Blender Modeling Basics

There are three basic modeling tools called transform tools that you need to learn before anything else. They are: translate (or move), scale, and rotate. These tools can be found in the toolbox on the right of the screen, but it is much easier and faster to use the keyboard shortcuts. 


Move (Translate):
To begin, add a cube to the scene if there isn't already one. Then right click on it to select it. Now, if you hit the G Key on your keyboard (or the Translate button in the toolbox), you can move the cube around by moving the mouse. Left click to drop it in place. 

There will be times when you want to move an object along a straight axis in 3D space (X, Y, or Z). To do this, you need to lock the movement to one of these axises. After you hit the G Key, press the key for which axis you want to lock the movement to. Then, you can move the object with the mouse along that axis and that axis only. For example, if you press G and then Y, you can move the object along the Y axis:

Rotate:
The next tool is rotation. Right click on the cube and click the Rotate button or the R Key. Now you can move the mouse and spin the object. Left click to release.

You may notice, that the rotation spins it pretty crazily and if you rotate out of the current viewing angle, you'll never be able to get it back straight. Similar to what we did above, you can lock the rotation to a specific axis. After you hit the R Key, you can press X, Y, or Z to lock the rotation to one of those axises, respectively. So, if you hit G and then Y, you can rotate the object around the Y axis:

Scale:
The lost transform tool is scaling. Basically, it just makes the object as a whole larger or smaller. Right click on our cube to select it. Now, press the S Key or the Scale button in the toolbox. By moving your mouse further away or closer to the object, you can make it larger or smaller, respectively. Once again, left clicking after scaling will accept the changes.

As in the previous two tools, you can again lock the transform to a specific axis by pressing the key corresponding to the letter of the axis you want to lock to. Scaling on the Y axis would allow you to do this:

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this introduction and I encourage you to now go ahead and just experiment with these three tools to get used to them. Then, you can go on to more advance modeling. :)