3D Design with Blender
Model · Render · Animate · Simulate

Think of it with real objects

1D — length only

A strand of hair is (almost) one-dimensional (we’re simplifying things here, and ignoring the minute thickness of the hair): it really only has a length. In 3D software, this is like an edge — a line between two points.

2D — length + width

A sheet of paper has length and width but essentially no thickness. In Blender this is a face (or a Plane mesh) — a flat surface.

3D — length + width + depth

A ball of clay takes up space in every direction. This is what we model in Blender: solid objects with volume, made of vertices, edges and faces.

The tool that draws them all?

A marker can draw a dot (1D), drag a line (1D), or shade an area (2D) — but it can never draw real depth, only fake it with perspective. That is exactly what a render does: it flattens a 3D scene into a 2D image.

Why this matters in Blender

Every model you build this term is constructed from these ideas stacked on top of each other:

• Vertex (0D): a single point in space.
• Edge (1D): a line connecting two vertices.
• Face (2D): a flat surface enclosed by edges.
• Mesh (3D): many faces joined together to form a solid-looking object.

Your screen, of course, is 2D. So Blender constantly performs the marker trick: it projects a 3D world onto a flat display, and lets you orbit around it so your brain can reconstruct the depth. Getting comfortable with that projection is the whole point of the next lesson.

Part 1 — Moving through 3D space

Watch the video below from 2:00 until 9:36, then confirm each skill:

Part 2 — Adding and editing objects

Watch the video below from 9:36 to 20:43, then confirm each skill:

Task Skill check: Simple Face

Using nothing but primitive mesh objects and your understanding of how to navigate the 3D environment and modify objects, create a simple face that:

• Lines up along the Y-axis (so be careful when you move objects)
• Uses toruses for eyes, and ico spheres (4 subdivisions) for pupils
• Has a torus for the mouth, compressed along the Z-axis
• Has a cone for the nose, rotated around the Y-axis and moved along the X-axis so the base of the cone lines up with the eyes and mouth
• The original default cube is deleted
• No Suzanne! (if you watched the videos, you know who Suzanne is)

Extension Precise movement + the Snowman

If you finish the Simple Face quickly, watch the following video in class — otherwise it is homework. It focuses on moving objects with real control, which is essential for advanced modelling. Main topics:

• Keyboard shortcuts G, R, S
• Using viewport angles (top, right, etc.) to restrict movement
• Controlled movement in 3D space using the CTRL key (snapping)
• Limiting movement to a single axis: press G then X, Y or Z
• Typing numbers for precise movement, followed by ENTER
• SHIFT + axis letter to exclude an axis
• SHIFT + A to add objects · SHIFT + C to see everything and reset the 3D cursor to 0,0,0
• Global vs local transform orientation (double-tap the axis letter to switch)

At the end of the video, create a snowman similar to the one shown — but also include stick arms and a carrot nose. Save the file as Snowman.

The goal

Creating the core body shape

1. Basic navigation. Open Blender and start a new General file. You should see the default cube in the viewport. Hold your middle mouse button to orbit the world, and SHIFT + middle mouse to drag (pan) the world around.

   

   

   

2. Switching modes. Press TAB to swap between Object Mode and Edit Mode. You can see which mode you are in at the top-left of the viewport. Make sure you are in Edit Mode before continuing, and that the first of the three small icons immediately to the right of the mode dropdown is active — that is Vertex select. The other two are Edge select and Face select (shortcuts 1, 2, 3 on the top number row while in Edit Mode).

   

3. Selecting vertex points. Double-tap A to deselect all vertices. Then left-click a vertex to select it, SHIFT + left-click to select several, or drag a selection box around them.

   

4. Begin building the body. Either press E (the Extrude shortcut) or select this tool from the left-side toolbar:

   

   Extrude the shape so it is twice as big as the original cube, then double-tap A to deselect all of the vertex points. To do this accurately: press E, type 2, then ENTER.

   

   

5. Save Save your file into your OneDrive. Title it Humanoid.blend.
6. Fine control. S scales the selection and G grabs / moves it. To move a set of vertices accurately, press G then X, Y or Z to restrict movement to a single axis — the same trick works with S. You may also want to switch to Face select mode, which is often simpler when choosing a surface to extrude.

   

7. Keep going. Continue to select, extrude, scale and grab vertices until you have a basic body shape that resembles this humanoid figure:

   

Essential fix-it skills

Need to remove an edge, or delete something?

In Edit Mode, select what you want to remove and press X. A menu appears with several options. Deleting removes the element completely, which sometimes takes other components with it (deleting an edge also deletes the faces attached to it). Dissolving removes what you selected but re-builds the surrounding geometry so no hole is left behind.

Want to see through your object?

Press SHIFT + Z to toggle between wireframe and solid shading. (Pressing Z on its own opens a pie menu with all four shading modes — we will use the other two, Material Preview and Rendered, in Lesson 6.)

Need to undo an action?

CTRL + Z — and Blender’s undo history is long, so keep pressing.

Finer control inside Edit Mode

Filling a face into an empty gap

Occasionally you may accidentally remove a face and be left with a gap. To fix it: switch to Edge select mode, double-tap A to deselect everything, then click each of the edges around the border while holding SHIFT. Once the entire border has been selected, press F.

1. Select the face using the Face Selection mode.

   

   

2. Press X to access the menu, then delete the face.

   

   

3. After ensuring that everything is deselected by double-pressing A, switch to Edge Selection, and hold SHIFT while selecting each of the edges.

   

   

4. Press F on your keyboard. The face should now be filled.

   

Adding in extra vertices

Sometimes you’ll need to add in extra vertices / edges in order to create the shape that you need, or to add in more detail. To do this, you firstly need to be in Edit Mode (TAB).

Option 1 — Loop Cut (CTRL + R)

This allows you to create a set of edges surrounding an object at the midpoint. As you move the mouse, the cut will shift between horizontal and vertical.

Option 2 — Knife (K)

The knife tool allows more customised geometry. To use it, left-click and drag between edges (either a straight line or a zig-zag). A red line will appear.

Press ENTER to lock in the new edges.

More information

The video below walks through humanoid-style box modelling. It was recorded on a slightly older version of Blender, but every technique still works the same way in Blender 5.

Task Build the shapes

Create 3D shapes from the 2D orthographic images shown below. You can either start from the default cube and modify it, or delete it (X) and create a new plane (SHIFT + A → Mesh → Plane), then rotate it (R + X/Y/Z + degrees of rotation).

Orthographic representations

Subdividing surfaces

To quickly chop a face into multiple smaller faces: select the face, then right-click → Subdivide. Do this several times to create more complex geometry for your shape — but be warned, too many vertices will slow down your rendering later on.

Modifiers

There are a significant number of ways to modify an object's surface without creating crazily complex geometry (which slows down processing and rendering). These live in the Modifier Properties panel — the blue spanner icon in the Properties editor on the right of your screen.

Select the Add Modifier option → Generate → Subdivision Surface.

You should now see something similar to this:

If you want it to be closer to the original geometry, increase the number of levels.

→

=

The magic of a modifier is that it is non-destructive: your original simple mesh is still underneath, easy to edit, and the smoothing is calculated on top. If you want the result closer to the original blocky shape, increase the number of levels; if you change your mind entirely, just delete the modifier.

Two ways to render

Task Your first render

1. Create a new Blender file with the default cube. Add a UV sphere (SHIFT + A → Mesh → UV Sphere) and move it vertically along the Z-axis (G then Z) so that it sits above your cube.

   

2. To render your 3D model (turning it into a 2D graphic), press F12 or use the Render menu at the top of your screen. It may not look very good yet — we haven't set up colour or lights.

   

3. I'll make an assumption here: you most likely did not see all of the UV sphere in that render. To fix this, we need to move the camera.

   

4. To see the camera's perspective while we work, split the viewport into four windows (drag from a viewport corner, or use View → Area → Toggle Quad View for a quick version):

   

   Use these following 2 tools, and modify your Blender interface to look like the example shown below:

   

   

   

5. You can now select the camera just like any other object, press G, and move it in any of the windows. Keep adjusting until F12 gives a render like this:

   

   Camera shortcut worth knowing With the camera view active (0), press CTRL + ALT + 0 (numpad) to snap the camera to your current viewpoint — frame the shot with normal navigation first, then snap.

Colour

We can apply a range of colours and textures to an object. We'll keep things simple for now.

1. Select your sphere and click the Material Properties editor (the sphere icon) on the right side of your screen. Click New, then alter the Surface properties. The default surface is a Principled BSDF — the setting you want is Base Color.

   

2. That colour is only visible when you render (or use Material Preview / Rendered shading — press Z for the pie menu). If you want objects to look different while you edit in Solid shading, scroll down in the Material editor to Viewport Display and set a colour there. It won't affect your rendered Surface colour.

   

   

   

Lighting

By default you have one light — a point light — providing all of the light in your 3D world:

Try adding another light source on the other side of your objects: SHIFT + A → Light → Sun.

Render properties: EEVEE vs Cycles

• EEVEE — rasterisation (fast, similar to a game engine). This is the default.
• Cycles — ray tracing (slower, but better quality).

If your computer has a graphics card (GPU), Cycles can use it: switch Device from CPU to GPU Compute. (If GPU Compute is greyed out, it needs to be enabled once in Edit → Preferences → System → Cycles Render Devices.)

Task Build the full scene, then render with Cycles

1. Apply a different colour to your cube.
2. Add some additional shapes (a Torus + an Ico Sphere), moving the camera if required.

   

3. Add a Subdivision Surface modifier to the UV Sphere only: Modifiers → Add Modifier → Generate → Subdivision Surface, and set Levels Viewport + Render = 3.
4. Add another cube, then enlarge and move it so it becomes a room that contains all of the objects, lights and camera. You may wish to view it as wireframe so you can still see inside (SHIFT + Z).

   

5. Switch the Render Engine to Cycles and render (F12). This may take a crazy amount of time, so:
   • Go to Output Properties (just below Render Properties) and change the resolution down to 50%.
   • If the render still takes excessively long: in Render Properties → Sampling, drop Max Samples from 4096 to 100 (this section only appears once you have switched to Cycles). The Noise Threshold and other values can be reduced too — re-render to gauge the impact.
   • It may still look a little grainy / noisy after this — that is OK for this task.

   

6. Once the image has rendered, save it into the same location as your other 3D files (Image → Save in the render window). Name it Shapes Cycle Render.png.

   

Your portfolio should now have the following files:

Assessed Homework: rendered portfolio

Load each of your previous 3D models, add some additional lighting (if required), alter the material colours, and Cycles render two images from different perspectives / angles / zoom for each.

Create a PowerPoint portfolio, one slide for each 3D file. Include the name of the file as the heading and the two rendered images as evidence of your success. Note: you do not need to render an additional image of Shapes Cycle Render.

Task Keyframe animation

1. Create a new Blender file. Leave the default cube as it is. Save the file as Simple Animation.
2. Look at the bottom of your window — you'll notice the play control icons. Click the play button.

   

   Congratulations, you've made your first animation… but nothing is actually happening, so it's fairly boring. Let's change that.

3. Switch to the Animation workspace tab at the top of the screen (this isn't strictly necessary, but it includes a lot of tools that will be useful later on).

   

4. Ensure that you are on frame 1 by dragging the playhead, or by pressing the "jump to start" button.

   

5. Select the cube and press K. This opens the Insert Keyframe menu with options for the different keyframe types — select Location, Rotation & Scale. (Pressing I inserts a keyframe instantly using the default channels; K lets you choose.)

   

6. Change to frame 40. Now change the cube's size (S), location (G) and rotation (R), then insert another keyframe exactly as in the previous step.
7. Change the End frame from 250 to 40 (bottom-right of the timeline).

   

8. Press play, and check out your cool animation! Blender calculates every in-between frame for you — this is called interpolation.

To create a rendered animation (a real video file)

1. In the Render Properties, keep the engine as EEVEE so the render is fast.

   

2. In the Output Properties, change:
   • Format: Resolution % = 50
   • Output: file path = the same folder as your other Blender files; Media Type: Video
   • Encoding: Container = MPEG-4 (leave the video codec as H.264)
3. To render the full animation, press CTRL + F12 (or Render → Render Animation). The video file appears in your output folder when it finishes.

Task Soft Body physics

This is one of the coolest features of Blender. You can create a complex animation by simply telling the program to calculate how objects should interact, as if they follow the rules of physics. You control the density of objects and how they interact — all of the complex movement is calculated for you.

1. Create a new Blender file. Save it as Softbody Physics.blend.
2. Delete the default cube (X).
3. Add a plane (SHIFT + A → Mesh → Plane), then scale it: S, 8, ENTER.
4. Add a UV Sphere (SHIFT + A → Mesh → UV Sphere). In the pop-up panel (bottom-left), set Segments = 16 and Rings = 8.

   

5. Drag the UV Sphere up (G then Z). With it still selected, in Object Mode, right-click and choose Shade Smooth.

   

6. To make the two objects interact, open the Physics Properties tab (right-hand side of the screen, near the modifier spanner — the icon is a circling orbit). If you can't see it, scroll the icon column with your middle mouse button.

   

   • UV Sphere: select Soft Body
   • Plane: select Collision
7. Press the play button at the bottom of the screen — your sphere will wobble around in mid-air.
8. Select the UV Sphere and turn off "Soft Body Goal" in the Physics tab. (The goal pins the sphere to its starting position — with it off, gravity wins.)

   

9. Important: reset the timeline back to frame 1, otherwise the next bit won't work. Press play again — the sphere should splat onto the plane.
10. Stop the animation and reset back to frame 1. To give the sphere some rigidity (so it doesn't fully splat), open the Soft Body Edges drop-down and set:
    • Pull = 0.9, Push = 0.9, Bend = 10 — press play. It doesn't look very soft, does it?
    • Now change Pull and Push to 0.5, and Bend to 5 — much better. Try it for yourself.

    

11. To smooth the sphere out more: open the Modifier Properties (the spanner) and Add Modifier → Generate → Subdivision Surface.

    

Control the world!

• Tilt the table: rotate the plane a little (at a downwards angle) so the sphere doesn't bounce straight up and down. Play the animation again.
• Duplicate the spheres: with a sphere selected, press SHIFT + D. Duplicates automatically carry the same soft body physics. Then select each sphere and also add Collision from the Physics tab — that way the spheres can collide with each other, not just with the plane.

  

• Play the animation. It may be slow the first time due to the extra calculations, but normal speed on subsequent plays.

If you need to extend your animation (only for long animations)

• At the bottom of the screen you'll see the Start and End fields (1 and 250 by default). Increase the End number to lengthen your animation.
• You will also need to select each object with soft body physics, expand Cache (inside the Soft Body settings), and change its End frame to match your animation length.

Baking Once you are happy with the animation, open the Cache section in the Physics tab and select Bake All Dynamics. This saves all the physics calculations, making playback and rendering dramatically faster — and more reliable.

Assessed Project brief

Your marble run requires:

• At least 3 spheres, smoothed with Subdivision Surface modifiers. They don't have to start from the same place, but they do have to collide with each other at some stage in the animation.
• 2 or more ramps
• A collection point at the bottom — the marbles can't fall into non-existent space.

Submission requirements

• 5–10 seconds in length
• MPEG-4 video (Output Properties → Media Type: Video → Container MPEG-4, exactly as in Lesson 7)
• 50% of the default export resolution
• Evidence of soft body collisions, colour and light

Enhancement options: try animating the camera, and create a "room" with a large outside box to avoid the infinite blackness of the default Blender world.

When things get weird…

When you create 3D shapes and set them as Collision objects, you might notice that your soft bodies fall through them, get stuck, or deflect off at strange angles. Work through these fixes in order:

1. Try baking. Physics → Cache → Bake All Dynamics forces Blender to perform every calculation properly, which fixes a lot of physics-based animations.
2. If a marble falls straight through a ramp: select the marble, open the Soft Body Solver controls, and increase Step Size: Min Step (try values up towards 500 if needed). This makes Blender take more samples per frame, which dramatically improves collision detection.
3. Keep collision shapes simple. Simple planes are far more reliable for collisions than complex shapes. A "ramp" can just be a scaled, rotated plane or thin cube.

Marking rubric

Homework The task

1. For a 10-year-old (Developing) — Write a short explanation (about 3–4 sentences) describing what a triangle is and why it's used in 3D modelling. Focus on simple terms and a basic understanding. A simple analogy or example will help.
2. For a 16-year-old (Consolidating) — Write a more detailed explanation (about 5–6 sentences) of why triangles are important in 3D modelling. Use more technical language and discuss how 3D objects are made up of shapes. Mention terms like polygons, vertices and faces.
3. For an adult (Extending) — Write a thorough explanation (about 7–10 sentences) covering both the technical and practical reasons triangles are fundamental in 3D modelling. Discuss the efficiency of triangles for rendering, how they simplify the modelling process, and how the structure of 3D models is optimised for computers. You can also touch on the history and evolution of 3D modelling and why triangles are so efficient for computer processing.
4. Comparison — Finish with a brief paragraph (3–4 sentences) comparing the three explanations. How does the level of detail change with each age group, and why is it important to adjust explanations for the audience's understanding?

Before you start: the three fluid roles

Every fluid simulation in Blender uses the same cast of characters. Understanding these three roles makes everything else make sense:

• Domain — a box that contains the entire simulation. All calculations happen inside it; fluid cannot exist outside it. (Without a domain, water would fall forever into an endless void requiring endless calculations.)
• Flow — an object that produces (or removes) fluid: a one-off splash, or a continuous inflow like a tap.
• Effector — an obstacle the fluid collides with: a tray, a glass, a wall.

Extension A Liquids: filling a tray

Part 1 — The fast way (Quick Liquid)

1. New file. Scale the default cube down (S, 0.3, ENTER) and move it up (G, Z).
2. With the cube selected: Object → Quick Effects → Quick Liquid. Blender builds the whole setup for you: the cube becomes a Flow object and a wireframe Domain box appears around it.
3. Press SPACEBAR to play. The default cache mode is Replay, so the liquid simulates live as the timeline plays. Blocky? That's expected — keep going.
4. Select the domain. In Physics → Fluid → Settings, raise Resolution Divisions from 32 to 64 (higher = more detail, much slower).
5. Still on the domain, tick the Mesh section in the Liquid settings. This wraps the fluid particles in a smooth surface — the difference is dramatic. Reset to frame 1 and play again.

Part 2 — Build the classic tap-and-tray scene

Create your own customized tray with liquid pouring into it.

1. Make the tray. New file. Scale the default cube flat-ish: S, then SHIFT + Z to widen it on X and Y only. Enter Edit Mode, select only the top face, delete it (X → Faces). Back in Object Mode, add a Solidify modifier, increase the Thickness, then apply it (drop-down on the modifier → Apply) so the tray has real walls.
2. Make the liquid outlet. SHIFT + A → Mesh → Circle. Rotate it upright: R, X, 90. Move it above and to one side of the tray (G + Y, then G + Z), and scale it smaller (S). Enter Edit Mode and press F to fill the circle's face, then return to Object Mode.
3. Make the domain. SHIFT + A → Mesh → Cube, scaled so it comfortably contains the tray and outlet (S, then S + Z to flatten as needed). So you can see inside it, go to Object Properties → Viewport Display → Display As: Wire.
4. Assign the roles in the Physics tab:
   • Circle: Fluid → Type: Flow; Flow Type = Liquid; Flow Behavior = Inflow. Tick Initial Velocity and set Y = 1.0 so the liquid squirts sideways out of the outlet.
   • Tray: Fluid → Type: Effector; Effector Type = Collision. Tick Is Planar off if your tray walls are thin and leak.
   • Domain box: Fluid → Type: Domain; Domain Type = Liquid; Resolution Divisions = 64 (you can try 128 later at home); tick Mesh.
5. Save, then bake: in the domain's Fluid → Cache panel, set Type = All, choose your frame range (1–100 is plenty), and click Bake All. A progress bar creeps along while Blender crunches every frame — there's a lot of number-crunching to figure out where all those vertices go as the liquid flows, hits the tray and interacts with itself. You can keep building the rest of the scene while it bakes.
6. Materials + light. Give the liquid mesh a watery material: on the domain object, add a new material with Surface = Glass BSDF and IOR = 1.33 (the real refractive index of water). Swap the light for a Sun and raise its Strength. Give the tray and background their own colours.
7. Camera + render. 0 to look through the camera. To fly the camera into position, press SHIFT + ` (the backtick key, above TAB) for walk navigation: W A S D to move, mouse to look, left-click to confirm. Switch the engine to Cycles for believable glass, drop the resolution to 50%, keep Max Samples modest (100–300), then render the animation (CTRL + F12). Long renders are best left to run at the end of the day.

Extension B Smoke

1. New file. With the default cube selected: Object → Quick Effects → Quick Smoke. The cube becomes a smoke Flow emitter and a domain box appears around it. Press SPACEBAR — smoke immediately begins to rise.
2. Scale the domain up (S) so you can produce more smoke before it hits the ceiling — the domain restricts where smoke can go.
3. With the domain selected, in Physics → Fluid → Settings, raise Resolution Divisions to around 90 to sharpen the detail.
4. To speed things up, tick Adaptive Domain (in the Gas settings) so Blender only calculates the region that actually contains smoke, not the whole box.
5. For fine, wispy detail, tick the Noise section on the domain. This layers high-resolution turbulence over the base simulation. Start with an Upres Factor of 2.
6. Sculpt the emitter. Select the original cube, enter Edit Mode, right-click → Subdivide, then open the operator panel (bottom-left) and increase Number of Cuts, Fractal and Random Seed to make the shape more organic. Return to Object Mode and test the animation — the smoke now rises from a craggy, natural-looking source.
7. Make smoke fall instead of rise: on the domain's Gas settings, set the Heat buoyancy value to -1. Cold "smoke" (think dry ice) sinks.
8. Animate the emitter:
   • Scale the emitter down, go to frame 1, and move it near the bottom of the domain.
   • Press I → Location to insert a keyframe.
   • Jump to frame 100, move the emitter near the top of the domain, and press I → Location again.
   • On the emitter's Flow settings, tick Initial Velocity so the moving source flings smoke realistically.
9. Groovy colour: on the emitter's Flow settings, find Smoke Color. Pick a colour, then right-click the swatch → Insert Keyframe. Change the colour every 30 frames for a lava-lamp effect.
10. Happy with it? Set the domain's Cache → Type = All and click Bake All, then continue with camera, lighting and rendering exactly as you did in Lesson 6 — EEVEE renders smoke surprisingly well and much faster than Cycles.