How To Use Properties Panel in Blender

Writer
Updated on: August 24, 2022

So, you’re just getting familiar with Blender? We know the Interface might be a little intimidating, but don’t worry. We’ll show you bit by bit everything you need to understand to get the most out of this powerful software. Underneath the Outliner, we have the Properties Panel. 

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This panel is really important as it contains all the info for the selected object, as well as some properties of the scene in general. Each one of the icons on the left is a different tab of the Properties Panel. Among the more general settings, there are:

-          Active Tool & Workspace

-          Render Properties

-          Output Properties

-          View Layer Properties

-          Scene Properties

-          World Properties

-          Collection Properties

These mentioned above affect things regarding the entire scene and the way it will render images. We will be covering these settings in another article.

For now, we will focus on the more specific and object-related settings, which are located just under the ones previously mentioned. These tabs change depending on the object you’re selecting.

If you select the cube and then the light, you’ll see how these tabs change, as they’re referring to specific properties of each object. So, let’s look at some of the cube’s properties.

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Every object that you add to the Viewport will have an Object Properties Tab. For this basic course, we will be using mainly the Transform section located in this Tab (You can also access this info by pressing N, and then going to the Item Tab to see all the Transform Information).

Next, we have the Modifiers Tab. This is probably one of the Tabs you will be using the most, at least in this course. As you can see, it is currently empty, as the cube has no modifiers yet. Still, if you click in the “Add Modifier” dropdown, you will see a whole list of things you can add to an object. Don’t worry, we will cover them later.

Just under the Modifiers Tab, is the Particle Properties. This is also a more advanced feature, but we will be using it towards the end of the course, just like the Physics Properties located just under the Particle Properties.

Next, we have Object Constraint Properties, but we won’t be covering this tab in this course. Just beneath it, we have Object Data Properties, which we will be touching very briefly, and just below that we have the Materials Tab.

The Materials Tab will probably be your second most used Property Tab. Here we control how the surface of our 3D object will look like when rendered. Here you can also change the color of an object.

Lastly, we have the Texture Tab, which we will be covering in another article.

Lorena M. Rodas leverages her experience across film, writing, and production to make complex tech concepts accessible through storytelling. With a background spanning sci-fi, AI, and emerging tech, Lorena translates her depth of knowledge into engaging, educational content. She is an expert at decoding high-level topics to reach broad audiences.
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