# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Putting Hat on Person

|previous=Creating a Simple Hat
|subcat=Basics
}}
```
Once you\'re satisfied with the shapes of individual objects, you\'ll
want to combine them into a coherent scene. You do this in Object Mode.

In this module, you\'ll learn how to move objects to and from layers.
You\'ll also learn how to rename and parent objects, and you\'ll get an
introduction to Outliner Windows.

\_\_TOC\_\_

You\'ll need the person-and-hat scene from the previous module. If you
haven\'t done it, either go back and do it now or else download the
pre-made model from
.

## Adjusting an Object\'s Median Point

!The person that you (yeah you!) made with the origin in his geometric
center. made with the origin in his geometric center.")

1.  Load the person-and-hat scene.
2.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
3.  Switch to Layer 2, select the hat and press
    . A dialog box will pop up for you to
    choose which layer to move it to. Either press *1* (the number on
    top of the keyboard, **not** the numberpad) or select the first box
    in the popup.
4.  Select the person you made earlier.\

Just as you did in Edit Mode, you can specify the pivot for rotating and
scaling objects in Object Mode. If you just finished the previous
module, the pivot is probably set to \"3D Cursor\". If so, change it
back to \"Median Point\".

In Edit Mode, the \"Median Point\" for pivoting is the geometric center
of all selected vertices, edges, or faces. In Object Mode, however,
it\'s the origin of the selected object\'s local coordinates, indicated
by an orange dot. In other words, the origin might lie far from the
object\'s geometric center.

You can use buttons in the Tools Shelf to reunify an object\'s origin
with its geometric center:

1.  With Blender in Object Mode, click 
    on *Set Origin* in the Tool Shelf (under the \"Edit\" sub menu of
    *Tools*) and select *Origin To Geometry* (Blender 2.70: \"Object\"
    -\> \"Transform\" -\> \"Origin to Geometry\") to move the selected
    object\'s origin to its geometric center (without changing the
    object\'s appearance).\

This can be useful when you want a better picture of your object. With
the origin set to the person\'s geometric center, you can now snap the
object with  to the 3D cursor. This
will let you view more of the model at one time and make for a faster
editing workflow.

## Positioning the Hat

!Positioning the
hat Once you
have the hat properly oriented, move it into position on the person\'s
head. The grab tool enables you to position objects in Object Mode in
the same way you positioned vertices, edges, and faces in Edit Mode.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Click  on the hat object to select
    it.
3.  Activate the grab tool by pressing
    .

As you move the mouse pointer, the hat will move around in the viewport.
By default, the movement plane is perpendicular to the view axis, so the
hat will move differently depending on which viewpoint you\'re working
in.

Just as in the Edit Mode grab tool, you can:

-   Restrict the direction of motion by pressing
    ,
    , or
    . Press once to move parallel to a
    global axis, twice to use a local axis. (Press the same key a third
    time to return to view-plane motion.)
-   To restrict motion to the global X-Y plane, lock the global Z by
    pressing .
-   Hold down  to restrict motion to
    discrete steps (typically one Blender unit).
-   Hold down  to get finer control
    over the motion.
-   Click  or press
     to finalize the position and exit
    the tool.
-   Click  or press
     to return the object to its
    previous position and exit.\

Use two different orthographic views to position the hat on the
person\'s head. You will probably want to scale the hat to make it fit
the person\'s head better. When you are doing this along the X or Y
axis, make the changes symmetrical by specifying the axes you want
scaling to be constrained to. This option is available in the Operator
panel (just below the Tool Shelf) and also by pressing F6.

## Parenting the Hat to the Person

!The parenting
menu.

Once you have the hat properly sized and positioned on the person\'s
head, you\'ll want it to stay there. In order to maintain such a cozy
relationship between two objects, you\'d have to remember to select them
both before rotating, moving, or scaling. A drastic solution might be to
join them into a single object using
.

A better compromise is to  the
hat to the person. Parenting creates a relationship between two objects,
such that certain changes to one object (called the
) automatically affect
the other (called the ).
Changes to the child, however, do not affect the parent.

Note that an object can have many children, but only one parent.

Since the person is bigger than the hat, it\'s logical to parent the hat
to the person (meaning: parent = person, child = hat) instead of vice
versa.

1.  Make sure Blender is in Object Mode.
2.  Click  on the hat object to select
    it.
3.  Click  on the person object.

    :   Both the person and the hat should now be selected. The order of
        selection is important here.
4.  Press  to parent the hat to
    the person.
5.  Select *Object*. The most recently selected object becomes the
    parent of all other selected objects.

Now when you move the hat you will see a line from the hat to the
person, indicating that the person is the hat\'s parent. And if you move
the person, the hat will move with it.

You may get an error saying something like *Loop to Parents*, fix this
by clearing all previous parents with
+.

## Renaming Objects

!The renaming
dialog

When you have multiple objects in a scene, it helps to give each one a
name.

Click on the *Objects* tab in the Properties panel (the one with a box
icon).

1.  Now select the hat by clicking  on
    it.
2.  At the very top of the tab you should see a dialog box with the name
    of your object
    -   The hat\'s name might be something like \"Circle\" depending on
        which mesh primitive you first built the hat from.
3.  Click  on the dialog box and type in
    a more descriptive name like \"Hat\".

You have now changed the name of the hat\'s object datablock. This name
change will be reflected in the Outliner, which we will look at shortly.

Now select your person by clicking  on
it and repeat the process, changing the name to something like
\"Person\".

## Outliner Windows

!The Outliner window.

Once you give objects names, it helps to have a way to find objects by
their name and parent. This is exactly what the Outliner is for and it
comes in very handy when you are working with a large scene. The
Outliner is usually just above the Properties panel. You may want to
pull it down a bit to see it more clearly.

You\'ll notice that all the objects in your scene (Person, camera etc)
are listed and that you can select these objects by clicking
 on them. And if you click
 on an object, a menu will pop up with
options like *Select*, *Deselect*, *Delete* etc. If you select the
Person and then click the \"+\" sign to its left, you will see that the
Hat is listed below the person. This is because Blender lists all
children objects beneath their parents.

On the right of each object there are a series of icons which represent
the state of the object. For example, the eye icon means that your
object is visible in the 3D viewport. You can turn off its visibility by
clicking  on the eye, which will turn
grey; click again on the eye to make it visible. If you hover the mouse
over the icons a text box will pop up with a description of what that
particular icon does.

## Good on ya\' mate!

Congratulations!! You have now finished your simple character. Pat
yourself on the back, and have a celebratory coffee! (Or pop!)\
\

## Additional Resources

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