II. Modelling, Materials and Lights

As you have seen in the Quick Start chapter in Part I, the creation of a 3D scene needs at least three key things: Models, Materials and Lights. In this Part we will delve deeper into each of these.

Once you are finished with this Part, you can either go to Part IV if you want to get the most out of Blender's rendering engines for still images, or read Part III to learn all about Blender's animation capabilities. Part V on the other hand gives you more information about advanced modelling tools.

Table of Contents
5. ObjectMode
5.1. Selecting objects
5.2. Moving (translating) objects
5.3. Rotating objects
5.4. Scaling/mirroring objects
5.5. Transform Properties Panel
5.6. Duplicate
5.7. Parenting (Grouping)
5.8. Tracking
5.9. Other Actions
5.10. Boolean operations
6. Basic Mesh Modelling
6.1. Basic Objects
6.2. EditMode
6.2.1. Structures: Vertices, Edges and Faces
6.2.2. Basic Editing
6.2.3. Mesh Undo
6.3. Smoothing
6.4. Extrude
6.4.1. The Blade
6.4.2. The Handle
6.4.3. The Hilt
6.5. Spin and SpinDup
6.5.1. Spin
6.5.2. SpinDup
6.6. Screw
6.7. Warp Tool
7. Advanced Mesh Modelling
7.1. Catmull-Clark Subdivision Surfaces
7.2. Edge Tools
7.2.1. Edge/Face select
7.2.2. Face Loop Splitting
7.2.3. Knife Tool
7.3. Bevelling Tools
7.4. Symmetrical Modelling
7.5. Proportional Editing Tool
7.6. Noise
7.7. Decimator Tool
8. Meta Objects
9. Curves and Surfaces
9.1. Curves
9.1.1. Béziers
9.1.2. NURBS
9.1.3. Working example
9.2. Surfaces
9.3. Text
9.3.1. Special Characters
9.4. Extrude Along Path
9.5. Skinning
10. Materials and Textures
10.1. Diffusion
10.2. Specular Reflection
10.3. Materials in practice
10.3.1. Material Colors
10.3.2. The Shaders
10.3.3. Tweaking Materials
10.4. Raytracing Reflections
10.5. Raytraced Transparencies
10.6. Multiple Materials
10.7. Special Materials
10.7.1. Halo Materials
10.7.2. Lens Flares
11. Textures
11.1. Textures
11.1.1. Textures from the Material Point of View
11.1.2. Textures themselves
11.1.3. ImageTexture
11.2. Environment Maps
11.3. Displacement Maps
11.4. Solid and Hollow Glass
11.4.1. Solid Glass
11.4.2. Hollow Glass
11.5. UV Editor and FaceSelect
11.5.1. Introduction
11.5.2. The UV Editor
11.5.3. Unwrapping Tools
11.5.4. Editing UV Coordinates
11.5.5. LSCM Unwrap
11.5.6. Rendering and UV Coordinates
11.6. Unwrapping Suzanne
11.6.1. Easy as it "seams"
11.6.2. Unwrapping the mesh
11.6.3. "Stitching the Map"
11.6.4. "Solving the Ears"
11.6.5. What now?
11.7. Texture Plugins
12. Lighting
12.1. Introduction
12.2. Lamp Types
12.2.1. Sun Light
12.2.2. Hemi Light
12.2.3. Lamp Light
12.2.4. Spot Light
12.3. Ray Shadows
12.4. Buffer Shadows
12.5. Volumetric Light
12.6. Tweaking Light
12.6.1. Three point light
12.6.2. Three point light - Outdoor
12.6.3. Area Light
12.6.4. Global Illumination (and Global Shadowing)
13. The World and The Universe
13.1. The World Background
13.2. Exposure
13.3. Mist
13.4. Stars
13.5. Ambient Occlusion