Is this a good or bad habit?

Blender Courses Talk
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#1

In following along I found it a bit confusing to use the keyboard shortcuts and do transformations one by one, so to speak.

Then, I saw that by using shortcut “N” you can open a Transformation window with ALL [at least so far] the transformations in a single place.

Since I am coming into Blender from an OpenSim [InWorldz my VW of choise] environment, I find this extremely handy and also comfortable since it is a reasonable emulation of the Build Window in and OpenSim world.

Is this a good or bad habit?

#2

it is OK,

But by using shortkeys is a lot, lot, faster, mainly for doing a few repetitive things. Also, there are a few transformations that are not listed in the transformation window, another nice shortcut is the “Space bar”, which you can type the name of the function that you want to perform, it is also nice to note that it saves the last action, so you can just press space again whenever you want to use the last action that you done this way. It is very handy, but I strongly suggest you to learn at least the most common shortkeys, otherwise it will slow you down a lot.

#3

Hi there Joao!,

Thank you for the reply. Good advice and I see your point. I can pull up the PDF on the shortcuts and use that as a guide. I have no problem practicing. In the real world I went from basic machining to working on prototypes and that is a LOT of practice and, more to the point, good habits.

I think I need to figure out, reconfigure a key or two. Specifically the rotate function. ~LOL~ But it could also be, just as well, lack of practice anf familiarity.

And then the spacebar. Either it has not been covered yet, or more likely, I just missed it in the lectures.

Thank you once again. Part of why I asked was for the reason of getting my work habits and work space in good order early on in the course. It is, and I know this from the real world, extremely hard to change old habits or develop new habits once you get used to something.

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#4

Hi Ferrator, in the end you will develop your own routine for which and how many shortcuts you like using. When I started, I always did actions twice, first by pressing the button, noticing the shortcut key, then again by using the shortcut key. Each time I did the action my subconscious started remembering the shortcut key.
Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

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#5

Oh, there are too many short keys and functions, there is no need for reading the whole PDF, just mouse over at the ones that you use more often inside blender and try to remember the short key to that.

It is a good thing to ask, there are some habits that can speed up a lot our work! The ones that really makes a difference for me are:

Ctrl + Tab in edit mode: Allow you to change the selection mode to vertex, face or edge (if you press Ctrl + tab and then press F you are going to change the selection mode to face, for example;
Tab: Change the object interaction mode to the last one used (to fast change between edit and object);
Z: wire frame mode;
Numpad numbers to lock to the specific view;

G: translate;
S: Scale;
R: Rotate;

Axis constraining while transforming:

X: constrain the transformation to the world X axis;
Z: constrain the transformation to the world Z axis;
Y: constrain the transformation to the world Y axis;
Shift + X : constrain the transformation to the world Y and Z axis;
Shift + Z : constrain the transformation to the world X and Y axis;
Shift + Y : constrain the transformation to the world X and Z axis;

And if you press any of those twice, it will constrain the transformation to the local axis instead, which is very powerful

Besides the space bar, those shortcuts are the ones that really makes a difference for me.

Other than that it is just like @thoth444 said, eventually you are going to develop your own routine :slight_smile:

#6

Thank you for getting back to me thoth!,

Barely into section 2 and I am seeing what you are talking about. Some shortcuts, some using the ‘pull out’ menus. And sometimes a combination. Now that the interface is being presented in ways that are not so deadly intimidating I am seeing the flexibility to ‘make it my own’.

And indeed, you will see my efforts because I am very excited about Blender now. :joy:

#7

Thank you once again Joao!,

Incredibly good and helpful information. I tend to be partial to command structures that allow a ‘forward’ and in tandem with another key go ‘backward’.

These will take some practice, but it is early in the course so there is plenty of time.

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