I’m doing some work on the Blender Glossary. I hope to add much more to it soon. In the meantime, here’s a video to improve your “Blender Vocabulary.”
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- 3D Viewport
- A large editor screen to navigate a scene in Blender. It has a “sidebar” menu on the right and a “toolbar” menu on the left. The viewport is where you will likely spend most of your time in Blender.
A
- AI Render
- A Blender add-on which allows the use of Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence (AI) to create renders by entering a prompt and setting style parameters. See on Blender Market
- Add-On
- (Also called “plug-in”) A script which can be added to Blender to extend its functionality or improve a workflow. Some add-ons come pre-installed but many more are available from 3rd party creators. Here are lists of my favorite free add-ons and the best paid add-ons for Blender.
- Alpha
- Alpha refers to transparency in computer graphics programs. Some image types (such as PNG) support an “alpha channel” which allows for transparent areas to be included in an image.
- Alpha Brush
- A brush using a black and white, greyscale or alpha-transparent image to sculpt or paint. The brushes tell Blender where detail should and should not be based on how dark or light an area is.
B
- Baga Ivy Generator
- An advanced geometry node add-on to quickly add highly customizable ivy to a scene. It includes a large library of assets for leaves and flowers. The ivy can be animated. Learn More About Baga Ivy Generator
- Bezier Curve
- A specific type of curve (also called “spline”) object in Blender which uses handles to adjust the curvature of the object. Bezier curves are also used to plot values in other areas including in the graph editor.
- Blender Guru
- Andrew Price (AKA the Blender Guru) is a popular creator of Blender tutorials, most famously the beginner donut tutorial series on YouTube. He is also the founder of the 3D marketplace Poliigon.
C
- Compositor
- A Blender editor and tool for editing an image or compiling multiple image layers after they are rendered.
- Cycles
- Blender’s ray-tracing render engine. It is the more accurate and realistic of Blender’s render engines, but can be demanding on resources and takes longer to render than Eevee.
D
- Data Block
- Blender stores data in “data blocks.” There are types of data blocks with different attributes for different types of data. Examples of data block types include: mesh, curve, material, world. More About Data Blocks
E
- Eevee
- Blender’s real-time render engine. It renders much faster than Cycles but at the cost of some realism, especially with how light interacts with objects.
F
- Fake User
- When data blocks are assigned in a .blend file, they are assigned to “users” (other data blocks). When an object has no assigned users they will be purged when Blender closes. A “Fake User” can be created to preserve an unused data block so it isn’t deleted the next time Blender closes. More About Fake Users
G
- Geo Scatter
- A popular Blender add-on for scattering nature assets and other objects in Blender. It has many methods of scattering and customizing where objects are placed. It can also animate scattered objects to simulate wind. See on Blender Market
- Graph Editor
- An animation editor screen in Blender which plots animation values to curves (known as f-curves). It allows easy editing of interpolation between key frames and overall visualization of animated values over time.
H
- HDRI
- High Dynamic Range Image – an image with a very high color range. In Blender, these are formatted to be wrapped around the world and are often used for realistic lighting as well as background imagery. More About HDRIs
- Human Generator
- A paid Blender add-on created by Oliver J Post which creates realistic human models inside of Blender. Each model is highly customizable and includes hair, clothing and poses. See on Blender Market
I
- Images as Planes
- A free add-on that comes pre-installed in Blender. It allows users to import images and have them automatically assigned as materials on properly sized plane objects. More About Images as Planes
- Interpolation
- In animation, interpolation is the method and process of calculating changes between keyframes. An animator sets two or more keyframes and Blender will interpolate the animation between those frames.
J
K
- Key Frame
- In animation, a key frame is reference frame. We set values for an object’s animation at the keyframes and Blender interpolates frames between them.
L
- Lamp
- (Also Called “Light”) A type of object which emits light and illuminates a scene. In Blender there are four types of lamps: Point, Spot, Area and Sun.
M
- Modifier
- In Blender, a modifier is an automatic operation that can be assigned to an object. Modifiers allow users to change object characteristics or shapes based on a set of parameters but in a non-destructive way that can be changed or cancelled later. See All Blender Modifiers
N
- Node Preview
- An add-on which displays preview images above nodes in Blender’s node editors. It allows for improved previewing of individual nodes and their effects on the final material. See on Blender Market
- Node Wrangler
- A free add-on which comes pre-installed with Blender. It adds extensive functionality to Blender node editors and activates numerous keyboard shortcuts for nodes.
- Normal Map
- A map which uses red, blue and green color information to affect how light interacts with a material. Normal maps are used to efficiently fake the appearance of small bumps and details on an object’s surface. More About Using Normal Maps
O
- One Click Damage (OCD)
- A Blender add-on created by VFXGuide which adds basic procedural damage to an object with a single click. See on Blender Market
- Operator Panel
- A box which opens in the bottom left corner of the 3D Viewport after certain operations. The operator panel displays options to adjust the last operation conducted. More About Operator Panels
- Origin Point
- A specific point assigned to an object which serves as its origin location. The origin point is used to calculate location, rotation and scaling of an object. More About Origin Points
P
- Poly Haven
- A free library of 3D assets, materials and HDRIs created by digital artists and available for use by anyone for any purpose through a Creative Commons license.
- Principled BSDF Shader
- The default shader for Blender materials. The shader node has many options for customizing a material. It supports emission, transparency, roughness, metalness, subsurface scattering and more.
Q
- Quick Favorites
- A customizable menu we can add actions to and quickly access using the shortcut “Q” on the keyboard.
R
- Rendering
- The process of computing all inputs from a computer graphics program to output a final image or image sequence.
- Ryan King
- Great Blender tutorial creator on YouTube and overall nice guy. He has some very thorough tutorials for beginners and lot of content around creating procedural materials. Visit Ryan’s Channel
S
- SVG Image File
- “Scalable Vector Graphic” is a file format for vector images. Vector images contain mathematical information that determines how they appear rather than pixel information so they can be scaled infinitely without losing image quality. They are commonly used in logos and can be imported into Blender.
- Simple Bake
- A Blender add-on created by HaughtyGrayAlien which greatly streamlines the process of texture baking in Blender. See On Blender Market
- Splash Screen
- A screen which displays when Blender opens. It includes options to open new or recently used files, links to the Blender manual and displays the current version of Blender. Each version of Blender has a unique image created by a Blender artist.
T
- Texture Baking
- The process of taking some or all attributes of a material and condensing them into image maps. Texture baking is often necessary to export an object with its material to another software program, game engine or online marketplace. Learn More About Texture Baking
- Timeline Editor
- An animation Editor in Blender to view and navigate an animation’s changes over time. It appears by default at the bottom of the layout workspace.
- Ton Roosendaal
- Dutch software developer, film producer and the creator of Blender. He is the founder and chairman of the Blender Foundation. Learn more about how Blender started and why it’s free.
U
- UV Map
- A two dimensional map cut into seems to wrap around a 3D object. These are required to properly wrap 2D image textures around a 3D model.
V
- Vector Displacement Map (VDM)
- An RGB image used to map three dimensional displacement. Available in Blender 3.5 and higher, these are used to sculpt three dimensional details onto objects. Learn more about VDMs.
- Vertex Groups
- A tool within Blender to group individual vertices. Once a vertex group is created for an object, it can be used for many things including selection and specifying specific vertices for operations or modifiers to affect.
W
- Wireframe Modifier
- A modifier in Blender which turns a mesh object into a wireframe outline of the mesh. The thickness and other attributes of the wireframe can be adjusted non-destructively.
- Workbench Render Engine
- A simple render image used for basic previewing in Blender. When in solid view mode in the 3D viewport, we are viewing with the Workbench Render Engine.
- World
- The infinitely distant globe that encompasses a Blender scene. It will be the default background for a scene and can be used to provide global lighting to a scene.
X
Y
Z
- Z-Depth
- A value representing the distance from the camera in a 3D render. A Z-depth render pass can be turned on to use this value for compositing.