At first the Blender environment appears very different from what most people are used to.  Many of the functions are controlled by shortcut keys. You may want to print out the list in this tutorial to have beside you until you remember the easy ones.  After a very short time you will get used to the way things work and start to feel much more comfortable.  Your progress will be slow in the beginning, then things will get much easier.

In your work area you will see a little circle with a cross through it. This is a 3d cursor. By left clicking your mouse you can place the 3D cursor wherever you want. Whenever you create an object, that object will appear wherever the 3d cursor is.

You should also see a triangular shaped object.  This is the camera for viewing your 3D object.  

It may also appear in other disguises, depending on whether you are viewing your scene from the top, side, front etc.
In the centre of the screen, Blender usually puts a plane (pink square).  Pressing the delete key and then Enter will get rid of this.   (We don't need it for now.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a Cone

First we will create a cone: Press SPACE and choose Add > Mesh > Cone 

Click OK for 32 vertices.  Press the Tab key to get out of edit mode.

Your cone does not look like a cone yet because we are looking down on it from above.

Your cone should appear pink, indicating it is selected. (If not, then right click to select it)

Moving your Cone

Press the G Key (grab) then mouse your mouse around.  When your cone is where you want it, left click to place it.

Scaling your Cone

Press the S Key (scale) then mouse your mouse around.  When your cone is the size you want it, left click to place it. (Leave the size much the same as it was for now)

Making it Solid

To make your cone appear solid, press the Z key.  To return to wireframe, press Z again.  Working in wireframe view enables your computer to work faster.

 

Edit Mode

After you create a mesh object (sphere, cube etc) it will always appear in editmode. This is the mode where you can move and manipulate the vertices (points) of the mesh.  To exit editmode press TAB. (Pressing Tab again will take you back to editmode)

Selecting an Object

To select an object, use the right mouse button.

In edit mode Out of edit mode,
  but still selected.		 Not selected

Moving an Object

Select the object, press the G key (grab), mouse your mouse, then click to place it.

Rotating an Object

Select the object, press the R key (rotate), move your mouse, then click to place it.

Scaling an Object

Select the object, press the S key (scale), move your mouse, then click to place it.

 

Saving your work

At this stage, we will just look at how to save your work as a Blend file.  Later on, we will look at saving your work in other formats.