Learning Blender UI
Since I enjoyed learning how to model in Maya, I decided to give Blender a shot. It's free and I tend to see a lot more tutorials for modelling in this software - which also appeals to the style I like and want to achieve in my work. These have been the results over the past weeks, starting from earliest created to the newest:
Modelling THE Doughnut
I didn't want to start with the Blender doughnut tutorial at first , since I thought that I already know the basics of modelling from practice within Maya (and I wanted to try something more complex); however, a friend convinced me that the tutorial isn't just about modelling and gives a good overview of various features within the software itself.
To be honest, I'm glad I went with her advice because the topics covered were really useful in terms of getting to know most parts of Blender and figure out what I wanted to look into and learn more about. Skills covered in this 14 part series:
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Polygon Modelling - from a simple torus to a beautiful doughnut, I was taught modelling skills such as when to apply subdivision modifiers and how the modelling tools and process differ in Blender when compared to Maya
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Sculpting - a skill I definitely want to delve into more, using digital brushes to adjust and warp polys to form a desired look
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Geometry Nodes - generating randomness in the sprinkles with a formula that runs behind the scenes in the program
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Rendering (Including UV wraps) - understanding what render services Blender provides and how to use them effectively; plus a basic tutorial on how to create and adjust your own UV texture maps
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Compositing - adding effects that beautify the results of a rendered shot by understanding how nodes work in Blender
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Animation - I 100% prefer animating in Maya but Blender has the basic functions required to animate in this software (I think it's more a case where I'm not a fan of the animation interface setup)
Despite the finish being a simple camera movement, this animation took just over 2 days to render since there was a lot going on in the scene (~20mins/ frame and there were 160 frames total)! I imported some free models from Poliigon and used a light texture that replicates the look of a realistic sun within Blender's viewport that proabably bumped up the amount of power and time required for the render result to be achieved.
Nintendo Switch Model
I tend to model the items I see on my desk, so I went for the switch next. I partially followed the example shown in this process video here, but also took the knowledge I had already acquired from previous modelling tasks if I felt that there was something on my real life reference I wanted to incorporate into my digital model.
I knew that I wanted to challenge myself somehow so I also took this as a chance to put the Blender Guru tutorial skills to the test here as well. The end product of this would be a simple animation showcasing the result of my work.
I took it upon myself to model the Nintendo Switch dock and have a go at adding sound effects to really sell it.
I had fun just being able to experiment and observe with this modelling task. Additionally, it was interesting to see how this only took about 2 hours to fully render (~3mins/ frame and 48 frames in total). For future reference I should start considering how much I put into a scene since the render times can vary massively.
In addition to the animation, I asked a friend looking to go into musical composition for media for help on adding clear SFX to my pieces in the software Audacity. This will be a really useful when I want to add quick audio queues to any future animations I work on as well. For this I added some white noise and edited the echo and delay of a click I downloaded from Freesound.
Coffee & Cookies Model
A while back I had seen an Instagram post stating "which Blender tutorials (other than the doughnut) are great for beginners" and this was one that got a mention. I liked this since I felt it was a cute and simple tutorial that taught me how to create a few more interesting organic shapes (such as stars by using the checkered select input and curves just by extruding faces).
What was most fun about this tutorial was adding textures to the big cookie and sugar cubes to make them appear slightly uneven. It's really hard to get unevenness in a model that is made from a smooth 3D shape - especially a natural unevenness that makes it look more believable when you have to model these things essential by your own hand. I've grown quite fond of trying to add small imperfections to my models or details that give them a better likeness to real life.
Coffee texture needed to be slightly translucent and reflective, so the roughness was completely turned off.
The plate texture was smooth and shiny to reflect the likeness of ceramic, so the roughness value was between that of the cookie and the coffee textures.
Cookie texture has the most roughness since it doesn't need to look as smooth or be that reflective.
Another really satisfying part was achieving a liquid material that looked good when rendered out. I do enjoy playing with lighting and rendering in Blender since making the final look have a nice finish is really important to me and something I want my works next year to be more like - industry showreel ready and impressive.
"Splash" - Learning How to Setup Simulations
Simulations. I had only ever heard of the struggles from a classmate about the joys of simulation setups and to be honest I completely forgot all about it when choosing to follow this tutorial on impulse next. I just wanted to create something that looked cool at the time.
Again, I didn't just want to follow a simple tutorial. At this stage I needed to be setting challenges for myself to push my abilities so that I can allow myself to make mistakes and figure out the solutions for myself.
The first challenge was to model a mason jar - I wanted a more interesting cup shape since I had already modeled the teacup previously (which was a similar process to the glass clip shown in the tutorial example.
I wanted to know if there were other ways to create more organic curves in Blender other than just extruding the edges from a cube, so I found another tutorial on creating curved shapes with Blender's curve tools. I used what I learnt from here to create a handle for my mason jar and the curved ridges near the rim of the glass.
The next challenge was actually something suggested by a friend of mine, who was watching me stream my process. I had the ice cubes
following the simulation (mason jar being the passive body and the ice cube being the active body that would fall into the jar from a specific height and drop into and hit the base of the mason jar that was stationary); however, I was told that I should add a straw which might make it more interesting as well. So that's what I did.
At first the straw I modeled was acting extremely weird with the ice cubes and the cup: it would fall but either bounce fully out of the cup or start falling straight through the cup. This was because of the angle the straw was being dropped at and the fact that it was falling before the ice cubes which threw the simulation off. Whenever the two active bodies (straw and ice cubes) made contact there would be too much energy within them, making the simulation results look a bit odd. Trying to figure out this part of the simulation was a lot of trial and error but I got there in the end.
Now that the ice cubes and straw fell into the mason jar nicely it was time to add the liquid simulation. It all went downhill from here...
I hadn't really experienced any major crashes within Maya since I never played around with rendering with Arnold or using simulations within my work so I didn't know how painful it could get when it continuously happens, but boy do I know now! Blender crashed several times when I tried to set up this simulation following the tutorial settings, but my PC just couldn't handle it. I even went back to an old save to try and reduce the amount of polys I used to model the mason jar. The liquid just wouldn't show up when I applied the quick liquid sim to the designated mesh - I had no idea why. Most of my time on this task was spent trying to understand why the simulation hated me. BUT I got there in the end. I had to reduce the quality and volume of the simulation I wanted so the look of the liquid isn't quite what I wanted; however, it still looked decent by the end. All I needed is proof that I tried something and stuck with it until one of the solutions eventually worked.
I wanted to add some SFX to bring this scene to life so I added so royalty free sounds for now. It would be cool to act out what's going on here and add more accurate sounds to this animation to make it more immersive.
"Star" - Blender Grease Pencil Tutorial
I had seen some very impressive results in models with Blender's grease pencil so I wanted to give it a go and I was extremely happy with the results!
This was another occasion where I didn't want to just be following a tutorial - I wanted it to feel like I was attempting a challenge of my own - so I used this as an opportunity to try and model my logo. It's a relatively simple star with four streaks; however, it would incorporate what I had learnt about using the curves tool in previous modelling exercises to create the double halo orbiting around it.
I liked how clear and concise this tutorial turned out to be. It showed me the various filters that could be added via nodes to create glow effects for the rays or a more 2D/ cartoonish render result. Looking at node trees used to feel extremely daunting and overwhelming; however, taking the time to try and understand them has allowed me to see how it can be a really simple procedural concept. I used the grease pencil for the gold outline on the star (the layer closer to the front) that has 2D animation on it making it look like the star is moving or is wobbling with energy.
This is my node tree setup for the smaller stars like confetti around the main star. Similar to the concept of the sprinkles from the doughnut tutorial, I had to create a collection of 3 varied stars that could be put into this formula and generate a random selection for the final result.
The final look of the scene. There's a lot of layering going on here but the result from the front facing camera view is something quite spectacular I think!
After rendering it out and adding some SFX, I really got the feeling that this could be a special item within a game. This was a fun experiment that I hope informs what kinds of looks I can achieve for my animations working in different software. Maybe a good challenge would be to try and achieve a similar look in Maya...
"Pear" - Low Poly Character Modelling
Custom character modelling is a skill I definitely hope to achieve. I see so many beautiful character models created by other 3D artists that are so inspirational and I want to have the abilities to do the same.
Though we had attempted low poly character modelling in Maya during 2nd year, I was curious to see how the process might differ in Blender.
It wasn't much different...
However, this tutorial made me revisit UV maps and texture painting similar to the doughnut tutorial. I learnt the importance of cutting accurate seams so that certain parts of the body are separate and accurate on the texture map.
Using one of my old character illustrations as reference I began colour picking and painting on the according areas based on the geometry.
I think what made this a lot easier was having a lot of reference for how I was hoping the end result to look. Also having experience in drawing and rendering in 2D, it was a lot simpler to understand how the unwrapped version would look on the 3D model whenever I drew my strokes.
A challenge was definitely trying to emulate a 3D look with flat
shadows and cell shading on the 3D model without going overboard since it was very low poly and any oddities would be immediately and extremely noticeable.
My thoughts beyond completing this were "this would be a cute model for Previs layouts probably...". If I could add a simple rig to it - it may not have enough appeal for final work - but I could use these small low poly characters as planning tools (I saved the base version without any character design on it so that I could come back and adapt it in the future).
Getting back into Maya...
Looking to start bettering my animation skills, I knew this month would lead me back to Maya. Since I wasn't really interested by any of the animation competition prompts - I decided to set myself a challenge that I had been dwelling on for a while. I was eager to try and animate fluid motion in the form of a dance routine and this became my concrete goal for this month.
Dance Animation Prep
I had been looking around for reference for a while and got something I would be happy animating with my chosen rig: the Akali rig provided by the Agora.community.
It's a habit of mine to try posing the the rigs before any kind of animations but this time was a little different since I was also checking how the rig looks when rendered in Arnold. The original rig setup left her eyes looking way too pale and hard to see in Arnold lighting; however, we had already been shown how to deal with texture pack problems during our Texture Workshop last semester. Now her eyes would be noticeable after readjusting elements in the texture node editor; however, I still think that they don't reflect light as well as I would like.
These pieces are quite dramatic and dark - which does suit the vibe - but I would like to explore using the lighting to create more brighter scenarios next time I feel.
Revisiting Back 2 Basics Animations
Last semester I had received a lot of feedback on my animations from various mentors and wonderful people already in industry and now I finally had time to look back at the notes left on SyncSketch and apply them to create better quality work!
For the ball bounce animation my main feedback was to try and exaggerate the squash and stretch in certain areas to emphasise the forces upon the ball.
For the pendulum animation my main feedback was to try and make more use of the drag and overshoot in each segment of the pendulum to get a more accurate sense of the weight behind it. I needed to offset these segments better as well.
For the side step animation my main feedback was to ensure that the weight shift occurring looked accurate. It was a lot of repositioning the body to make sure the weight would be on the correct leg before lifting another and making sure that the balance looked good. I also needed to make the step's movement flow better since there was a weird jolt in the prior version.
Allowing myself to try and incorporate the principles of animation yet again in these simple but effective tasks would reset my thinking and prevent me from over complicating the movement when it came to working with the Akali rig later.