★ Blender 5
Training Course
- My course on Blender is focusing exclusively on creating
3D assets for Unreal Engine. It’s designed for Windows. Mac users should swap Ctrl for Cmd.
- I always create 3D models from scratch using basic shapes (Cube, Cylinder…). I never use plugins, add-ons, or generative AI tool to create meshes.
- I never use Rigify for mesh animation. I make every armature entirely from scratch (no matter if it’s just a factory machine or an entire character), because it’s easier and doesn’t take much time.
3D Course Overview
- Understanding the fundamentals of real-time 3D graphics is essential in Game Dev.
- Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools are used to create 3D models, which are reusable elements known as assets, commonly used in games, films, and VFX.
- DCC can render images or videos (Offline rendering)
- Game Engine can be used for making real-time 3D graphics (Online Rendering)
Syllabus Overview
3D Overview
- Modeling Workflows
- Modeling paradigms: Box Modeling • Sculpting
- Retopology
- Procedural (e.g., Modifiers or Geometry Nodes in Blender)
- Modeling Topology & Complexity
- High Poly Models (HPM)
- Low Poly Models (LPM)
- Material Pipeline
- Blinn-Phong workflow (legacy)
- PBR workflow (Physically Based Rendering)
- Asset Modeling Classification
- Hard-Surface Modeling (e.g., Vehicles, Props, Architecture)
- Organic Modeling (e.g., Characters, Creatures, Foliage)
- Rendering Systems
- Offline Rendering (Pre-rendered/CGI)
- Real-time Rendering (Interactive or online rendering)
- Game Engines (Unreal, Unity) vs. Graphics / Rendering Engines (OGRE, Irrlicht)
- Rendering approaches
- Rasterization (traditional)
- Ray Tracing (path tracing is an advanced form)
- DCC Tools
- Autodesk 3DS Max, Autodesk Maya, Blender
- ZBrush
- Adobe Substance Painter, Adobe Substance Designer
Getting Started
- Blender Features (modeling, sculpting, UV unwrapping…)
- Blender History
Blender Interface
- Overview: Basic overview of the interface layout and how to use most elements to navigate inside a 3D scene.
- Editor Type: Extensive overview of every editor with a quick example, when possible.
- Editors List: 3D Viewport • Image Editor • UV Editor • Compositor • Texture Node Editor • Geometry Node Editor • Shader Editor • Video Sequencer • Movie Clip Editor • Dope Sheet • Timeline • Graph Editor • Drivers • Nonlinear Animation • Text Editor • Python Console • Info • Outliner • Properties • File Browser • Asset Browser • Spreadsheet • Preferences
Animation
- Animation Methods
- Keyframes: Basic animation using the Transform
- Bone-based: Rigging meshes with skeletons (armature in Blender)
- Shape Keys: Vertex-based deformation for facial expressions or mesh morphing (also called Blend Shapes or Morph Targets)
- Animation Editors
- Timeline: For basic keyframe navigation and playback control
- Dope Sheet: For managing keyframes across multiple objects and actions
- Graph Editor: For refining interpolation curves and easing between keyframes
- Action Editor: For organizing and editing specific animation actions per object
- NLA
Blender: Getting Started
Introduction
- Blender is a free, open‑source, cross‑platform 3D creation suite used by both professionals and hobbyists
- It offers a complete pipeline: modeling, sculpting, UV unwrapping, texturing, animation, rendering, video editing, and scripting
- Used across industries such as gaming and animation
- Supports creating 3D assets for game engines like Unreal, Unity, and Godot.
- Learning Blender takes years; mastery comes from real projects, not tutorials
- Best approach: build a foundation with structured courses, then improve through hand-on practice
Download Blender
- Blender is free to download on its official website for Windows, macOS, and Linux
- On macOS, drag the Blender app into the Applications folder before launching it
- Check the Blender Latest Documentation
- From time to time, read the Blender Dev Portal
History
- Blender was created in 1994 by Ton Roosendaal as an internal 3D tool for the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo
- In 1998, Roosendaal founded the company Not a Number (NaN) to develop and commercialize Blender
- NaN went bankrupt in 2002, putting Blender’s future at risk
- Roosendaal created the Blender Foundation and launched the Free Blender campaign to open-source it
- The community quickly funded the initiative, and Blender became open-source in October 2002
Blender 2
The Blender 2.x era introduced major improvements such as a redesigned interface, better animation tools, and the Cycles renderer (added in 2.6).
Blender 2.8, released in 2019, modernized the UI and introduced the Eevee renderer.
Blender 3
The Blender 3.x series continued modernizing the software with features like Geometry Nodes, improved rendering, asset management, and performance upgrades.
Blender 4
Blender 4.x introduced further refinements to geometry nodes, lighting, rendering, and animation tools, continuing the shift toward a more modular and node‑based workflow.
Blender 5
Blender 5.0 was released on November 2025.
Blender 5.1 was released on March 2026.
The Animation 2025 project main goal is to modernize and expand Blender’s animation system with an animation node editor similar to the geometry nodes editor. However, it is delayed to 5.X versions. It’s hard to predict what will change exactly.
Blender Interface
Overview
Blender is centered around shortcuts. In my opinion, it’s incredibly convenient, although it requires a lot of practice to be memorized.
I will show commonly used shortcuts such as Shift + A to create a new object inside the 3D viewport or G (grab) to move any object.
UI Structure
Blender UI is subdivided into 3 parts:
- Topbar: Blender Menu (Splash Screen), drop-down Main Menu (File, Edit…) & Workspaces (tabs)
- Areas: Modular rectangles displaying Editors (3D Viewport, Shader Editor, etc.)
- Status Bar: Display real-time info. Toggle visibility with
Window > Show Status Bar
Topbar
Workspaces
Workspaces are essentially predefined window layouts. Each Workspace consists of a set of Areas containing Editors, and is geared towards a specific task such as modeling, animating, or scripting.
- Ctrl + Page Up: Switch workspace (Page Down can also work)
Area
The Blender window is divided into a number of rectangles called Areas.
Areas reserve screen space for Editors, such as the 3D Viewport or the Outliner.
- Ctrl + Spacebar: Toggle Maximize Area | Advanced Mode
- Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar: Toggle Fullscreen Area | Expert Mode
- Ctrl + Alt + Q: Toggle Quad View (like 3DS Max)
Regions
Every Editor in Blender is divided into Regions. They can have smaller structuring elements like tabs and panels with buttons, controls and widgets placed within them.
- View > Adjust Last Operation to fin-tune the most recent action (or F9)
- N: Bring the Sidebar
There are multiple useful tools:
- Toolbar (left side of the viewport) contains buttons for various tools
- T: Toggle the Toolbar
- Shift + Spacebar: Bring the Pop-up Toolbar
- Q: Quick Favorites
Scene & Objects
Objects
Any scene is comprised of multiple objects from different Blender object types (Mesh, Curve, Light, Text, Camera…) which comprises two parts:
- Object: Transform information like position, rotation & scale
- Object Data: Store object type related stuff like geometry, material list, vertex group, or focal length for Camera, etc.
Cursor
- Shift + C: Set the cursor to the World Origin 🛟
- Shift + Right Click: Set the 3D Cursor to the mouse cursor position
Navigation
The 3D Viewport is your primary workspace. I suggest using a 3-button mouse instead of a touchpad (if you’re on a laptop).
| Action |
Shortcut |
| Orbit |
Middle Mouse + Drag |
| Pan |
Shift + Middle Mouse |
| Zoom |
Ctrl + Middle Mouse |
| Zoom In/Out |
+ / - (Numpad) |
| View Selected |
. (Numpad) |
| Frame All |
Home |
Blender Modeling
Two distinct approaches (with or without references/ Blueprints)
This part is about Modeling & Sculpting, two very important features for me.
3D viewport
Most of the modeling operations, as well texturing, and animation will happen in the 3D Viewport area, where you’ll see your model and interact with it directly.
| Action |
Shortcut |
| Add New Object |
Ctrl + A |
| Toggle Edit Mode |
Tab |
Selection
- A: Select all
- Double tap A: Select None
A mesh Transform allows you to manipulate your 3D models by moving (Grab), rotating (Rotate), or scaling (Scale) objects within the 3D space.
You can also perform these transform operations on a specific axis (X, Y, Z) of the Cartesian coordinate, by using X, Y, or Z.
| Action |
Shortcut |
| Move (Grab) |
G |
| Rotate |
R |
| Scale |
S |
| Move on X Axis |
G then X |
| Scale XY only (Excluding Z) |
S then Shift + Z |
UV Unwrapping
- Basic workflow is to
mark seams in Edge Edit Mode or with Ctrl + E
- U to access the UV Mapping Menu and unwrap
- Unwrap flattens the mesh based on seams
- Pack Islands fills the 0–1 UV space efficiently.
Special UV Operations
- Export UV: go to
UV -> Export UV Layout
In UV Editor
- Select linked UV islands with Ctrl + L. Useful for selecting entire UV islands
Sculpting
Shaders, textures, and materials
This part is focused on Shaders, Textures, and Materials.
I focus on UV unwrapping, UV mapping, shaders, materials, and textures in Blender.
However, I just need a very basic knowledge of shaders, materials and textures in Blender, as the Principled BSDF shader can’t be exported in Unreal.
Object shader
World shaders
-
Texture > Environment Texture
-
Useful to add HDRI
-
Input > Light Path
-
Good to hide HDRI background environment
-
Connect To Camera Ray to a Mix Shader Fac, which should be connected to the World Output
Animation
Animation are done in 3 ways in Blender:
- Transform animations with location, rotation, and scale. Not exportable
- Bone-based animations with an armature (Skeletal Mesh in Unreal)
- Shape Keys (Morph Targets or Blend Shapes in other DCC). I don’t use it at all for Unreal. Not flexible enough 👻
Overview
| Animation Area |
Knowledge |
| Definitions |
Skinning • Rigging |
| Armature |
Bones • Deforming & Control bones • Bone Collections • FK & IK |
| Constraints |
|
| Object Modifiers |
|
| Shape Keys |
|
| Drivers |
|
General shortcuts
- Spacebar: Playback animation
- Shift + Ctrl + Spacebar: Reverse Playback Animation
Keyframe
- Gray: Not animated
- Yellow: Keyframed on the current frame
- Green: Keyframed on a different frame
- Orange: Changed from the keyframed value
- Purple: Controlled by a driver
Channels
The Channel Region is on the left side of time-based editors (Timeline, Dope Sheet, Graph Editor). It shows a tree of items (objects, bones) & their animated properties, which are called channels. Each channel has an associated F-curve describing how its value changes over time.
Editors
Timeline
The timeline is a simple, scene-wide tool for navigating & previewing animations.
Dope sheet
The Dope Sheet is one of Blender’s animation editors, designed to display and manipulate keyframes across multiple objects, bones, or properties in a timeline-like view.
It’s inspired by traditional animation dope sheets used to plan timing in hand-drawn animation.
Unlike the Graph Editor, which focuses on editing animation curves (F-Curves) for interpolation, the Dope Sheet is about the placement and timing of keyframes.
Graph editor
Shape Keys
FBX Exporting
My exporting knowledge is purely tied to Unreal Engine 5, and I only use the FBX (FilmBoX) file format.
Static meshes
- The mesh front (or forward direction) is X+ for Unreal Engine.
- Apply the rotation & scale of the object before exporting.
Skeletal meshes
- Change the Blender Scene Unit Scale from 1 to 0.01
- The view should be changed too.
Blender Exercises
Exercise Zero
3D Modeling: Box modeling for Hard Surface & Organic meshes • 3D Sculpting • Retopology
- UV Unwrapping & Mapping:
Material Creation & Texturing: on PBR shaders (and possibly the old Blinn-Phong shader)
Rigging & Skinning: without Rigify, purely from scratch!
Animation: Transform • Bones • Blend Shapes/Morph Targets
Offline Rendering: using Eevee (No Cycle-X)
Exporting & Optimization: in FBX format (for Unreal only) and asset optimization
Python Scripting: for Blender
Exercise 1: Home Interior Scene
This first exercise will require you to model a very basic interior scene with multiple hard-surface meshes, focusing on specific Blender features for each model. These models will be exported to Unreal Engine as Static Meshes, using the industry-standard FBX (FilmBoX) 3D file format.
- Chair & Table to model to focus on the box modeling technique and basic stuff
- Candelabra: This model, either small (to put on a table) or large (standing in the living room), will require you to use multiple materials (using the same principled BSDF shader, but with different parameters) and/or textures.
- Wall Clock: basic wall clock mesh with animated minute hand to focus on keyframe animations
- Wall, Floor & Ceiling: The last model to finish the living room scene, exported in Unreal as a single mesh with multiple materials.
Exercise 2: Bottle
Create a stylized or realistic bottle, focusing on topology, shading, and export settings.
Exercise 3: 2D to 3D Logo
Convert a flat 2D logo into a clean 3D mesh, suitable for rendering or integration into a game UI.
Exercise 4: Basic Vehicle
Model a vehicle of your choice: Car, Truck, Train, Tramway, or Metro.
Exercise 5: Basic Character/Animal
Model and rig a character or animal, focusing on anatomy, edge flow, and expressive potential.
References
Manuals
News
Beginners Tutorials
Sculpting Tutorials
- Grant ABBITT: Sculpting in Blender Beginner’s Guide
- Grant ABBITT: Paint Your Sculpts like a Pro in Blender
Animation
- Crashsune Academy Blender 3D Animation Tutorial
- CGDive The Nuts & Bolts of Blender’s Animation System
- CGDive Un-confusing the NLA Editor
- Joey Carlino Rigging for Beginners
- Johnny Matthews Blender Rigging Setting Up an IK Arm Rig
- Pierrick Picaut The Art of Effective Rigging 2
- Pixxo 3D Blender Rig a Character From Scratch – Beginners’ Guide
NLA
- CBaileyFilm Animate Like a Pro NLA
- CGDive Un-confusing the NLA Editor in Blender 2.92
FBX exporting
- Unreal Engine Skeleton Assets: Importing, Sharing Skeletons & Anims
- Pierrick Picaut: Blender to Unreal & Unity – Exporting Rigged Characters
★ Substance Painter
Training Course
Personal Notes:
- I can use Painter to texture manually. However, it’s better to create my own materials and smart materials.
- I need to use TARGA files. PNG seem to be problematic with Unreal, I don’t know why.
- Substance Painter is designed to create textures at a minimum of 1K or 2K resolution. It is impossible to work on low-resolution textures such as 256 or 512, even if the final, in-game resolution would be 256.
- Usually, I do the baking process very quickly, and maximize Secondary Rays and put
Same Mesh Name
- Substance Painter is a Physically Based Rendering (PBR) texturing application that allows artists to paint complex materials directly onto 3D meshes in real-time
- Different than traditional, old-school 2D texture painting like Photoshop.
- It operates on a layer-based, non-destructive workflow but applies data across multiple channels simultaneously: Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, etc.
Baking Process
- Baking converts details from a 3D model, such as geometry, lighting, or material data, into 2D textures based on the mesh’s UVs
Maps
- Normal Map: Stores surface detail direction so lighting reacts as if the mesh had real high‑poly geometry.
- World Space Normal Map: Encodes surface direction in world coordinates for generators and smart masks.
- Ambient Occlusion (AO): Darkens crevices where light is naturally blocked to add depth.
- Curvature Map: Highlights edges and cavities to drive edge wear, dirt, and stylized effects.
- Position Map: Stores each pixel’s 3D position to help procedural effects based on height or distance.
- Thickness Map: Measures how thick the mesh is at each point to simulate subsurface scattering or waxy materials.
- Bent Normal Map: A variation of normal + AO that points toward the most open direction for advanced lighting.
- Height Map: Stores micro‑surface elevation for displacement or parallax effects
PBR Concepts
Metallic value is almost always treated like a binary data (0 or 1). It’s rarely in-between, outside of artistic reasons. So use it like an integer and not a float.
Normal map
Normal maps are used in 3D graphics to add detail and lighting to surfaces without increasing polygon counts. There are two conventions of normal maps: OpenGL and DirectX.
- OpenGL convention: The Y-axis (green channel) typically points up (outwards from the surface). This means a normal map’s green channel is oriented in the positive Y direction.
- DirectX convention: The Y-axis (green channel) typically points down (inwards). This is the opposite of OpenGL.
Exporting Textures
- Exporting should be done a pre-built template such as Unreal Engine 4 SSS Pack Export
- A Custom Export Template can be created by any user to adapt to conventions
Export
- Ctrl + Shift + E: Open the Export Windows (File > Export Textures)
Export Template ~ Add in Golda Dev
- For Goldaniatech I create the “Golda” template based on the Substance3D Unreal Engine 4 SSS Pack Export settings
- Material Name in Blender matter
- Never use dashes in Blender Materials, only underscore in names, like PublicBench_Standard
Exporting should be in PNG format without dithering and infinite padding dilatation. Note that exporting with dithering will put the texture in Linear Color in Unreal, and give another version of the texture, with less intensity and weird lightning.
I change the output maps as follows:
- Base Color: T_$textureSet_BC(_$colorSpace)(.$udim)
- Metallic Roughness Ambient Occlusion: T_$textureSet_MRAO(_$colorSpace)(.$udim)
- Normal: T_$textureSet_N(_$colorSpace)(.$udim)
- Emissive: T_$textureSet_E(_$colorSpace)(.$udim)
Articles
Tutorials