Part 1: Introduction to Blender and the Fundamentals of Animation

Math is all about numbers, modeling is all about vertices, gravel is all about very small rocks, and animation is all about keyframes. These are all boring but essential facts, which is why we begin this book with three whole chapters that – though they have different names to hold your attention – are solely about keyframes. First, we’ll learn how to create them and move them left and right. Then, in the second chapter, we’ll move them up and down, and, in the third chapter, we’ll learn what makes them move by themselves when no one is looking.

By the time we get to the fourth chapter, we will have grown so sick of keyframes we’ll want to learn how to animate using as few of them as possible. Finally, the fifth chapter is about frames, of which keyframes are not a type. What is a keyframe, you ask? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

If you’ve never animated...