.

Click “G+Y” to move faces as shown along the Y-axis.

While scrolling the mouse wheel up, the area of influence becomes bigger, and when
scrolling the mouse wheel down, the area of influence becomes smaller.
So you need in this case to scroll it down a bit.
Play around a bit with proportional editing.

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You don’t need to make it exactly as I did; this is just to show you one of the ways to
do it. So scale it differently, and experiment; that way, you will learn the fastest.
Turn off the proportional editing with “O” or by clicking here.

Click “A” to select everything and move the book to the right with “G+Y” along the
Y-axis back to the middle.

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Select this front face with LMB,

and while holding “CTRL” select the rest of the faces as I did.

Now click “ALT+E”, choose extrude faces along normals, and move your mouse up to
extrude it outward or down to extrude it inward. In this case, move your mouse up.

If you want to have even thickness on the whole book,turn on even thickness by
pressing “S”.

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With this, you added more geometry to the book.

Click on this edge and press “ALT” to select this whole loop.

Again, click “ALT+E”, choose extrude faces along normals, and move your mouse up
to extrude outward.Again click S to turn on even thickness.

Switch to the object mode with “TAB”.

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Click the right mouse button (RMB) and choose Shade auto smooth.

This is used to visually get rid of sharp corners based on the angle wherever they're
not needed.

Switch from object mode to edit mode with “TAB”.

Select this face with LMB

and then move your mouse pointer to the face that you want,

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and press CTRL to select all from first to this face.

Press and hold “SHIFT” to select faces on this side without deselecting faces that you
selected previously.

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Release “SHIFT” and again with LMB move your mouse pointer to the face that you
want, and press CTRL to select all from first to this face.

Rotate to this side by holding a pressed mouse wheel, and do the same as you did
previously to select all faces on that side.
Now click “Y” to split off selected geometry from connected unselected geometry.

if you move inside faces, you will realize that they are separated now from the book
cover.

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Add loop cuts again with “CTRL+R”.

Add one on the top - here,

and one on the bottom - here.

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Now select this whole loop cut with “ALT”

and while holding “SHIFT” select this bottom loop with “ALT” as well.

You want to align both of them with the Y axis and you will do that with “S+Y+0” and
confirm it with the LMB.

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Now move them to the left along the Y-axis with “G+Y”.

Again add two more loops

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and repeat everything you did in the previous step.

Now add two loop cuts between those two loops with “CTRL+R”

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and click “ESC” to keep them centered.

Switch to selecting faces with 3.

Select this face with LMB

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and then move your mouse pointer to the face that you want,and click CTRL to select
all from first to this face.

Rotate to this side by holding a pressed mouse wheel, press “SHIFT” , move your
mouse pointer to the face that you want, and click CTRL to select all from first to this
face.

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Click “S+Z” and scale it down along the Z-axis.

Switch to the object mode with “TAB”.

Click on modifiers.
Add modifier - generate - bevel.

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If you are modeling in Blender 4.2 like I do, you will already have one more modifier
before you add bevel.
It is called Smooth by angle.
It is automatically added when you add shade auto smooth so don’t worry, it is just a
new thing in Blender.

Change bevel segments to 3 or any other number that looks the best to you.

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Until now you have been in solid mode. Now you will switch to the Rendered mode
so you can add lights and materials and see how your book looks with proper
lighting.
You already learned how to adjust render properties to Cycles, how to switch to GPU,
and turn on denoise, so I won’t repeat that.
Select the point light that is already in your scene.

If you deleted it, just go to Add → light → point.

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Move it with “G+Y” to the right along the Y-axis.

Duplicate it with “SHIFT+D” and move to the left with “Y”.

Select the first light again, and duplicate it with “SHIFT+D”.

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This time move it with “X” along the X-axis.

Select the book.

Click on the material and rename it to Book_covers.

Click + and new once again to add the second material.

Rename this one to Book_pages.

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Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Move your mouse pointer to the pages and Click “L” to select linked pages.

Selecting linked just means that you can select a group of vertices based on a seam,
material or normals.
Select BookPages in the material part and click assign.

Now you assigned that material to the book pages.

Switch to object mode with “TAB”.
This time I will stop here because there is a bit more complicated texturing part and I
want you to learn it slowly, step by step and not to feel overwhelmed.
For those who still want to learn more or just follow this tutorial in the form of a video,
you can check out this tutorial on my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onF5s2bXhZ0&t=2s

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I hope you enjoyed the new chapters! I tried to write as much as I can so you can
learn a lot of new stuff.

Again, I am so grateful for all likes, reposting, commenting, downloads, ratings and
donations! My YouTube subscribers are coming closer and closer to 1000, so thank
you to all who subscribed!

Thank you once again for everything! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me
on my social media. I am working on my Discord channel and I hope I will share a
link to it in the next update of a guide.

You can also subscribe here to my Gumroad newsletters. Still trying to figure out how
exactly that works, but I think you can get an email each time when I update the
guide or post something on the Gumroad.

Happy Blending and see you next week 🙂

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Chapter 21 - Texturing a book

Place the cursor on the upper side of the screen as shown, and when you see plus,

just pull it down to the left while holding the left mouse click.

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Open the shader editor in the window you just created.

Click “N” to hide that sidebar on the right because you don’t need it.

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Select Book_covers material.

What you are currently seeing are two nodes: Principled BSDF shader node and
Material Output node.
Before anything else, let me first explain what are parts of nodes.

The title shows the name/type of the node.

Sockets are input and output values for the node. They appear as little colored circles
on either side of the node.
Properties are settings which can affect the way they interact with inputs and outputs.

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I will now explain in detail the Principled BSDF shader - Physically- based,
easy-to-use shader for rendering surface materials, based on the OpenPBR model.
That is the official definition of it, but let’s try to understand it better with real
examples.

You can change the color of the material by changing the Base Color.

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Or here like you already did it previously.

It is exactly the same thing, so when you change the base color in the shader it will
also be changed there. You can also change other options like Metallic, IOR, etc…
The second option that you see in the Principled BSDF shader is Metallic.

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When metallic is on 0, that means that it is turned off. If you want something to be not
metallic, you need to put it just to zero.

As you can see this book isn’t metallic.

But if you change metallic to the 1 it suddenly becomes metallic.

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Of course you can also make variations between 0 and 1. So if you want your object
to be slightly metallic, you will put it closer to 0,

and if you want it to have a strong metallic color, you will put it closer to 1.

The third option that you see in the Principled BSDF shader is Roughness.

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It is the same case as it was with a metallic. If roughness is 0, the object isn’t rough
but it is a perfect mirror reflection.

If the roughness is 1 then the object is completely rough.

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The fourth option that you see in the Principled BSDF shader is IOR.
IOR or index of refraction for specular reflection and transmission.
For most materials, the IOR is between 1.0 (vacuum and air) and 4.0 (germanium).
The default value of 1.5 is a good approximation for glass.

The fifth option that you see in the Principled BSDF shader is Alpha.
With Alpha you control transparency of the surface.

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If alpha is 1.0 then it is fully opaque.

If alpha is 0.0 then it is fully transparent.

I wanted to explain just the basic stuff for the start, so I won’t explain any of those
without a real example.

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The second thing that is important is the material Output node.

The only thing that is currently important here is Surface.

If you want to show your material, then you have to connect the Principled BSDF
output socket - BSDF to the Material input socket - Surface.

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They are automatically connected when you create material, but if you accidentally
delete it, this will happen.

And how do you disconnect the sockets?

Hold CTRL and RMB and a knife will appear. Then just disconnect the sockets by
cutting the line with a knife.

and you will get this.

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And what if you want to connect the sockets?

Put your mouse pointer on the output socket that you want to connect and this line
will appear.

Now just drag it to the input socket that you want to connect with.

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How to add a new node?

If you click here on this Add

you will see all nodes grouped (input, output, color converter…)
So for example if you want to add one more Principled BSDF shader node, you click:
ADD → Shader → Principled BSDF.

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You can also add them by dragging from the socket with a mouse and a new window
appears where you can search for a node that you want to add. So just type the
name, and confirm with LMB.

One more thing before you learn new nodes, to move around the node territory, just
use the mouse wheel and hold it while moving the mouse, and if you want to zoom in
or zoom out, scroll the mouse wheel up or down.

Now you can finally continue with texturing a book.

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The first node that you will add after those two that you already had is a Voronoi
texture.

Voronoi texture generates Worley noise based on the distance to random points.

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Connect Color from Voronoi texture with Base Color from Principled BSDF and
you will get this.

Click on Vector from Voronoi texture and connect with Vector from Mapping.

Mapping node transform the input vector by applying translation, rotation and scale.

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When you connect those two vectors, the voronoi texture loses its function because
you need to add one more node.

Connect Vector from Mapping to Object from Texture Coordinate.

Texture Coordinate node retrieve multiple types of texture coordinates. Typically

used as inputs for texture nodes. Because you don’t have a real image texture (PBR
material) but procedural material (made procedurally with nodes) you connect the
vector with an object input socket.

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Change Scale in Voronoi texture from 5

to somewhere around 60. As you can see by changing the scale to a smaller number,
you got more little details on your book cover. If you change it to a larger number
those details would be bigger.

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Connect Color from Voronoi texture with Height from Bump.

Bump node generate a perturbed normal from a height texture for bump mapping.

It is typically used for faking highly detailed surfaces, like for example book cover in
this case.

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Connect Normal from Bump with Normal from Principled BSDF.

Click and hold “CTRL” and while holding RMB cut that yellow line that connects Color
with Base color.

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Change feature output in Voronoi texture from F1

to Smooth F1.

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F1 computes the distance to the closest point as well as its position and color.

Smooth F1 is a smoothed version of F1.

Change strength in Bump from 1

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to somewhere around 0.370 to make the bump less noticeable.

and distance to somewhere around 0.180 to reduce the overall distance of the bump.

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Connect Base Color from Principled BSDF with Pointiness from Geometry to
create some edge highlights on the book.

Add Converter -Color Ramp and put it between Geometry and Principled BSDF.

It will automatically connect what needs to be connected.

Click on the first color of the color ramp and move it to more to the right.

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Click on the second color of the color ramp and move it more to the left.

Change strength in Bump to somewhere around 0.085.

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Click on the second color of the color ramp to set your edge color.

I chose a pale orange color.

You can then change the first color of the color ramp to set the overall color of the
book. For this I chose darker brown.

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You can play around with those colors and make your book look like whatever you
want.

Add texture - noise texture.

Noise texture generates fractal Perlin noise.

Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise developed by Ken Perlin in 1983.

It has many uses, including but not limited to: procedurally generating terrain,
applying pseudo-random changes to a variable, and assisting in the creation of
image textures.
It is most commonly implemented in two, three, or four dimensions, but can be
defined for any number of dimensions. (source:wikipedia)

Connect Fac from Noise texture with Roughness from Principled BSDF.

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Change detail of the noise from 2

to 15 or similar

and scale to 3.

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Change Scale in Voronoi texture from 65 to something similar to 75.

Change strength in Bump to somewhere around 0.050.

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Click on Sheen in Principled BSDF and change weight from 0

to somewhere around 0.240. This will give the book a nice dusty look.
You can use sheen for all kinds of stuff, like adding dust such as in this case or giving
a material such as fabric or peach skin an illusion of having a bunch of tiny hairs.

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Select the second material BookPages.

Add texture - Wave texture.

Wave texture generates procedural bands or rings with noise.

Connect Color from Wave texture with Base Color from Principled BSDF.

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Click on Vector from Wave texture and connect with Vector from Mapping.

Connect Vector from Mapping to Object from Texture Coordinate.

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Change Rotation of Y in Mapping to 90 degrees so your pages are correctly rotated.

Change scale in Wave texture from 5

to somewhere around 70 so your pages look better.

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Connect Fac from Wave texture with Height from Bump. Nothing has changed with
how the book looks because you still didn’t connect the output socket Normal from
node Bump.

Connect Normal from Bump with Normal from Principled BSDF. You can already
see a difference, but as you can see the color has become a bit darker. To change
that you need to do the next step.

Click and hold “CTRL” and while holding RMB cut that yellow line that connects
Color from Wave texture with Base color from Principled BSDF.

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Add Converter -Color Ramp and put it between Wave texture and Bump.

Click on the first color of the color ramp and change it to gray.

Add input-ambient occlusion. Ambient occlusion computes how much the

hemisphere above the shading point is occluded. Be careful if you have a slower
computer, and think about it should you add it because your render time might slow
down significantly.

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Connect Color from Ambient occlusion with Fac from new Color ramp node.

It still doesn’t work because output sockets from the color ramp aren’t connected to
anything.

Connect Color from Color ramp with Base Color from Principled BSDF.

Click on the first color of the color ramp and move it to more to the right.

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Click + on the Color ramp

to add one more color. After you clicked the plus sign, the middle pointer appeared
for a new color.

Choose something light yellowish.

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Click on the third color picker of the color ramp and change to something light
yellowish as well.

Click on the camera icon.

Go to view, and turn on the camera to view.

Now you can adjust the view far or near by scrolling up or down the mouse wheel,
and rotating the view while pressing the mouse wheel and moving the mouse left or
right.

If you want to move the whole camera, hold “SHIFT” and press the mouse wheel
while moving the mouse up or down.

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When you are satisfied with it, turn off the camera to view, click Render, and render
the image.

That's it! Now you know how to model and texture a book in Blender.

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! I tried to explain it the best I can, but feel free to
ask if you don’t understand something.

Thank you once again for all the love and support for this guide and my YouTube
channel.
We passed 900 subscribers, so we are closer and closer to our main goal of 1000!
You can follow this whole chapter on YouTube as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onF5s2bXhZ0&t=2s

Happy Blending! Byee, see you next time 😀

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Chapter 21 - Modeling a hay bale

I decided to teach you how to model a hay bale because it is a good way to introduce
you to something new in Blender called particles.
So let’s begin with the modeling. (You can check out video tutorial on my YouTube
channel: https://youtu.be/fw8SMNxWnm8?si=GCreoaZfE1eH-ZhR)
Just as you did it while modeling a book, you won’t delete the cube, but you will use it
from the start because the most similar shape to the hay bale is a cube.
Until now, you didn’t do any modeling by dimensions, so this time I will teach you how
to do that. Those are the dimensions that I decided are the best for my 3D model of a
hay bale, but feel free to change the dimensions as you like.
Open the right sidebar with “N”, and choose “Item”.

Current dimensions of this cube are 2x2x2.

Change cube dimensions to x = 1 m, y = 1.5 m, z = 0.6 m (or anything else you think
is the best).

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As you have already learned, the scale must be 1, so click “CTRL+A” and apply
scale.

Before you start doing anything else, first rename your object to the name you like. I
will rename it to Hay_bale.

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Go to modifier properties and Add Modifier - Generate - Bevel.

Change segments to 3 (or any other number you think is the best).

Click the right mouse button and choose shade smooth.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB.”

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Click “CTRL+R” to add a loop.

Scroll the mouse wheel up to add one more loop. Click LMB to confirm the number
and then ESC or RMB to center them.

Scale them along the X-axis to the inside with “S+X.”

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Rotate the view to the other side and add two more loops. Click LMB to confirm the
number and then ESC or RMB to center them.

Scale them along the Y-axis to the inside with “S+Y.”

Now add two more loops inside.Click LMB to confirm the number and then ESC or
RMB to center them.

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Scale them along the Y-axis to the inside with “S+Y.”

Rotate the view to the other side and add two more loops. Click LMB to confirm the
number and then ESC or RMB to center them.

This time, when scaling, scale along the x-axis with “S+X.”

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Switch from selecting edges to selecting faces with “3.”

Choose the whole loop with “ALT+ LMB.”

While holding the mouse wheel rotate the view. Hold “SHIFT” and choose the other
loop with “ALT+LMB.”

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Scale them down with “S”.

Duplicate them with “SHIFT+D” and press the RMB to return them back to the
previous position.

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Click “P” selection to make a new separated object out of it.

Switch to object mode with “TAB.”

Select the new object and scale it up a bit with “S”.

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Change the render engine to cycles and the device to GPU if your graphic card is
better than the processor.

Also, turn on denoise in the viewport.

Switch to rendered mode.

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Select the Bale, go to the modifiers - bevel. Click on this dropdown menu and select
Apply. When you do that your bevel modifier is applied to your object and you can’t
modify it anymore.

PARTICLES
Particles are lots of items emitted from mesh objects, typically in the thousands. Each
particle can be a point of light or a mesh, and be joined or dynamic. They may react
to many different influences and forces, and have the notion of a lifespan. Dynamic
particles can represent fire, smoke, mist, and other things such as dust or magic
spells.

Hair type particles are a subset of regular particles. Hair systems form curves that
can represent hair, fur, grass and bristles.

(source: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/physics/particles/introduction.html)

I copied this definition from the official Blender manual because it is the best
explanation. Now I will show you a real example of what particles are.

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Go to Particle Properties

and click on + to add a new ParticleSystem.

Here you will see two options: Emitter and Hair.

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If you choose an emitter, particles are emitted from the object.

If you choose the hair, particles are rendered as strands.
Because I want the second option, I will choose Hair.

As you can see the hair length is too long so I will change the Hair Length from 4m
to 0.03m. (You decide which length works best for you).

I want to have more strands so I will change the number from 1000 to 5000.

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Now scroll down a bit, and go to hair shape.

Change Tip from 0 to 1m (With this option you are changing the strand diameter
width at the tip.)

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And uncheck - close tip because you want that your radius tip is zero.

Go to Children.
Children are Hair or Emitter particles originating from individual particles. They make
it possible to work primarily with a relatively low amount of Parent particles, for whom
the physics are calculated. The children are then aligned to their parents. The
number and visualization of the children can be changed without a recalculation of
the physics.

If you activate children, the parents are no longer rendered. (source:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/physics/particles/emitter/children.html)

There are three types of children in Blender: None, Simple and Interpolated.
If you select none, there are no children generated.
If you select simple children are emitted from the parent position.
If you select interpolation children are emitted between the Parent particles on the
faces of a mesh.

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To show you on a real example this is Hay Bale when you choose none children

this is Hay Bale when you choose Simple children

this is Hay Bale when you choose Interpolated children

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In this case, the best is interpolated so switch from none to interpolated.

Go to Roughness

and change Roughness Endpoint to around 0.125.

Change the render amount from 100 to 10 because otherwise, your computer will
have a hard time while rendering.

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Chapter 22 - Texturing a hay bale

It’s time to texture a hay bale.
Firstly, if you already didn't, rename the second object to Hay_bale_plastic (or
something similar).

If you can’t see the plastic like in my case

scale it a bit with an “S”.

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Choose Hale_bale and go to Material Properties.

Rename material to Hay_bale.

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Select the Hay_bale_plastic and go to Material Properties.

Because you duplicated and separated the object in the beginning, they are sharing
the same material. This “2” is displaying the number of users of this data or to say it
more simply, it is showing the number of objects that have the same materials.
You don’t want to have the same material on Hay_bale object and Hay_bale_plastic
so you need to seperate them.
There are two ways to do that.
The first way to do it is to click on that number “2”. This way you made a new
separated material. Now you just need to rename it to something else,

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and that is all.

The second way is just to click minus, delete the material on Hay_bale_plastic

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Click “+” and add a new material and rename it to the Hay_bale_plastic. You can see
that number two disappeared because this material is only on one object.

Both are the correct ways so it is up to you to decide which one you want to use.
Change Base Color of material Hay_bale_plastic to black (or any other color you
want).

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Change Roughness to around 0.3

Select the Hay_bale.

Place the cursor on the upper side of the screen as shown, and when you see plus,

just pull it down to the left while holding the left mouse click.

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Open the shader editor in the window you just created.

Click “N” to hide that sidebar on the right because you don’t need it.

Connect Base Color from Principled BSDF with Color from Color Ramp. I added a
color ramp because I want to have some variations of more than one color and doing
that is the best with a color ramp.

Change the first color in Color Ramp to some combination of light brown and yellow.

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Change the second color in Color Ramp to some light yellow.

Connect FAC from Color Ramp with FAC from Noise Texture.

Connect VECTOR from Noise Texture with VECTOR from Mapping.

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Connect VECTOR from Mapping with OBJECT from Texture Coordinate.

Change Scale of Noise Texture to around 13.300.

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If you are satisfied with the color and look of your Hay Bale, select the camera, and
adjust it.

When you are satisfied, turn off the camera to view so you can move freely and not
lose your perfect rendering angle.

Place the cursor near the editing boundary, and right-click when you see the
double-sided arrow.

This time select join areas and press the left mouse button to confirm joining.

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Change samples in render to 512 because there is no need for 4096 samples in this
case.

And now you can render it.

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Congratulations! You’ve learned how to model and texture a hay bale in Blender!
I hope you enjoyed new chapters!
I didn’t have time to write new chapters last week, so I made up for it by writing two
chapters this week. I also have an exciting announcement!
I’ve created a Discord channel for all Blender users, where I’ll be very active and
share more about upcoming projects, tutorials, guide chapters, and much more.
In the channel, you’ll be able to share your current projects, promote your tutorials
and social media, suggest improvements for the guide, and more!
I hope to see you there soon!
I’m excited to connect with you, see your Blender progress, help with any questions
you might have, and even learn new things from you.
Happy Blending!
Byee, see you next time!
https://discord.gg/DrVsr8khtp

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Chapter 23 - Modeling and texturing of a

pumpkin
Since Halloween is approaching, I decided to teach you how to model and texture a
pumpkin in Blender.
Let's start with the modeling. (You can check out video tutorial on my YouTube
channel: https://youtu.be/s9HeDfgO6nU?si=C4KRc9KMnQ9IS5P)
This time, you will delete the cube because this basic shape isn't ideal for modeling a
pumpkin.
Delete the cube by pressing 'X'.

Add a mesh - UV Sphere.

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A new panel appeared in the bottom-left corner. This is how the sphere looks with 32
segments. Since you don’t need that much topology for a simple pumpkin model, you
can reduce the number of segments.

I changed it from 32 to 21.

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Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Select this top vertex

Move to the bottom of the pumpkin

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And while holding “CTRL” click the LMB on the bottom vertex to select the whole
loop.

Select every third loop. You can select additional loops by holding 'SHIFT' and
clicking 'CTRL' on the desired loop.

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When you selected all the loops

Turn on th proportional editing with “O”

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make the area of the influence smaller by scrolling the mouse wheel

and scale it with “S”.

Then scale it using 'S+Z' to make it look more like a pumpkin.

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Select only the top vertex

make the area of influence a bit bigger

and move it down a bit with “G+Z”.

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Select only the bottom vertex, and do the same.

Switch to object mode with “TAB” and rename the sphere to pumpkin.

Switch to Edit Mode by pressing 'TAB' and select the loop by holding 'ALT' and
clicking with the LMB.

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Duplicate it with “SHIFT+D” and move it up with “Z”.

Press “P” and choose separate collection.

Switch to object mode, select that separated part and rename it to “Stem.”

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Switch back to Edit Mode. Select the stem, then go to Select → Checker Deselect to
choose every second vertex.
Since you have an odd number of vertices, they won’t be evenly selected, but this
won’t affect the stem. In fact, the slight imperfections will make it look more realistic.

Scale it with “S”.

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Switch to the back orthographic view with “CTRL+1” on Numpad or click on the Y on
the Gizmo.

Select all with “A”.

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Extrude with “E”

Extrude it with “E” one more time.

Rotate with “R”

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and scale with “S.”

Turn off proportional editing with “O” and fill with an “F.”

Inset a new face with an “I”.

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And extrude inside with “E.”

Switch to object mode with “TAB” and select the Pumpkin.

Go to modifier properties. Add modifier → Generate → Subdivision subsurface.

Change Levels Viewport to 2.

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Click the RMB and choose shade smooth.

Select the Stem. Go to modifier properties. Add modifier → Generate → Subdivision

subsurface.

Change Levels Viewport to 2.

As you can see, something seems off with the stem. Do you remember what I told
you about face orientation? Let's go over it again, just in case.

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Click on overlays and turn on Face orientation.

Face orientation shows the direction in which the normals are facing.
The blue color indicates that the face is facing outward, while the red color indicates
it's facing inward.
Ideally, most of the mesh should appear blue rather than red, so you need to flip the
red faces to ensure all surfaces are facing the correct direction.
Switch to Edit Mode by pressing 'TAB' and select all by pressing 'A'.
Go to Mesh - Normals - Recalculate Outside.

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Switch to object mode with “TAB.”

Click on overlays and turn off Face orientation.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB.”

Add a loop with “CTRL+R” and move it up.

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Add one more loop and move it down.

Add loop once again and move it up as shown.

Choose the bottom loop while holding “ALT”+ LMB and scale it with “S” to the inside.

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Switch to object mode with “TAB.”

Move the Stem down along Z-axis with “G+Z.”

Click on the camera icon. Click “N” to open the right sidebar.

Choose view and turn on Camera to view.

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Adjust the camera. When you're satisfied, turn of camera to view to move freely
without losing your perfect rendering angle.

Switch to rendered mode.

Change the render engine to cycles and the device to GPU if your graphics card is
better than the processor. Also, turn on denoise in the viewport.

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Click Blue Z on the Gizmo or 7 on your keyboard for the view from the top.

Select the point light that you already had on the scene and duplicate it with
“SHIFT+D.” (If you deleted it, just go to Add → Light → Point.)
Move it with “G.”

Choose both lights and move them with “G” a bit if needed.

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Choose a second point light and duplicate it with “SHIFT+D.”

Move it with “G” as shown.

Click on the light icon on the right and change power to the 500.

Do the same for the second light.

Select the stem and go to the material properties.

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Click new and rename the material to Stem.

Select the Pumpkin and go to the material properties.

Click new and rename the material to Pumpkin.

Place the cursor on the upper side of the screen as shown, and when you see plus,

just pull it down to the left while holding the left mouse click.

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Open the shader editor in the window you just created.

Click “N” to hide that sidebar on the right because you don’t need it.

Add → Input → Geometry.

Connect Pointiness from Geometry with Fac from Color ramp to create some edge
highlights on the pumpkin.

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Connect Color from ColorRamp with Base Color from Principled BSDF.

Move the first color picker more to the right. Change the first color in Color ramp to
some brown.

Move the second color picker the left.

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Change the second color in Color ramp to light orange.

Adjust the colors more if necessary.

Select the stem. Add a Geometry. Connect Pointiness from Geometry with Fac from
Color ramp.

Connect Color from Color ramp with Base Color from Principled BSDF.

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Move the first color picker more to the right.

Right mouse click on the stem, shade smooth.

Change the first color in Color ramp to dark green.

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Move the second color picker more to the left.

Change the second color in Color ramp to llight green. And adjust any other color if
necessary.

If you like how your pumpkin looks, click Render and render image.
_______________________________________________

Congratulations! You’ve learned how to model and texture a Pumpkin in Blender!

I hope you enjoyed the new chapters! Thank you for supporting me on all social
media, joining my Discord channel, and leaving thoughtful reviews on my Blender
guide.
It means a lot to me!
I’ve decided to try something new this time!
I am organizing my first-ever 3D Blender challenge!
Anyone can join; the only condition is that your work must be created in Blender and
specifically for this challenge, so I will only accept new scenes.

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Name of the challenge: Halloween Scary Scene. It can be anything related to

Halloween! You can sculpt it, model it, or draw it with a grease pencil—the choice is
yours! :)
Length of the challenge: From 30th September to 31 October
Announcing winners: On 15th November on my Discord channel
Prizes:
1st Prize -You can choose a theme for one of my future tutorials or suggest a
chapter for the Blender guide. Additionally, you can select three models from my
Blender Market for free (only 3D models, not scenes or collections).
2nd Prize - You can choose a theme for one short timelapse video tutorial that I will
publish on my social media. You can also select two models from my Blender Market
for free (only 3D models not scenes or colections).
3th Prize - You can select two models from my Blender Market for free (only 3D
models not scenes or collections).
Everyone who sends their scenes will be promoted on my social media, along with
their social media handles (if they want to be).

I must add one rule: even if you suggest a theme for tutorials, I may refuse it if it is
too time-consuming or any other reason (for example, I am still not very good at
sculpting), or for similar reasons. I will definitely create some tutorials based on your
suggestions, but I will choose what I want to make.

When you submit your 3D scenes, please post your final submission along with a
clay render that includes your Discord name in 3D as proof that you really made it.

You will send your rendered scenes to my discord server https://discord.gg/nsFpr8KV

specially made for this challenge.
I am really looking forward to see your submissions. If you have any questions don’t
hesitate to ask in Discord.
Happy Blending!
Byee, see you next time!

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Chapter 24 - Modeling and texturing of a

bowl with a pasta
This time you will learn how to model and texture a bowl with a pasta with a
seasonings.

Let’s begin. (You can check out video tutorial on my YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/XGlf3eB3b-k?si=NL9s_h1Uq4P9CsN1)

Select the cube and delete it with “X”.

Add mesh-UV Sphere.

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Change view to right orthographic view with numpad 3 or click red X on the screen.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Turn on X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”.

Select the half of the sphere as shown and delete the vertices with “X”.

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Choose the bottom vertices as shown and delete them with “X” as well.

Choose all those bottom vertices and click “F” to fill the face.

Turn off X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”.

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Bevel it with “CTRL+B.”

For more segments scroll the mouse wheel up. I added 4 segments.

Select all with “A”.

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Click “ALT+E” and select extrude faces along normals.

Switch to selecting edges with 2.

Select edges as shown

and bevel them with “CTRL+B.”

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I added the 4 segments.

Switch to the object mode with “TAB”.

Click the right mouse button (RMB) and choose Shade auto smooth.

Change view to right orthographic with 3 on the numpad.

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Move the bowl up with “G+Z”.

Go to overlays and turn on face orientation.

It should be blue.

In case it is red switch to edit mode with TAB.

Select all with A.

Go to mesh - normals - recalculate outside. Now it is blue as it should be.

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Switch to object mode and turn off the face orientation.

Change view to right orthographic with 3.

Add - mesh - cyllinder. Scale it with S.

Move it up with “G+Z”. Apply the scale.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB”. Scale it with “S”.

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Scale it with “S+Z”.

Turn on X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”.

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Select all edges as shown.

Go to select - checker deselect. Turn off X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”.

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Press “S+X+0,9” and then “S+Y+0,9” to get this shape.

Turn on X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”. Select all edges as shown.

Select all edges as shown.

Turn off X-ray mode with “ALT+Z”.

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Bevel them with “CTRL+B”. I added again 4 segments.

Switch to selecting faces with 3.

Choose the top

and bottom faces.

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Press “X” and delete faces.

Switch to selecting vertices with 1.

Change view to front orthographic with 1 on the numpad.

Turn on the X-ray mode.

Now you will learn a new tool called Shear.

Shear is a tool that shear selected items along the given axes.

You can activate it by clicking on that icon that arrow is pointing, by pressing

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“SHIFT+SPACEBAR” and selecting SHEAR

or by pressing combination of keys: “SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+S”

Switch to selecting edges with 2.

Change view to front orthographic with 1 on the numpad.

Turn on the X-ray mode.

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Select the top and bottom edge(or top and bottom vertices - works both ways in this
case), click “SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+S” + Y to move it along the Y-axes and move it down
with a mouse.

Turn off the X-ray mode.

Select all with “A”.

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Click “ALT+E” and select extrude faces along normals to the outside.

Select all with “A” and scale it with “S+Y”.

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Switch to object mode with “TAB”.

Click the RMB and choose Shade auto smooth. Check face orientation just in case. If
it is blue, it’s all good.

Select a piece of pasta and change the view to the front orthographic with 1 on the
numpad.

Switch to the edit mode with “TAB”.

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Select all with “A” and scale with “S”.

If necessary, scale it a bit more with S and “S+Z” to look smaller and longer.

Switch to the object mode with “TAB”.

Click “CTRL+A” and apply scale.

Because you scaled the object everytime in the edit mode, scale is already correct,
but it is a good practice to remind yourself to apply scale just in case if you did
change the scale in the object mode.

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Go to object - set origin - origin to center of mass (volume).

Select the bowl and rename it to “Bowl” (or anything else).

Choose pasta and rename it to “Pasta”.

It is time to learn a new thing!

I want that pasta and bowl are not in the same collection.

How to put object, in this case pasta, in a new separated collection?

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Choose the object that you want to put in a new selection, press M, and you will get
this

You can make an entirely new collection by choosing New Collection,

giving it a name and creating it.

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I named it Pasta and here it is - Pasta collection with the Pasta object.

Now when all preparations are done, it is time to introduce some basic Physics in
Blender.

If you click here, you will open a new part called Physics Properties. You have there
force field, collision, cloth, etc. As always, I will teach you on a real examples little by
little so you don’t feel overwhelmed.

Now it is time to learn about rigid body.

If you select an object and click on a rigid body, you will add active object as a rigid
body.

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Also, some new properties will appear.

To remove rigid body settings from the object, just click on that left X in Rigid Body.

Now I will add a rigid body to the bowl.

Select the bowl, and click on the rigid body.

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If you are not sure on which object are you putting any of physics, just check the
name of your object in the top left part. It says Bowl so we are good.

Part that you need is this one - Rigid Body Type: Active or Passive.

If you choose Active Type then your object is directly controlled by simulation results.

If you choose Passive Type then your object is directly controlled by animation
system.

Because you want your object to be controlled by animation system, select Passive
Type.

Based on the type you choose, you get new options to adjust.

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Now, select the pasta and click again on a rigid body.

This time Rigid type will be Active so you don’t need to change anything.

Press Spacebar to start the simulation. Press Spacebar to start the simulation and to
stop the simulation as well.

As you can see, pasta is flying in the space so we need to fix that.

Select bowl, and change shape from Convex Hull to Mesh

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Convex Hull is the best for a mesh-like surface encompassing (i.e. shrinkwrap over)
all vertices (best results with a fewer vertices.)

Mesh is the best for a mesh that consists of a triangles only, allowing for more
detailed interactions than convex hull.

Check your simulation again. Pasta is now in the bowl.

Change view to front orthographic with 1.

Select the pasta and move it down with “G+Z”

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It is again time to learn something new and very useful.

There are two ways to duplicate object in Blender.

The first way you already know - “SHIFT+D.”

What you will learn now is another way of duplicating and that is “ALT+D”

What is the difference? Instead of giving you a definition, I will explain it on the new
example.

Difference between ALT+D and SHIFT+D?

I opened a new Blender file so I can show you on the easiest possible way, with a
default cube.

This scene currently has: 8 vertices. 6 faces and 12 tris.

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If you add a new cube by duplicating it with “SHIFT+D”

this scene will have: 16 vertices. 12 faces and 24 tris.

If you select one cube, and switch to the edit mode, no matter what you do, move,
scale, change color, the other cube will stay the same.

If you add a new cube by duplicating it with “ALT+D”, switch to the object mode
because you can do it only in the object mode.

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This scene will still have: 16 vertices. 12 faces and 24 tris.

If you select the third cube that you duplicated with “ALT+D”, and switch to the edit
mode, whatever you do to the third cube it will be replicating to the second cube.The
same will happen if you select the second cube as well.

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If you change the color in object or edit mode to the one of the cubes it will happen
the same to the other.

But if you scale or move an object in the object mode, nothing will happen to the
other one.

What is the conclusion?

If you duplicate the object with “SHIFT+D” number of your polygons will increase, but
you will have separated objects and whatever you do on other object it won’t be
replicated to your duplicated object automatically.

If you duplicate the object with “ALT+D” number of your polygons will stay the same,
but you will have connected objects and whatever you do on other objects in the edit
mode, it will be replicated to your duplicated object automatically. But if you move,
scale or rotate your object in the object mode, it won’t affect the other object.

If you change colors, your other objects will change the color as well.

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But what if you made a mistake and you realized that you need to change your object
color or edit in edit mode?

Don’t worry, the moment when you press “CTRL+A” and apply any transformation
(location, rotation or a scale), you will get this message

If you click apply, your object will be separated and your polygons will automatically
increase. If you don’t want to have separated objects, just click cancel.

In case of pasta, it is better to use “ALT+D” because we won’t increase our polygons
and all pasta are the same color so it is a good way to save a bit of memory and
fasten the rendering time ( more polygons and materials means more rendering
time).

Now, let’s continue with our pasta.

Select the pasta and duplicate it with “ALT+D” and move it up with “Z”

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Click “SHIFT+R” to repeat that last step at least 20 more times to have enough pasta
in your bowl.

Check your simulation again.

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Jump to the first frame again.

Select more than a half of pasta pieces

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and duplicate them with “ALT+D” and move them with “X” along the X-axis.

Check your simulation again.

If there are any pasta pieces outside the bowl, just delete them with “X”.

Select all pasta pieces, click one more time on the first pasta piece, click “CTRL+A” -
apply Visual Transform.

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When you apply visual transform you're applying rotation and location at that current
frame and it becomes default.
If you don't do that, your pasta will just reset whenever you go back to the first frame
on the timeline.

When you apply visual transform you can remove all physics because you don’t need
it anymore.

Select pasta collection

and click RMB and choose Select objects.

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Go to object - rigid body - remove.

Select the bowl and remove rigid body.

Until now you have been in the solid mode. Now switch to the Rendered mode so
you can add lights and materials and see how pasta looks with proper lighting.

Now go to render properties, and switch from Render engine Eevee to Cycles.

Also if you have a good graphics card, you can switch from CPU to GPU.

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Turn on the viewport denoise to get rid of the noise and make things easier for the
eyes.

Add - mesh - plane.

Scale it with “S”.

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Click on the camera icon.

You can change the resolution to 1024x1024 if you want.

Press N to get a hidden sidebar. Go to view, and turn on camera to view.

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Adjust the camera as you think is the best and turn off camera to view.

Change the view to the top orthographic with 7.

Choose the point light and move it with “G”

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Duplicate it with “ALT+D” and move it with “Y”.

Duplicate it with “ALT+D” and move it with “G”.

Select all 3 lights

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and move them down with “G+Z”.

Change the power of this light to around 500 Watts. Because you duplicated the
lights wit “ALT+D” when you change power of a one light, power is changed for all
other lights as well.

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Add - light -area.

Move it up with “G+Z”.

Scale it with “S” and move it around with “G” until you are satisfied.

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Select the plane. Click on the material. Click New. Rename it to background or
anything else you want.

Switch roughness to 0. Change the base color to grey (or whatever you prefer).

Choose the point light and area light, go to objects, and turn off glossy in Ray
visibility. You need to turn off for all the lights no matter if they are duplicated or not.

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Select the bowl.

Click on the material. Click New. Rename it to “Bowl” or anything else.

Switch roughness to 0.

If your area light is in Pasta collection just move it to the original Collection.

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Go to modifiers - add modifier - generate - subdivision subsurface.

Select all objects in Pasta collection and join all with “CTRL+J”.

If this happens, undo the action with “CTRL+Z” , select the plane and also put it in the
original Collection.

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Now select all objects in Pasta collection again and join all with “CTRL+J”.

With that action, all your pasta pieces became one piece.

Select the pasta.

Click on the material. Click New. Rename it to the Pasta.

Decrease roughness to around 0.2

Change the base color to something pasta-like.

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Click on transmission and add weight to around 0.1

Click on subsurface and add weight to around 0.2

Add a new collection and rename it to the seasonings.

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Add - mesh -plane and move it a bit to the side.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Click RMB and subdivide 2x.

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Click RMB and choose smooth vertices. If you don’t see that option switch first to
selecting vertices with 1.

Click on the smooth vertices part on the left and put smoothing to 1.

Choose this vertex

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and turn on proportional editing with “O”.

Now move that vertex and other vertices with G along X and Y axis as you want until
you are satisfied with the look of your parsley.

Switch to object mode with “TAB”.

Move it with up “G+Z”.

And adjust it more in the edit mode if necessary.

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Switch to object mode and RMB and choose Shade Auto Smooth.

Rename it to “Parsley”.

Click on the material. Click New. Rename it to “Parsley”.

Change the color to something dark green to make it look more like parsley.

Change roughness to something around 0.3

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Select the pasta.

Go to particles. Click on + to add a new ParticleSystem.

Change from emitter to hair.

Choose render and switch to render as object because in this case particles will be
rendered as an object (parsley).

Pick parsley with a picker for an instance object to show it in place of particles.

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Change hair length to something around 0.2

Turn on advanced.

Turn on rotation.

Change phase to 1 (rotation around the chosen orientation axis) and randomize
phase to 2 (randomize rotation around the chosen orientation axis).

Click on children.

Switch to simple.

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Put the display amount to 2 and render amount to 2.

Change the length to somewhere around 0.7 and the radius to somewhere around
0.01

Click on the camera icon and see how all looks.

Increase the number of emission if you think it’s necessary.

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Choose the Seasonings collection and go to add - mesh - cube.

Select the cube and move it up with “G+Z” and to the side along one of the axes.

Scale it with “S”.

“CTRL+A” - apply scale.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Click RMB and subdivide 2x.

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Click RMB and choose randomize vertices.

Change amount to somewhere around 0.4

Click RMB and choose smooth vertices.

Change smoothing to somewhere around 0.6

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Switch to object mode with “TAB”.

Click the RMB and choose Shade auto smooth.

Rename the cube to Pepper.

Click on the material. Click New. Rename it to “Pepper”.

Change the base color to dark brown (something that looks like Pepper.)

Scale it with “S”.

“CTRL+A” - apply scale.

Select the pasta.

Go to particles. Click on + to add a new ParticleSystem.

Change from emitter to hair.

Choose render and switch to render as object.

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Pick pepper with a picker for an instance object.

Change hair length to something around 0.2

Increase the number of particles if you think is necessary.

Add - mesh -plane.Move it up and a bit on the side.

Switch to edit mode.

Scale it with “S+Y” and “S+X”.

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Turn off proportional editing with “O”.

Add one loop cut with “CTRL+R”.

Scale it with “S+Y”.

Add two more loops with “CTRL+R”.

Select them both and scale them with “S+Y”.

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Add three more loops, select the middle loop, turn on the proportional editing,

and move them down with “G+Z” as shown.

Switch to object mode.

Scale it with “S”.

“CTRL+A” - apply scale.

Click on the material. Click New.

Change the base color to something that looks like Parmesan cheese.

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Rename the object and material to “Parmesan”.

Select the pasta.

Go to particles. Click on + to add a new ParticleSystem.

Turn off the first two ParticleSystems in real time for the sake of your computer.

Choose render and switch to render as object.

Change from emitter to hair.

Pick Parmesan for an instance object

Change hair length to something around 0.6

Turn on advanced.

Turn on rotation.

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Change phase to 1 and randomize phase to 2.

Click on vertex groups.

Change the view to the top orthographic with 7 on the numpad.

Switch to solid mode. Select the pasta.

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Go to weight paint.

Go to Data

Click + on vertex groups 2x.

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When you make a vertex a member of a vertex group, you can control how much that
vertex belongs to the group by giving it a weight value.

Rename the second vertex group to Parmesan.

Increase the radius and now color where you want to have parmesan (red means
more parmesan, blue means less).

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Switch to object mode.

Switch to rendered mode.

Go to particles - vertex groups and choose Parmesan for Density.

Adjust the number of particles if it’s needed.

Turn on all ParticleSystems so you can see how everything looks.

Change the orientation axis to normal.

Go to rotation and put randomize to 1.

If you think it’s necessary play around a bit with hair length.

Change max samples of render to 512 and if you are satisfied click Render image.

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One more thing before the end. Maybe you realized that everything bow and pasta
aren’t regular size but for example the bowl is over 2m.

It is because physics in Blender works that way. The bigger objects are the more
accurate physics is. In the end, before rendering when you are done with everything,
you can scale it to the regular size.

Also, those big parsley, cheese and pepper that you are using only as an instance
object should be hidden on render or just you can move it somewhere under the
plane so they won’t be in camera focus.

That is it! I hope you enjoyed learning with me. This was a long chapter and I gave
my best to explain all this in the easiest way.

If you want to support me and this Guide, feel free to follow me on social media,
subscribe to my YouTube channel, buy some models from my Blender Market page
or just rate this guide. Whatever you do, it will mean a lot to me.

Also, thank you all for 1000 subscribers on YouTube. We are now near 1050 and I
am grateful to each one of you for commenting, liking, watching and subscribing.

Don’t forget to join to Discord channel and ask questions directly about Blender or
just share your progress and promote yourself.

Ok, that is really it now!

Thank you for reading and learning with me!

Happy Blending!

Bye, see you next time :D

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Chapter 25 - Modeling, texturing and

animating a magic potion
(Blender Version 4.2.1)
This time you will learn how to model, texture and animate a magic potion.

(You can check out video tutorial on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/msj0kz-dOP8 )

Let’s begin!

Select all with “A” and delete with “X.”

Now go to Add → Mesh → UV Sphere.

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Duplicate the UV Sphere with “SHIFT+D.”

Press “ESC” to return the duplicated UV sphere to the original position.

Hide the second UV Sphere with “H” in the viewport or click here on this eye icon to
hide it.

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To hide (disable) the object in the render, click on this camera icon.

The second sphere is now hidden in the viewport and in the render.

Switch to edit mode with “TAB.”

Switch to selecting vertices with 1.

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Select this top vertex.

Now press “CTRL” + numpad “+” to select nearby vertices. Press “+” until you select
all vertices as shown.

If you are on the laptop and you don’t have numpad, go to

Select → More/Less → More and repeat it until you choose all vertices that you need
for the next step.

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Now press “X” and choose delete vertices.

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Switch to selecting edges with 2 and select this edge with “ALT” + LMB.

Press “F” to fill the face.

Switch to object mode with “TAB”. Click RMB and choose Shade Auto Smooth.

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Now hide that first sphere in the viewport and render and unhide the second one.

Select it and switch to edit mode with “TAB”.

Switch to the selecting vertices with 1 and select the top vertex.

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Select vertices only once with “CTRL”+ “numpad +”.

Press “X” and delete vertices.

Switch to selecting edges with “2” and select this edge with “ALT”+ LMB.

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Extrude it along the Z-axes with “E+Z”.

Select all with “A” and press “ALT+E” to extrude faces along the normals.

Press “CTRL+R” to add a new loop and move it up.

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Switch to selecting faces with “3” and select all those faces.

Press “ALT+E” and extrude faces along normals.

Switch back to object mode with “TAB” and press RMB and choose Shade Smooth.

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Go to modifiers. Add modifier —> Generate → Bevel.

To fix this part, add more segments and amount.

I added 4 segments and amount 0.035 but you can add as much as you want (just be
careful to not add too much if you need low poly model - a model with less polygons).

Now switch to the Rendered mode so you can add lights and materials and see how
magic potion looks with proper lighting.

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Now go to render properties, and switch from Render engine Eevee to Cycles.

Also if you have a good graphics card, you can switch from CPU to GPU.

Turn on the viewport denoise to get rid of the noise and make things easier for the
eyes.

Place the cursor on the upper side of the screen as shown, and when you see plus,

just pull it down to the left while holding the left mouse button.

Open the shader editor in the window you just created.

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Click “N” to hide that sidebar on the right because you don’t need it.

Switch from object to world shader.

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Connect Color from the Background with a Color from Sky Texture.

As you can see, now you have a sky texture for your background.

You can switch from Nishita to Hosek/Wilike for a bit different type of sky shader if
you want.

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Go to Add → Converter → Color Ramp and add it between Sky Texture and
Background.

Change Background Strength to 3 or similar if you want your world to become

brighter.

Select the first color picker of the Color Ramp and change it to darker blue (or any
other color you want).

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And move it a bit to the right.

Switch from world to object.

Go to material and add a new material.

Rename the Sphere.001 to Bottle (or anything else that you like.)

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Rename the material to Glass (or anything else).

Click on Transmission and put Weight to 1.

Put Roughness to 0.

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Unhide the first Sphere from the viewport and render.

Select the Sphere and scale it just a little bit with an “S” to make it smaller than the
bottle.

Rename it to the Potion (or anything else that you want).

Add a new material and rename it to the Liquid (or something else).

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Click on Transmission and put Weight to 1.

Click on Emission and change color to Green (or something else).

Because you didn’t add strength to the emission, you can’t see green color yet.
Change strength from 0 to any number you want. I changed it to 0.7.

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Switch to the world shader.

Select the Background node and duplicate it with “SHIFT+D”.

Add → Shader → Mix Shader and put it between Background and Material Output
node.

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Connect Background from the second Background node with a Shader from a Mix
Shader.

Connect Fac from the Mix Shader node with an Is Camera Ray from the Light Path
Shader so that you change the sky to a flat color without affecting the lighting.

Change the color of the Background to the Black (or any other that you like).

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Put Roughness to 0 so your potion looks even better.

Add → Camera.

Press “ALT+R” to rotate camera to its default orientation.

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And move it to the left a bit with “G+Y”.

Rotate it along the X-axes by 90° with “R+X+90”.

Select the camera and change the resolution to the 1024x1024 (if you want).

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Click on the Camera icon to the right

And after that click on this lock icon so you can adjust the camera position.

And click on this hand icon to move it up, down, left or right.

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Scroll the mouse wheel up or down to adjust the distance and click on the lock again
when you are finished with adjusting so you don’t accidentally move your camera
position.

Select the bottle and rotate it a bit with “R” (in the direction you want).

Move the timeline up.

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Press “K” and insert rotation on the first frame.

Move the scrubber from the first frame to the 150 frame (you can move it to other
frames as well, this is just for an example)

Rotate the bottle along the Z-axis for 360° with “R+Z+360” and insert rotation with K.

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Change the end frame from 250 to 150.

Click here to switch to the first frame and start animation with spacebar.

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If you want your animation to look even more natural, select all with A, click RMB and
select Interpolation mode → Linear.

Now your animation will look like this.

And if you want to change background color, just change this color here.

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And to change the color of lighting, just change color of the first color picker in the
color ramp.

And to change the gradient of the second sky color just change the second color
picker in the color ramp. That way you can have multicolored highlights on your
glass.

That is it! Now you know how to model, texture and animate magic potion in Blender.
I hope you enjoyed in this tutorial. I will try to add one more chapter before the end of
this year, but I can’t promise anything!
If I don’t add anything, wish you all to have wonderful holidays and to have wonderful
2025. year :)
See you in 2025. for sure 😀

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