Changing Your Perspective in Blender
The more that I use Blender, the more impressed I am with how powerful it is. One skill that is crucial to my use of Blender is my ability to change my perspective on an object as I'm working on it. Fortunately, there are a whole bunch of shortcuts that allow me to do exactly that!
Numpad 1: "Front" view, looking directly along the Y Axis
Numpad 3: "Right" view, looking directly along the X Axis
Numpad 7: "Top" view, looking directly along the Z Axis
Numpad 2,4,6,8: Orbit your view by 15 degrees in the direction implied by the key (2 is downwards, 6 is to the right, etc.).
Numpad 9: Orbit your view 180 degrees.
Numpad 5: Toggle Orthographic view, which renders things "flat" making them easier to line up. I do most of my modelling with this view enabled
I use those shortcuts constantly, flipping between the perspectives when I want to move things around or when I want to rotate something. When I'm setting up the rough pose for a model, for example, I flip between the perspectives to line up the joints, and then I flip around again when I want to rotate a limb to change its position.
Take a look at a model that I'm currently working on. I took this screenshot after I finished "roughing out" the pose for the model (I only made the left arm/leg/ear because I'm going to copy those after they're more detailed, to save myself some effort later). The parts of the model are all in place now, and to make my life easier, each one is its own object with its own origin and axes.
That object individuality means that adjusting things like the length of the thigh is trivial. Because that thigh is very simple geometry with a Subdivision Surface modifier on it, I can just go into edit mode on that object, grab the face at the end of the thigh, and drag it up or down on the local Z axis. Then, I can reposition the lower leg to reflect the new thigh length, and I have an easily adjusted model.
That first screenshot is from the Front Orthographic view of the model, which is a perspective that I spend a lot of time in when working on models. I also like to use the top down perspective though, and as you can easily see in that perspective, I slightly turned this model's head to make the model stare down the length of his blade and generally look cooler.
Notice the global Y axis running straight up and down, as opposed to the head's Y axis which is slightly askew. This happened because I've been rotating the head while in Object mode, instead of rotating it in Edit mode. In this case, I absolutely want this difference though, as it will allow me to use an X axis Mirror when I'm sculpting details onto the head later. Also, it's generally easier for me to think about moving the head around in relation to its own features, rather than thinking globally (I like to think of it as moving the head forward or backwards, rather than along the Y axis).
Turning the object so that its local axes differ from the global axes can also provide another benefit. In addition to snapping your perspective to any of the global axes via numpad shortcuts, you can snap your perspective to the active object's local axis by holding shift and using the same numbers. So, when I press shift-numpad 1 while I have the head selected, I get this view:
Notice the subtle but important different between this and the first screenshot that I posted. This time, the model's head is facing directly at the camera, which is a very useful perspective when examining a face to decide if I like the features that I've sculpted or not.
You can use shift in combination with any of the numpad perspective shortcuts to take that perspective in regards to the active selection, regardless of what that active selection is. In this example, I've been taking a perspective relative to an object, but I also like to go into Edit mode, select a specific face, and then use Shift-Numpad 7 to get the top-down perspective relative to that face. This is great if I need to slide something around on that plane but don't want to turn on face snapping.
Another modifier that you can use when changing perspectives is Ctrl. Ctrl-Numpad will give you the reverse view. So, if Numpad 1 gives you a front view, Ctrl-Numpad 1 will give you a reverse view. I'm sure you can work the rest out for yourself.
These modifiers may also be combined. So, if I want to view the left side of my model's head, I can select it and press Ctrl-Shift-Numpad 3 to jump directly to that perspective (effectively the same thing as pressing Shift-Numpad 3, Numpad 9).
9/23 Update: I can't believe that I forgot to write about another super important perspective key: Numpad-/. The foreward-slash on the numpad is magic - it's the "focus" button. When you press it, Blender toggles into "focus" mode where it only displays the selected objects. This is fantastic, as you can easily turn off the rest of your model (without having to mess around with hiding bits) so that you can get to that one particular vertex, or sculpt some bit so that it'll overlap properly with another bit. You can even use shift-select before pressing / to focus on multiple objects! It's a very handy shortcut that I find myself using all the time while working on a model.
Numpad 1: "Front" view, looking directly along the Y Axis
Numpad 3: "Right" view, looking directly along the X Axis
Numpad 7: "Top" view, looking directly along the Z Axis
Numpad 2,4,6,8: Orbit your view by 15 degrees in the direction implied by the key (2 is downwards, 6 is to the right, etc.).
Numpad 9: Orbit your view 180 degrees.
Numpad 5: Toggle Orthographic view, which renders things "flat" making them easier to line up. I do most of my modelling with this view enabled
I use those shortcuts constantly, flipping between the perspectives when I want to move things around or when I want to rotate something. When I'm setting up the rough pose for a model, for example, I flip between the perspectives to line up the joints, and then I flip around again when I want to rotate a limb to change its position.
That object individuality means that adjusting things like the length of the thigh is trivial. Because that thigh is very simple geometry with a Subdivision Surface modifier on it, I can just go into edit mode on that object, grab the face at the end of the thigh, and drag it up or down on the local Z axis. Then, I can reposition the lower leg to reflect the new thigh length, and I have an easily adjusted model.
That first screenshot is from the Front Orthographic view of the model, which is a perspective that I spend a lot of time in when working on models. I also like to use the top down perspective though, and as you can easily see in that perspective, I slightly turned this model's head to make the model stare down the length of his blade and generally look cooler.
Turning the object so that its local axes differ from the global axes can also provide another benefit. In addition to snapping your perspective to any of the global axes via numpad shortcuts, you can snap your perspective to the active object's local axis by holding shift and using the same numbers. So, when I press shift-numpad 1 while I have the head selected, I get this view:
You can use shift in combination with any of the numpad perspective shortcuts to take that perspective in regards to the active selection, regardless of what that active selection is. In this example, I've been taking a perspective relative to an object, but I also like to go into Edit mode, select a specific face, and then use Shift-Numpad 7 to get the top-down perspective relative to that face. This is great if I need to slide something around on that plane but don't want to turn on face snapping.
Another modifier that you can use when changing perspectives is Ctrl. Ctrl-Numpad will give you the reverse view. So, if Numpad 1 gives you a front view, Ctrl-Numpad 1 will give you a reverse view. I'm sure you can work the rest out for yourself.
These modifiers may also be combined. So, if I want to view the left side of my model's head, I can select it and press Ctrl-Shift-Numpad 3 to jump directly to that perspective (effectively the same thing as pressing Shift-Numpad 3, Numpad 9).
9/23 Update: I can't believe that I forgot to write about another super important perspective key: Numpad-/. The foreward-slash on the numpad is magic - it's the "focus" button. When you press it, Blender toggles into "focus" mode where it only displays the selected objects. This is fantastic, as you can easily turn off the rest of your model (without having to mess around with hiding bits) so that you can get to that one particular vertex, or sculpt some bit so that it'll overlap properly with another bit. You can even use shift-select before pressing / to focus on multiple objects! It's a very handy shortcut that I find myself using all the time while working on a model.
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