To restart the animation click in the window at left.

This tutorial describes the steps for creating an animation similar to the one at left. It was created with a package called Blender 3D. This tutorial is meant for people that are absolute beginners to Blender 3D. Do not assume that I have a clue about how to use this animation package...

The animation was created with Blender 3D. It is a free 3D package just loaded with features. We are going to examine just a few of those features here. There are any number of videos available on the web that explain many features of Blender 3D. The purpose of the following text is to allow you to run the examples while you read along.

Starting the Blender 3D Animation Program

These steps below relate to Blender 2.49b. Although the user interface can change from one release to the next most of the interface has remained relatively stable.

Assuming you have downloaded and installed blender we can start:

Blender starts up with a split screen, the upper screen shows the 3d view, the lower screen has the button panel. More on these later. The upper screen is initialized with a view of 3 objects, a cube, a lamp, and a camera. The default cube is one unit on each side.

Select the default cube

Shift to a front view: click on "view" (bottom left of the 3d screen) and then select "Front" from the menu.

To select an object in Blender you put the cursor on the object and RIGHT CLICK with the mouse. This takes some getting used to but after awhile becomes automatic. So now select the cube in the 3D screen.