With so many options for 3D modeling software, why would Blender, a software designed to make 3D animations, be the most popular choice?

The first thing that needs to be done is downloading and installing Bender. Follow these steps:

Blender is now installed and ready to use.

Blender's interface is made up of many smaller windows called panels. There are many different panels available in Blender. Like most things in Blender, the panels are completely configurable. Panels can be added or removed as needed, and panel layouts can be saved and switched among easily. For simplicity, the default view—the way Blender is presented the first time it loads up—will be used throughout this series. It provides most of the necessary functionality:

Here's an explanations of the different panels in the default view:

Blender has a reputation for being difficult and unintuitive to use. This is true for the default settings. However, Blender is also very easily adjustable with a few settings and can be made much easier to use. How you set up your instance of Blender will depend on what your setup is like.

To access the settings, in the top menu select File | User Preferences. In the Blender User Preferences panel that comes up, select the Input tab button:

Most tutorials for Blender start with navigating the 3D View. But in Blender, the default scene is kind of boring for this, just a cube that looks the same from every angle. Instead, let's make something more interesting to look at.

First, let's look at how to clear the default scene:

Your 3D View should now have nothing but the grid, which can be thought of as the floor of the scene.

To create an object, go to 3D View menu, choose Add or press Shift + A.

In the menu that pops up are all the basic objects that can be inserted into the scene. Blender offers many basic shapes that can serve as a starting point for anything you want to create. Sometimes, a basic object...

Because Blender is all about working in 3D, but computer screens are flat, it is important to know how to change how you're looking at something in Blender.

In Blender, you can change the angle of the view by:

The point at which the view is rotating can change. Follow these steps to center the view rotation on a specific object:

The selected object will fill the view and all view rotations will now center on that object:

In Blender, transforming an object changes the size, direction, or location of a thing without changing its shape. There are three basic transformation commands that are used frequently: Grab and Move, Rotate, and Scale.

To transform an object, be sure the object is selected, and then, from the 3D View menu:

Then, move the mouse or use the arrow keys to transform the object. When the transformation has been accomplished, press Enter or the select mouse button to end the operation, or the transformation can be cancelled by pressing the not-select mouse button or the Esc key. The following diagram shows these object transformations:

Transformations can also be undone after they're completed by pressing Ctrl + Z.

By default, operators in Blender operate on a 2D plane tangential to the view. This is a fancy way of saying that without any additional controls, it can be hard to predict how a movement or rotation operation will work. For instance, moving something in a random view can include moving up and down more than expected. This effect won't be clear until the view is changed and the transformation is inspected from a different angle, as shown here:

If you can't predict how operations will work, it can be hard to make the things you want. So it is very important to be able to control transformations.

There are two main ways of controlling operators: controlling the view and axis locking.

Blender can duplicate existing objects. This is very useful and can speed up making things. To duplicate an object, follow these steps:

Naturally, Blender is capable of selecting more than one object at a time. Blender has many tools to help when selecting objects. With multiple objects, the transformation commands work on all the selected objects at once. This is a powerful way of controlling transformations while keeping objects in relative positions to each other.

In Blender, the Edit mode allows more access to the shape of a single object so that it can be manipulated in order to change its shape. To enter Edit mode, use this method:

In Edit mode, the 3D View menu, Tool Shelf, and Properties all change, adding new functionality only available in Edit mode: