Blender Full Course Lecture 1 Beginner Tutorial for Modeling Materials and Rendering

Blender Full Course - Lecture 1: Beginner Tutorial for Modeling, Materials and Rendering

Full tutorial link > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk-4ol8IvQc

Start Blender from zero and build your first 3D scene: the Lumen Field Station. This beginner tutorial takes you from installation to a saved, organized and rendered scene. Lecture 1 of a 14-lecture Blender full course; no previous 3D experience is needed.

🔗 Links:

Lecture 1 Blender files, catch-up checkpoints and 4K renders (GitHub): [ https://github.com/FurkanGozukara/Blender-Full-Tutorial-Lecture-2026-2027/tree/main/week01 ]

Course repository with the files of all 14 lectures (GitHub): [ https://github.com/FurkanGozukara/Blender-Full-Tutorial-Lecture-2026-2027 ]

Official Blender download: [ https://www.blender.org/download/ ]

Blender manual: [ https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/ ]

SECourses Patreon: [ https://www.patreon.com/SECourses ]

SECourses Discord: [ https://discord.com/invite/software-engineering-courses-secourses-772774097734074388 ]

🎯 You will learn how to install Blender on Windows, save project versions, navigate the viewport, transform primitives with exact values, build the station, organize collections, frame a camera, add materials and lighting, and save 4K renders.

🧩 Main topics include the interface, shading modes, F3 search, autosave, metric units, the 3D cursor, Object Mode, EEVEE, Cycles and NVIDIA OptiX. Recorded with Blender 5.2.2 LTS.

Use the chapters to follow from the beginning or jump to a specific tool.

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00:00 From installation to your first 3D scene

00:00:31 Preview the finished station from every side

00:01:02 Compare the gray, EEVEE and Cycles previews

00:02:06 Download Blender from the official website

00:02:46 Choose Windows, macOS, Linux or portable

00:03:31 Install Blender on your Windows computer

00:05:00 First launch and the Quick Setup screen

00:06:01 Meet the default cube, camera and light

00:06:32 Set a readable Blender interface scale

00:06:59 Autosave, backup versions and script preferences

00:07:46 Set laptop mouse and numpad options

00:08:16 Create a home for your Blender project

00:09:13 Organize blend files, textures, audio and renders

00:10:02 Save your first numbered Blender project file

00:11:08 Understand the main editors and workspaces

00:11:54 Select objects and identify the active object

00:13:01 Mouse focus, shortcuts and adjustable editor panels

00:13:32 Change viewport shading and use Quick Favorites

00:14:38 Find commands and read the status bar

00:15:23 Orbit, pan and zoom around the scene

00:16:21 Use front, right and top orthographic views

00:17:09 Frame Selected and recover a lost view

00:18:20 Add primitives and adjust their creation settings

00:19:25 Move, rotate and scale with exact values

00:20:19 Set object dimensions and metric scene units

00:21:18 Duplicate, rename and delete your scene objects

00:22:27 Use Undo History and remove test objects

00:23:00 Recover autosaves and save numbered project versions

00:24:13 Reset the 3D cursor before building

00:24:47 Build the platform and the ground plane

00:25:37 Build the beacon base and vertical post

00:26:43 Add the signal sphere and courier placeholder

00:27:30 Create a roof slab with exact dimensions

00:28:18 Add and duplicate the two roof supports

00:29:32 Organize your scene with named collections

00:30:37 Move each object into its collection

00:31:42 Hide a group and save the station

00:32:14 Align the camera to your chosen view

00:32:58 Fine-tune framing with Lock Camera to View

00:33:31 Set 4K output and the EEVEE engine

00:34:09 Add and position a soft area light

00:35:07 Render your first station image with F12

00:35:23 Save the rendered image as a PNG

00:36:12 Open and check your saved 4K image

00:36:56 Add and place a small cargo box

00:38:24 Save the scene and inspect its backup

00:38:59 Recognize Object Mode and Edit Mode

00:39:34 Create materials and choose their base colors

00:40:26 Color the beacon and the courier objects

00:41:26 Choose the scene's world background color

00:41:45 Adjust focal length and smooth the sphere

00:42:29 Render and save the colored station scene

00:43:23 Enable the NVIDIA GPU with OptiX

00:44:03 Switch to Cycles and render on GPU

00:44:53 Save the Cycles result for later comparison

00:45:45 Reopen earlier versions and restore the station

00:47:01 Find help in the official Blender manual

00:47:50 Finish your scene and prepare for mesh modeling

This video is for anyone starting Blender and 3D computer graphics. The station is the shared project for the course; later lectures develop modeling, textures, procedural tools, rigging, animation and compositing.

💬 Ask questions in the comments or join our Discord. Support SECourses on Patreon for more tutorials and resources.

#Blender #BlenderTutorial #3DModeling

Video Transcription

• 00:00:00 Welcome to week 1 of Computer Graphics with  Blender, and this is where the week ends.  

• 00:00:05 The small station we build together today grows  from an empty scene into a platform, a beacon,  

• 00:00:12 a courier robot and a roof. Every part has a name,  every group has a collection, and every position  

• 00:00:19 came from a typed value rather than a lucky drag.  Numpad 0 looks through the camera we will place  

• 00:00:26 in chapter 12, framed the way the 1st render  needs it. Space plays a short turntable of the  

• 00:00:34 finished station that I prepared for this preview,  so the camera orbits it once, the quickest way to  

• 00:00:41 judge a model from every side before any render is  started. Space again stops the playback, and Shift  

• 00:00:49 plus Left returns the timeline to frame 1, ready  for later. Chapters 9 to 14 build all of this,  

• 00:00:57 chapter 12 renders it, and the turntable file is  only a preview. The renders folder of the course  

• 00:01:04 already holds the 3 pictures we will make this  week: gray, colored and path traced. Let me open  

• 00:01:11 that folder in Explorer, because seeing the goal  first makes the steps easier to follow. A double  

• 00:01:19 click on the colored one opens it in Paint dot  NET, the default image viewer on this machine.  

• 00:01:26 It shows materials, a dark sky and soft shadows  from an area light, rendered with EEVEE in about  

• 00:01:35 a second. Back in Explorer, the 3rd picture  is the same view rendered with Cycles on the  

• 00:01:42 graphics card: the light bounces between the  surfaces, which is what a path tracer adds.  

• 00:01:49 I close the viewer and return to Blender, where  the rest of this video takes place. The next  

• 00:01:56 chapter installs Blender 5.2 LTS; if you already  have it, skip to chapter 4, where the real work  

• 00:02:04 starts. Let me start from nothing. I open a new  tab and search for blender download. Always get  

• 00:02:12 Blender from its own website, so type the query  and press Enter to see the results. The 1st result  

• 00:02:19 is blender dot org, the official site. You can  read the domain right there under the title. I  

• 00:02:25 hover it to be sure, then click through to the  download page. The big button already offers the  

• 00:02:30 Windows installer for the current version, 5.2.2  LTS. LTS means long term support, so this release  

• 00:02:39 gets fixes for 2 years. That stability is why we  pin this exact version. If you are on a Mac or  

• 00:02:48 Linux, or you want the portable version that needs  no install, open this menu. You can see macOS,  

• 00:02:54 Linux and the portable zip here. We stay with the  Windows installer. I click Download Blender. The  

• 00:03:01 file is 1 installer, about 348 megabytes, so on  a slower connection this takes a moment. I have  

• 00:03:09 sped this part up so you are not waiting. When it  finishes, click the download in the toolbar. I use  

• 00:03:15 Show in folder so you can see where it lives. This  is your Downloads folder, and there is the blender  

• 00:03:21 installer file. Windows opens the Downloads folder  with the file highlighted, and I simply drag the  

• 00:03:28 window into view. I double-click the installer to  start it. This is the official setup wizard, the  

• 00:03:36 same one everyone gets from the website. On the  welcome page you just need to click Next to begin.  

• 00:03:42 The next page is the license, the GNU General  Public License that keeps Blender free. Tick that  

• 00:03:48 you accept it and click Next. Then Blender shows  where it will install, inside Program Files. The  

• 00:03:55 default location is fine, so I click Install.  Windows may ask for permission to make changes,  

• 00:04:01 which you accept. The progress bar runs for about  a minute while it copies the files. The green bar  

• 00:04:08 shows the copy running. Blender is about 1/2 a  gigabyte on disk once unpacked, so this takes  

• 00:04:15 about a minute on a normal drive. While it works,  the installer copies the program into Program  

• 00:04:21 Files, registers the dot blend file type, and adds  a Start menu entry. If the bar seems stuck, give  

• 00:04:30 it a moment; Windows Defender scans large files  on 1st write. Only cancel if the wizard itself  

• 00:04:38 reports an error. There is nothing to configure  here, which is 1 reason Blender is easy to teach;  

• 00:04:44 every student ends up with the same installation.  When it is done, I untick the box that opens the  

• 00:04:52 support page, then click Finish. Blender is now  installed on your computer, and the installer  

• 00:04:58 closes itself. Blender is installed, so let's  launch it exactly the way you will every day from  

• 00:05:06 now on. I press the Windows key, type blender,  and the Start menu shows Blender 5.2 as the best  

• 00:05:14 match, so I click it. Blender opens maximized  with a Quick Setup screen, because this is its  

• 00:05:21 very 1st start on this computer. Language and  Theme stay as they are, and Keymap says Blender,  

• 00:05:29 the default keymap this whole course uses. Mouse  Select is Left, so a left click selects things,  

• 00:05:36 exactly like every other program you know.  Spacebar Action is Play. We keep every default  

• 00:05:43 here and click Continue at the bottom. Now the  splash screen shows the version in its corner,  

• 00:05:49 5.2.2 LTS. New File starts a fresh scene, and  Getting Started links to the manual and the  

• 00:05:57 community. I click outside the splash to close  it. This is the default scene that every new file  

• 00:06:04 starts with: a gray cube in the middle, a camera  on the left, and a light above it. We will replace  

• 00:06:12 all 3 by the end of this lesson. Later you can  check the version through the Blender menu at  

• 00:06:18 the top left: About Blender. The box lists  the version, the build date and the branch,  

• 00:06:26 the details people ask for when you need help. I  click away to close it. Before we touch the scene,  

• 00:06:33 let's set a few preferences. In the Edit menu  I choose Preferences. A separate window opens  

• 00:06:39 on the Interface tab, and the 1st setting there  is Resolution Scale. On a 4K screen everything is  

• 00:06:47 tiny, so I double-click Resolution Scale, type 1.5  and press Enter. Both windows grow at once. Then I  

• 00:06:54 maximize the Preferences window so it is easy to  read. Now the Save and Load tab, where Auto-Save  

• 00:07:03 is on with a timer of 2 minutes, so Blender writes  a recovery copy while you work. Save Versions is  

• 00:07:11 1, which means every save keeps the previous file  as a blend1 backup. Below, under Blend Files,  

• 00:07:20 Auto Run Python Scripts is unchecked, and we leave  it that way for the whole course. A downloaded  

• 00:07:26 file can carry scripts, and with this box empty  they only run when you allow them. Nothing in  

• 00:07:32 here needs a save button. Open the small menu at  the bottom left: Auto-Save Preferences is ticked,  

• 00:07:39 so every change is stored the moment you make  it. Escape closes the menu again. The Input tab  

• 00:07:46 holds the laptop options. Emulate 3 Button Mouse  lets Alt with a left drag stand in for the middle  

• 00:07:54 button, and Emulate Numpad turns the number row  into numpad keys. Both stay off on this desktop.  

• 00:08:01 Finally the Keymap tab: the preset is Blender and  Select with Mouse Button is Left, the same choices  

• 00:08:08 as the Quick Setup. Now I close Preferences  with the X, and everything stays saved.  

• 00:08:16 Now we need a home for the project, and it  should not be the Downloads folder. I press  

• 00:08:22 Windows and E to open File Explorer, click  the address bar, and type G colon backslash  

• 00:08:29 educational underscore videos, then Enter. This  is the folder where every course I record lives;  

• 00:08:38 on your computer it can be any folder you will  keep. The address bar shows the drive and the  

• 00:08:43 folder, and below the existing folders there is  room for ours. In the toolbar, New, then Folder,  

• 00:08:50 creates a folder with its name ready to be typed.  I type LumenCourse, 1 word with a capital L and a  

• 00:08:57 capital C, and press Enter to confirm the name. A  double click opens the new folder. Everything for  

• 00:09:05 this course will live in here, so nothing gets  lost later, and the address bar now ends with  

• 00:09:11 LumenCourse. Inside LumenCourse we make 7 folders,  and the 1st one comes from the same New menu:  

• 00:09:18 blend, all lowercase, for the working files. Then  Control Shift N creates the next folder directly,  

• 00:09:25 and I name that 2nd one textures. Control Shift  N again for audio, where sound files go, then  

• 00:09:35 cache for simulation data, and renders for the  finished images. Type the names exactly like this,  

• 00:09:41 lowercase and without spaces. 2 more: exports, for  files you hand to other programs, and reference,  

• 00:09:50 for research pictures. 7 folders, and this  structure stays the same for the whole course,  

• 00:09:56 so later weeks always know where things are.  Now back to Blender with Alt Tab, and File,  

• 00:10:04 Save As. Blender opens its own file browser, not  the Windows one; the drives sit under Volumes on  

• 00:10:12 the left, and I click the G drive. The  quickest way into a deep folder is the  

• 00:10:17 path field at the top of the browser. I type G  colon, backslash educational underscore videos,  

• 00:10:25 backslash LumenCourse, backslash blend, then  Enter, and the browser jumps straight into  

• 00:10:31 blend. At the bottom I replace the file name with  w01, start, v001, dot blend, and press Enter.  

• 00:10:42 Blender saves the file, and the window title now  shows its name and its location. Back in Explorer,  

• 00:10:51 I add blend to the path at the top and press  Enter: the file is there, about 100 kilobytes.  

• 00:10:59 Your 1st project file exists exactly where we  planned, and Alt Tab takes us back to Blender.  

• 00:11:08 Let's read the interface before memorizing  any shortcut. The big area is the 3D Viewport,  

• 00:11:14 where you look at and edit the scene. Top right is  the Outliner, the list of everything in the scene.  

• 00:11:22 Below it, the Properties editor holds the settings  of whatever is selected, and the strip along the  

• 00:11:29 bottom is the Timeline for animation. Each editor  has a type menu in its corner, like this one;  

• 00:11:37 Escape closes it. The tabs across the top are  workspaces, saved arrangements of editors.  

• 00:11:45 Modeling changes the layout for mesh work, and  Layout brings back our default arrangement. Your  

• 00:11:51 scene is identical in all of them. Selection works  in 2 places. I click the cube in the viewport and  

• 00:11:57 it gets an orange outline. In the Outliner I click  Camera, then Light, then Cube: the same selection,  

• 00:12:04 and the Properties editor follows the active  object each time. With several objects selected,  

• 00:12:11 1 of them is the active object, the one most  tools work on. Control click on Light adds it  

• 00:12:18 to the selection, and its lighter orange outline  marks it as the active one. A click on empty space  

• 00:12:25 deselects everything, A selects all, and Alt A  deselects all again. Dragging a box over the cube  

• 00:12:34 selects only what the box touches, so remember the  habit: select first, then operate. The Properties  

• 00:12:42 editor changes with context, and its tabs run  down the left edge: Render, Output, Scene, and the  

• 00:12:50 orange square, Object. Object holds the location,  rotation and scale of the selected object, the tab  

• 00:12:58 we use most this week. Many shortcuts go to the  editor under the mouse. With the pointer over  

• 00:13:05 the Outliner, N does nothing. Over the viewport, N  opens the sidebar with the transform values, and N  

• 00:13:13 again closes it. Editor borders are adjustable: I  drag the border between the viewport and the right  

• 00:13:22 column to the left to give the panels more  room, and then drag it back. Nothing in the  

• 00:13:29 scene changes, only the layout. 2 accelerators  are worth knowing early, and the 1st is a pie:  

• 00:13:37 with the mouse over the viewport, Z opens the  shading modes. I move toward Wireframe and click,  

• 00:13:44 then Material Preview, and back to Solid;  direction chooses the slice, not reading. The  

• 00:13:52 same 4 modes sit as the 4 small spheres at the top  right of the viewport, so you can click them there  

• 00:14:00 whenever the pie feels awkward. The highlighted  sphere always shows the current mode, which helps  

• 00:14:07 whenever a viewport suddenly looks wrong. The 2nd  accelerator is Quick Favorites. In the View menu I  

• 00:14:14 right-click Frame Selected and choose Add to Quick  Favorites. Now Q over the viewport opens a menu  

• 00:14:20 with only that command, ready under 1 key. Because  it is optional, I remove it again the same way:  

• 00:14:28 View, right-click the entry, Remove from Quick  Favorites. We keep using the menus on screen,  

• 00:14:34 so you can follow along with nothing enabled. When  you know a command's name but not where it lives,  

• 00:14:41 F3 opens menu search. I type cylinder, and Add  Cylinder appears at the top; Escape closes it  

• 00:14:49 without adding anything. In the Outliner header,  the filter popover holds a switch called Scroll  

• 00:14:55 to Active, new in 5.2. I turn it off and back on;  with it on, the list jumps to whatever you click,  

• 00:15:04 like this cube in the viewport. 1 more habit:  the Status Bar at the bottom tells you how to  

• 00:15:11 finish a tool. I press G over the cube and read  it: left click or Enter confirms, right click or  

• 00:15:19 Escape cancels, and I cancel with a right click.  Now let's move around in 3D. Hold the middle mouse  

• 00:15:26 button and drag to orbit around the scene; hold  Shift with the middle button to pan sideways,  

• 00:15:33 and drag the other way to pan back. The  wheel zooms in steps toward the pointer,  

• 00:15:39 so aim at what you want to inspect. Control with  the middle button drags a smooth zoom instead of  

• 00:15:46 jumps. Those 3 moves are every camera move you  will ever make. Without a middle mouse button,  

• 00:15:52 you can use the navigation gizmo at the top right  of the viewport. Drag the axes to orbit, drag the  

• 00:16:00 magnifier below it to zoom, and drag the hand icon  to pan, all with a plain left button. Clicking the  

• 00:16:09 Z axis of the gizmo snaps to a top view, looking  straight down, and the axis letters turn as  

• 00:16:16 you orbit. I orbit back to a normal perspective  for the next step. The same views live as named  

• 00:16:23 entries in the View menu, under Viewpoint. I  choose Front, which looks along the Y axis,  

• 00:16:29 and the label at the top left of the viewport  changes to Front Orthographic. Right, through the  

• 00:16:37 same menu, looks along the X axis, and Top looks  straight down at the scene. Menus are slow for  

• 00:16:45 something you do all day, so next come the numpad  keys. Numpad 1 is front, 3 is right, 7 is top.  

• 00:16:53 Numpad 5 toggles perspective and orthographic:  watch the grid as I press it twice. In perspective  

• 00:17:00 the far lines converge; in orthographic they stay  parallel, which is best for exact placement. To  

• 00:17:09 recover a view around an object, View, Frame  Selected flies to the selection, and View,  

• 00:17:16 Frame All fits the whole scene. The shortcuts  are Numpad period for Frame Selected and Home for  

• 00:17:23 Frame All. Now let me get lost on purpose: I orbit  away, roll the wheel until the scene is a speck,  

• 00:17:32 orbit again, and zoom into empty space. Sooner  or later this happens to everyone. The way back  

• 00:17:40 never depends on where your mouse is: click the  object in the Outliner, then View, Frame Selected,  

• 00:17:47 and the viewport flies to it. In the sidebar,  Location is still 0, 0, 0: we moved our viewing  

• 00:17:54 position, not our object. Frame All brings the  whole scene back into view, and 1 more thing is  

• 00:18:04 worth recognizing. Numpad slash enters Local View,  showing only the selection, and the label says  

• 00:18:11 Local; Numpad slash again exits, so if objects  ever vanish, check that label first. Now we add  

• 00:18:21 objects and shape them. In the Add menu, Mesh,  Cylinder puts a cylinder at the 3D cursor, in  

• 00:18:29 the middle of the scene. Look at the bottom left:  a collapsed panel called Add Cylinder appeared.  

• 00:18:36 That is the Adjust Last Operation panel:  I expand it and it carries the settings  

• 00:18:43 of the operation we just ran. Vertices is 32;  I type 8 and the cylinder becomes an octagon,  

• 00:18:51 then 32 again for a smooth one. Radius  0.35 and Depth 0.3 make a flat disc,  

• 00:18:59 the size we will need for the beacon base later.  Some settings exist only here: a cylinder's vertex  

• 00:19:06 count is not in the sidebar. The panel belongs to  the most recent operation only. F9 reopens it as  

• 00:19:13 a floating panel at the pointer; Escape closes  it. If I click elsewhere the panel disappears,  

• 00:19:20 yet F9 still brings it back while nothing  else has run. Now the transforms, 1 at a time,  

• 00:19:28 and first I select the cylinder in the Outliner  again. G starts a move, X locks it to the X axis,  

• 00:19:37 1 is the distance and Enter confirms; R Z 45  rotates 45 degrees around Z. S 2 scales everything  

• 00:19:47 by 2. Press F9 now: the panel shows Resize,  the last operation, so the cylinder settings  

• 00:19:55 are gone. Control Z 3 times undoes the scale,  the rotation and the move, back to the origin.  

• 00:20:02 A running transform can also be cancelled: G  starts a move, Escape drops it, and the object  

• 00:20:09 jumps back. G again, and a right click cancels  the same way. Confirm with a click or Enter;  

• 00:20:16 cancel with Escape or a right click. 3 places take  a value. During a running operation you type it,  

• 00:20:23 as we just did. Afterwards, the Adjust Last  Operation panel changes how the operation  

• 00:20:29 ran. And the N sidebar holds the object's standing  values: Location, Rotation, Scale and Dimensions.  

• 00:20:40 Typing 0.5 into Dimensions Z makes the cylinder  1/2 a meter tall, a standing value of the object.  

• 00:20:49 Scaling with S and the mouse changes the same  numbers, only less precisely, so I undo both  

• 00:20:56 and close the sidebar. 1 more setting before we  build: in the Scene properties, the Units panel  

• 00:21:04 says Metric with a unit scale of 1 and Length in  Meters. 1 Blender unit is 1 meter in this course,  

• 00:21:12 so the whole station is about 4 meters wide.  Duplicating is Shift D: the copy sticks to the  

• 00:21:21 mouse, a right click cancels that move, but the  duplicate stays. G Z 1 lifts it 1 meter. Control  

• 00:21:27 Z twice removes the move and then the duplicate  itself; Control Shift Z twice brings both back. F2  

• 00:21:36 renames the active object: I type GEO underscore  Test and press Enter. X asks before deleting,  

• 00:21:43 and Delete confirms. For the menu route, I select  the cylinder in the Outliner and use Object,  

• 00:21:49 Delete, which deletes without asking. Your turn to  practice the same moves. Starting from the cube:  

• 00:21:58 Shift D, right click, then G Z 1 puts a copy  exactly 1 meter above it. F2, and I name the  

• 00:22:06 upper one Crate underscore Top. The lower cube  gets its name through the Outliner: click it,  

• 00:22:14 F2, Crate underscore Base. Now click one, then  the other: the lighter orange outline marks the  

• 00:22:20 active object, the one the next tool will act  on. Everything we did is listed under Edit,  

• 00:22:29 Undo History, newest at the bottom, and you can  jump back to any step with 1 click. Escape closes  

• 00:22:36 it; I will clean up by hand instead so you  see the steps. The crates were only practice:  

• 00:22:42 I click Crate Base, Control click Crate  Top, and X, Delete removes both. Add,  

• 00:22:49 Mesh, Cube gives us a fresh cube at the origin,  exactly the object the next chapter turns into  

• 00:22:57 the platform. Blender protects your work in 2  ways, and the 1st is automatic: File, Recover,  

• 00:23:06 Auto Save lists the files Blender writes by itself  every 2 minutes. Beside them sits quit dot blend,  

• 00:23:15 the copy written when Blender closes, which  Recover Last Session reads. I cancel, because  

• 00:23:21 nothing is lost right now, and move on to the 2nd  protection, versioning by hand. File, Save As,  

• 00:23:28 and look at the name field: w01 underscore start  underscore v001, with a plus button beside it.  

• 00:23:38 That plus increases the trailing number, so Save  As writes w01 underscore start underscore v002  

• 00:23:45 next to the old file. The title bar shows the  new name, and v001 stays untouched as a fallback.  

• 00:23:55 In Explorer, the blend folder now holds both  versions side by side. Save a new version before  

• 00:24:01 every risky step, and when you overwrite a file  with Control S, Blender still keeps the previous  

• 00:24:08 state as a blend1 file. Time to build the station,  starting with the 3D cursor, the crosshair in  

• 00:24:18 the viewport. Shift plus right click moves it  anywhere, and new objects appear at it, so Object,  

• 00:24:25 Snap, Cursor to World Origin puts it back first.  The Outliner will hold about 12 objects, so I  

• 00:24:34 drag the border below it downwards to give it more  room. Then I click Cube in the list and press F2:  

• 00:24:41 the cube becomes GEO underscore Platform, our  1st named part. Open the sidebar with N and go  

• 00:24:49 to Dimensions: 2.4 by 2.4 by 0.2 meters, the  platform of our set. Location Z 0.1 lifts it  

• 00:25:00 by 1/2 its height, so its bottom sits on the  ground. Next the ground: Add, Mesh, Plane. A  

• 00:25:09 plane is a single flat face, all a floor needs. In  the Adjust Last Operation panel I set Size to 4,  

• 00:25:16 so it is 4 meters across, and I pull the view back  until the whole plane fits. F2, and it becomes  

• 00:25:25 GEO underscore Ground. Naming each part the moment  it exists costs 2 seconds, and it saves you from  

• 00:25:31 hunting through Plane, Cube and Cylinder dot 001  later. The beacon base is a cylinder: Add, Mesh,  

• 00:25:40 Cylinder. It appears at the cursor, in the middle  of the platform. In the panel, Radius 0.35 and  

• 00:25:48 Depth 0.3: creation settings, which belong to the  operation and not to the object. Placement belongs  

• 00:25:55 to the object, so it goes in the sidebar: Location  Z 0.35, 1/2 its depth above the platform top. F2  

• 00:26:03 names it GEO underscore BeaconBase, and the same  naming pattern continues for every part we add. A  

• 00:26:11 post: Add, Mesh, Cylinder again; the panel still  shows the last values. Radius 0.06 and Depth 1.2.  

• 00:26:20 The base top is at 0.5, so a post 1.2 tall centers  at Location Z 1.1. F2, GEO underscore BeaconPost.  

• 00:26:32 Stacking by arithmetic on Z is how a blockout  stays tidy: every part sits where the numbers say,  

• 00:26:40 not where the mouse happened to drop it. The  signal head: Add, Mesh, UV Sphere. Its panel has  

• 00:26:48 Segments and Rings, settings that exist only here,  and Radius, which I set to 0.25. Location Z 1.95  

• 00:26:59 puts the sphere on top of the post, and F2  names it GEO underscore SignalHead. Beacon base,  

• 00:27:07 post and head: the 1st recognizable piece of  the station. Add, Mesh, Cube: the courier is  

• 00:27:14 a placeholder robot rather than a character, so  a simple box is enough for now. Size 0.55 in the  

• 00:27:23 panel, then Location X 0.8 in the sidebar moves it  toward the edge. Location Z 0.475 sets it down on  

• 00:27:32 the platform top, and F2 names it GEO underscore  CourierBody. Now a roof slab: Add, Mesh, Cube once  

• 00:27:42 more, sized through Dimensions this time, not  through the panel. 1.2 by 1.2 by 0.08 meters:  

• 00:27:52 a wide, thin slab. The numbers go straight into  the Dimensions fields, and Blender rescales the  

• 00:28:00 cube to match them. Location Z 2.5 floats the  slab above the beacon head, and I pull the view  

• 00:28:08 back until ground and roof fit together. F2 names  it GEO underscore RoofSlab. The roof is where the  

• 00:28:15 station gets its silhouette. The slab needs 2  posts, so Add, Mesh, Cylinder once more, which  

• 00:28:24 again lands at the cursor. In the panel, Radius  0.05 and Depth 2.3: a thin rod as tall as the gap  

• 00:28:34 between the platform and the slab. In the sidebar,  Location X -0.5, Y -0.5 and Z 1.35 put it under 1  

• 00:28:44 corner of the slab. F2, GEO underscore RoofPost  underscore L, L for left, so its twin can be R.  

• 00:28:53 The 2nd post is a duplicate. Shift D, then right  click to leave the copy in place, and Location  

• 00:29:00 X 0.5 moves it to the other side. F2 names it GEO  underscore RoofPost underscore R, mirrored across  

• 00:29:10 the slab from its twin. Home frames everything,  and I orbit around the finished blockout: ground,  

• 00:29:18 platform, beacon, courier and roof, 10 named  objects built from 4 primitives. It is not  

• 00:29:26 pretty yet, and it does not need to be, because  a blockout only has to be right. 10 objects in 1  

• 00:29:33 flat list is already hard to read, so let us  organize them into groups. Right click Scene  

• 00:29:41 Collection, and New Collection is the 1st entry  of the menu: 1 click creates a collection, and the  

• 00:29:49 same again gives a 2nd one. 2 more the same way,  4 in total. A collection is a folder for objects:  

• 00:29:57 it can be hidden, rendered or excluded as a group,  and a scene with clear groups stays manageable as  

• 00:30:04 it grows. Their names come from a double click on  each row. ENVIRONMENT holds the ground, STATION  

• 00:30:11 the platform and the beacon parts. Uppercase  names mark groups; GEO names mark geometry,  

• 00:30:19 a convention we keep for the whole course. COURIER  for the robot, and CAMERAS underscore LIGHTS for  

• 00:30:27 the camera and the light. Then I expand Collection  again, because its objects still have to move into  

• 00:30:34 the new groups. Moving is the M key. I click GEO  underscore Ground, press M with the mouse over the  

• 00:30:44 list, and the popup lists every collection. I type  the 1st letters of ENVIRONMENT and press Enter;  

• 00:30:52 the ground jumps into its group. The 7 station  parts go together: click GEO underscore Platform,  

• 00:31:00 Control click the base, the post, the signal head,  the slab and both roof posts, then M and STATION.  

• 00:31:08 1 move for the whole group. GEO underscore  CourierBody moves to COURIER the same way:  

• 00:31:14 I click it, press M over the list, and type the  1st letters of the collection name until only  

• 00:31:22 COURIER is left, then press Enter. The Camera  and the Light are the last 2: I click Camera,  

• 00:31:28 Control click Light, press M and type CAMERAS  underscore LIGHTS. The old Collection is empty  

• 00:31:34 now, and 1 scroll shows the whole hierarchy, every  object inside a named group. The payoff is control  

• 00:31:43 over a whole group at once. I filter the list  for STATION and click its eye icon: the platform,  

• 00:31:49 beacon and roof vanish together, and 1 more  click brings them back. This is a milestone:  

• 00:31:56 File, Save As, and in the name field at  the bottom I type w01 underscore station  

• 00:32:04 underscore v001. The start file stays as it  was; from here on we work in the station file.  

• 00:32:13 Chapter 12 is about looking at the station  through the camera and saving a 1st picture  

• 00:32:20 of it. Home frames the whole station, and a little  orbiting and zooming gives me the view I want to  

• 00:32:26 render. View, Align View, Align Active Camera to  View moves the camera to exactly this viewpoint,  

• 00:32:36 and the viewport switches into the camera. The  dashed frame shows what the render will contain,  

• 00:32:42 and everything outside that frame is cut off.  Numpad 0 toggles between the camera and your  

• 00:32:48 free view: press it once and you are back in the  viewport, press it again and you look through the  

• 00:32:54 camera again, a toggle you will use constantly.  To adjust the framing from inside the camera,  

• 00:33:00 open the View tab of the sidebar and tick Lock  Camera to View. Now orbiting and zooming move  

• 00:33:06 the camera itself, so the composition can be tuned  by eye. Untick it as soon as the framing is right,  

• 00:33:16 because otherwise every stray orbit would move  the camera again. With the lock off, orbiting  

• 00:33:24 leaves the camera view, and Numpad 0 brings it  back; then the Item tab again. Before rendering,  

• 00:33:31 open the Output properties, the printer icon:  Resolution X 3840 and Y 2160, a sharp 4K frame.  

• 00:33:41 The percentage below scales the whole frame, and  100 percent keeps exactly the size we typed. The  

• 00:33:49 Render properties, the camera back icon, name the  engine: EEVEE, the fast real time renderer, which  

• 00:33:57 is right for a 1st picture. Cycles, the physically  based path tracer, waits for the end of this  

• 00:34:04 chapter, once the scene deserves the extra time.  Add, Light, Area gives the scene a soft panel, far  

• 00:34:13 better than the default point lamp. It appears at  the 3D cursor like every new object, so I place it  

• 00:34:21 by numbers in the sidebar rather than by dragging.  Location X 2, Y -2 and Z 3 put it above and in  

• 00:34:30 front of the station, where the light can rake  across the platform and throw visible shadows. Its  

• 00:34:37 settings live in the Object Data tab, the green  bulb: Power 500 watts, and Size 2 meters, because  

• 00:34:44 a larger area light throws softer shadows than a  small one. Z, then Rendered shows the viewport lit  

• 00:34:54 by that lamp, with real shadows on the platform: a  preview of the render. Back to Solid with Z again,  

• 00:35:01 since the lit view is slower to navigate and the  plain one is enough for building. F12 renders  

• 00:35:08 the frame, and a separate window opens with the  result after a moment. I maximize it and press  

• 00:35:15 Shift plus Home so the image fills the window:  our 1st picture, gray, but with light and shadow.  

• 00:35:23 A render is only in memory until you save it, so  the next step is always Image, Save As. The file  

• 00:35:30 browser opens in its own window, the same browser  you met when saving the blend file. The path field  

• 00:35:38 at the top takes a typed folder: G, educational  videos, LumenCourse, renders, the folder we made  

• 00:35:45 for pictures in chapter 6. Enter applies it, and  the list shows that the folder is still empty,  

• 00:35:53 waiting for our 1st picture. The name is w01  underscore first underscore view dot png;  

• 00:35:59 PNG keeps the full quality of a still. Enter saves  the file, and the render window can be closed with  

• 00:36:07 its close button, which brings the main window  back. Over in Explorer, I click the address bar  

• 00:36:15 and type the path of the renders folder; typing  a path is often quicker than clicking through the  

• 00:36:22 folder tree, and Enter takes me there. The folder  now holds the file we just saved, and a double  

• 00:36:31 click opens it in the default image viewer, here  Paint dot NET: the picture is exactly what Blender  

• 00:36:38 showed us. 3840 by 2160 pixels, exactly the size  we set in the Output properties a moment ago. I  

• 00:36:48 close the viewer and return to Blender, because  the picture is saved and the workflow is complete.  

• 00:36:56 Now your own task, done here once as the model:  a cargo box on the platform. Numpad 0 leaves  

• 00:37:04 the camera view, and I move in on the platform,  because that is where the new box will stand. Add,  

• 00:37:11 Mesh, Cube: a small crate rather than a building,  so in the panel I set Size to 0.3. It appears at  

• 00:37:19 the cursor, buried in the platform, so only  its orange outline shows until we move it. In  

• 00:37:26 the sidebar, Location X -0.8 and Y 0.6 put  the box on the far corner of the platform,  

• 00:37:34 opposite the courier, so the 2 do not overlap.  Z 0.35 sets it on the deck: the platform top is  

• 00:37:42 at 0.2, plus 1/2 the box height. F2 names it GEO  underscore CargoBox, following our convention. M,  

• 00:37:52 then STATION moves it into the right collection  right away, so the Outliner stays tidy. Then I  

• 00:37:59 orbit and zoom out to look at the box in context  before checking it from the camera. Numpad 0  

• 00:38:08 returns to the camera, and View, Viewpoint, Right  gives a side elevation of the whole station.  

• 00:38:14 From here you can see whether the box really sits  on the deck rather than floating, and Numpad 0  

• 00:38:20 brings the camera back. Control S saves over the  station file, and the status bar confirms it for a  

• 00:38:30 moment. What did that save do on disk? I switch to  Explorer, click the address bar and type the path  

• 00:38:38 of the blend folder, where the earlier versions  are. The blend folder shows the station file  

• 00:38:46 with a fresh time, and beside it a blend1 file.  Blender keeps the previous save as a backup every  

• 00:38:54 time you overwrite, so nothing is ever lost by  accident. 1 last thing before we leave modeling:  

• 00:39:02 Tab switches the selected object into Edit Mode,  where the vertices, edges and faces of the box  

• 00:39:09 are exposed. We do not model in it this week,  but you should recognize the orange vertices  

• 00:39:16 when you see them. Tab again returns to Object  Mode, and Control S saves the file once more,  

• 00:39:23 a habit worth keeping. Home and a last orbit  around the finished station, then Numpad 0:  

• 00:39:29 this is what chapter 13 leaves behind. Everything  is still gray, so chapter 14 adds color, starting  

• 00:39:38 with the platform: I click the platform in the  viewport, open the Material tab, the red sphere  

• 00:39:46 at the bottom, and click New. Blender creates a  Principled BSDF, the standard material that covers  

• 00:39:56 most real surfaces with 1 set of sliders.  Its name becomes MAT underscore Platform,  

• 00:40:03 and the Base Color swatch opens a picker whose  Hex field takes 3F6D8E, a muted blue. Solid  

• 00:40:13 shading ignores materials, so Z and Material  Preview show the platform in its new color.  

• 00:40:19 This preview mode is fast enough to stay on while  the remaining materials are assigned 1 by 1. The  

• 00:40:26 signal head is next: I click it in the viewport,  and New gives it a material slot of its own,  

• 00:40:33 because each object keeps its own list of  materials. Its name becomes MAT underscore Signal,  

• 00:40:41 typed into the same name field as the 1st one.  In the picker, Hex FFB347 gives a warm amber,  

• 00:40:50 and with that color the beacon reads as a light  source, before it emits anything. The courier gets  

• 00:40:58 the 3rd material: click the courier box in the  viewport and then New, and notice that the slot  

• 00:41:04 list at the top of the tab now shows 1 entry per  object. MAT underscore Courier is the name, typed  

• 00:41:12 into the same name field below the slot list. In  the picker, Hex 83DAC2 gives a mint green, which  

• 00:41:20 separates the robot from the station at a glance  in the camera view. The background is a World  

• 00:41:28 setting, on the red globe tab: its Color is both  sky and ambient light. Hex 1B2432 makes it a dark  

• 00:41:36 night blue, which Material Preview hides behind  its own studio light until we render. 2 finishing  

• 00:41:45 touches remain, and the 1st one is the lens of  the camera, which is still the default. I select  

• 00:41:53 the camera in the Outliner and open its data tab,  the green camera icon at the bottom of the column.  

• 00:42:03 Focal Length 35 millimeters is a wider lens than  the default 50, so more of the station fits into  

• 00:42:09 the frame without moving the camera at all. 2nd,  the signal head: click it again and use Object,  

• 00:42:17 Shade Smooth, so the sphere loses its  faceted look. The polygons are still there,  

• 00:42:23 only the shading across them is interpolated,  which is enough for a small sphere. F12 again,  

• 00:42:30 and the difference from the gray render  is obvious: colored materials, a dark sky,  

• 00:42:36 softer shadows from the area light, and a  smooth signal head. I maximize the window,  

• 00:42:41 fill it with Shift plus Home, and take a moment  to look. Image, Save As, and the browser opens  

• 00:42:51 in the renders folder with the last name filled  in, because Blender remembers the previous save.  

• 00:42:58 I change it to w01 underscore first underscore  view underscore color dot png, and Save As  

• 00:43:06 writes the file. Closing the render window  brings the main window back, with the colored  

• 00:43:12 station in the viewport. Chapter 14 has turned  the gray blockout into a scene with materials,  

• 00:43:20 light and a sky. Edit, Preferences first: Cycles  is Blender's physically based renderer, and it is  

• 00:43:29 slow on a processor, so Blender has to know about  the graphics card. On the System tab, under Cycles  

• 00:43:36 Render Devices, I choose OptiX, the fastest option  for NVIDIA cards. Blender lists the cards it found  

• 00:43:45 and ticks the RTX 5090, while the 2nd card and the  processor stay unticked. 1 strong GPU renders this  

• 00:43:55 small scene faster than a mixed team, and closing  the window keeps the setting, since preferences  

• 00:44:02 save themselves. Back in the Render properties,  the Render Engine dropdown switches from EEVEE  

• 00:44:09 to Cycles, the path tracer, and a new Device row  appears right below it. GPU Compute instead of  

• 00:44:17 CPU sends every sample to the card we just enabled  in the preferences. F12 with Cycles takes about 15  

• 00:44:27 seconds at 4K, even on a fast card: the frame  arrives in large tiles. Then the view clears  

• 00:44:33 for a moment while the denoiser cleans the whole  picture, so an empty window here is normal. Filled  

• 00:44:40 with Shift plus Home, the image shows softer, more  realistic light bouncing between the surfaces,  

• 00:44:47 the kind of result that made path tracing the  standard for final renders. Image, Save As once  

• 00:44:55 more, and the file browser is already waiting  in the renders folder. The name this time is w01  

• 00:45:04 underscore first underscore view underscore cycles  dot png, so the 3 renders can be compared later.  

• 00:45:13 Save As writes the file, and the render window  closes with its close button, exactly as before.  

• 00:45:21 3 pictures now sit in the renders folder: gray,  colored EEVEE and Cycles, the progression of this  

• 00:45:28 1st week in 1 place. Finally the engine goes  back to EEVEE, so the viewport stays quick  

• 00:45:34 while we work, and Control S saves the station  with everything from this chapter: materials,  

• 00:45:41 world, lens, and the render settings. Chapter 15  closes the loop, because a scene is only useful  

• 00:45:49 if you can leave it and come back to it. File,  Open Recent lists the files you touched last,  

• 00:45:55 newest first, and Escape closes the menu again.  For a file you know by name, the file browser is  

• 00:46:02 more reliable than a list that changes: Control  S first, so nothing is lost, then Control O,  

• 00:46:08 and the dialog opens over the scene. The path  field takes the blend folder of the course,  

• 00:46:15 and the list shows every version we saved along  the way. The 2 start files and the station file  

• 00:46:22 sit side by side, each with its own time; backups  are filtered out of this list. The file name w01  

• 00:46:32 underscore start underscore v002 and Enter  open the early file, exactly as it was saved  

• 00:46:38 in chapter 10, before the station existed. A quick  orbit confirms that this is the old scene, so the  

• 00:46:47 same route brings the station back. Control O,  the name w01 underscore station underscore v001,  

• 00:46:54 and Enter, and the full scene returns  with its collections and materials.  

• 00:47:01 Whenever a button is unclear, Help, Manual  opens the official reference for this exact  

• 00:47:06 version in the browser, at docs dot blender  dot org. F11 makes the page full screen,  

• 00:47:14 so the text is comfortable to read at  a distance. The User Interface section  

• 00:47:20 covers everything from chapter 7, from the window  system and the keymap to the individual elements.  

• 00:47:27 Browser zoom with Control and the wheel  makes it readable from a distance,  

• 00:47:32 whenever the text is small. F11 again leaves full  screen, and Alt Tab returns to Blender, where the  

• 00:47:40 station is waiting in the camera view. Keep the  manual open in a tab while you work: it answers  

• 00:47:46 most questions faster than a video search would.  1 last orbit around the finished station, and  

• 00:47:53 Numpad 0 back into the camera, where we started  this chapter. That is week 1: install, navigate,  

• 00:48:00 build by numbers, organize, light, render and  save; next week we start modeling for real.