Blender 3.0 Beginner Tutorial - Part 1

Blender tutorial series showing you how to use the most common features, like modelling, lighting, materials, geometry nodes and rendering - whilst making a donut.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:15 The basics
2:45 Moving objects
4:04 Axis snapping
5:08 Rotate and Scale
6:20 Orbiting
7:18 Scaling the interface
8:31 Panning
9:01 Zooming
9:24 Focus on object
10:14 Align View to Axis
11:21 Orthographic/Perspective View
13:00 Properties
14:12 The outliner
14:55 Camera view
15:28 Keyboard shortcut PDF

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Follow me:

[rhysfriesen]

I started my 3D quest with your original donut. 3 years later I am now paid for my 3D work. Can't wait to see your updated donut :) All respect, my friend.

[petecoleman]

To all the beginners who see this, I hope you'll remember my comment. Blender will be tough and frustrating at first. Especially after you complete this tutorial series. After you complete the series you will want to create some art, and it will most likely not be very good. That feeling can be incredibly discouraging. It can also feel horrible to not be able to do basic things without googling the solution, but trust me, it gets so much better! Accept that there is quite a learning curve and you'll be okay. Getting to the point where I could solve problems on my own was one of the most satisfying things I've done. I recommend to watch more tutorials, but make sure to not get stuck on tutorial island. After a few weeks or a month try to do your own thing, or put a cool twist on a tutorial. Have fun and good luck <3.

[StevenJacksonSTEtv]

This tutorial series has got me more into Blender and 3D CG work than the Uni/College course I quit a few years ago. After finishing this, I feel confident enough to explore and play around making my own project from scratch. Thank you!

[antonhallstrom]

I have completed the entire tutorial and I would like to share my experience. If you are considering doing it, this review will provide you with valuable insights. Let me provide some background information first. I am in my thirties and have a full-time job and kids, which means I can dedicate only 1-2 hours every other night to this tutorial. I have a short attention span and can easily get demotivated, so I needed a plan to stay focused.

To keep track of my progress and maintain a sense of accomplishment, I created a checklist for each Blender video. Additionally, I maintained an Excel file to record the time spent on each session and which video I was working on. This approach was ideal as it allowed me to track my progress, identify areas where I struggled, and see how much time I invested. Before starting the tutorial, I watched the entire series once, spread out over a week. This made rewatching easier as I had less need to pause and rewind the videos.

Here's a tip: I highly recommend getting a keyboard and a mouse (as Blender Guru suggests), preferably a large monitor as well. I completed the tutorial using a MacBook Pro M1, which performed admirably. However, I realized later on that switching to GPU rendering with the Apple M1 Pro (14 cores) would have improved the rendering significantly, so I recommend doing that earlier in the process.

Once I began the tutorial, I diligently logged my progress and worked through it. Here are some important lessons and tips I learned along the way:

- Don't overdo it: In my situation, I found that sessions lasting more than 2 hours were too long. If I were to do it again, I would aim for a maximum of 1.5 hours per session.
- Modeling and sculpting took up the most time: I often encountered challenges in these areas, introducing problems that I didn't know how to solve initially.
- Avoid perfectionism: As someone prone to perfectionism, I realized that it can be a significant time sink. It's better to go through the entire tutorial first and then make tweaks if necessary, especially if your goal is to finish the tutorial.
- Set goals: Establish a goal for completing the tutorial and another one for what you want to do after finishing it.
- Rewatch and redo challenging parts: I highly recommend revisiting and redoing sections that you found difficult or didn't fully understand. However, it's best to do this after completing the entire tutorial to get the most out of it.
- Get a mouse and keyboard: Using a trackpad alone is not sufficient for an optimal experience in Blender. Invest in a mouse and keyboard for better control and efficiency.

In total, I spent 12 hours and 35 minutes on the tutorial (excluding the pre-watch of the series). For the animation render, I settled on a rendering time of 14 seconds, a noise threshold of 0.0500, and maximum samples of 4096. The rendering process took a little over an hour. As mentioned earlier, I used a MacBook Pro M1 and utilized the "Metal - Apple M1 Pro (GPU - 14 cores)" setting.


P.S.: I made a minor adjustment by adding a small amount of subsurface scattering to the donut render. (I know where the door is, Blender Guru!)

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the tutorial and found it to be a valuable learning experience. It's a fantastic resource for anyone looking to enhance their skills in Blender.

[KubaIgnacyk]

*I started my 3D journey with your previous Donut tutorial series, and now, 11 months later, I am a Junior 3d Artist in the GameDev industry. Thank you for your tutorials and good luck to every new fellow out there. You all can do it, just like me and many others, starting here and now.*

[sadeequsman]

That part: "You will discover you need help immediately"... Is just priceless, gets me every time ... cant wait to see all i will learn from your series
.

[PlausibleTomato]

I can't tell you how happy I am to know these are updated for major versions. I came back after a long time and was very overwhelmed. I needed a donut so badly! Thank you :D

[Platttraining]

I am retired high school teacher and I created over 613 video on mostly SolidWorks. The effort you have done with these videos on Blender are truly appreciated. I respect your hard work and this is so helpful for me who has use CAD for over 40 years. I printed short cut and again this so appreciated. Amazing work and you have made this a great learning experience. Thank you so much!!

[CuboidPixel]

I haven't touched blender in a full year and promised myself I would try it again. This is a great start to get back into Blender!

[enkephalin]

Timestamp
0:54 – donut!
1:15 – 3d viewport
1:48 – render (hotkey:F12)
2:45 – moving the object (hotkey:G, left click to confirm; right click to cancel; x/y/z to snap along the axis)
4:02 – moving object along specific axis (alternative: hold middle mouse button while moving)
5:07 – rotate and scale (hotkey:R(rotate); hotkey:S(scale)
6:20 – orbiting the view (click middle mouse button)
6:36 – laptop user without middle mouse button Emulate 3 Button Mouse, hold ALT + left click to orbiting)
7:17 – interface resolution scale (hold CTRL for incremental numbers)
7:58 – industry compatible keymap
8:30 – panning the view (shift + middle mouse button)
9:04 – zoom in and out (scroll wheel; hold CTRL + scroll wheel for smooth movement)
9:25 – inspect the object (number pad period(.); tilde key(~), select view selected)
10:25 – align view to axis (number pad 1(front view); number pad 3(side view); number pad 7(top view), hold CTRL for back, another side, bottom view)
11:21 – switching orthographic view and perspective view (number pad 5)
12:00 – alternatives for align view (1. tilde key(~), 2. [View] at the top left (beside the [Object Mode])>viewport, 3. Hold ALT + middle mouse button )
13:00 – properties(right hand side of the screen)
14:14 – outliner(top right of the screen)
14:40 – duplicate object (shift + D, left click to confirm with movement; right click to cancel movement)
14:53 – camera view (number pad 0)
15:14 – delete object (hotkey:X; hotkey:DELETE)
15:25 – keyboard shortcut PDF
16:02 – subscribe to Blender Guru newsletter
16:16 – Create your own new scene in blender and start the learning journey!

Good luck everyone, hope to see you till the end of the series

[ShaharHarshuv]

I watched your videos years ago and decided to get back to it for fun for now. The improvement in the efficiency and clarity of explanation (as well as some UX improvement by blender itself) are amazing!

[bearbrown]

As someone who has had to learn Maya as their first ever experience with 3D Modelling, I will say that so far Blender is SO MUCH EASIER. Thank you so much for this series, I'm using it to learn the basics! It's super easy to go along with.

[KlaudiusL]

If you sometime have doubts or struggling not to be the "donut man", please Don't. You're one of the most valuable Blender Guru this community has. We simply love you. A BIG thank you for all the work you do, for being just you.

[hollyy]

IMPORTANT: Before you start, go to Edit -> Preferences -> System and change "Undo Steps" to the maximum (seems to be 256 for me). Otherwise, you can only undo up to 32 actions by default which means you cannot go back and redo something from too long ago.

[AldousTyler]

This is a lifesaver. As someone who was trained on 3DSMax and Maya from 2014-2016 but couldn't afford the licenses once I graduated, learning how Blender operates is going to let me put so much of that knowledge back to work. Thank you again!

[_REcon_]

This guy is incredible, I have seen your video twice in 2022 and now late Q4 2023. I have never seen a 3D tutor guy who explains things extremely easy and simple!

Thank you, no words can appreciate you man!

[DecadesDiner]

For anyone considering this as an introduction to Blender, just do it, its excellent. I haven't seen another introduction video as professionally done as this. Andrew is clear and concise. He is obviously talented and knowledgeable. As a novice (aka noob) I was scratching my head as how this was considered a beginner tutorial. After finishing this series its finally became apparent this is the tip of the iceberg of endless creation. I cant thank him enough for this.

[matthewrogers]

Hi Andrew, I would like to say thank you. About 3 years ago I started learning blender from your 2.8 donut tutorial. 🍩 Since then I started my own 3d freelancing company using Poliigon which was a god send for time saving, then recently got head hunted by the UKs leading property marketing company where I now create CGI Visualisation. Thank you so much for your knowledge and giving me the tools I needed to turn my life around. Keep up the good work. 👍

[gailburnette]

Loved it! You kept it so simple and easy to follow! And I love that you did it in chapters, which will make it easier when I inevitably need to reference them again.

[FantaClaus__]

I just downloaded blender and had literally no idea what to do as he said in the beginning. But this video clearly helped me out because he doesnt rush or spam me with info, instead he teaches it steadily and understandable so i could perfectly catch up.
very nice