Shadowing Practice: Blender Beginner Tutorial (OLD) - Part 1: User Interface - Learn English Speaking with Video

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If you're a complete beginner to Blender, welcome.

This video series will show you how to create this scene here, some donuts and some coffee,

whilst also walking you through some of Blender's very basic features from a beginner's perspective.

So you'll go from being a complete beginner, like never having touched the software before, to understanding the very basics,

modeling, materials, lighting, and things like that.

So I know that you are probably busting to get started in Blender, but since this is part one,

I want to take 60 seconds to just quickly address what this video series will discuss and what it won't.

So Blender can do a lot of stuff, like too much stuff.

There's a lot of features here that only like a fringe group of people will ever use.

Like some people use Blender for like visualizing MRI scans, you know, and like the stuff that they use, like most people will never touch.

So if you're familiar with the 80 -20 rule, it's that 80 % of the results come from 20 % of the actions,

or in this case, in terms of software, they come from 20 % of its features.

So I believe that in 3D, the 20 % of features

that everybody uses regardless of whether you're in 3d printing vr visual effects animation any of

that stuff everybody uses modeling materials and lighting and

so that's that's the focus of this video series

it's to help you go from being a complete noob of blender to first of all understanding the interface

which is pretty important to modeling something creating a completely new

shape out of out of something else uh adding materials

and then adding lighting so once you learn this you can then create your next first scene

so um we're going to be going through the basics

and throughout this we're going to be also creating this scene as well

so you'll both be yeah learning blender from a new perspective whilst also working towards

this final image here uh of these donuts donuts

and a coffee um so this this is part one

so we're going to be doing just some very very basic stuff in this video um just moving around blender

and um you know just showing you the very introduction of the interface

but if you stick to the very end of this video just for something fun

because i know we're going through some dry stuff at the start

if you stick to the end

i'll show you how to create a fiery monkey head just as a little fun thing right for the end

there so if you haven't done it already, go to blender .org, download Blender and install it.

I won't show you how to do that because I don't want to insult your intelligence.

And also I'm pretty sure a lot of people have already done that.

So yeah, welcome to Blender.

Now, if you're itching to explore Blender, feel free, click all the buttons.

Because the good thing is, is that you can't really break it like maybe you let's say you change everything to the point

that like even the developers are like what did you do like it's unrecognizable from the default blender well

if you go to file new it restores the default layout

so blender like like you know like photoshop like

if you've used it and then like you change like a toolbar

or a panel or something like that

and you're like oh no where to go and

so you restart the program hoping that it'll come back again

and it doesn't uh well blend is not like that

so the layout isn't like isn't like say like like yeah like it's saved into the the file

so like yeah if you change the layout

or whatever you can just restore it by going back to your last file

or in this case the new scene so point being

if you're if you're if you're new to the software

and you want to check out like all the little features in

that like feel free like click everything

and then uh you know at the end of it you know

you can just uh yeah just start up a new scene

and uh fine and dandy so uh yeah so that's

that um so after you've done clicking around let's talk about what these different things are

so this area right here in front of you this is called the 3d viewport

and probably 95 of what you do in blender is done right here.

So if you're making a character, you do it here.

If you're modeling a car, you do it here.

If you're building a scene, you do it here.

Yeah, this area here is, it does a lot.

So yeah, that's what this area is right here.

Now on the right hand side, all these little buttons here, these are called, this is called the properties, properties panel, properties area.

And this is where you generally change information of the 3D viewport

so like for example this cube here like oh my goodness that'd be the wife I'll answer that one later

I'll be fine.

Uh, so with this cube here, like say I went to the, uh, that should be on do not disturb.

I don't understand the iPhone.

Uh, if you selected the cube and you went to the materials panel and you made that color there red,

Hey, lo and behold, it's made the cube red.

So that's just an example.

Like, yeah, the stuff that you change that you do here in the 3d viewport, you can change it in the properties panel.

Okay.

So that's the basics of that.

Um, now moving around in the 3d viewport is done with your middle mouse button

so if you click and hold that in you are now orbiting

so we are now sort of rotating around 360 degrees um of your scene

now this this orbiting function i remember

when i first started it was very like there were times

when i was like i did that

and i'm like oh what's going on everything is upside down and it was like ah so jarring so

So the thing to remember is if you get into an area like you're like, I don't know where I am,

you can use the, on your number pad, if you hit seven, that takes you to,

oh, actually, I should make sure I turn on my screen keys tool so you can actually see what I'm pushing there.

Okay.

If you hit number pad seven, that takes you to the top.

If you hit number pad one, that takes you to the front.

If you hit number pad three, takes you to the side.

Okay.

So seven, one, and three.

By the way, if you're on a laptop right now and you don't happen to have a number pad, shame on you.

Get yourself a laptop with a number pad.

No, I know.

I got a MacBook Air and it's the same.

So if you are on a laptop, just go to File, User Preferences, and then underneath

Input, click Emulate Number Pad.

And also, if you wanted to emulate your, like, what's it called?

Like the middle mouse button you could click emulate three button mouse

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and then you control left click and then you'll do that

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but honestly you should get a mouse

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if you're using blender at least get a mouse

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but anyways click number pad and then click save user settings

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if you're on a laptop otherwise you're fine okay so look at that

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so now we're moving around we're looking at the top view look at the front whatever

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now let's say we don't want to have to look at the cube right now what our focus is on is

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um that right there which is the camera well it's kind of annoying to bring

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that into focus so the way that you would have a look at

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that is by holding down shift and then middle mouse button dragging

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and now we're sort of moving the view

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we're shifting the focus to a new area

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now it's kind of like weird like you first move

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it's like oh that's not the center like the camera's up there now so like

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because it's 3d view

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it doesn't really know where you're trying to look at until

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you sort of by a number of movements find your way there

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if this is making any sense at all

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so now we're sort of looking at the camera there um now

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if i wanted to have a look at the lamp

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and by the way

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this is good practice just especially as you first start go

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from yeah having a look at the camera to now having a look at the lamp

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now i'm going down to have a look at the cube here

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and now we're looking at the old cube thrilling stuff

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i know this is uh

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you're probably thinking like this is 3d oh my goodness what have i done

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this is the most boring thing i know it's boring

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but it's it's the start you know you you break off the the dry piece of bread

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and then underneath is the moist stuff put

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that on a bumper sticker um all right so yeah

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so we're moving around okay

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so that's good practice all right good practice i won't be checking your homework but

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if you can sort of just move from object to object

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it's uh it's good practice now there is actually an easier way to like don't think you have to do

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that for everything so say i i was on this cube

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and i wanted to look at that camera over there well first of all i would select the camera

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which you'll notice

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if you click anywhere in blender you click you're not

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you're not selecting it you got this dumb little

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it's called the 3d cursor i shouldn't call it dumb it has a purpose

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but it's annoying you click and it's like there's

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that thing there why is

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that well for whatever reason blender is a little bit silly in

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that the left and the right mouse buttons are sort of flipped okay

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so default with blender to select something is right click

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which i personally believe is a little bit silly

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and i even did a whole video series explaining it

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and 90 of the community voted that it should be changed

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and from what i heard in the future

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it is going to be changed by default it'll be left click for now what I suggest

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you do especially as a beginner

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because it'll help you just

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it's just one less thing to think about is to change the default to be left click

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and you can do that by going to file user preferences and then click select with left

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And then when you do that, hit

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Save User Settings.

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Oh, I'll uncheck that so I don't have that.

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Okay.

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And now that you've done that, hey, now you can select just like you would in any other program.

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It just makes it a lot easier.

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And you're now ahead of the curve so that when Blender does change to default to left, you are already on the same page.

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Okay.

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So now, okay, so we've selected something.

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We select the camera.

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If we want to have a look at that thing, instead of dragging our way over there piece by piece, if you hit

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Number Pad, period.

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Ta -da!

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Now it brings that directly to the focus.

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Now I can select the lamp.

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Now I'm looking at the lamp.

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Now I select the cube.

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And now I'm looking at the cube.

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Okay.

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So those are some very basic things.

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So we discussed in this part one, which was very dry and very, you know, boring.

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Orbiting with middle mouse click.

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Panning with shift middle mouse click.

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Top view, which is seven.

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Front view, which is one side view

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which is three oh one extra one by the way just to make it interesting

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if you push number pad five

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that takes it from perspective mode uh to orthographic mode

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or back and forth like that which don't

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if you're a complete beginner don't worry about

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that yet like oh well what's the difference

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it's just like users of other software might be more familiar with orthographic

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or vice versa so you can switch between them

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and it comes in handy

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when you're modeling something like the size of a building

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you want to get it the exact size you would switch in

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and out of it like that but anyways don't worry about it otherwise

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so yeah so seven one three to the side

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that to switch in and out of it to focus on something you are clicking

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and then number pad period

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and we also inverted the settings to what it should be left click as uh as select

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so again this is just part one

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i just want to do some very very basic stuff just to start um to make things interesting

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i did mentioned that we would set a monkey head on fire.

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So let's do that right now.

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So let's delete this default cube and I'll just show you the next thing in Blender.

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So to bring another object into the scene, you do this by hitting shift A.

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Okay.

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So that's brought up this menu here, which has a range of different stuff.

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A lot of them you would never want to use really like speaker.

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I guess that's used for games force field that's for like physics simulations

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and stuff the majority of what you would use is underneath mesh so these are other softwares sometimes call them primitives

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um it's just a basic object

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so sphere you click sphere brings in a sphere um you can

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and delete you can just hit delete and then took

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that away i'm not sure if i addressed that before but anyways

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so you can bring in any of these objects here another

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name another um shortcut cut for delete is x by the way just hit x

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so you can bring in a bunch of these

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now right down the bottom

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there there's one called monkey what's the deal with the monkey andrew well monkey is uh

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it's kind of like a cult figure of blender um

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and it's used mostly for like material tests like you want to test a material

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you just bring in a monkey um

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but it now it's it's still like this cult icon of blender

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so if you look at like some renders that people make online like you see like a forest scene you're like, ah, it's a cool forest.

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And they're like, wait a minute.

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And you're like, zoom in and like, I recognize that rock.

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And it's, of course it's the monkey head.

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So like blender used to try and like slip it into their, uh, into their scene as kind of like a little, uh, Easter egg.

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So that's kind of fun, but that's basically it.

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It's a monkey.

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And for whatever reason, it's called the Suzanne head.

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I don't know where that name came from.

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Let me get a drink here for a second.

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Okay.

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So let's set the Suzanne head on fire.

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So you can do this very, very quickly.

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If you hit the space bar, which is another, um, shortcut, it allows you to type in anything like maybe, uh, select, you forget the,

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like what the keyboard shortcut is.

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You can just type it in.

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Like what's the snap cursor to the center.

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And you can just do that but the one

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that we're going to do just for a bit of fun

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because I know we did some dry stuff let's set it on fire by clicking quick smoke

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and what that does is it performs a number of actions for you very quickly

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so it created this smoke simulation based around the object

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that was selected which was the monkey head and now

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if you hit alt a

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which is another shortcut it now it's it's rendering it's simulating the smoke

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which is which is kind of cool and

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if you really wanted to this isn't included like this is just extra advanced stuff

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i've got a whole tutorial on fire simulation by the way

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if you wanted to check it out later on um

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but in the in the physics panel here you've got options like you could make it like high resolution smoke

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so that now it's like you get more plumy smoke

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which is kind of cool you could make it uh higher resolution

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so it's like a nicer looking smoke and also

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if you set select the suzanna head and then change the smoke type to fire and smoke.

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Hey, now it's a crazy flaming head like out of that Nicolas Cage movie.

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What's that one?

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That, that, that motorcyclist one.

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The one that looks like the only people that enjoyed it were like the same guys that are at NASCAR.

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I don't know, Ghost Rider.

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That was, and he's like, I'm the Ghost Rider.

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I just scared my cat.

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Anyway, that was it for part one.

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Now, oh, I discussed a lot of keyboard shortcuts in this video,

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a lot of them now if you're struggling to remember it don't worry about writing notes

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because there is a free keyboard shortcut pdf on my website

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so if you click here right now uh just go to the website

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and then type in your email address and i'll send

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that to your inbox

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so it's a handy little guide it's got all the common shortcuts in three pages all the common shortcuts

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that most artists use

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and it's printer friendly so you can print it out stick it on your wall

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and uh enjoy so that was part one.

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Hope you learned something.

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Click here to join me in part two right now and let's get into it.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Blender Beginner Tutorial (OLD) - Part 1: User Interface”. This video has 27 sentences and 2921 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:05. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 19 of its 27 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
select verb	/sɪˈlɛkt/	To choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options.
cube noun	/kjub/	A regular polyhedron having six identical square faces.
mouse noun	/maʊs/	Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail.
monkey noun	/ˈmʌŋki/	A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails…
default noun	/dɪˈfɔlt/	The condition of failing to meet an obligation.
laptop noun	/ˈlæp.tɑp/	A laptop computer.
delete verb	/dɪˈliːt/	To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
lamp noun	/ˈlæ̝mp/	A device that generates light, heat, or other electromagnetic radiation. Especially an electric light bulb.
beginner noun	/bəˈɡɪnɚ/	Someone who is just starting at something, or has only recently started.
keyboard noun	/ˈki.bɔɹd/	A set of keys laid out in a gridlike pattern, used for typing on a typewriter, computer, etc.
layout noun	/ˈleɪ.aʊt/	A structured arrangement of items within certain limits.
underneath adverb	/ˌʌndɚˈniθ/	Below; in a place beneath.
anyways adverb	/ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/	Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
orbit noun	/ˈɔɹ.bɪt/	An elliptical movement of an object about a celestial object or Lagrange point, especially a periodic elliptical revolution.
simulation noun	/ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/	Something that simulates a system or environment in order to predict actual behaviour.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
move around verb	To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
break off verb	To remove a piece from a whole by breaking or snapping.
bring up verb	To mention.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come back verb	To return to a place.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
hold down verb	To restrain; to check.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · are called · should be changed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	there which is · one, which was · view, which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't done · have already done · you've done
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should make · should get · shouldn't call

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 80 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, thrill /θɹɪl/, orthographic /ˌɔːɹθəˈɡɹæfɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: simulation /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/, animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, photoshop /ˈfoʊ.toʊ.ʃɑp/, mesh /mɛʃ/, shortcut /ˈʃɔːtkʌt/
Long words — get the stress right: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, orthographic /ˌɔːɹθəˈɡɹæfɪk/, unrecognizable /ʌnˈɹɛkəɡnaɪzəbəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like select, cube, mouse.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Blender Beginner Tutorial (OLD) - Part 1: User Interface - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?