Let's see what he looks like

We can't wait any longer and we want our first render! But first we still need to do some work.

Shift-LMB on the top right small button of the layer visibility buttons in the 3DWindow toolbar (Figure 19) to make both Layer 1 (Gus' layer) and Layer 10 (the layer with the camera) visible.

Remember that the last layer selected is the active layer, so all subsequent additions will automatically be on layer 10.

Select the camera (RMB) and move it to a location like (x=7, y=-10, z=7). You can do this by pressing GKEY and dragging the camera around keeping CTRL pressed to move it in steps of 1 grid unit.

	Entering precise locations and rotations
	If you prefer to type in numerical values for an Object's location you can do so by pressing NKEY and modifying the NumButtons in the dialog that appears (Figure 20). Remember to press OK to confirm your input. Figure 20. The window for numerical imput of object position/rotation etc.

To make the camera point at Gus, with your camera still selected also select Gus via SHIFT-RMB. Now the camera will be Magenta and Gus Light Pink. Press CTRL-T and select the Make Track entry in the pop up. This will force the camera to track Gus and always point at him. You can move the camera wherever you want later on and be sure Gus is in the center of the camera view!

	Tracking
	If the tracking object already has a rotation of its own, as is often the case, the result of the CTRL-T sequence might not be what was expected. In this case select the tracking object, in our example the camera, and press ALT-R to remove any object rotation. Once you do this the camera will really track Gus!

Figure 21 shows Top, Front, Side and Camera view of Gus. To obtain a Camera view press NUM0.

Now we need a ground on which Gus can stand. In top view (NUM7), and out of EditMode add a plane (SPACE>>ADD>>Mesh>>Plane). It is important to be out of EditMode, otherwise the newly added object would be part of the object currently in EditMode, as it was for Gus' head when we added it. If the cursor is where Figure 21 shows, such a plane will be in the middle of Gus' head. Switch to ObjectMode and Front view (NUM1) and move (GKEY) the plane down to Gus feet, using CTRL to keep it aligned with Gus.

Switch the reference center from cursor (where we set it at the beginning) to object pressing the highlighted button of Figure 22. Go to Camera view (NUM0) and, with the plane still selected, press SKEY to start scaling.

Scale the plane up, so that it is so big that its edges are outside of the camera viewing area. This is indicated by the outer white dashed rectangle in Camera view.

In Top view (NUM7) add a Lamp light (SPACE>>ADD>>Lamp) in front of Gus, but on the other side with respect to the camera, for example in (x=-9, y=-10, z=7) (Figure 23).

Switch to Lamp Buttons via the button with a lamp in the Button Window toolbar (Figure 24) or F4.

In the Buttons Window press the Spot toggle button to make the lamp a Spotlight (Figure 25) of Pale Yellow (R=1, G=1, B=0.9) colour. Adjust ClipSta: Num Button to 5, Samples: to 4 and Soft: to 8.

Make this Spotlight track Gus exactly as you did for the camera (Select Spot, SHIFT select Gus, press Ctrl-T. If you added the spot in Top View you should need not to clear its rotation via Alt-R.

In the same location as the Spot, and again in Top View, add a second Lamp (SPACE>>ADD>>Lamp). Make this one a Hemi type with Energy of 0.6 (Figure 26).

	Two lamps?
	Having two or more lamps helps a lot to give soft, realistic lighting. In reality light never comes from a single point. You will learn more about this in the Lighting Chapter.

We're almost ready to render. First go to the Render Buttons by pressing the image-like icon in the Button Window toolbar (Figure 27).

In the Render Buttons set the image size to 640x480 with the Num Buttons top right, set the Shadows Toggle Button top center to On, and the OSA Toggle Button center-left to On as well (Figure 28). These latter controls will enable shadows and oversampling (OSA) to prevent jagged edges.

You can now hit the RENDER button or hit F12. The result is shown in Figure 29... and is actually quite poor. We still need materials! And lots of details, such as eyes, etc.

Saving

If you have not done it yet, this is a good point to save your work, via the File>>Save menu shown in Figure 30, or CTRL-WKEY Blender will always warn you if you try to overwrite an existing file. Blender does automatic saves into your system's temporary directory. By default this happens every 4 minutes and the file name is a number. This is another way to undo your last changes!   Figure 30. The Save menu.