Blender Beginner Donut Series

This free Blender beginner tutorial series will teach you the basics of Blender from a beginner perspective.

You’ll learn the basics of:

  • User interface

  • Modelling

  • Materials

  • Lighting

  • Texturing

  • Geometry Nodes

  • Animation

  • Rendering

  • Compositing

This is 100% free!

Part 1: The basics

In this video you’ll learn the basics of moving, rotating and scaling objects as well as navigating the interface and 3D viewport.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 1:15 The basics

  • 2:45 Moving objects

  • 4:04 Axis snapping

  • 5:08 Rotate and Scale

  • 6:20 Orbiting

  • 7:18 Scaling the interface

  • 8:31 Panning

  • 9:01 Zooming

  • 9:24 Focus on object

  • 10:14 Align View to Axis

  • 11:21 Orthographic/Perspective View

  • 13:00 Properties

  • 14:12 The outliner

  • 14:55 Camera view

  • 15:28 Keyboard shortcut PDF

 

Part 2: Object Editing

In this video you’ll learn how to add objects and edit them with proportional falloff.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:30 Adding objects

  • 1:40 Object parameters

  • 5:38 Real-world measurements

  • 7:24 Applying scale

  • 8:15 Flat & Smooth shading

  • 9:42 Subsurf modifier

  • 11:52 Edit mode

  • 14:44 Proportional editing

  • 17:55 Shrink/Fatten (Move along normals)

  • 20:05 Bonus: Select Random

 

Part 3: Modifiers

In this video you’ll learn how to use modifiers, extrusion and other modelling tools.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Intro

  • 0:49 Selecting half the donut

  • 1:45 X-Ray mode

  • 2:21 Duplicating a mesh

  • 3:00 Making duplicate own mesh

  • 4:06 Selecting connected vertices

  • 5:06 Making meshes THICK

  • 6:30 Subtle value changes

  • 7:26 Changing the order of modifiers

 

Part 4: Modelling

In this video you’ll learn how to use snapping, shrinkwrap and modifier stacks.

Links:

 

Part 5: Sculpting

In this video you’ll learn the basics of sculpting.

Links:

 

Part 6: Rendering

In this video you’ll learn how to render with Eevee and Cycles, what the main settings are, and how to get the best results in the least amount of time.

Links:

 

Part 7: Texturing

In this video you’ll learn the basics of procedural texturing; how to use material nodes, noise texturing, and create bump mapping.

Links:

 

Part 8: Texture Painting

In this video you’ll learn how to use the texture paint functionality, and add it into your node setup.

Links:

 

Part 9: Geometry Nodes

In this video you’ll learn how to create a simple scattering system for sprinkles using the new fields system in 3.0.

Links:

 

Part 10: Random Colored Sprinkles

In this video you’ll learn how to make geometry node system use sprinkle variations, and random colors for each.

Links:

 

Part 11: Animation

In this video you’ll learn how to use camera framing, aspect ratio, playback, frame rate differences, keyframing.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Intro

  • 0:42 Camera Framing

  • 9:21 Playback and Frame Rates

  • 11:53 Adding Keyframes

  • 13:01 Frame Dropping

  • 14:43 Keyframing the donut rotation

 

Part 12: Floating Particles

In this video you’ll learn how to create floating particles with geometry nodes to liven up our donut.

Links:

 

Part 13: Lighting

In this video you’ll learn how to create a basic three-point lighting setup.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Intro

  • 1:26 Revealing form

  • 3:17 Shadow size

  • 5:40 Inverse Square Law

  • 9:44 Fill lighting

  • 12:43: Color Management Looks

  • 15:41 Checking light exposure

  • 17:10 Rim lighting

  • 23:35 Common problems to avoid

 

Part 14: Compositing

In this video you’ll learn how to use the built-in compositor to change background colors, add gradients, specular glare, color grading, chromatic aberration and sharpening.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Getting started

  • 3:03 Changing the background color

  • 5:45 Creating gradients

  • 10:45 Specular glow

  • 18:05 Color grading

  • 21:34 Chromatic Aberration

  • 23:38 Sharpening

  • 26:38 Isolating the glow

 

Part 15: Rendering

In this video you’ll learn all the render settings of Cycles and Eevee. Samples, noise thresholds, the biggest time speed up (SSS OFF!), motion blur, DoF (depth of field), and Eevee render settings.

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Intro

  • 0:49 Cycles Rendering: Samples

  • 05:25 Noise Threshold

  • 10:31 Subsurface Scattering: OFF

  • 12:46 Motion blur

  • 13:38 Depth of field

  • 15:28 Persistent Data

  • 16:18 Hardware Device

  • 17:10 Light Paths

  • 19:53 Eevee Rendering Setup

  • 22:25 Contact shadows

  • 25:00 Screenspace reflections

  • 25:30 Ambient Occlusion

  • 26:54 Eevee samples

  • 27:53 Final render settings

 

Part 16: Finale

In this video you’ll learn how to save your animation as an MP4. Also some tips for perfecting your donut before rendering

Links:

Chapter marks:

  • 0:00 Intro

  • 2:44 Correct sprinkle size

  • 4:15 Ideal sprinkle coloring

  • 5:12 Sprinkle distance and rotation

  • 7:24 Animation improvements

  • 9:15 Floating sprinkle volume size

  • 11:35 The f-Stop

  • 13:13 Final file format

  • 18:09 Compiling the video

  • 23:58 Bakers Dozen NFT Teaser

  • 25:01 What to do next?

Andrew Price22 Comments