How to Blender (IN0012)
Time, Place: | Monday, Sept. 29., 2025 through Thursday, Oct. 02., 2025 Daily from 8:00 - 17:00 hr Room: 02.13.008 |
Details: | This is a block-course with mandatory attendance. |
Prerequisites: | Interest in computer graphics or visualization |
Registration: | Please register via the matching system |
Contact: | dennis.bukenberger(at)tum.de |
Outline
This is a 3-day block course designed for Bachelor and Master students in Computer Science.
It focuses on practical, hands-on experience with Blender - a powerful 3D modeling and animation tool.
Each day runs from 08:00 to 17:00, with a lunch break from 12:00 to 13:00.
The course blends theory, live demonstrations, and practical exercises.
Practical exercises can be done on the available workstations or you can bring your own laptop (at your own risk, with the latest Blender version installed and if you are familiar with your hardware setup & configuration).
The preliminary schedule is outlined in the following (subject to changes).
π§© Day 1: Blender Fundamentals & Modeling
π§ Getting comfortable with Blender, understand core 3D concepts and learn basic modeling.
Time | Topic | Content |
08:00β08:30 | π Course Introduction | Blenderβs role in CG/3D pipelines, real-world applications (film, games, VFX), goals for the course |
08:30β09:30 | π Blender UI & Navigation | Interface overview, workspaces, view navigation, selection, transform tools, object vs. edit mode |
09:30β10:30 | π 3D Basics & Meshes | Mesh primitives, vertices/edges/faces, modifiers,object hierarchy |
10:30β12:00 | π Practical: Simple Modeling | Create a basic scene (e.g., stylized house or robot), use loop cuts, extrude, inset, merge tools |
13:00β14:00 | π‘ Materials & Shading Basics | Understanding shaders, the Shader Editor, Principled BSDF, basic lighting setup |
14:00β15:00 | πͺ Scene Hierarchies & Collections | Parenting, constraints, linking objects, outliner view |
15:00β17:00 | π Practical: Add Materials & Hierarchy | Apply basic materials to objects, organize a small scene using collections and parent-child hierarchies |
π¨ Day 2: Texturing, Lighting & Animation
π§ The artistic side: make things look nice with textures, light and animation.
Time | Topic | Content |
08:00β09:00 | β UV Mapping & Texture Painting | Unwrapping meshes, applying image textures, texture painting overview |
09:00β10:30 | π‘ Lighting & Cameras | Point/spot/sun/area lights, three-point lighting, depth of field, camera setup |
10:30β12:00 | π Practical: Lit & Textured Scene | Texture your previous dayβs model, set up camera angles and lighting for a nice render |
13:00β14:00 | π Keyframe Animation Basics | Timeline, Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, inserting keyframes, animating transforms |
14:00β15:00 | π₯ Object & Camera Animation | Animate a bouncing ball or camera flythrough, curve-based paths |
15:00β17:00 | π Practical: Animate Your Scene | Add simple animations (e.g., door opening, object spinning, camera orbit), prepare a short animation clip |
π Day 3: Geometry Nodes & Rendering
π§ Understand procedural geometry and node-based systems and advanced rendering methods.
Time | Topic | Content |
08:00β09:30 | π§± Geometry Nodes Intro | Overview of procedural modeling, node editor basics, data flow concepts |
09:30β10:30 | πΈ Procedural Modeling Examples | Distribute objects on surfaces, random transforms, parametric models |
10:30β12:00 | π Practical: Procedural Setup | Create a basic procedural asset like a scattering system or parametric fence |
13:00β14:00 | πΌ Final Rendering & Output | Render settings, Eevee vs Cycles, output formats, baking, compositing basics |
14:00β15:00 | π Project Completion | Students finalize their models, animations, or geometry nodes setups |
16:00β17:00 | π Mini Showcase & Q&A | Students present a short animation or scene render, open discussion, feedback, wrap-up |