Blender For Dummies. Jason van Gumster
stress. For this reason, relatively few operations in Blender require you to hold down a key. Typically, you press and release a key to begin the operation; you confirm its completion by left-clicking with your mouse or pressing Enter. To cancel the operation instead of confirming, right-click or press Esc. In fact, this keyboard combination even works on some operations that require you to hold down a button. For example, if you try to split an area (left-click and drag a corner widget) and then decide you don’t actually want to split it, you can right-click or press Esc while adjusting the boundary between areas; the operation stops.
Hotkeys and coordinate systems
By default, your transformations all happen in the View coordinate system when you use hotkeys. So no matter how you’re viewing the scene, you’re working in the XY plane of the 3D Viewport.
Suppose, however, that you want to grab your object and move it in the global Z-axis. You use a sequence of keypresses to do this action. Follow these steps to grab an object and move it to the global Z-axis:
1 With your object selected, press G.You’re now in Grab/Move mode.
2 Without canceling this operation, press Z.A blue line should appear that indicates the global Z-axis. Your object is locked to move only along that line. If you press Y, your object moves only along the global Y-axis, and pressing X constrains it to the global X-axis.
Pretty neat, huh? This method of using a sequence of hotkeys works with rotating and scaling as well (for example, R ⇒ Z rotates around the global Z-axis and S ⇒ X scales along the global X-axis).
What about any of the other orientations? That’s easy too. All you need to do is set the orientation you want from the Transform Orientations menu as described earlier in this chapter. Even though you’re not using gizmos to transform your selection, Blender still pays attention to the choice you’ve made in this menu. After you choose your preferred transform orientation, just use the standard G ⇒ X/Y/Z hotkey sequence to move your object along the corresponding axis in that transform orientation.
One of the more powerful features of the transform gizmos is the ability to work in a plane rather than just one axis. You can work in a plane with hotkeys as well. Use Shift plus the letter of the axis that’s perpendicular to the plane you want to move in. For example, to scale your object in the global XY plane, press S ⇒ Shift+Z. For the global YZ plane, press S ⇒ Shift+X. This same methodology also works for the Grab operation (though, not for the Rotate operation because rotating around a plane doesn’t make much sense).
Table 3-1 shows most of the useful hotkey sequences for transforming your objects assuming you’re in the Global transform orientation.
TABLE 3-1 Useful Hotkey Sequences for Transformations
Grab | Scale | Rotate | Orientation |
G | S | R | View |
G ⇒ Z | S ⇒ Z | R ⇒ Z | Global Z-axis |
G ⇒ Y | S ⇒ Y | R ⇒ Y | Global Y-axis |
G ⇒ X | S ⇒ X | R ⇒ X | Global X-axis |
G ⇒ Z ⇒ Z | S ⇒ Z ⇒ Z | R ⇒ Z ⇒ Z | Local Z-axis |
G ⇒ Y ⇒ Y | S ⇒ Y ⇒ Y | R ⇒ Y ⇒ Y | Local Y-axis |
G ⇒ X ⇒ X | S ⇒ X ⇒ X | R ⇒ X ⇒ X | Local X-axis |
G ⇒ Shift+Z | S ⇒ Shift+Z | N/A | Global XY plane |
G ⇒ Shift+Y | S ⇒ Shift+Y | N/A | Global XZ plane |
G ⇒ Shift+X | S ⇒ Shift+X | N/A | Global YZ plane |
G ⇒ Shift+Z ⇒ Shift+Z | S ⇒ Shift+Z ⇒ Shift+Z | N/A | Local XY plane |
G ⇒ Shift+Y ⇒ Shift+Y | S ⇒ Shift+Y ⇒ Shift+Y | N/A | Local XZ plane |