Tutorial – Blender

Blender, the free and open source creation suite, includes a modeler, three renderer engines, a compositor, a tracker, a nonlinear video-editing system, a particle system, and the ability to animate physical simulations and export them as video. Suffice it to say, figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Picking a relatively manageable project is key. An easy way to start is to model a simple item, such as a perfume bottle. For this tutorial, I will model a transparent perfume bottle filled with liquid. By using concrete but varied shapes, a limited scope, and a small number of different materials (i.e., surfaces), this tutorial can help take the frustration out of getting started with Blender. (Note: Having some basic previous experience with Blender will be helpful in this tutorial).

Setup

I always recommend working with the latest version of Blender, which is currently 2.93. However, you will find Blender 2.93 in only a few distributions. For instance, Ubuntu 21.04 includes Blender 2.83.5, and Fedora provides the latest version via updates. If your distribution does not have the current release, you can download the program as a TAR.XZ file from Blender's homepage [1] and unpack the archive on your computer. Then call the program's binary, blender, or create a starter for the desktop environment and link to the TAR.XZ file.

Before getting started, you may want to make a couple of adjustments. If English isn't your first language, you can change the localization in Edit | Preferences… | Interface under Translation. Keep in mind that many of the menus will remain in English (and many online tutorials use English terminology).

You may also want to change how you select objects with the mouse. In the default Blender configuration, you select objects by left-clicking. However, I recommend changing the selection to the right mouse button. To do this, go to Edit | Preferences… | Keymap | Select with Mouse Button and change the setting from Left to Right (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Selecting with the right mouse button makes it easier to work in Blender.

Setting the Scene

Blender uses scenes as a way to organize work. After startup, Blender displays the standard scene: a camera, a light source, and a cube. You will use the cube to model your perfume bottle, but before you get started, you need to do some preliminary work.

First, you need to define Cycles as the renderer and set the image dimensions and camera settings. By default, Blender uses the Eevee render engine. While the newer Eevee engine works faster, Cycles is better suited for rendering realistic objects. To change the render engine, go to the Render Properties tab in Blender's right sidebar. While you are in that tab, you should also increase the value for Sampling | Render to 512. Then, save the scene with a meaningful name.

You can use the default scene's camera and cube settings. To change the light source type, select the light source, Light, under Scene Collection and then select the characteristic Area instead of Point. This type of light source will cast more realistic (not so harsh) shadows.

If you are not yet familiar with navigating in Blender, see the "Navigation" box for some basic information.

With only one view available in the viewport (Figure 2), Blender's default interface is not very clear cut. I recommend modifying Blender's interface by creating an additional camera view by positioning the cursor on the dark gray vertical line between the Properties Editor (bottom right) and the 3D viewport. A dark gray double arrow with a white border will appear. Right-click to pop up a dialog (Figure 3). Under Area Options, select Vertical split. Then drag the gray line to the left until you see two identical viewports. To make the right viewport show the camera's viewing angle, switch to Camera View with the mouse, press the left mouse button once, and then press 0 on the number pad.

Figure 2: Modifying the Blender 2.93 interface: The viewport can be divided into multiple viewports.

Figure 3: Right-click on the edge of the viewport to split the view.

If you want Blender to always use this viewport setup when creating a new Blender scene, save it by selecting File | Defaults | Save Startup File. This view will now be the permanent default that you will see each time you start Blender.

Background

Next, you need create a background with a bevel (Figure 4). Press 7 to switch to the top view, followed by Shift+A, and select Add | Mesh | Plane to create a new layer on the scene.

Figure 4: The bevel in the background provides a smooth transition between the object and the scene.

Switch to Edit Mode (see the "Blender Modes" box) and click on the Edge Select button. Select the edge farthest away from the camera and extrude it into the Z axis with E,Z so that the newly created second plane is at a right angle to the first plane.

Next you need to apply a bevel modifier to round the right angle to form a sloping edge. Switch to Object Mode and then click on the blue wrench icon in the Properties Editor on the far right. In the menu that opens, select Add Modifier | Bevel to add a modifier to the connected layers. Leave the Amount parameter at 0.1, and increase the Segments parameter to 6 (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The Bevel Modifier rounds off the bevel's hard edge to avoid creating hard shadows.

While still in Object Mode, smooth the bevel by going to Object | Shade Smooth (top left in the viewport). Position the bevel and the camera so that the bevel fills the entire viewport. If you want, you can save this setup as the new default by selecting File | Defaults | Save Startup File.