First time with blender

[Dividdo]

If your an animator like me, and you just got used to using one type of software such as 3d max or maya or any other type of animation software you'll be pressed in to learning where everything is again . So in this topic we'll be talking about where all the basic tools are, how to use them, and then moving to more advance stuff just so you can help out with the project xD (of course you can always try the online tutorials but they don't tell you how to make stuff for warzone ) .
If any of the animators working with blender can contribute anything that will be a great help to everyone.
If anyone has a hypercam or something similar you can always post a video of what your doing on youtube.

[Dividdo]

I find movement a bit complicated as I am used to using 4 windows not just the persective. Use the box that hey give you to experiment with moving in the 3d world.
To rotate in blender can get a little fustrating. To rotate around you have to press down on the mouse wheel and move the mouse around.
I tend to position the pointer where I want to rotate then move the mouse in in the opposite direction (for example i want to rotate underneth the box so, position the pointer on the bottom of the view port > hold mouse wheel > move up).
To move left right up and down normaly just, hold the shift key > hold mouse wheel > move, simpiles .

Ok, their are some short cuts for cretain view using the number pad. 7,1,3,0 (don't ask why these numbers I don't know )
7 is your 'birds eye view' your 'top' view. It shows you what your object and scene looks like from above looking down.
1 is your front view (do i need to explain? )
3 is your side view
and 0 is a camera view (they put a camera in for u how nice ).
Using the camera first can give you a good sense of the 'plane' and where to work.

[Dividdo]

Heres a useful link
BE WARNED LOTS OF READING


http://www.blender.org/education-help/t ... -tutorial/

[Dividdo]

IMPORTANT
if you would like to add a window heres how to do it, (i spent half an hour figuing this out (the tutorial wasn't much help ))

All you have to do is move the cursor to the edgae of the screen until the two arrows appear <--> uknow the one.
Then (don't click and move it doesn't do anything) RIGHT CLICK and it gives you some options. chosse 'split area' and move your curosr to the middle of the screen, u should see a line following your cursor. click and now you have another screen.
Do this another 2 times to get four screens. (split the other 2 in half)
Notice how they are all the same?
Now click the top left box and press 7 on the number pad, in the next one 1, bottom left 3 and in the fourth 0. This will give you diffrent views and enable you to make amedments in any screen and be able to track everything you do.
Want to enlarge a view port but without earasing the others? no probs. Click the viewport u want and presse control (Ctrl) and the up key to enlarge the viewport. Simplies
For more details see link. (even if it is a bit misleading)

[Harvey]

Hey!
You can rotate camera with numpad... Its simple. 4 - left, 6 - right, 8 - up, 2 - down, 1, 7 and 0 are different types of camera.

[Thyranim]

try strg / ctrl + left / right for switching ifferent "sets of viewing"

after starting ctrl+right and you have a 3-view (front, top, camera) with parameters on the right side
next (don't know the name) - time editing
next script editing
and so on ... after a while you'll be back at the "start" of this sets