🍩 Salty's 3D Art 🍩

I had a few weeks between jobs in the summer of 2022 and spent that time learning how to use Blender with no previous experience. I used a really wonderful video series from CrossMind Studios. I highly recommend this series over the usual donut or "low-poly room" tutorial; those might have a fancier end-product, but I don't think those tutorials emphasize the importance of learning Blender's hotkeys. Learning that simple thing has saved me countless hours of guessing which esoteric menu holds a specific function.

I only actually toyed with Blender for a month or two, so I hope if you are on the fence about at least learning the basics, that you decide to give it a go after seeing my work! I haven't really touched it much sense that initial ADHD hyperfocus moment, but I know I'll learn more and tackle bigger projects someday.

Renders

Jul.2022 3D modeling is extremely time-consuming, so I don't have a lot of projects to show off that are completely finished or mind-meltingly complex. However, the first project I truly finished in my first few weeks of using Blender is below. I wanted to make a cool 2K resolution wallpaper for my desktop, so I loosely followed a Polygon Runway tutorial for creating a fantasy-style portal to another dimension, and I really like how it turned out. You may click any image thumbnail to see the photo at full resolution.


A low-poly-style 3D model of a stone arch containing a gooey, purple portal in front of a flat orange background. A low-poly-style 3D model (taken from a lower angle) of a stone arch containing a gooey, purple portal in front of a flat orange background.

Aug.2022 The mini-project below is my attempt at a cel-shaded style of rendering. I cannot recall the tutorial I used, which is not very helpful, but I think it looks pretty cool! I tried to render from a few different angles so you get a feel for how the shield's appearance changes based on lighting and position.



Feb.2023 A friend asked me to make a 3D-animated version of their record label's logo, which I had no earthly idea how to do, so of course I agreed to do so. It's not anything crazy, as I really didn't know how to keyframe animations and just Googled my way through that part, but I think it's pretty cool. I wish I would've made the logo a bit thicker, and I also wish I had learned more about materials/lighting in Blender because this would look so cool chromed-out: