selecting objects in blender is quite simple.
We already went over in the view port navigation video but to quickly review
left click an object to select it and left click empty space to de select.
But there are other selection tools as well.
You can press A for example to select all and all to a to de select all.
However, what if I want to select multiple objects but not all of them.
Well for that there is these select box tool.
This is turned on by default and with it selected from the Quick tools menu,
you can left click drag to select multiple objects at once.
To de select multiple objects at once,
simply control click drag in the same way
you can also enable the box select tool with the B. Hotkey
but in that mode you'll be using middle click drag to de select objects.
An alternative to the select box is to press C.
For circle select which acts more like a
selection brush and only extend selection by default.
You can however,
still use middle mouse drag to de select while encircles select mode.
Another way to select multiple objects is by
simply holding shift and left cooking objects individually.
To de select.
Using this method simply shift left click the
object again until it's no longer highlighted.
You may notice that while you shift left click these objects.
The most recently selected one is always
highlighted in a slightly brighter orange outline.
This denotes which object is the active object.
The active object is the object whose
properties will appear in the properties editor.
Now, just a quick tip
if you have objects or geometry obscured by other objects or geometry.
It may be difficult to select them
to help with this. I recommend using wireframe mode
located here to see through your objects.
This makes things easier to select.
And also allows for selection tools like Box and circle,
select to include otherwise obstructed objects or geometry.
Now it's important to know that each of these selection
tools can be used for almost every context in blender
including edit mode, pose mode and many of the editors.
However,
in some editors you will be required to press B before entering box selection mode
such as the outline. Er
you may have also noticed a select menu in the top left of the view port.
If you open this menu you'll notice several selection options laid out for you as
well as some view port specific selection options such as select all by type,
select active camera,
select linked
and more.
Feel free to try these out yourself but
it's important to know that select more slash less
only works in edit mode which we'll get into in a separate video
now that we know how to select objects. Let's start transforming them.
Transformation refers to moving things, rotating things or scaling things.
So let's say I want to push or pull my cube to a different location.
This would be classified as moving the cube or translating the cube.
I can open the quick tools menu and select the move tool.
You'll notice three colored arrows and three
colored squares appearing on your selected object.
This will allow me to click and drag any of
the arrows to move the selected object along that axis.
If you select any one of the three squares, it will move the object along two axes
excluding the axis of its correspondent color.
For example,
the blue square excludes the blue Z axis movement but
moves your object along the X and Y axes simultaneously,
but you can also left click drag anywhere in the
view port to move the object along your viewing plane.
Now,
in case you change your mind about moving
your object after you've already started dragging it
simply right click before letting go of your left mouse button.
This will work for all transformations
for hot key users. You can press G.
As in grab to initiate the move along your viewing plane. You can then press X, Y or Z.
To move it along a specific axis, like the colored arrows did
or you can hold shift
and press X, Y or Z to move it along the other two axes, like the colored squares. Did
you can right click at any time to cancel the move
or left click to apply the new location to your object.
Fun fact,
if you initiate any transformation with the mouse, click instead of the hot key,
you can still use the X, Y or Z. Hot keys
to perform similar access specific constraints on your transformation.
Before you release your left mouse button,
you can also switch your transformation entirely to a different one,
such as rotation or scale with their respective hot keys.
Please read the display at the bottom of your
window while dragging your object around for more information
to reset the location of your object back to its origin point, simply press L. G.
Now what if we want to tip our cube over or roll it around
in order to do that? We need to rotate our cube. Let's check our quick menus for that.
Ah ha! Yes it seems we do have a rotate tool here as well.
This will display a gizmo over the
selected object or objects showing each rotational axis
just like the move tool.
You can left click drag any of the colored rings to rotate along a single axis,
but you'll notice there are two new areas,
the outer white ring and the inner sphere inside of the
colored rings which you'll notice if you hover over it.
The outer white ring can be used to rotate the object along your viewing vector.
Imagine your eyes drilling a hole into the center of the
object and spinning the object around that axis of rotation.
The inner sphere is what you see when you
hover over the space in between the colored rings.
This can be left click dragged to enter a free
rotation mode which opens all three axes to rotation.
Kind of like a trackball on a trackball mouse.
This is my favorite mode of rotation as it's the most flexible
for hot key, users simply press are as and rotate
to initiate the rotation along your viewing vector.
You can then once again press X, Y or Z. To rotate along the specific axis.
Like the colored rings did,
but you can also hit our again
to initiate a free rotation like the inner sphere trackball did.
And again you can right click at any time to cancel the
rotation or left click to apply the new rotation to your object.
To reset your objects rotation at any time, simply press ALTs are
now let's say we want to make our cube much bigger or much smaller.
Which can be the difference between say a tissue box and a house.
This would be known as scaling our cube. So let's go check our quick tools menu again.
And yes,
a scale tool selecting this scale tool displays a gizmo very
similar to the move tool except instead of colored arrows,
it's like
colored arrows with cubes of cheese stuck on the tips of them.
Mm cheese. These work exactly the way you might expect.
Simply left click drag any of the code.
Access to scale the object along that particular direction. Big or small.
You can also left click drag the colored squares
to exclude one axis from the scaling process.
But what if you want to scale the entire object evenly?
Just like moving you simply left click drag anywhere in the view port.
For hotkey users press the S key as in scale
to initiate the size change evenly for all axes.
Press X, Y or Z.
To scale along only a single axis, just like the colored arrows with cheese on them.
Did or press shift X, Y or Z.
To exclude an axis from the scaling just like the colored squares. Did
you can right click at any time to cancel the resizing
or left click to apply the new size of your object
to reset the scale of your object back to its original scale.
Simply press alti s.
Now you may have noticed that during the rotation and scale
procedures there was a definitive center or pivot to the transformations.
This is usually what the orange dot on your object signifies.
However, what if you don't want to rotate or scale based on the objects pivot point?
What if you want to rotate from the world
origin or scale upwards relative to the floor level?
That's where the three D cursor comes in.
This red and white circle is called the three d cursor.
It can act as the pivot point of any object. As long as you click this.
Drop down menu here and select three D cursor.
Try it out with rotation and scale modes.
You can move the three D cursor throughout your
seen by selecting the three D cursor tool in
the quick tool menu and left click dragging anywhere
in your scene or pressing shift right click.
You can change the pivot point back to the default median
point at any time with the same menu as before.
The three D cursor can also be used for moving your object.
I personally love this feature for quick moving your object to a specific point,
simply move your three D cursor to where you want your object to go.
Then go to object
snap
selection to cursor.
For hot key users,
you can simply press shift right click and then shift s
and use the pie menu to select selection to cursor.
Just a friendly reminder if you ever need to recenter your three D cursor
cursor to world Origin is also in the same snap menu.
Okay now let's say I've run into the issue where I've rotated my
object but now I can't move the object along its own upwards axis.
I'm stuck moving directly up and that's not helpful.
Don't worry.
All you have to do is change this drop down menu up here from global to local.
This will change all gizmos to display the objects.
Local axes instead of the global access for all transformations
for hot key users, you can access local axes simply by pressing X,
Y or Z twice instead of once after initiating your transformation.
Another helpful tip for transforming your objects is to
hold shift when trying to be more accurate.
Holding shift while moving rotating or scaling your object will
reduce the sensitivity of your cursor affecting the transformation values.
In other words
it will change slower as you move your cursor
giving you more nuanced control over the end result.
In fact holding shift will achieve the same effect for
cursor dependent values in most other editors as well.
For example dragging a number along a slider.
All right.
But what if I have a bunch of boxes that need to be perfectly aligned eyeballing?
It isn't very practical or helpful.
This is where you can use the snapping options located at the top here.
This magnet icon toggles snapping on and off. But you can also press shift tab,
the drop down menu to the right of it allows you to snap to increments, vortices,
faces, volumes or edges.
This way you can align your boxes perfectly
to each other without relying on guesswork.
Selection and transformation are the foundation of manipulating your three D.
Scene in blender