The Base Model

This doc goes over the basics of moving, rotating, and scaling objects in Blender.

Blender has a number of basic assets, sometimes called primitives, you can use to start creating your assets.

Add a basic Cube...

• Add a base Mesh to the scene (if you deleted the default cube).

  • Add from the 'Add > Mesh' menu in the top left. These include :

    • Plane

    • Cube

    • Circle

    • UV Sphere

    • Ico Sphere

    • Cylinder

    • Cone

    • Torus

  • Use the Default Cube that comes with the default scene or add a Cube from the menu.

Editing the Base Model

• Edit the Position, Rotation, or scale of the asset.

  • Select the Cube with left click.

  • You can use the Position, Rotation, and Scale tools at the Top Left of the viewport to move, rotate and scale the cube. Left click after modifying to finalize the changes.

Move, Rotate, Scale the asset...

Using Hotkeys to Position, Rotate or Scale

• These are very common actions, and it's best to use the hotkeys listed below. Note how it will move, rotate, or scale according to the viewport :

  • Position [G].

  • Rotation [R].

  • Scale [S].

  • Left Click to finalize. Right click to cancel.

• You could set the view to front, back, left or right in order to move, rotate, or scale the asset along an axis or use [X], [Y], or [Z] after using the Position, Rotation, or scale keys:

  • Use Position [G], Rotate [R] or Scale[S] key.

    • X Axis [X] - Left and Right.

    • Y Axis [Y] - Forward and Back.

    • Z Axis [Z] - Up and down.

    • Left Click to finalize. Right Click to cancel.

Move, Rotate, Scale by number...

• Select the small arrow at the top right of the Viewport to Display Asset information.

  • Use [N] to show/hide this panel.

• Move, rotate, or scale an element by a specific amount by using numbers following the previous actions.

  • Use Position [G], Rotate [R] or Scale[S] key.

    • X Axis [X], Y Axis [Y], or Z Axis [Z] key.

    • Keyboard or Numpad to adjust by that amount.

    • [Backspace] if you want to edit the number.

    • Left Click to finalize. Right click to cancel.

Modifying Details

• Click the arrow on the left of the popup at the bottom left of the Viewport (if you haven't already). This contains editable information about the previous action. Most actions will have different details to edit.

  • Press [N] to display asset position, rotation, Scale and other information.

• Duplicate the asset if needed.

  • You can duplicate assets by selecting the assets and press [Shift + D].

    • Note it is not [Ctrl + D] like most other applications.

  • Move the mouse to reposition the duplicate to the viewport or align the duplicate using the [X], [Y], [Z] keys.

  • Left click to place the duplicate or right click to reset to the original position.

Summary

In this tutorial we covered the basics of editing an asset such as Position, Rotation, and Scale as well as looking at the Asset information and duplicating an Asset.

• [G] - Move Selection.

• [R] - Rotate Selection.

• [S] - Scale Selection.

• [X] - Edit along X Axis.

• [Y] - Edit along Y Axis.

• [Z] - Edit along Z Axis.

• [N] - display asset position, rotation, Scale and other information.

• [Shift + D] - Duplicate Selection.

Now that you can edit an asset in its entirety, we can look at getting into editing the elements themselves such as Vertices, Edges, and Polygons.