Shoutout Captain Disillusion and Blender Guru.
Learning Blender
It was Thanksgiving break, 2022. I had been watching a lot of videos on YouTube related to VFX and I noticed a lot of the things I was looking at were created in Blender, a free software. Bored, I downloaded it and started creating.
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Below is my journey.
I used to have these posted on my Instagram in a collection of stories before I deleted my account.
The challenge earlier on was modeling something simple and finding a way to make it interesting.
I developed a bit of a sleeping disorder when learning Blender and it definetly shows.
All renders shown so far were done on my laptop. This fountain video took forever to render. It might have been over 24 hours. I was very satisfied when it was completed.
It was either this animation or the next that was the first one I rendered on my desktop. It was sooooooo much faster.
Renders
I didn't expect to become a professional VFX artist or animator like the people I was learning from. I simply wanted to challenge myself to learn something during a break I had been prepared to spend lounging around doing nothing.
The Donut
My Blender journey started with the Blender Guru's donut tutorial series. A fairly common start that teaches the basics of Blender. Just following instructions, not straying from the path.
Alien Sighting
I boldly started to animate scenes way too sophisticated for my learning level. The first of which was a video of a drone flying through the forest when it sees an alien. My lack of experience shows in the original video with the rocks appearing in the water and the alien looking the way it does. Not very long after creating the first video did I "remaster" it. The second version shows the progress I made after just a week of tinkering in Blender.
Carrot
This was my second independent project where I tried to animate a carrot. The wall and floor textures are from Poliigon, an asset plugin co-run by the Blender Guru. I feel like I achieved giving the carrot bowling ally-esque animation.
Spaceship
Anvil Commercial
The anvil model I created using another Blender Guru video. The lighting and camera animation I did myself. I wanted to make an Apple-esque commercial for the anvil. I made the remastered version right after the first version to fix some shots I didn't like. My premature rendering of this was a lesson in planning.
Wall Break
This was me learning hard body physics. Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd was playing over this clip on Instagram.
Fountain
This was me learning fluid simulations.
Ball Falling
While learning hard body physics, I found out you can keyframe time.
Smoking Krills
I am incapable of resisting a pun. The vortex of the smoke on the second version is messed up on the cigarette and I was never able to correct it to look like it does in the first version. The vaping krill still makes me laugh. This is one of my favorite creations ever.
Exploding Isosphere
This is me learning about cell-fracture.
Richard Nixon San
This is me learning about soft body physics. Yeah...
Boat
This is me learning about dynamic paint. My animation skills are almost okay in this. You can probably tell that a lot of the time I was just sitting at my computer and challenging myself to create something without a strong base idea.
Tissue Box
Reveille 1984
I made this on a day classes were cancelled for inclement weather. I was mimicking Apple's 1984 Macintosh ad. I found it difficult to get footage of Reveille and was pressed for time since I wanted it rendered and posted on my Instagram the day classes were cancelled.
Valentine's Day
I didn't have anyone to spend Valentine's day with but I had an idea for an animation. I also learned how to use cloth physics. There was a glitch with the cloth physics that I was able to solve by troubleshooting with ChatGPT. This was early free ChatGPT and it took a long while for it to guide me to the right setting.
Ramp
I was inspired by a Corridor Digital video where they made satisfying renders. I wanted to see what I could come up with. Physics are really satisfying to me so I went with soft body. I love how the plasticity of the object changes as it hits the chute. I love the simplicity of it all. If I ever get into sound design as a hobby, this is the first video I revisit to add sound effects.
Ramp
I made a very basic model of my dorm with basic shapes for shadow objects and added the appropriate lighting. I exported the animation of the cube and its shadows and overlayed it on the video of my dorm. This isn't too difficult but it's representative of how much I learned to get to this point.
House
I created this aesthetic house to destress. I built a house I wanted to live. Something simple with everything I needed. The only problem with this design is that it requires me to walk downstairs to use the restroom.
Results
I'm glad I learned how to use Blender. I'm not an expert and I don't think I will ever be one but it's fun. I like the challenge of figuring out how to execute an idea and the feeling I get from bringing something into the world.
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I hope to find the time and motivation to keep practicing this skill. Who knows when an opportunity might present itself!