Object and Animation Basics - Blender Foundations: The Essential Guide to Learning Blender 2.6 - page 37

change will be reflected immedi-
ately in the 3D view.

Rotate (R key). Take all of the
things that just applied to transla-
tion, and apply them to rotation.
Object rotation is triggered with
the R key, which is easier to
remember than G key = move, so
you've got that going for you. All
of Blender's transform tools (even
the ones in the 2D workspaces
later in the topic!) are built around
the same core, and the same rules
apply across the board. You can
constrain a rotation by hitting any of the axis keys ( x , y , or z ), directly enter rotation values, or simply
set a new rotation in the N-key properties region.

Figure 3.10 The 3D view header when directly entering transform values.

Scaling (S key). Once again the same rules apply, but this time to scaling. In case you're in need of
some very, very remedial help, let's spell it out: Scaling means making things larger and smaller.

Let's add another new trick: stepping. By holding down the Ctrl key while transforming, whether in a
constrained mode or not, you cause the object to transform using stepped values. When moving, this means
the object moves in steps of whole units (1.00, 2.00, etc.). During a rotation transform, it uses rotation
values in steps of five degrees (5.00, 10.00, 15.00, etc.). Holding down the Shift key during a transform
steps in partial units (0.1, 0.2, etc.).

We'll use all of these transformation tools in the animation part this chapter, Section 3.10, so you'll get
plenty of practice.

Selection Basics
You've already used the A key to select everything in a scene. It's good to know that this selection
command, just like the transform tools, applies throughout Blender. Whether you're working with an
object, animation curves, or compositing nodes, the A key selects everything.

Select an individual item (right mouse button). This is the convention in Blender that generally
gives users the most trouble, especially those that are familiar with other 3D applications. Yes, there is a
user preference ( Ctrl-Alt-U ) to swap the functionality of the left and right buttons, but I implore you not
to use it. Stick with RMB select for a couple of days. The main reason to do so is that if you don't, every
tutorial or topic ever written for Blender will have to be adjusted by you on-the-ly when you use them.

Use Shift-A to add another monkey to your scene, and use one of the transform methods to move it
away from the original monkey. Note that when you add the new monkey and move it, it looks slightly
different from the first one. As you can see in Figure 3.11 , the new monkey has a thin orange outline,
while the original monkey does not. This outline indicates that the one monkey is selected .