Blender

For in-depth this year, I have chosen to learn how to use Blender. Blender is an open-source software 3D CG software used to create images or animations. It is a very complex program, that has many, many features and abilities for tasks such as modeling, lighting, sculpting, compositing, animating, texturing, and much more. Blender is used both by artists for personal projects, and sometimes by companies for CG animations for movies or videogames. Blender is unlike its CG software competition in that it is completely free and open-source, and is not often used in the industry. This is because it is new, and the industry and pipelines of studios are built around software that has been around longer, such as Maya and Houdini. It is also because Blender is free, so it is not liable for or obligated to fix malfunctions that may occur, which is a risk that studios cannot afford.

Why Blender?

So why did I set my eyes on CG animation, and why Blender, if it is not super popular among VFX studios? Last year, my in-depth topic was stop motion animation. I chose it because it is something that I already did and knew I was interested in, which would ensure my in-depth studies did not go to waste, as I would be sure to use them later. This year, I want to try my hand at something new, yet still in the realm of animation and video creation. I chose to try working in the 3D CG space, as it is the most popular type of animation, and so creates more future opportunities than stop motion as far as careers go, as stop motion is very niche professionally. Another reason I was interested in CG is that over the past year I’ve noticed many stop motion animators incorporating some CG elements in with their stop motion animations to great effect.

There are a few reasons I chose Blender as my 3D animation tool. Firstly, it is free, and other software products such as Maya or Cinema 4D are very expensive. As mentioned earlier, while it might not be very popular in the animation industry, it is the choice tool of freelancers and hobbyists, which means all of the content surrounding it is geared towards those types of people, and therefore also me. For example, it might not be super easy to find free and entry-level online tutorials for professional studio software tools such as Maya or Houdini, but there are sure to be many in the Blender community, as there are many more people who want to learn blender casually than other softwares.

My Goal

Since I am very new to Blender, it is hard to set a goal for what success in this in-depth will be, as it could take many forms, and could be many skill levels, as I don’t have a clear idea of what is reasonable yet. That said, I would like to be comfortable navigating around the areas of the software, and be able to proficiently use two functions or areas of it, such as modelling or lighting, as well as having an adequet enough knowledge of the other areas to create complete-looking projects. I think another good way of defining success in this project is not by what my progress is in the end, but how diligently I work along the way. Not including meetings or blog posts, I would like to be working at getting better at blender at least four days a week.

My Plan

To improve at Blender, I plan to divide up the next four months, with a focus for each of them. Throughout each of these months, I will improve at using blender by watching tutorials, working on projects, some of my own, and some guided by tutorials and consulting with my mentor on questions or problems I run into. During February, I will watch tutorials about the fundamentals of Blender, that go over basic general knowledge of many aspects. Then, knowing more about Blender and the different parts of it, I will select two topics to narrow in on, such as animation, modeling, geometry nodes, or lighting. I will do one topic during March and then the other during April. Then in the final month, I will display everything I have learned with a final blender project. It may be some sort of still scene, or an animation, or a program for procedural generation. Based on experience from last in-depth project, I have found that it is very important to keep this plan loose as I will learn more about blender as I work that will warrant changes.

My Mentor

Despite reaching out to numerous people, I have not yet found someone who is willing to mentor me in Blender. However, I have many outgoing emails that may still find responses, and I will continue reaching out to people until I have found one.

Tracking my Progress

At the end of each day that I work on a project, I will render it how it looks, and record those pictures in a document with a short series of notes detailing what I learned that day and a challenge I faced. If I can create a habit of doing this, it will be very beneficial when I share my progress with biweekly blog posts as they will be more detailed and accurate to what I’ve accomplished in what timespan.

Progress so Far

So far, I have been working on creating my first model with Blender, a donut, following a tutorial by Blender Guru that has been cited by many in the community as an essential first tutorial with which to learn blender. It is so popular that there is a whole online forum section on the platform Reddit in which beginners share the donuts they’ve made. It can be seen here.

What can Others Do to Help?

Just like last year, my in-depth project is learning an art form. Therefor, just like last year, feedback and constructive criticism on what I’ve created is one of the most important ways that you can help me achieve my goal.