Your First Blender Render — Free Starter Guide (PDF)

Open Blender for the first time and finish with a render you made yourself.

This free 12-page guide for Blender 5.2 LTS walks you through six steps: set Blender up, learn to move around the viewport, build a simple scene, add colour, soften the light and render it. You'll make a teal cube and an orange ball on a pale floor, lit by one soft light. Every value is given, so your render should match the one in the guide.

What's inside

• Setup that matters: let Cycles use your graphics card, and the two settings for laptops without a middle mouse button or number pad.
• Moving around: orbit, pan, zoom, look through the camera, and how to find your object again.
• A first scene, step by step: move, rotate and scale, add objects, materials, an area light and a wider camera lens.
• "You should now see" pictures after each stage, so you know you're on track before moving on.
• Quick fixes for the problems beginners hit first, from shortcuts that do nothing to black or grainy renders.

Tested in Blender 5.2.2 Every step was followed in Blender 5.2.2 to make the pictures in the guide. Blender 5.2 LTS receives maintenance updates until July 2028; interface details and behaviour may vary between updates.

Free to share Pass it on to anyone who's about to open Blender for the first time, as long as it stays unchanged and isn't sold. Everything you make by following it is yours.

Want to go further? Your First Blender Product Shot takes the same five ingredients further: model a mug, give it a ceramic glaze and a wood board, then light and render a studio product shot, with 98 tips and three checkpoint .blend files.

You get

• Your First Blender Render (PDF, 12 pages, 180 × 240 mm, with bookmarks)
• Instant download

Blender is a registered trademark of the Blender Foundation. This guide is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Blender Foundation.