Finding your way around the interface

When you open Blender you see the default scene: a cube, a camera and a light. Around them sit several panels called editors. Blender's interface looks dense, but it follows consistent rules, and once you know them it becomes predictable.

The main editors

• 3D Viewport: the large central area where you see and edit your scene.
• Outliner: top right, a tree of every object in the scene, like a layers panel.
• Properties editor: bottom right, with tabs for render settings, output, the selected object, modifiers, materials and more.
• Timeline: along the bottom, used for animation.

Across the top are workspaces such as Layout, Modeling, Shading and Rendering. Each is just a preset arrangement of editors. We will mostly use Layout and Shading.

Navigating the viewport

With a mouse:

• Middle mouse drag orbits around the scene.
• Shift + middle mouse drag pans.
• Scroll wheel zooms.

On a trackpad, two finger drag orbits and the gizmo in the top right of the viewport lets you orbit, pan and zoom by dragging its icons. Clicking the coloured axis circles snaps to front, side or top views.

Useful view shortcuts (numpad or emulated numpad):

• 1, 3, 7: front, right and top views.
• 5: toggles between perspective and orthographic.
• 0: looks through the active camera.
• Numpad period or View, Frame Selected: zooms to the selected object.

Shading modes

At the top right of the viewport are four shading buttons. Solid is fast and best for modelling. Material Preview shows materials with a built in lighting setup. Rendered shows the real render engine output. Wireframe shows edges only. Press Z for a pie menu to switch quickly.

Mouse position matters

In Blender, keyboard shortcuts apply to the editor under your mouse pointer. If a shortcut seems to do nothing, check that your pointer is over the viewport and not the outliner. This single rule explains most beginner confusion.

The search menu

Press F3 to search for any operator by name. If you forget a shortcut, search for it. The result also shows the shortcut so you learn it over time.

Practise now: orbit around the cube, view it from the front, top and camera, and switch between solid and material preview.