Follies in 3D
Posted Saturday 23 May 2020 at 00:13
Estimated reading time: 5 mins
I was excited to learn that, as a perk of getting my summer job back, I would have access to Udemy through my company. Despite the tech-related recommendations given to me by this business account, my first thought was that now would be a good time to learn how to use Blender. So I found a course that interested me and got stuck right in. This post is about my experience so far.
This isn't my first time using Blender. I used Blender probably around 8 or 9 years ago for some simple physics simulations, and I remember it being a bit rough. As someone who had never done any work in 3D before, Blender was quite unintuitive and uninviting. Whilst I was able to find some tutorials that taught me the basic controls and helped me get started, these ended at a beginner level. The learning curve was much more of a learning step; there were tutorials to get you up and running, but beyond the basics you were mostly forced to find and learn individual advanced features as you wanted to use them. I got sick of Blender fairly quickly and eventually ended up learning to program instead. However, a good friend of mine has been using Blender since even before that, and continues to regular make fresh renders. In comparison to me, the man's a wizard. He's been encouraging me to try learning Blender again for years, and, now that I've succumbed, I hope one day I'll have learned enough to out-render him ;)
Having been informed about Blender's 2.8 update and how the UI was completely redone, my interest in Blender resurged and I sought to try learning how to use it over the summer break, originally planning to follow the doughnut tutorials, per my friend's recommendation. However, getting my job back presented me with access to Udemy, and I couldn't not take the opportunity to learn from an expensive series whilst it was available to me. The course I've chosen, Creating 3D environments in Blender, seems to fit my interests perfectly; I have a great interest in video games and fantasy worlds, I have an active worldbuilding project where 3D modelling skill could be of use to me, and I'd already set myself an end-goal -- since I'd spent so much time listening to the Harry Potter video game soundtracks (specifically Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) at uni, I decided that I would recreate the level that contained one of my absolute favourite VGM tracks; Diagon Alley. The plan is more to remaster it than to replicate it, with the intention of making some high-quality, wallpaper-suitable renders. Should it work out well, I have some other levels from other games in mind which would be awesome to work on. And so, with a goal in mind and a tutorial to follow, I began learning Blender.
The first thing I noticed is how much cleaner and easier to use Blender 2.8 is. Whilst still a little unintuitive, as is to be expected from such a sophisticated piece of software, it was much easier to get into it, and I was impressed with just how much I could do with so little effort. Following the tutorial, I was able to create a render of some dice, and created a simple Rubik's cube which I was able to animate. I now find myself seeing things in the real world and thinking to myself, "I think I could make that," before taking some reference photos and rushing off to attempt it. And whilst my results aren't, by any means, perfect, I'm learning new things every time I practice.
As work gets busier and my sleep cycle becomes more irregular, I am finding less time in which I want to follow the lectures in my course. If I can, I try to get up early and follow one or two of the lectures before work. Despite this, I do still really enjoy doing it. The results, even from some of my simpler experiments, continue to amaze me. 3D modelling feels like the perfect art for someone as left-brained as myself; good results are more dependent on technical skill than creativity and artistic ability. I want to commit to it, and that's why I plan to work on improving this skill for at least an hour every weekend. I've already set aside some time to work on it tomorrow, and I'll likely utilise the bank holiday Monday for more practice.
For anyone who wants to learn Blender themselves, I'd recommend you go for it. Identify what it is that inspires you; why is it you want to learn it, and what do you plan to use it for when your skills develop? Try to find a tutorial, if you can, that suits your goals and inspiration (though I understand not everyone will be able to access paid tutorials). But most importantly, as cliché and unhelpful as it may sound, practice makes perfect. I'm the last person to preach about practicing -- I've given up learning to draw countless times -- but you will not regret sticking at it. You will make progress and you'll be amazed with the renders you produce.