Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet

Lesson 1-6

An introduction to 3D animation

Page 1 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Name ____________________

Date ____________________

Page 2 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 1 - Move, rotate, scale, colour 4

Lesson 1 - Crib sheet 5

Lesson 2 - Animation, names, parenting 6

Lesson 2 - Crib sheet 7

Lesson 3 - Complex models and colours 8

Lesson 3 - Crib sheet Error! Bookmark not defined.

Lesson 4 - Organic modelling 10

Lesson 4 - Crib sheet 111

Lesson 5 - Lights, camera, rendering 122

Session 5 - Crib sheet 133

Lesson 6 - Mini project 144

Session 6 - Crib sheet

Page 3 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 1 - Move, rotate, scale, colour

This lesson will give you the basic skills needed to navigate the Blender program and create your first
3D models. You should be aiming to make some or all of the following:

HINTS:
● Use the mouse to rotate your scene every few minutes, check that everything is lined up
correctly
● Use the shortcut keys to speed up your editing
● If something goes wrong, hit the Escape key and try again
● Control-Z (windows) Command-Z (Mac) undoes your last edit
● Duplicate (Shift-D), don’t copy and paste
● Don’t be afraid to experiment

Page 4 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 1 - Crib sheet

Skills learnt Tick here

Add and delete objects yes

Move around the scene using the widget yes

Move, rotate, and scale objects yes

Colour things in yes

Duplicate objects yes

Things made Tick here

Party monkey yes

Snowman with [eyes | carrot | buttons | hat | arms | scarf] yes

Coloured in snowman yes

Explorer task: Monkey body and legs

Explorer task: A winter scene set in a small forest

Keyboard/mouse shortcut What does it do? Have you

used it?

X/Delete button delete yes

S resize yes

R rotate yes

G move yes

Middle mouse button Rotate around yes

Mouse wheel Zoom in and out yes

Shift ⊕ D

R ⊕ X ⊕ 90

Lesson 2 - Animation, names, parenting

Page 5 Last updated: 27-05-21
Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

In this lesson you will make your first animations.

FILES:
You can download the demo scene snow scene (), but you might want to use the scene you made in
the previous lesson.

HINTS:
● Check that you are adding a keyframe to the correct object, each object can have its own
keyframes
● When animating, make sure you move the timeline pointer before moving the object and
pressing the keyframe button
● Use the middle mouse button to rotate your scene every few minutes, check that everything is
lined up correctly
● If something goes wrong, hit the Escape key and try again

Page 6 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 2 - Crib sheet

Skills learnt Tick here

Add keyframes

Delete and move keyframes to improve animation

Move the timeline and play the animation

Name objects

Parent objects to each other

Things made Tick here

Animated snowball moving

Animated head of snowman falling off

Parented body parts to the snowman

Animate parented objects

Explorer task: Parent all the parts of your snowman together

Explorer task: Animate the size of the snowman, can you make them bounce?

Keyboard/mouse shortcut What does it do? Have you

used it?

Shift ⊕ left-click

Numpad . (dot)

Ctrl/Command ⊕ Z

Ctrl ⊕ P

Page 7 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 3 - Complex models and colours

In this lesson you will learn how to make complex models from simple shapes. You will then learn
how to colour different parts of them different colours.

FILES:
There is a Blender rocket file () available for you to colour in, if you struggle to make your own.

HINTS:
● Always be careful when swapping in and out of edit mode, check which mode you are in
before moving/editing/adding objects
● When adding multiple colours, make sure that you have two or more materials attached to
each object
● If something goes wrong, hit the Escape key and try again
● Make use of Command/Control ⊕ Z to undo things

Lesson 3 - Crib sheet

Page 8 Last updated: 27-05-21
Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Skills learnt Tick here

Adjust the number of sides of a cylinder

Use edit mode

Select [edges | vertices | faces]

Extrude part of a model

Add multiple materials to the same object

Loop cut

Delete faces

Add faces

Things made Tick here

A rocket

A rocket with two or more colours

A chair

Explorer task: A table or a car

Keyboard/mouse shortcut What does it do? Have you

used it?

Page 9 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Ctrl/Command ⊕ R

Shift ⊕ left-click

Tab

G⊕X

Numpad [. | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9]

Lesson 4 - Organic modelling

In this lesson you will learn how to use proportional editing to create natural-looking objects, you will
learn how to use the knife tool to cut your own shapes.

HINTS:
● Always be careful to check that you are in object mode before adding new objects
● Adjust the power of proportional editing to meet your needs
● Parent the leaves to your palm tree so that you can move it more easily

Page 10 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 4 - Crib sheet

Skills learnt Tick here

Loop cut

Proportional editing [move | scale | rotate]

The knife tool

Subdivision

Circle select tool

Things made Tick here

A palm tree trunk

A palm tree leaf

A desert island

An ocean

Explorer task: Improved palm tree with [different leaves | coconuts]

Explorer task: Improved island with [rocks | animated sea | shipwreck]

Keyboard/mouse What does it do? Have you

shortcut used it?

R ⊕ X ⊕ -90

R ⊕ Z ⊕ -180

Page 11 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Lesson 5 - Lights, camera, render

In this lesson you will learn about the different types of lights you can use to brighten up your scenes.
You will use the camera to frame your shot and make a short animation of a boat landing on your
island. You will understand the benefits and drawbacks of using ray tracing.

FILES:
You can download the demo scene desert island scene () but you might want to use your own scene
that you made in the previous lesson.

HINTS:
● If you lose your camera, look for the icon in the Outliner (Top right panel in Blender).
● You can escape camera view mode by pressing 0 on the numpad or the camera icon
● You can make a huge Sphere and add an emission material to make your own sun. It might
not work in Evee though!

Page 12 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Session 5 - Crib sheet

Skills learnt Tick here

Add lights to brighten up your scene [sun | spot | point]

Animate lights

Move the camera using flying mode

Focus the camera on an object

Change video output format

Change video output location

Render a film

Enable ray tracing mode (Cycles)

Things made Tick here

A light for the lighthouse

A sun

An animated scene

Explorer task: Animate the colour of the sun

Explorer task: Animate boat rocking in the ocean

Explorer task: Add floating clouds

Explorer task: Add lights to the car in your snow scene

Keyboard/mouse What does it do? Have you

shortcut used it?

Page 13 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

Numpad 0

Space bar

Shift ⊕ A

F12

Lesson 6 - Mini project

In this lesson you will bring together all the skills you have learnt to make a mini animation. You will
use the self- and peer-assessment sheet below:

What have you done? Tick here

Sensibly named your objects

Used parenting

Coloured at least three things in

Reused a colour between objects

Animated one object

Animated a parented object

Used extrude

Used proportional editing

Used the knife tool

Used loop cut

Added multiple lights

Adjusted the length of your film

Exported your animation to a video file

Peer assessment:

Page 14 Last updated: 27-05-21

Year 9 – Animations Learner booklet
Lesson 1-6

What is great?

What could be improved?

Resources are updated regularly — the latest version is available at: ncce.io/tcc.

This resource is licensed under the Open Government Licence, version 3. For more information on this licence, see
ncce.io/ogl.

Page 15 Last updated: 27-05-21