Part 1 Installing your tools

Blender is a free 3D modeling program. It's a fully- fledged program – you can have all the functionality like modeling, animating, rendering – for free! You can even create your own film, using Blender. But enough praising, let's start.

Download your Blender from here: https://www.blender.org/download/, msi stands for installer, youcan also choose zip file. There's also portable version.

Next, grab Neverblender here: https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/tool/neverblender-blender-269-27x, put it somewhere you can easily find it.

Install Blender and start it. Select user preferences.

Next, choose Neverblender Add-on to install. Click on the "Install From File..." button :

Navigate to place where you put Neverblender_1.28.zip and select it. After installing, check the boxto enable your add-on. It is located in Import-Export category. Click „Save User Settings”. Restart Blender.

In next parts of this tutorial I'll show you some basics of using Blender.

Part 2

Prepare your workbench.

There many other things you can customize in your Blender interface. The place to do it is once again „User Preferences”. Here are some settings you can find useful.

1. Emulate Numpad – in Blender you can (but not have to!) use many keyboard shortcuts to make your work simpler. Numpad is often used to switch the viewport (right, top, front, etc.). Some laptops don't have numpad so checking this option enables your 1,2,3… keys work in this shortcuts.

2. By default Blender uses right mouse button click to select things. You can: get used to it – or change it.

Once you're done with customizing, click „Save User Settings” at the bottom of this window.

If you have worked with other 3D softwarelike Maya or 3DSMax, you can makeBlender to interact this same way. Whenyou start Blender, a splash screen appears.Select one of above. Splash screendissapears when you click on some otherpart of Blender window.

Part 3

(Very) basics guide to Blender interface.

At the first sight, Blender interface might look a bit intimidating. All those buttons, scrolls and options. Well, the good news is, you'll need to learn only a few of them to create some really good placeables. The best news is – you can learn more and make your work-flow faster, more effective and simply better.There are many ways to navigate and change viewports. I'll list only some of them.

Zooming – use mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.For panning keep pressed both „Shift” and your mouse scroll wheel, while you move the mouse.Rotating the view – Keep your mouse scroll wheel pressed while moving mouse.

Default ViewFor starters, you can use just Default View.

1. Menu – here you can save, load, open and close or export/import files

2. Tools – it's here are the things you will use, creating your 3D models – like extrude, subdivide, etc. I'll explain this later – in placeable creation tutorial

3. 3D view – here you play with your model, shape it.

4. Properties – here you add material and texture, and Aurora properties (so the NWN game can recognize your model as a tile or placeable).

5. Here you switch views, select edit/object mode, UV unwrap. There's timeline below, for animation.

This part isn't necessary to start next tutorial. Still more information can help you later.

You can switch from one window view to 2, 4, and even more windows simulaniously. The easiest way to do that is to click the viewports icon and choose from existing templates:

Here are the examples:

3D View full (one window)

UV editing (2 windows)

Plus, you can generate your own by splitting the window.

If you want to look at your model from left, right, top, etc., click „View” and select.

I'll explain some other options in next tutorial – creation of simple static placeable.

You can find more information and basics tutorials on Blender interface here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLda3VoSoc_TR7X7wfblBGiRz-bvhKpGkS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFvl18Xc1S0&index=10&list=PLQqxvfXnzrQ5Wd4d0lkUvW7cFqp_xppgm

http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/blender-beginner-tutorial-series/

There's more than you need for next tutorial or even for making placeable.For starters, choose the movies about interface and navigating. You don't need Cycles– you can't use this in Neverblender.