For this project, you'll need the files from Blender3DByExample_Chapter02.zip, which can be downloaded here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Blender-3D-By-Example-Second-Edition. Download and unzip the folder. You should now have a directory called Blender3DByExample_Chapter02 that contains the starting project file and a folder that contains all of the texture files that are required:

Blender saves projects in a proprietary format called .blend – these files store everything you need for a 3D scene: models, animations, lights, you name it! .blend files can also include image textures, though most 3D artists choose to keep the texture files separate so that the .blend file will take up less room on the computer. For this chapter, the textures can be found inside the VikingScene_Textures folder, as you can see here:

Now that we have our files, we can get started. Open the VikingScene_Start.blend file to begin this project. You can open a .blend file by dragging and dropping it into Blender, or by going to the File menu and choosing Open.... We will start by learning how to use the Outliner panel.

Welcome to your first Blender scene! We had a brief introduction to the user interface in Chapter 1, Introduction to 3D and the Blender User Interface, but now we can see it with our own eyes. The largest area of the UI is dedicated to the 3D Viewport (or just "Viewport" for short). You can see all of the 3D objects inside this area. This scene has been set to use the new Random Colors feature, which gives all of the objects false colors so that they are easier to identify in the Viewport, as shown in the following screenshot:

The random colors are helpful, but there is an even better way to discover the contents of a scene: the Outliner. The Outliner can be found in the top-right corner of the UI. Let's learn how to use it to our advantage.

We can look at the Outliner to get a sense of what's in this project file. The Outliner in Blender 2.8 has been upgraded with a new feature called Collections. Collections are similar to layers or groups in other applications. These collections are a very powerful feature as they can have any type of object grouped within them, including other collections.

Let's take a look at how this scene uses the Outliner to organize the objects. In the following screenshot, you can see that there are five collections in this .blend file; a top-level collection and four collections inside it:

The top-level collection is called Scene Collection. This is a default collection that contains everything else within the scene. The indentation in the Outliner shows that the bottom four collections are all grouped inside the Scene Collection.

Next to each collection are orange icons with little numbers that indicate how many of each type of object is inside them:

• Accessories has four mesh objects.
• Viking Dummy has six mesh objects and two curve objects.
• Lights has four light objects and one camera object.
• Particle Shapes has four mesh objects.

To the left of each collection is a little arrow that indicates that the collections are collapsed in the Outliner. Let's expand two of these collections to see the list of objects that belong to each collection:

1. Click on the little arrow to the left of the Accessories collection.
2. Click on the little arrow to the left of the Viking Dummy collection.

Good! Now, we can see the expanded hierarchy for each collection, as shown here:

This Viking scene is relatively small with 21 objects in total, but it's still important to stay organized. Imagine working in a project that has hundreds of objects. The Outliner fills up really fast, so placing objects into collections is a terrific way to stay organized.

The bottom two collections are grayed-out because their visibility has been turned off. On the right-hand side of the Outliner, you can see three icons for each row, as shown in the following screenshot:

These three icons represent Restriction Toggles. From left to right, we have Selectable, Hide in Viewport, and Disable in Renders:

• When the Selectable toggle is set to its grayed-out state, the object can't be selected by clicking on it in the Viewport.
• When the Hide in Viewport toggle is set to its grayed-out state, the object can't be seen in the Viewport.
• When the Disable in Renders toggle is set to its grayed-out state, the object will not show up in the final image.

The Lights collection has both its Selectable and Hide in Viewport toggles grayed-out so that the lights will not be in the way while we work in this scene. However, the Disable in Renders toggle has not been grayed-out, which means that the lighting will turn on for the final image.

The Particle Shapes collection is for storing objects that make up the particles, such as the grass on the ground and the straw that fills the dummy. Particles are an advanced feature, so don't worry about this for now – just know that this collection is still being used in the scene, even though all three of its toggles are grayed-out.

You may have noticed that the other objects in the Outliner also have little arrows and can be expanded. This is useful for advanced users because you can see all of the data associated with each object, similar to how we can see all of the objects associated with each collection. But let's not get ahead of ourselves – you're probably itching to get into the 3D scene!

3D navigation is essential when working on any project in Blender, so let's practice what we learned in the Basic 3D Navigation Controls section of Chapter 1, Introduction to 3D and the Blender User Interface, before learning one more very important navigation feature.

As we have already learned, Blender's 3D navigation controls are all about using the middle mouse button (MMB). Let's start by rotating the view:

1. Move your mouse into the 3D Viewport.
2. Press and hold the middle mouse button.
3. Drag your mouse around to rotate the viewing angle.

Notice that the focal point of the view is focused on the Viking dummy in the center. When we rotate, our view always orbits around the current focal point. We'll see why this is important after we practice our other controls.

Once you're comfortable with orbiting the Viking dummy, let's try panning:

1. Make sure the mouse is still in the 3D Viewport.
2. Hold down the Shift key, then press and hold the middle mouse button.
3. Drag your mouse around to pan the view.

Panning shifts the focal point of the Viewport. If we rotate the view now, we will orbit around the new focal point. Both orbiting and zooming are relative to the focal point. Let's give zooming a shot now:

1. Once again, make sure the mouse is in the 3D Viewport.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key, then press and hold the middle mouse button.
3. Drag your mouse up and down to zoom in and out.

As we rotate, pan, and zoom around the scene, the focal point of the Viewport will inevitably get stuck in an awkward position. Eventually, navigating the Viewport will become very difficult and frustrating. This is a common issue in all 3D software.

To fix this issue, we can choose an object that we want to focus on, then frame it by using the View Selected feature (also known as the Frame Selected feature). First, we'll pick an object that we want to work with:

1. Select the Dummy object by clicking on it in the 3D Viewport or in the Outliner.

The object will have an orange outline in the Viewport to indicate that it is selected. Now, we need to frame it. There are many ways to do this, but Blender 2.8 has a new pie menu that we can use for easy Viewport navigation.

2. Move the mouse over the 3D Viewport so that the keyboard shortcuts behave correctly.
3. Press the Tilde key (~ ) to bring up the View pie menu.

The View pie menu is one of many pie menus in Blender 2.8. When activated, pie menus bring up a quick list of menu options in a circular pattern around the mouse, as shown in the following screenshot:

Each option on the pie menu takes up a slice of space around the mouse (like a slice of pie) and can be selected by simply moving your mouse in the direction of the menu option you want and then clicking.

We will become familiar with the other options of this pie menu later in this book, but for now, we just need the View Selected option:

1. Make sure the View pie menu is still open.
2. Move the mouse diagonally down and to the right to highlight the View Selected option.
3. Click while the View Selected option is highlighted.

The nice thing about pie menus is that you don't have to click directly on the menu option; all you have to do is aim the mouse in the general direction of the "slice" of the pie menu that you want and then click.

Excellent – the Viewport's focal point has been reset so that the Dummy object is centered in the view. You should get familiar with using this navigation feature since it will come up over and over again in our workflow.

Play around with the navigation controls until you're comfortable with them – you'll be using them from here on out. Practice rotating, panning, and zooming. Try selecting different objects in the scene and use the View Selected option to frame them within the 3D Viewport. One more time, here are the navigation controls we covered:

• Rotate: MMB and drag
• Zoom: Ctrl + MMB and drag OR scroll wheel.
• Pan: Shift + MMB and drag.
• View Selected: Tilde ~ hotkey | View Selected OR period . on the number pad.

When you feel comfortable with these controls, you can move on to the next section of this chapter, where we'll have a look at Blender's new Toolbar.

In Blender 2.8, there is a new user-friendly Toolbar attached to the left-hand side of the 3D Viewport. The Toolbar provides an assortment of large icons, with each icon representing a tool. By default, the Toolbar is collapsed into a single column, but we can expand it to show the names of all of the tools. Let's expand the Toolbar now:

1. Hover your mouse over the right-hand side edge of the Toolbar until your mouse turns into a double arrow.
2. Left-click and drag to the right to expand the Toolbar, as shown in the following screenshot:

Now that the Toolbar has been expanded, let's learn about some of the tools.

The first tool in the Toolbar is the Select Box tool, which is highlighted in blue to indicate that it is active. When a tool is active, it can be used by clicking in the 3D Viewport with the Left Mouse Button (LMB). The Select Box tool lets us draw a box selection by clicking and dragging over multiple objects.

Directly beneath the Select Box tool is the Cursor tool. This will let us place the 3D cursor in the scene. You'll learn more about what the 3D cursor is and how to use it in the next project, so don't worry about it for now.

The next four tools are used for transformations: Move, Rotate, Scale, and Transform. The names of these tools should sound familiar from what we learned in the first chapter. Clicking on a tool in the Toolbar will activate it, and a gizmo will appear in the 3D Viewport. We use gizmos to interact with the tools from the Toolbar. The gizmos for the four transform tools are shown in the following image:

Let's learn more about these four gizmos:

• Move: The Move tool gizmo has three colored arrows, one for each axis (red for X, green for Y, and blue for Z). Clicking and dragging on these arrows will move the selected object.
• Rotate: The Rotate gizmo also has three colored handles, but this time they are shaped like semicircles instead of arrows. The colors still correspond to the same X, Y, and Z axes. Clicking and dragging on these semicircles will rotate the selected object.
• Scale: This gizmo looks almost identical to the Move gizmo but, instead of little arrows, the tips are shaped like little cubes. Clicking and dragging on these little cubes will scale the selected object.

• Transform: The Transform gizmo is just a combination of the previous three gizmos. Some users like to have all of these gizmos active at once, but it can be a little overwhelming.

The last few tools in the Toolbar are for advanced workflows, so we'll skip them for now. Next, we'll practice with the basic transformation tools by moving, rotating, and scaling the three arrow objects in the scene.