Datasheet

15
Chapter 1: Discovering Blender
An interface that stays out of your way
The first thing to understand about Blender’s interface is its basic organiza-
tion. Figure 1-3 displays a single Blender window. Each Blender window can
consist of one or more areas that you can split, resize, and join at will. In
nearly all cases, an area defines the space of an editor, such as the 3D View,
where you actually make changes and modifications to your 3D scene. Each
editor can include one or more regions that contain additional features or
tools for using that editor. An example of a region that all editors have is
a header region at the top or bottom of the editor that typically includes
menus and buttons to give you access to features in that editor.
Knowing this organizational structure, the next important thing to know is
that Blender is designed to be as nonblocking and nonmodal as possible.
Areas in Blender never overlap one another (nonblocking) and using one
feature of Blender typically won’t restrict you from using any of the others
(nonmodal). As an example, in most software, if you want to open a new file
or save your project, a file browser dialog pops up. This dialog is an overlap-
ping window that not only blocks things behind it from view, but usually also
prevents you from making any changes to your file. This setup isn’t the case
with Blender. In Blender, the file browser is an editor just like any other, and
it makes perfect sense to be able to make a couple of tweaks to your scene
before hitting the Save button. Figure 1-4 shows what it might look like to
have a file browser open while you make tweaks.
Figure 1-4:
Doing those
last couple
of tweaks
before
finally sav-
ing (Model
credit:
Blender
Foundation,
Sintel).
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