Introduction to

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Introduction to Animation With Blender
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• What is Blender?
• Blender is an integrated application that enables
  the creation of a broad range of 2D and 3D
  content.
• It provides a broad spectrum of modeling,
  texturing, lighting, animation and video
  post-processing functionality in one package.
  Through it's open architecture
• Blender can be used to create 3D visualizations
  and cinema quality videos, while the
  incorporation of a real-time 3D engine allows for
  the creation of 3D interactive content for
  stand-alone playback.
• Originally developed by the company 'Not a
  Number' (NaN), Blender now is continued as 'Free
  Software. It now continues development by the
  Blender Foundation in the Netherlands.

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• Who uses Blender?
• Hobbyist/Student that just wants to explore the
  world of computer graphics (CG) and 3D animation
• 2-D artist that produces single image art/posters
  or enhances single images as an image
  post-processing lab
• 2-D artist or team that produces
  cartoon/caricature animations for television
  commercials or shorts (such as The Magic of
  Amelia)
• 3-D artist that works alone or with another
  person to produce short CG animations, possibly
  featuring some live action (such as "Suburban
  Plight").
• 3-D team that produces an animated (100 CG)
  movie (such as "Elephant's Dream", "Plumiferos").

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• What do need to know in Blender
• Introduction
• Navigating in 3d, and scene mgt
• Models
• Modeling, Modifiers
• Lighting
• Working with different types of lights
• Shading
• Materials, Textures, Painting, Worlds
  Backgrounds
• Animation
• Basics, Characters, Advanced, Effects Physical
  Sim
• Rendering

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• CG (Computer Graphic) vs Blender
• Getting to know Blender and learning Computer
  Graphics (CG) are two different topics.
• CG is learning what a computer model is. Blender
  teaches you how to develop that model
• CG is the study of good lighting techniques.
  Blender teaches you how to use different kinds of
  lamps
• In general, CG is the study of the conceptual
  knowledge however, you can easily learn Blender
  (or any other CG package).
• At a very high level, using Blender can be
  thought of as knowing how to accomplish imagery
  within three dimensions of activity Integration
  - rendering computer graphics, working with
  real-world video, or mixing the two.
• Animation - posing and making things change
  shape, either manually or using simulation

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• Blender's Interface Concept
• The user interface is the vehicle for two-way
  interaction between the user and the program. The
  user communicates with the program via the
  keyboard and the mouse
• The interface can be broken down into several key
  areas
• Windows,
• Contexts,
• Panels, and
• Buttons (controls).
• For example, The Button window contains Context
  buttons which show different groups of Panels and
  the Panels each show groups of Buttons.
• See the next slide

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• Keyboard and mouse
• We use the following conventions to describe user
  input
• The mouse buttons are called
• LMB (left mouse button),
• MMB (middle mouse button) and
• RMB (right mouse button)
• If your mouse has a wheel, MMB refers to clicking
  the wheel as if it were a button, while MW means
  rolling the wheel.

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• Blender's interface is designed to be best used
  with a three-button mouse.
• It is perfectly possible to use Blender with a
  two-button mouse
• The wheel would play the role the third button
• In Apple single-button Mouse. The missing buttons
  can be emulated with key/mouse-button combos.

Buttons 2-button Mouse Apple Mouse
LMB LMB LMB (mouse button)
MMB Alt LMB Option LMB (Option/Alt key mouse button)
RMB RMB Command LMB (Command/Apple key mouse button)

• All the Mouse/Keyboard combinations can be
  expressed with the combos shown in the table. For
  Example, ShiftAlt RMB becomes ShiftAltCommand LMB
  on a single-button mouse.

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• The Window System
• When you start Blender you may see a console
  (text) window open and, shortly after, the main
  user interface window will display.

This is the default Blender scene
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• The default Scene
• The default Blender scene shows the screen you
  should get after starting Blender for the first
  time.
• By default it is separated into three windows
• The main menu at the top is the header part of a
  User Interface window
• A large 3D window (3D Viewport window)
• The Buttons Window (at the bottom)
• These windows can be further broken down into
  separate areas. As an introduction we will cover
  a few of the basic elements

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• Window Type Allows you to change what kind of
  window it is. For example, if you want to see the
  Outliner window you would click and select it.
• Main Top Menu Is the main menu associated with
  the User preferences window type. To actually
  see the information, you need to click and drag
  the area between the 3D window and menu header
• Current Screen (default is Model) By default,
  Blender comes with several pre-configured Screens
  for you to choose from. (use Hot key Ctl ? to
  toggle different screens)
• Current Scene Having multiple scenes allows you
  to break up your work into organized patterns.

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• 3D Transform Manipulator Is a visual aid in
  transforming objects.
• Objects can also be transformed (grabbed/moved -
  rotated - scaled) using the keyboard shortcuts 
  (g/r/s)
• Ctrl Space will display the manipulator pop-up.
• The manipulator visibility can also be toggled by
  clicking the "hand" icon on the toolbar.
• Shift LMB-clicking an icon will add/remove each
  manipulator's visibility.
• 3D Cursor Can have multiple functions. For
  example, it represents where new objects appear
  when they are first created Or it can represent
  where the base of a rotation will take place.
• Here is the 3D Cursor isolated from the rest of
  the scene

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• Cube Mesh By default, a new installation of
  Blender will always start with a Cube Mesh
  sitting in the center of Global 3D space. After a
  while, you will most likely want to change the
  "Default" settings This is done by configuring
  Blender as you would want it on startup and then
  saving it as the "Default" using Ctrl U (Save
  Default Settings).
• Light (of type Lamp) By default, a new
  installation of Blender will always start with a
  Light source positioned somewhere close to the
  center of Global 3D space.
• Camera By default, a new installation of Blender
  will always start with a Camera positioned
  somewhere close to the center of Global 3D space
  and facing it.
• Currently selected object This field shows the
  name of the currently selected object.

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• Editing Panel Group The bottom window displays
  panels and those panels are grouped. This row of
  buttons (called Context Buttons) allows you to
  select which group of panels are shown. Some
  buttons will display additional buttons (called
  Sub-Context Buttons) to the right for selection
  of sub-groups or groups within groups.
• Current frame Blender is a modeling and
  animation application As such, you can animate
  things based on the concept of frames. This field
  shows what the current frame is.
• Viewport shading You can select the type of
• interactive shading (called Draw Type in the
• Blender shading list) that takes place by
  clicking
• this button and selecting from a variety of
• shading styles.

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• Rotation/Scaling Pivot point Allows you to
• select where rotation/scaling will occur.
• For example, rotation could occur about the
• object's local origin or about the 3D Cursor's
• position, amongst many others.
• Panels Help group and organize related buttons
  and controls. Some panels are visible or
  invisible depending on what type of object is
  selected.
• Layers Make modeling and animating easier.
  Blender Layers are provided to help distribute
  your objects into functional regions. For
  example, one layer many contain a water object
  and another layer may contain trees, or one layer
  may contain cameras and lights.

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• The Window Header Most windows have a header
  (the strip with a lighter grey background
  containing icon buttons). We will also refer to
  the header as the window ToolBar.
• If present, the header may be at the top or the
  bottom of a window's area.
• If you move the mouse over a window, its header
  changes to a lighter shade of grey. This means
  that it is "focused" All hotkeys you press will
  now affect the contents of this window.
• Menus change with Window Type and the selected
  object and mode. They show only actions which can
  be performed.

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• The icon at the left end of a header, with a
  click of the LMB , allows selection of one of 16
  different window types.
• Menus allow you to directly access many features
  and commands. Menus can be hidden and shown via
  the triangular button next to them.

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• You can hide a particular window's header by
  moving your mouse over the Window Header that you
  wish to hide Then with the mouse cursor still
  over the Window Header, click RMB to display a
  popup menu with the name Header
• The Header popup menu has the options, Top,
  Bottom, No Header, select the No Header menu
  option to hide the Window Header.

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• You can split a window into two.
• Move the mouse over the border of the header of a
  window until it changes to up and down arrow and
  click the RMB
• Then, a popup menu will be displayed with the
  options Split Area, Join Areas, No Header.
• Split Area divides the current winder into two
• Join Areas Joins two windows into one
• No Header hides the Window Header.

• You can maximize a window to fill the whole
  screen
• choose View ? Maximize Window menu entry.
• To return to normal size,
• use the View ? Tile Window
• A quicker way to achieve this is to use Shift
  Space or , Ctrl ? or Ctrl ? to toggle
  between maximized and framed windows.

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• When you split a window into two the new window
  will start as a clone of the window you split. It
  can then be set to a different window type, or to
  display the scene from a different point of view
  (in the case of the 3D Window).
• You can resize windows by dragging their borders
  with LMB
• You can join two windows into one by clicking a
  border between two windows with MMB or RMB and
  choosing Join Areas.
• Then you'll be prompted to click on one of the
  two windows the one you click will disappear,
  while the other will be expanded to cover the
  full area of both windows.
• If you press Esc before clicking on one of the
  windows, the operation will be aborted.

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• Console Window
• The Console Window is an operating system text
  window that displays messages about Blender
  operations, status, and internal errors.
• If Blender crashes on you, it is a good idea to
  check the Console Window for clues.
• When Blender is started on a Microsoft Windows
  OS The Console Window is first created as a
  separate window on the desktop Then assuming the
  right conditions are met, the main Blender
  Application window should also appear.

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• Window types
• The Blender interface, the rectangular window
  provided by your operating system, is divided up
  into many rectangular window frames.
• Each window frame may contain different types of
  information, depending upon the Window type.
• Each window frame operates independently of the
  others, and you can have the same type of window
  in many frames.
• For example, you may have several 3D windows open
  but each looking at the scene from a different
  perspective.

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• Scripts window
• user interface for running Python scripts that
  extend Blender
• File Browser
• for storage and retrieval, especially of .blend
  files
• Image Browser
• search your computer for images, seen as
  thumbnails
• Node Editor
• process/enhance images and materials
• Buttons Window
• panels that configure objects and set/select
  options
• Outliner
• Helps you find and organize your objects.
• User Preferences

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• Text Editor
• keep notes and documentation about your project,
  and write Python scripts.
• Audio Window
• see sound files and correlate them to frames
• Timeline
• jump to different times (frames) in your
  animation
• Video Sequence Editor - assemble video sequences
  into a filmstrip
• UV/Image Editor - edit and paint pictures
• NLA Editor - manage non-linear animation action
  strips
• Action Editor - combine individual actions into
  action sequences
• Ipo Curve Editor - make things move or change
• 3D View - graphical view of your scene

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Blender default scene layout
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• Three Window types are provided in Blender's
  default scene
• 3D View
• Provides a graphical view into the scene you are
  working on. You can view your scene from any
  angle with a variety of options
• Buttons Window
• Contains most tools for editing objects,
  surfaces, textures, Lights, and much more. You
  will need this window constantly if you don't
  know all hotkeys by heart.
• User Preferences (Main menu) This window is
  usually hidden, so that only the menu part is
  visible .
• It's rarely used though, since it contains global
  configuration settings. However, the header is
  frequently used because it provides the only
  access to a full File menu and to the Add menu.

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• Screens
• Blender's flexibility with windows lets you
  create customized working environments for
  different tasks, such as modeling, animating, and
  scripting.
• It is often useful to quickly switch between
  different environments within the same file. For
  each Scene, you need to set the stage by modeling
  the props, dressing them and painting them
  through materials, etc.
• To do each of these major creative steps, Blender
  has a set of pre-defined screens, or window
  layouts, that show you the types of windows you
  need to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

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• The screens include
• Animation
• Making actors and other objects move about.
• Model
• Creating actors, props, and other objects.
• Material
• Painting and texturing surfaces.
• Sequence
• Editing scenes into a movie.
• Scripting 
• Documenting your work, and writing custom
  animations To change to the next screen
  alphabetically press Ctrl ? to change to the
  previous screen alphabetically,
• press Ctrl ?.
• By default, each screen layout remembers the last
  scene it was used on. Selecting a different
  layout will switch to the layout and jump to that
  scene.

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• Adding a new Screen
• As you scroll through the Screen list, you will
  see that one of the options is to Add New -
  namely, add a new window layout.
• Click the up and down arrow
• and select ADD NEW. When
• you click this, a new frame
• layout is created based on your
• current layout.
• Give the new screen a name that starts with a
  number so that you can predictably scroll to it
  using the arrow keys.
• You can rename the layout by LMB into the field
  and typing a new name, or clicking again to
  position the cursor in the field to edit. For
  example you could use the name "6-MyScreen".
• You can delete a screen by using the Delete
  datablock button (the button marked as x) and
  confirm by clicking Delete current screen in the
  pop-up dialog box.

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• Scenes
• It is also possible to have several scenes within
  the same Blender file. Scenes may use one
  another's objects or be completely separate from
  one another.
• You can select and create scenes with the SCE
  menu buttons in the User Preferences Window
  header (Screen and Scene selectors).
• Click the up and down arrow
• and select ADD NEW to create
• a new scene.

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• Empty creates an empty scene.
• Link Objects creates the new scene with
• the same contents as the currently selected
• scene. Changes in one scene will also modify the
  other.
• Link ObData creates the new scene based on the
  currently selected scene, with links to the same
  meshes, materials, and so on. This means that you
  can change objects' positions and related
  properties, but modifications to the meshes,
  materials, and so on will also affect other
  scenes unless you manually make single-user
  copies.
• Full Copy creates a fully independent scene with
  copies of the currently selected scene's
  contents.
• You can delete a scene by clicking the x button

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• Configuration
• The Info window (User Preferences) is where you
  customize and control Blender. By default this
  window is located at the top and only the header
  is visible.

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• The Button Window
• The Button Window shows six main Contexts, which
  can be chosen via the first icon row in the
  header (Contexts and Sub-Contexts Example).
• Each of these might be subdivided into a variable
  number of sub-contexts, which can be chosen via
  the second icon row in the header (Contexts and
  Sub-Contexts Example), or cycled through by
  pressing the same Context button again
• You can move the mouse over each small button to
  see its meaning

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• Once the Contexts is selected by the user, the
  sub-context is usually determined by Blender on
  the basis of the active Object.
• For example, with the Shading context, if a Lamp
  Object is selected then the sub-context shows
  Lamp Buttons. Or
• If a Mesh or other renderable Object is selected,
  then Material Buttons is the active sub-context,
  or
• if a Camera is selected the active sub-context is
  World.
• The Buttons in each context are grouped into
  Panels.
• The menu of available options, shown in a
  window's header, may change depending on the mode
  of that window.
• For example, in the 3D View window, the Object
  menu in Object mode changes to a Mesh operations
  menu in Edit mode, and a paint menu in Vertex
  Paint mode.

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• Menu
• Blender contains many menus each of which is
• accessible from either the window headers or
  directly
• at the mouse's location using Hotkeys.
• For example, you can access the Toolbox in the 3D
  window using either the mouse or the keyboard.
• From the keyboard you would use the SPACE.
• To access it using the mouse just hold down the
  LMB or RMB buttons for a few seconds and the
  Toolbox will pop-up.
• While you are using Blender be aware of what mode
  and types of object are selected. This helps in
  knowing what hotkeys work at what times.

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• Panels
• Panels generally appear in the Buttons window and
  by default the Buttons window is at the bottom
  see (Buttons window). The Buttons window includes
  the Button window header and panels.
• Each button on the Buttons header groups panels
  together into what is called a Context. And those
  Contexts are grouped further into Sub-Contexts.
  For example, all Material panels are grouped
  under the Shading context and Material
  sub-context.

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• The panels are not fixed in position relative to
  the
• window. They can be moved around the window by
• LMB clicking and dragging on the respective
  panel
• header.
• Panels can be aligned by RMB on the Buttons
  Window and choosing the desired layout from the
  Menu which appears (Button Window Menu.).
• Using MW scrolls the Panels in their aligned
  direction and CTRL MW and Ctrl MMB zooms the
  Panels in and out.
• Single Panels can be collapsed/expanded
• by LMB clicking the triangle on the left side
• of their header.
• Particularly complex Panels are organized in
  Tabs. Clicking LMB on a Tab in the Panel header
  changes the buttons shown in (Panel with Tabs
  Example.).
• Tabs can be "torn out" of a Panel to form
  independent panels by clicking LMB on their
  header and dragging them out. In a similar way
  separate Panels can be turned into a single Panel
  with Tabs by dropping one Panel's header into
  another.

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• Buttons and Controls
• Buttons are mostly grouped in the Button Window.
  But they can appear in other Windows too.
• Operation Button These are buttons that perform
  an operation when they are clicked (with LMB).
  They can be identified by their brownish color in
  the default Blender scheme (An operation button).
  
• Toggle Button Toggle buttons come in various
  sizes and colors (Toggle buttons). The colors
  green, violet, and grey do not change
  functionality, they just help the eye to group
  the buttons and recognize the contents of the
  interface more quickly. Clicking this type of
  button does not perform any operation, but only
  toggles a state.

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• Number Buttons Number buttons (Number buttons)
  can be identified by their captions, which
  contain a colon followed by a number. Number
  buttons are handled in several ways
• To increase the value, click LMB on the right of
  the button, where the small triangle is shown
• to decrease it, click on the left of the button,
  where another triangle is shown.
• To change the value in a wider range, hold down
• LMB and drag the mouse to the left or right.
• If you hold CTRL while doing this, the value
• is changed in discrete steps
• if you hold SHIFT, you'll have finer control over
  the values.
• You can enter a value directly by holding SHIFT
  and clicking LM.

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• Menu Buttons Use the Menu buttons to choose from
  dynamically created lists. Menu buttons are
  principally used to link DataBlocks to each
  other.
• DataBlocks are structures like Meshes, Objects,
  Materials, Textures, and so on by linking a
  Material to an Object, you assign it.)

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• You can see an example for such a block of
  buttons in (Datablock link buttons).
• The first button (with the tiny up and down
  pointing triangles) opens a menu that lets you
  select the DataBlock to link to by holding down
  LMB and releasing it over the requested item.
• The second button displays the type and name of
  the linked DataBlock and lets you edit its name
  after clicking LMB.
• The "X" button clears the link.
• The "car" button generates an automatic name for
  the DataBlock.
• And the "F" button specifies whether the
  DataBlock should be saved in the file even if it
  is unused (unlinked).

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• Color Selector controls
• Some controls pop-up a dialog panel. For example,
  Color controls, when clicked, will pop up a Color
  Selector dialog

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• Cascade Buttons
• Occasionally, some buttons actually reveal
  addition buttons.
• For example, the Ramps panel has a Cascade button
  called Colorband that reveals additional buttons
  dealing with colorbanding

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• Opening Files
• (Mode All Modes, Hotkey F1, Menu File ?
  Open )
• Blender uses the .blend file format to save
  nearly everything Objects, Scenes, Textures, and
  even all your user interface window settings.
• To load a Blender file from disk, press
• F1. The window underneath the mouse
• pointer then temporarily becomes the
• File Selection window
• The bar on the left can be dragged with
• LMB for scrolling.
• To load a file, select it with RMB and
• then press Enter, or click the Open File
• can also be loaded by clicking it with the MMB

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• Navigating your Hard Disk
• The upper text box displays the current directory
  path, and the lower text box contains the
  selected filename.
• (P) moves you up to the parent directory.
• The button beneath, with the up and down
• arrow, maintains a list of recently used
• paths and on the windows platform a list
• of all drives (C, D, etc.).
• The breadcrumb files (. and ..) refer to
• the current directory and upper-level
• directory, respectively

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• Saving Files
• Mode All Modes, Hotkey F2, Menu File ?Save
• Saving files is like loading files. When you
  press F2, the window underneath the mouse pointer
  temporarily changes into a File Selection Window
• Click the lower edit box to enter a filename. If
  it doesn't end with ".blend," the extension is
  automatically appended.
• Then press Enter or click the Save File button to
  save the file.
• If a file with the same name already exists, you
  will have to confirm that you want to save the
  file at the overwrite prompt.

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Rendering Mode All Modes Panel Render Context
? Render Hotkey F12 Menu Render ? Render
Current Frame
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• The render settings are in the Scene Context and
  Rendering Buttons Sub-context (Rendering options
  in the Rendering Buttons.) which is reached by
  clicking the , or by pressing F10.
• In the Output panel, the top field contains the
  path increment (default "/tmp/") and optionally
  a filename prefix to use when rendering is done.
• The Path Increment is either an absolute address
  or a relative address.
• An absolute address is something like
  "C\Documents\Blender\" and
• A relative address is a breadcrumb notation ("./"
  or "../") meaning to start with the current or
  parent directory of the Blender installation
  location, or a double slash ("//") meaning put
  the file in the directory from where the blend
  file was loaded.

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• The Format Panel controls the format of the
  render.
• The full size (number of pixels horizontally and
  vertically) and file format of the image to be
  created are picked here.
• You can set the size using the SizeX and SizeY
  buttons.
• Clicking the selection box just below the size
  buttons
• opens a menu with all available output formats
  for
• images and animations, which is currently "Jpeg"
  
• in (Rendering options in the Rendering Buttons).
  
• When the settings are complete, the scene may be
  rendered by hitting the RENDER button in the
  Render Panel or by pressing F12.
• Depending on the complexity of the scene, this
  usually
• takes between a few seconds and several minutes,
  and
• the progress is displayed in a separate window.
• If you don't see anything in the rendered view,
  make sure your scene is constructed properly.
  Does it have lighting? Is the camera positioned
  correctly, and does it point in the right
  direction? Are all the layers you want to render
  visible? Make sure Blender Internal is chosen in
  the dropdown box below the
• RENDER button.
• When you are satisfied with the rendering, you
  may save it by pressing F3 and
• using the save dialog as described
  before

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• Setting the default scene
• If you don't like Blender's default window
  set-up, or want specific render settings
• Make the scene you are currently working on the
  default by pressing Ctrl U.
• The scene will then be copied into a file called
  .B.blend in your home directory.
• You can clear the working project and revert to
  the default scene anytime through the menu entry
  FilegtgtNew or by pressing Ctrl X. But remember to
  save your changes to the previous scene first!

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• Saving your Preferences
• When you press Ctrl U, you will save a file
  called B.blend in the .blender folder underneath
  your Blender installation that contains the
  present setup, including all screens and scenes.
• Blender has many options and features to make
  sure that you do not lose your work.
• First, it saves your actions in a list. At any
  time, you can tell Blender to back up in the list
  and undo most recent changes.
• Second, when you start Blender, one of the File
  options is to Recover Last Session. When you exit
  Blender, it saves the current file in a
  quit.blend file Recover Last Session merely
  loads that file back in.
• Third, you can tell Blender via User Preferences
  to automatically save versions "behind the
  scenes", and to keep old copies of your entire
  files every time you do manual saves.

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• Auto Save in the User Preferences
• Blender provides several ways to automatically
  save backup copies of work in progress. This
  sub-panel allows you to configure the two ways
  that Blender allows you to regress to a prior
  file version.
• The "Save Versions" button tells Blender, when
  you manually select File/Save, to save the
  specified number of previous versions of your
  file.
• In your current working directory, these files
  will be named .blend, .blend1, .blend2, etc. on
  up to the number of versions you specify, with
  the older files named with a higher number.

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• Auto Save Temp Files
• Clicking the "Auto Save Temp Files" button tells
  Blender to automatically save a hot backup copy
  of your work-in-progress to the temp directory.
  Selecting this button reveals two more buttons.
• The first, "Minutes" button specifies the number
  of minutes between automatic saves. The second
  "Open Recent" button allows you to open the
  most-recent auto-save file.
• The auto-save file is named using a random
  number, has a .blend extension, and is placed in
  the Temp directory (refer to the "File Paths"
  tab).
• Then, when you have done something terrible to
  your beautiful model, you have the following
  choices
• keep working forward and try to cover up or build
  on your accident,
• undo with Ctrl Z
• regress to (open) a previously saved version in
  your working directory, or

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• Warning
• Warning Clicking the "Open Recent" button will
  immediately load the most recent save, and you
  will lose any changes that you have made in the
  intervening minutes.
• Exit No Save When you close Blender and exit the
  program, Blender does not prompt you to save your
  work if changed. However, it automatically saves
  the current work-in-progress in a file called
  "quit.blend" in your Temp directory.
• Recent Files When you use File -gt Open Recent,
  this control specifies how many recent files to
  keep track of, and how many will appear in that
  list.

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• Undoing an Action
• Mode All Modes Hotkey Ctrl Z
• By default, Undo is not turned off although it
  takes precious memory. To enable or disable undo,
  drag down your User Preferences window and click
  Edit Methods. In that panel, you may set
• Steps This numeric slider sets how many steps,
  or actions, to save. If you set this to 30, you
  will be able to undo the last 30 actions that you
  performed.
• Global Undo This enables Blender to save actions
  outside of some mesh editing actions, for
  example, moving individual vertices while a mesh
  is in one editing session each vertex move can
  be undone.

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• Redoing an Action
• Mode All Modes Hotkey Shift Ctrl Z or Ctrl Y
  
• Just as Ctrl Z undoes an action, Shift Ctrl Z
  re-does the last undone action(s).
• History
• Mode All Modes Hotkey Alt U
• Alt U displays the Global History of what you
  have done as a list of actions named generally
  for what you did. Clicking on any action reverts
  you back to that state just before the next
  action was performed.

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• Overview
• Mode All Modes, Any Window Hotkey Shift F4 -
  DataBlock Browser
• Each .blend file contains a database. This
  database contains all scenes, objects, meshes,
  textures, etc. that are in the file. A file can
  contain multiple scenes and each scene can
  contain multiple objects. Objects can contain
  multiple materials which can contain many
  textures.
• To access the database, press Shift F4 and the
  window will change to an DataBlock browser
  window, which lists the Objects in your .blend
  file.
• To go up a level, click the breadcrumbs (..) and
  then you will see the overall structure of a
  file Action, Armature, Brush, Camera, Curve,
  Group, ... and so on (including Objects).
• LMB Selecting any DataBlock type, Mesh, for
  example, will give you a listing of the Meshes
  used in the file, along with how many users there
  are for that class.
• For example, if you had a car mesh, and used that
  car mesh for six cars in a parking lot scene, the
  Mesh listing would show the Car and then the
  number 6.

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• Users (Sharing)
• Many DataBlocks can be shared among other
  DataBlocks re-use is encouraged.
• For example, suppose you have a material for one
  object, named "Glossy". You can select a second
  object, for example, one that does not have a
  material yet. Instead of clicking ADD NEW for the
  material, click the little up-down arrow next to
  the ADD NEW, which brings up a list of existing
  materials. Select "Glossy".
• Now, these two objects share the same Material.
  You will notice a "2" next to the name of the
  material, indicating that there are two users
  (the two objects) for this material.
• Other common examples include
• Sharing textures among materials
• Sharing meshes between objects ("clones")
• Sharing IPO curves between objects, for example
  to make all the lights dim together.

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• Fake User
• Blender removes all DataBlocks that have not been
  linked to anything when you open the file.
• Because of this, sometimes you may find it useful
  to link unlinked DataBlocks to a "fake user".
• You can do this by hitting the F button next to
  the name of the DataBlock.

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• Copying and Linking Objects Between Scenes
• Sometimes you may want to link or copy objects
  between scenes.
• This is possible by first selecting objects you
  want to link or copy and then using the "Make
  Links" and "Make Single User" items found in
  Object menu in the 3D viewport header.
• Use "Make Links" to make links between scenes.
• To make a plain copy, you first make a link and
  then use "Make Single User" to make a stand-alone
  copy of the object in your current scene.