Setting up the source files

This book comes with project files that you can use to follow along with each chapter. Please check the Download the example code files section of this book's Preface to learn how to access the project files.

There are a variety of file formats in these source files. Blender projects are labeled with the .blend suffix. The .blend files store data such as objects, materials, collections, scripts, and more. Basically, your whole project is stored inside of this single file. One exception, however, is image files. It is possible to store images inside of .blend files, but image files take up a lot of space on your computer, so this would make each project file huge.

By default, Blender saves projects with a relative file path, which means as long as you don't move the .blend file or the linked texture files out of their appropriate folders, Blender will know where the files are and everything will work properly when you open a project.