There is some basic informations you need to creates objects in Blender. Here I use Blender 2.8 because it's the latest and maybe the one you have if you start to use Blender.

I will only talk about basic tools like those you can find inside Metasequoia. I will not talk about shading, rendering and mapping (maybe I will write a tutorial about UVmap and export to Wadtool).

For those who don't know: Blender is a free and open source 3D software.

You can get it on the officiel website: blender.org

When you open Blender, this is how the window looks like:

• In green, we have the 3D Viewport
• In Blue, you have the Outliner. Like 3Dsmax or Maya, it’s a list of objects which are in the scene. In the case of the first opening, you will have a Camera, a Cube, and a Light.
• Under, in Orange, it’s the Properties panel. Here you have all about you scene and the current selected object. You can change rendering setting, shaders, and more.
• In Red, you have the Timeline.

Note: Blender is fully cutomizable.

• Put your mouse between the two panels to resize them.
• To split a panel, put your mouse between two panels and do a Right Click. Choose the way you want to split your panel and drag your mouse where you want to split the panel.

The 3D Viewport

Navigations:

Gizmo: click and drag to rotate the viewport camera.

Click on the end of each axis to go to different views.

Zoom: click and drag to zoom in/out

Move: click and drag to move

View type: click to change the view type to Orthographic or Perspective

Note: To navigate without buttons: Take the wheel!

• Press the wheel button of your mouse to rotate the Viewport camera.
• Press SHIFT+wheel tomove the viewport camera.
• To zoom, press CTRL+wheel or just scroll the wheel.

You can go to the Front, Top and Side view with you numeric Keypad:

• Front view with 1
• Right view with 3
• Top view with 7
• Bottom view with 9
• Press CTRL to have the opposite view

Example: To go to the back view: CTRL+1

• To switch the view type: press the 5 key.

Toolbar and Objects:

Select

• To select an object: left click on the object.

You can select several objects by pressing the SHIFT key.

Note: You have additional solutions to select objects

Box select: Select > Box Select -or- Long click on the Select button > Box select -or- Pressing the left click and Drag -or- B key

Circle select: Select > Circle select -or- Long click on the Select button > Circle select -or- C key

• Select all: Select > All -or- A key to select
• To Deselect: Click away -or- Select > none -or- ALT+A key

Cursor: It will define the location of the object you will add into your scene but not only. The cursor can be use as a pivot point too (useful for animation !) and more. Shift+C to reset the position of the cursor.

Move: Change the gizmo to MOVE

Rotate: Change the gizmo to ROTATE

Scale: Change the gizmo to SCALE

Transform: Change the gizmo with MOVE, ROTATE and SCALE

Note: You can use

• G key to MOVE
• R key to ROTATE
• S key to SCALE
• To transform along an axis, just tap the axis on your keyboard.

Example: To MOVE along the Z axis : G then Z

Note: To have a more precise control over the location, rotation and scale of your mesh, you can open the Sidebar by going in View > Sidebar -or- N key

To add a Primitive object: Add > Mesh

To have access to different properties when you add a mesh (like scale, location and more), click on the tab a the bottom of the Viewport. The tab will have the name of the function you did.

Example: Add > Mesh > Cube : the name will be « add cube »

To Duplicate an object: Object > Duplicate object -or- Shift+D

To Join selected objects: Object > Join -or- Ctrl+J

To delete objects: Object > Delete -or- X key -or- Del key.

Edit Mode

To Edit a mesh go to the Edit Mode. You can change the mode by going to the top left corner of the view port -or- TAB key (tap it again to go back to the Object mode)

When you are in Edit Mode, it’s the same to Select, Transform, Delete and such. You can even add new primitive mesh in Edit mode to have it inside you object.

You can change the type of selection on the top left of the 3D viewport:

Vertex, Edge or Face

As you can see now, you have new tools on the left. There is a list of the most useful. Free to you to experiment with them and the one which are not on the list.

For most of them, you have to select what you want to edit (Vertices, Edges, Faces) and then drag the handle.

Extrude (Long click to have more option)

Inset faces (works on Faces)

Bevel

Loopcut (click to create a loopcut. Click and drag to move the loop before creating it)

Knife (click and drag. Press Enter to cut)

Smooth (works well if you select several Vertices/Edges/Faces)

Edgeslide (Slide an edge along the adjacent ones)

Shrink/Fatten (works well if you select several Vertices/Edges/Face)

Rip (only work with Vertices and Edges)

Note: Like maybe everything in Blender, you have shortcuts to perform those actions. There is some of them :

• New Edge/Face > F (will create an Edge if you select 2 vertices. A Face if you select 3 or more verticec)
• Extrude > E
• Bevel > B
• Loopcut > Ctrl+R (scroll the wheel to add more loop)
• Knife > K
• Shrink/Fatten > Alt+S
• Rip > V
• Merge vertices > Alt+M
• Mirror > Ctrl+M then tap an axis

Note: You can find those tools and more inside each menu (for Vertices, Edges and Faces) at the top of the 3D viewport.

To export an object: File > Export

Put 512 in the Scale value if you have the default settings of the grid.

It's a personnal preference, feel free to change the grid and the export values

Have fun!