Blender is full of amazing tools to help you create, modify, and build objects in 3D. However, before you start tackling any of those tools, you first need to learn the basics. Knowing how to move, scale, and rotate objects in Blender is essential, and that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this post!
- How To Move Objects In Blender
- Using The Sidebar To Move
- Using The Toolbar To Move
- How To Rotate Objects In Blender
- How To Scale Objects In Blender
- Scaling And Rotating With The Sidebar And Toolbar
- Conclusion
How To Move Objects In Blender
To move an object around in Blender, simply left click on it and hit ‘G’ on your keyboard. ‘G’ is the keyboard shortcut for “Grab”, which is how you move things around.
When you move your mouse around, you should notice that your object will now move around with your mouse.
BTW – You can always cancel any movement, rotation, or scale, by right clicking on your mouse!
Moving in this very free-form sort of way isn’t super helpful though because it’s not very precise. What we want is to be able to accurately move objects around. We can do this by snapping our object to a certain axis.
Moving Objects Along An Axis
After you select an object and press ‘G’ to grab, you can also tell Blender to only move that object along a certain axis. For example, if you press ‘X’ on your keyboard, the object will only move along the red, X axis.
If you press ‘G’ to grab and then ‘Y’, the object will only move along the green, Y axis. Likewise, if you press ‘G’, then ‘Z’, the object will only move on the blue, Z axis.
You can actually take this one step further by moving an object on two axis at the same time. A good example of this is when you have an object placed on the floor, but it’s not in the right spot. You want to move it left/right/front/back, but it doesn’t need to move higher or lower.
Plane Locking In Blender
Moving objects along two axis is called, “Plane Locking”.
Again, just press ‘G’ to grab, but then press ‘SHIFT’ along with whatever axis you want to CANCLE the movement on.
So in the above example, if we wanted to only move an object around on the floor, we would press ‘G’, then ‘SHIFT Z’. Now all movement on the Z axis will be canceled, allowing us to move on both the X and Y axis.
We can actually do this with any of the three axes. ‘SHIFT X’ will cancel movement on the X axis, allowing you to move on the Y and Z axis. And ‘SHIFT Y’ will cancel movement on the Y axis, allowing you to move on the X and Z axis.
Moving Objects By Number Of Units
To take this even one step further, you can also type in a number to move your object a certain number of units (usually meters unless you change it in settings) on that axis. So ‘G, X, 5’ will move the object 5 units on the X axis.
However, when I just tested ‘G, SHIFT Z, 5’, it actually only moved 5 units on the X axis. So it doesn’t seem to move on both the X and Y by 5 in this case. Just something to think about. 😂
How To Move Vertices In Blender
Moving vertices in ‘EDIT’ mode is exactly the same as moving objects in ‘OBJECT’ mode.
Simply select a vertex (or group of vertices) to move, and press ‘G’ on your keyboard. You can also follow it up with an axis letter to move along a certain axis.
Pressing ‘SHIFT’ with an axis letter will also do the same as above by canceling out the movement on that axis. This will allow you to move on the other two at the same time.
Using The Sidebar To Move
Another method of moving objects is to use the Sidebar on the right side of the 3D Viewport. If it’s not open, just press ‘N’ on your keyboard. Make sure you’re in ‘OBJECT’ mode (not ‘EDIT’ mode) and also inside the “Item” tab on the right side of the menu.
In the top section, there is a set of boxes labeled “Location” and each box corresponds to a different axis. If you select your object, then type a number, or click and drag inside one of those axis boxes in the menu, you should see your object moving around on that axis.
This isn’t a very efficient way to move around in my opinion. However, it is nice if you have a very precise measurement you’re trying to stick with. Or if you need to reset the location of your object by typing the number ‘0’ into each box.
Using The Toolbar To Move
The last way to move objects in Blender is to use the Toolbar menu on the left side of the screen. If you don’t see this menu, you can press ‘T’ on your keyboard.
By default, this is set to the “Select Box” option which is how I usually keep it. However, if you select the “Move” tool, you will see a new gizmo appear on your object.
Just click and drag on an arrow to move the object on that axis. The red arrow controls the X axis, the green arrow controls the Y axis, and the Blue arrow controls the Z axis.
If you look closely, you’ll see a little red box, a little green box, and a little blue box inside the gizmo. These boxes are the gizmo equivalents to pressing ‘SHIFT’ plus an axis letter. Clicking and dragging on the little blue gizmo box will be just like our ‘G, SHIFT Z’ example above.
The little white circle on the gizmo is the same as only pressing ‘G’. It will just allow you to move an object freely, not attached to any axis.
I’ll admit, I never use the Toolbar. I would personally much rather use keyboard shortcuts to move stuff around. But, I guess it’s there for you if you want it 😂
How To Rotate Objects In Blender
Much like moving objects in Blender, you can also rotate them using a lot of the same methods above.
The easiest way is to select an object, and press ‘G’, then ‘R’ on your keyboard. ‘R’ is the keyboard shortcut for “Rotate” in Blender. This will freely rotate the object from whatever view you are currently looking at it from. Which means it’s not super helpful. 😂
The better way to rotate an object, in my opinion, is to select it, press ‘R’ on your keyboard, and type in the axis you want to rotate on. So for example, ‘R, Z, 90’ will rotate an object 90 degrees on the Z axis. Kind of like a turn table!
Also, all the keyboard shortcuts work in ‘EDIT’ mode as well!
Rotating Objects Around Different Points
If you’re trying to rotate a brand new object, for example, on a brand new default cube as you follow along, Blender will rotate that object from the center point. But, once you start extruding, beveling, and modifying your object, you may notice that the point of rotation isn’t what you expected.
If your object isn’t rotating from the center, and you want it to, right click it in ‘OBJECT’ mode and select, Set Origin > Origin to Geometry. This will put the center point back into the actual center. Now when you rotate, it will rotate from the center.
But let’s say you want to rotate from the side, like how a door opens and closes.
Just hold ‘SHIFT’ and right click on the point you want to rotate around. This will move your 3D cursor to that point. Now right click the object, and go to ‘Set Origin’ again, but this time, select ‘Origin to 3D cursor’. Now when we rotate, it will rotate around this origin point.
How To Scale Objects In Blender
Again, Blender makes scaling objects easy by sticking with the same system as moving and rotating. Just like before, the best way to scale an object is to use the Blender keyboard shortcut. Simply press ‘S’ for scale.
And just like before, you can scale in any one direction by hitting ‘S’ and whatever axis you want to scale on.
So ‘S’ then ‘X’ will only scale on the X axis, ‘S’ and ‘Y’ will scale only on the Y axis, ‘S’ and ‘Z’ will only scale on the Z axis. Likewise, just hitting ‘S’ by itself will scale in all directions, which is actually very helpful!
You can also take advantage of pressing ‘SHIFT’ once again while using scale. Pressing ‘SHIFT’ with a specific axis will cancel the scaling on that particular axis. This will allow you to scale on the other two axis, just like before.
And again, all the keyboard shortcuts for scaling work in ‘EDIT’ mode as well!
How To Scale In Multiples
You can also type in a multiplier amount when you scale in Blender. This is really helpful if you know the size of your object, and the size you want to scale to.
For example, if you want to double the size of your default cube on the Y axis, simply select the cube and type, “S, Y, 2”. This will multiply the size of the cube on only the Y axis, by 2.
Remember, Blender works in meters by default, unless you change it. This means our default cube is 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters.
If you want your cube to be 6 meters on the Y axis, 1 meter on the X axis, and 3 meters on the Z axis, this can be done much more accurately by doing a little math and typing in the multipliers:
‘S, Y, 3’ (Scale only on Y, the default 2 meters by 3) = 6
‘S, X, .5’ (Scale only on X, the default 2 meters by .5) = 1
‘S, Z, 1.5’ (Scale only on Z, the default 2 meters by 1.5) = 3
Admittedly, this does take a bit of thought and math sometimes. However, it is really helpful if you just want to do some simple scaling, like doubling, or halving the size of an object.
Scaling And Rotating With The Sidebar And Toolbar
I won’t go into a ton of detail here, but you can also use the Sidebar and Toolbar for scaling and rotating objects as well. Just like how we used them before for moving objects, these tools also have the ability to rotate and scale.
And again, I never use the Toolbar for “transforming” objects. I would much rather use the keyboard shortcuts. But feel free to check them out!
I will say the Sidebar can be very useful for rotating and scaling objects though. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just type a number into the sidebar to scale or rotate than it is to do it by mouse if you have a precise number in mind.
Happy Creating!
Thanks for hanging out today guys and I hope that helps!
There is definitely a lot to learn with Blender. However, understanding the basics about moving, rotating, and scaling objects and vertices are the first steps to creating bigger and more exciting scenes!