What’s the difference between object mode and edit mode in Blender? What is object mode? What is edit mode?

In Blender and many other 3D modeling programs such as Maya, models are separated into individual meshes that can be joined into groups or objects. They can also just be a single mesh in a single object.

Here I have an ambulance. It’s made of very different parts. If I click this part of the ambulance, I can move it around with the move tool.

Notice that there’s other parts of the ambulance. I can click the frame of the ambulance and I can move it separately. But what if I wanted to move part of the ambulance or change the shape of the door?

That’s where edit mode comes in. Edit mode is editing an object. Object mode is moving the actual objects. We could also undo these things and make all of the ambulance be one object. Sometimes that’s ideal, but often many objects are parented or grouped together in different ways.

Let’s go in and look at how this works with edit mode. If I select the cab right now, you can tell that this is selected in Blender because it’s outlined in orange. I select the cab object. I’m in object mode. At the top left I can switch to edit mode. Once I do that, I see all of these lines. I can also use vertex, select edge select face select with face select. If I hover over a face and select it, I can see that face and I can move it.

If I use edge select I can select this edge or this edge and I can move it just as well. I can also scale these edges and make changes to the model like this. This is different than object mode because object mode I would move the entire cam rather than individual vertices in parts of the mesh.

Another difference between object mode in edit mode and Blender is in object mode I can apply modifiers. Modifiers in Blender are found under the wrench right here. And if I want to apply a modifies in Blender, I have to be in object mode.

For example, right now I’m using the mirror modifier on this ambulance model and maybe I want to apply it. If I click apply you can see it’s grayed out. if I switch to object mode. Now I could apply this modifier.

It’s important to know the quick shortcut for switching between edit mode and object mode. If you press tab on your keyboard, you switch to edit mode. Tab again, you go back to Object mode. There’s more to edit mode in object mode, but this is the basics.

If you remember one thing about Edit mode and object mode in Blender. In object mode, you move the big parts of the mesh around. In edit mode, you can move different pieces of the mesh and edit it. Hopefully that clears up edit mode in object mode in Blender.

Happy 3D modeling!