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Your first 3D render

In Blender, replace the default cube with a monkey head, give it shiny red paint, add a floor, light it and render a picture. About 30 minutes, no experience needed.

beginnerBlender3DrenderingCycles

At the end you will have this picture, made by you:

The finished render: Suzanne, Blender's monkey mascot, in red paint on a grey floor.
The finished render: Suzanne, Blender's monkey mascot, in red paint on a grey floor.

You will learn the basics every 3D program shares: objects, the viewport, materials, lights, the camera and rendering.

The finished file

If you get stuck, download first-render.blend and open it in Blender (File → Open) to compare.

1. Start Blender#

Animux → 3D Animation → Modellers → Blender. Click outside the welcome screen to close it. You see the default scene: a cube, a camera (the pyramid shape) and a light (the dotted circle).

The default scene.
The default scene.

Try moving the view (this does not change the scene):

Do Mouse
Orbit around hold the middle mouse button (the wheel) and move
Pan Shift + middle mouse button
Zoom turn the wheel

No middle button (laptop)? Use the small coloured axes at the top right of the viewport: drag them to orbit, and use the hand and magnifier icons below them.

2. Replace the cube with a monkey#

  1. Click the cube to select it (it gets an orange outline).
  2. Press X and choose Delete (the mouse must be over the 3D view).
  3. In the viewport's header click Add → Mesh → Monkey. Suzanne appears where the cube was.
  4. Make her smooth: right-click on her → Shade Smooth.
  5. Make her rounder: press Ctrl+2. This adds a Subdivision Surface modifier (you can see it in the Modifiers tab, the blue wrench).
Suzanne, smooth and subdivided.
Suzanne, smooth and subdivided.

3. Add a floor#

  1. Add → Mesh → Plane.
  2. Make it bigger: press S, type 15, press Enter.
  3. Move it down under Suzanne: press G, then Z, type -1, press Enter.

The keys G (grab), R (rotate) and S (scale), followed by X, Y or Z and a number, are the fastest way to place things.

4. Paint it red#

  1. Click Suzanne again to select her.
  2. In the Properties editor (right side), click the Material tab, the red-and-grey sphere at the bottom of the tab column.
  3. Click New. A material called Material with a Principled BSDF is created.
  4. Click the white bar next to Base Color and choose a red.
  5. Set Roughness to 0.3 for a shiny paint (0 = mirror, 1 = matt).
  6. To see colours in the viewport, switch the shading to Material Preview: the third of the four sphere buttons at the top right of the viewport (or press Z → Material Preview).
The Material tab with a red base colour; the viewport in Material Preview.
The Material tab with a red base colour; the viewport in Material Preview.

Give the floor a grey-blue material the same way (select the plane, New, pick a colour, Roughness 0.6).

5. Light and camera#

  • Light: click the light in the Outliner (top right list). In the Object Data tab (the green bulb) set Power to 2500 W.
  • Camera: press Numpad 0 to look through the camera (or View → Cameras → Active Camera). The scene is already framed. To change the view: View → Navigation → Walk/Fly or, easier, move the view where you like and press Ctrl+Alt+Numpad 0 to move the camera there.

6. Render settings#

  1. Click the Render tab in Properties (the camera-back icon, second from the top).
  2. Render Engine: Cycles. Device: CPU (always works).
  3. Under Sampling → Render, set Max Samples to 32 and keep Denoise ticked. More samples = less noise but slower.
Render properties: Cycles, CPU, 32 samples.
Render properties: Cycles, CPU, 32 samples.
  1. In the Output tab (the printer icon), check Resolution: 1280 × 720, 100 %.

7. Render!#

Press F12 (or Render → Render Image). A new window opens and the picture builds up tile by tile. In a VM or on an older computer it may take a minute.

The render window with the finished picture.
The render window with the finished picture.

8. Save the picture and the scene#

  • In the render window: Image → Save As…, choose Pictures, type the name first-render.png, click Save As Image.
  • In the main window: File → Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S), make a folder Projects, name first-render.blend.

Live session

In the live session, copy both files to a USB stick before you switch off. See The live session.

What next?#