blender

Basic editing

The mouse

LeftMouse: for buttons, sliders, text input, placing the 3D cursor
Left+Ctrl: add a vertex
Left+Alt: emulate middle mouse
Middle: change a view (rotate), during transformations the delimiter
Middle+Shift: change view (pan)
Middle+Ctrl: zoom view in/out
Right: select + activate
Right+Shift: extend select
Right+Ctrl: selecting and activating, only at object centers
Right: hold-move-release: translation mode

The keyboard

F1: load file
F2: save file
F3: save image
F12 render image
ESC: restore/escape anything
Numerical pad: various views
Space: toolbox menu

Selecting

Three basic methods:

Select with right mouse one thing, extend with Shift
Select with border: hit b and draw box with left mouse
hit a to select/deselect all

Active and selected

Only one thing can be active
Any number can be selected (but active shows up lighter)

Move/rotate/scale

Translate: hit g for grab mode, move mouse, confirm with left mouse or enter, cancel with ESC

Rotate: hit r for rotation mode (same confirm/cancel).
Scale: hit s for scale mode (same confirm/cancel/constrain to X,Y,Z)

Objects and Editmode

TAB toggles Editmode on/off. With Editmode you can add vertices and faces, extrude polygons, assign colors, draw curves. You can't add or activate other objects, for that leave Editmode by hitting TAB. That is, if you add anything while in Editmode, you add into the same object.

Mesh edit example

Clear Blender with Ctrl-x.
Hit a to deselect everything (maybe twice, selected things are pink and unselected black), then select the plane with right mouse, press TAB to go to editmode (the vertices will show up).
Select the 4 vertices (right+Shift).
Hit e for extrude, confirm with Enter.
In extrusion, you are in grab mode, i.e., you can move the selected thing. Hit num pad 1 (or select side view from the window header, see image on the right) to go to side view, move the selection with mouse, confirm with left button. Repeatedly extrude to make a snake.
Take a look using middle button or Alt left button.

Coffee cup tutorial

Clear all with Ctrl-x.
Make sure plane is selected (right mouse), go to edit mode (TAB).
Select all vertices (hit a), delete them (x + Enter).
Add the bottom of a coffee cup, press SPACE, choose Add Mesh Circle from the toolbox with the left mouse.
Select 32 vertices, hit enter to accept. The selected vertices will show in yellow.
Go to side view (num pad 3). Hit e for extrude, move the mouse up by 5 squares (hold Ctrl down), confirm with Lclick or ENTER.
View the tube (middle or left+Alt), return to side view (pad 3)
Hit s to scale the top a bit larger, left mouse or ENTER confirms.
Zoom in closer (Shift+middle to pan, Ctrl+middle to zoom).
Now we'll add 4 small extrusions to make a rounded edge. Hit e, Enter, move a couple of pixels up using Cursor-Up, hit SPACE (or ENTER or Lclick) to end.
Extrude again, move again up a bit, SPACE to end. Then scale things a bit smaller (s), SPACE to end.
Add one more extrude, now move them down, and then scale still a bit smaller. You should now have something like this (from another viewpoint).
Then add a bottom. Deselect all (a), then hit b to do a box selection for the bottom vertices (with left mouse), add two small extrudes to make a rounded edge, press Shift+F to fill the bottom. Rotate view to take a look, return to side view (pad 3).
Create another circle (Shift A), now use only 8 vertices (can select by using the left mouse as a slider on the number), confirm. Scale the circle (s) to about 15% of the original size.
Go to front view (pad 1), hit g for the grab mode, move the circle to the right of the cup.
Place the 3D cursor one grid below the circle. You can use the snap menu (SHIFT S) for precise alignment of the selected item to grid (S 1) or to 3D cursor (S 2), the cursor to grid (S 3) or selected item (S 4).
Go to editbuttons (F9), hit the Spin button (salmon colored) twice. You can see how to circle is spin extruded around the cursor.
Select all the vertices in the handle (move the mouse cursor over the handle, hit l [small L])
Position the handle by grabbing it (g) (you need also other views [pad 1,3,7] for this, and rotation r)
Leave editmode (TAB), press z to view solid display, hit z again to restore wireframe.
Scale the cup to about half a size (try holding Ctrl down)
Make sure you are not in Editmode (TAB, no visible vertices). Hit EditButtons->"Set Smooth" (light blue button). If you'd do this in editmode, only the selected faces would be smoothed. Choose the solid display mode (z), try toggling "Set Smooth" and "Set Solid".
Hit F5 for material buttons. Mix a green color using the RGB sliders.
Add a light, press SPACE. To find the Add Lamp item, press right mouse once or move the mouse to the left.
The lamp was added to the 3D cursor location. Zoom out (pad minus, zoom in obviously pad plus) and hit G to grab and move the light. You might want to use different viewpoints while moving. Move the light to left front of the cup (from the camera's viewpoint). Hit F12 to render, F11 hides the render window.
Add a plane to serve as a table for the cup. Top view (pad 7), Shift A, Add->Mesh->Plane. Leave editmode (TAB, no vis. verts). Grab (g or right mouse) to move the plane, use e.g. views pad 7 and pad 1.
Scale (s) the plane much larger.
Material buttons (F5) don't show a material yet. Use the small square menu button to add a new material

Add a texture to the table, hit F6 for the texture buttons. From a similar menu button add a new texture block (ADD NEW, assigned automatically to the material of the plane).
Press the grey "Marble" button to set the texture type, hit F5, to get material buttons back. Change the purble mix color with the RGB sliders on the right side of the window to lighter brown.
To enable shadows, change the lamp into a spot light. Select lamp (right mouse), press F4 for lamp buttons, press green "Spot" button. Use the front (pad 1) and side (pad 3) views to orient (rotate r) the lamp to point at the cup. For nice shadows, also move (g) the lamp higher.
Use the slider LampButtons->SpotBl to make softer lighting.
Increase the lamps "Energy" value to 2.0
Go to side view (pad 3), move the camera up (g), rotate to view the scene (r). Use pad 0 to check what the camera sees.
Hit F10 for display buttons, select the "Shadow" to enable shadows. Hit F12 for rendering.
With a bit different lighting...

Flying logo tutorial

Start with clean Blender Ctrl x (release all memory, load .B.blend startup file.
Delete the standard plane (x, Enter)
Go to front view (pad 1), camera is in the center of the 3D window.
To have a clean work space, activate layer 2 (hit 2). You can also do it by clicking from layer buttons If you hold SHIFT while selecting, you can select at the same time several layers. The layers can be handy to separate different parts of design and to reduce clutter.
Model letters with curve objects (Bezier curves). Hit Shift A, select Add->Curve->BezierCircle.

Bezier curves are defined by handles (consisting of 3 vertices) that define curve positions and curvature. We'll first create letter O, do more difficult letters later.
With all vertices selected, make a duplicate (Shift D). The duplicate is in grab mode, switch to scale by hitting s. Scale the new circle to 30% of the original size (try holding CTRL down), confirm with left button.
Leave edit mode (TAB), hit z to see this
Go back hitting z and TAB. If you would add a curve outside of the edit mode, it would become a separate object. Next we draw a rounded 'L'. Start a new curve by selecting a single handle of the circle with the right button, hit Shift D, move the mouse to left and position the handle like this.

Now, add new handles to this curve with Ctrl left mouse clicks.

The yellow color of the handle shows it has 'auto type'. Select a handle at the center vertex, hit g. If you move the mouse you can see the curvature change. Hit ESC to restore the old position.
Hit c to make the curve cyclic. Only cyclic curves can be filled.
Make 'G' by copying 'L'. Select the curve by having mouse cursor be close to 'L' and hit l (small L, 'select Linked'). Hit Shift D to duplicate, move to the right side of 'O'. Hit r to rotate, hold Ctrl down to rotate 180 degrees.
The tail of 'G' needs a sharp angle, select the handle by right clicking the center vertex. Hit v to change the handle type to 'vector'. Now you can adjust the end points separately to new positions (select, hit g). The handle changes to black 'free handle'.

The same is true for the yellow 'auto' handles, when you move one of its end points, the type changes to pink 'aligned' handle.

Shift H: auto handle
h: free or aligned handle (toggle)
v: vector handle

The easiest way to move the handles is with the combined select-grab gesture: select a vertex with the right mouse, keep it pressed and move a few pixels, release right mouse as the grab mode begins. Now edit the handles to create the 'G' shape.

Hit a to deselect all. Select with L the central circle of 'O' (with the mouse cursor next to it), duplicate it (Shift D), and move it (g) to the center of 'G'.
Duplicate and place both circles of 'O' for the last 'O' (deselect with a, then boxselect with b and drag). When moving, you might want to constrain the motion by the middle button (or Alt left button). If the screen is too small, you can zoom out (view all) by hitting HOME.

Now create a crown on top of the first 'O'. Duplicate a handle, place it above the first 'O'.
Hit v to make the handle a 'vector'. Add new vertices by Ctrl left mouse (note that they all are 'vectors'), hit c to make it cyclic.
The bottom line's curve should match the curve of the 'O', select the endpoints of the bottom line to create a bend.
You might want to save your work now. Hit F2, select a directory, change the name, hit ENTER twice (first to affirm the new name, second time to save). You can very easily save different versions: hit F2, then + (plus) which adds the version by one (- subtracts), then ENTER.

Leave editmode (TAB) and open the edit buttons (F9). Find the grey buttons Ext1 and Ext2, which control the extrusion and beveling width. Hit Shift left mouse to edit the numbers. Shift BackSpace clears the contents, type 0.2 and hit Enter, set Ext2 to 0.06. View the scene both in and out of Editmode. In Editmode you see the letters as flat curves, while out of Editmode you can see them extruded and beveled.
Hit z for the solid display, then num 0 for camera view. The logo is too big, scale (s) it down and move (g) it to center.

Now we'll make two materials. Hit F5 to view materal buttons (no material there yet).
Press the square menu button in the header and choose 'Material'. The 'zero' in front of the name shows there are no users for this

For a metallic look we assign this material a colored specularity. Press the small 'Spec' button to make the RGB sliders show the specular color, lower G and B to make orange color.

Objects in Blender can have up to 16 different materials. The whole text and the crown is still a single object (try going out of Editmode and selecting only one character, can't). To assign the 'crown' a different color, we add a second Material index with the button EditButtons->New (F9). The button above New shows there are two Materials, with the second one active. To decrease or increase the active index you can press to the right or left hand side of this button. Leave 2 active for now.
Enter Editmode (TAB) and select crown (l, 'select Linked').
Press EditButtons->Assign to assign color index 2 for this curve. Leave edit mode (TAB).
Return to material buttons (F5), you'll see this header.

Press the "2" button to make this link 'Single User'. Now a full duplicate is made of the material ("Grey.001"). Assign the material a new yellow-orange color, recall to press "Color" button to make RGB sliders to affect the basic color, then hit the "car" button to assign the Material a name.

Hit z once or twice to view the results. The crown has now the second Material.
Next add two lights: Shift A, right mouse for main menu, Add->Lamp. Go to side view (pad 3) and move the lamp to front (g). Add a second lamp to the side to boost the beveling gloss.
Press F4 for lamp buttons, assign the lamp color (for the second lamp) to light blue. Then press the green button "Sun". With the mouse in the 3D window, press Alt r to clear the lamp's rotation. It now points straight down, thus only illuminating the bevels. Press F12 to view rendering. Save now a new version (F2, +, ENTER).

Let's do a simple animation so the letters move in from both sides. First we have to separate the curve into four pieces.
Hit z for wireframe, right click to select the curve, enter edit mode (TAB). Select a vertex from the 'L' curve, hit l to select the linked vertices. Then press p ('seParate') to place the curve to a new object. Repeat for the both curves of 'G' and the second 'O' (first select a vertex from outer boundary, hit l, then select a vertex from the hole while holding SHIFT, hit l, then p to seParate).
Leave the edit mode. Now you can select the letters individually.

Object centers are still at the original locations. Relocate them by selecting all the curve objects (a), then press (F9) EditButtons->CentreNew.
We want the animation to have 50 frames. Press F10 for the display buttons and change the "End" value to 50.
Move the current frame to end by pressing Shift RightArrow. Now we are ready to insert the first 'key position' for the logo. Press pad 0 for camera view. Move the mouse to the 3D window, still with all curves selected, hit i ('Insert Key'). From the menu select 'LocRot' (4). The positions and rotations for all objects have now been set for frame 50.
Press Shift LeftArrow to move the current frame to 1.
With the right mouse select 'L' and translate it (g) to the left of the 3D window, outside the dashed view borders. Hit r and with middle mouse do a two-axis rotation. Add some random rotation by moving the mouse to a diagonal direction. Hit i and Enter to insert this position (the selection should be at 4th item, LocRot).

With mouse in the 3D window, hit Alt a to play back the animation. Stop with ESC.
Now give new positions and rotations for the other letters (don't forget i).

By default, all movements start and end smoothly. To change this, we need to edit the animation curves in IpoWindow (Interpolation).
At the top of the screen you see these buttons Use the small menu button and choose the top item 'screen'. Now you see the first Blender Screen. It has been arranged for animation editing. Press HOME with the mouse cursor in the IpoWindow to view the curves in their entirety (these curves are called IpoCurves).
By right mouse selecting each of the objects, the IpoWindow will display the associated animation curves.
The IpoCurves are Beziers: select them (a), go to edit mode (TAB).

Let's give the animation an abrupt start: hit a to deselect handles, hit b and drag a box to select the left handles, hit v to make them of type 'vector'. Do this for all the objects. Then try play back of the animation (Alt a).

Almost done, add still a ground plane. Top view (pad 7), Shift A, Add->Mesh->Plane. Leave edit mode (TAB), position (g) the plane a bit below the logo, scale (s) it 4 times larger.

F5 for materials, add a new one, make it black and slide the "Spec" slider to zero to disable gloss.

Back to materials (F5), change the purple blend color to white. You'll get a black plane with a circle-shaped blend.

To make the logo cast shadows on the plane, we add a third lamp (Shift A, Add->Lamp). F4, make the lamp a "Spot".

Create a quick Gouraud view of this scene by pressing Ctrl z. At every vertex the colors are calculated using matrials, textures, and lamps.
The plane is still black as it only has 4 vertices. Let's subdivide a couple of times. Right mouse select the plane, enter edit mode (TAB), select all vertices (a) and press EditButtons->Subdivide twice (or use the special menu w, subdivide is the item 1). Leave edit mode, press pad 0. F10, put on the "Shadows" option, F12 to render

We want to start with a black image, for this we'll add material animation for the plane. Select plane and hit F5, go to end frame Shift RightArrow, with mouse in the buttons window, hit i (Insert key for materials). Select Alpha.
Go to frame 1 (Shift LeftArrow), slide Alpha to 0.0, hit i. If you browse with the ArrowKeys, you can see Alpha changing.
For animation, set some things in F10. "Pics" indicates the output directory. Click, type, Enter.
For previews, Blender can use HamX 8 bit image format. Press that button on the right side of the menu. Image resolution 320x256 should be fine.
Activate OSA button (OverSAmpling, anti-aliasing) for better images.
Save your work, hit F2, type filename, press Enter twice.
Hit "Anim", when it's done hit "Play", ESC closes the animation window.
All done!