Overview

Hello world! It's been too long since I've sat down to truly document some of the research, tools, or projects that have interested me recently. Since Artstation has the ability to create blogs, now is a great opportunity to start cataloging all that I'm doing. I'll post as often as needed to share what I've been doing. Some of it will be advice. Some of it will be tutorials. Some of it will be works-in-progress art. Feel free to comment with questions or your own info to add to the conversation! 

Why the Switch to Blender?

So first and foremost, I want to state that there is no 3D program that is the right solution for everybody. When I first started down my 3D path in college, Maya was my weapon of choice (only because other programs were not available on Mac OS). Once I began a student job helping create assets for educational games, I had to make the switch to 3ds Max. It has been by my side for over 10 years. While I became more comfortable in Max over the years, I also began to notice the lack of updates/progress on the program itself. This came to a head last year when I made the switch away from Photoshop. It suddenly dawned on me that if I was unhappy with Max, I should try out another 3D modeling package. 

Modeling in Blender 2.8

So why did I choose Blender? Well it was not an easy decision. I first jumped into Blender during the 2.4 version years and years ago. I knew instantly that it was not the program for me. The UI was completely lacking and most of the features were hidden behind hotkey memorization. Late last year, I saw that Blender was being upgraded to 2.8. That's when I hit the ground gathering research into what this new version of Blender could do for me. I have to say that I was instantly impressed. Not only was the UI getting a huge overhaul (and more features becoming easier to use/find) but Blender was gathering a community of creators who have contributed some great add-ons to it.

Using add-ons like Hard-Ops, BoxCutter, and MachineTools, I was able to try out new boolean workflows that would seem nearly impossible when creating in Max. On top of that, this new workflow relied less and less on supporting edge loops and subdivision modeling. What I wanted was a new 3D modeling program. What I found was new workflow techniques that removed the stale air left by Max. Many of issues I had with Max were not even present until I made the switch to Blender. An example being that I can keep modifiers on objects such as triangulation and weighted normals all while I continue modeling and unwrapping assets on the fly. Never is there a need to collapse and reset my stack. 

Even the context aware tools in Blender is a breath of fresh air. Extruding, insetting, or beveling parts of a mesh will bring up a variety of options that can be performed on the selected pieces. This ends up giving the user more options and faster results. This just touches the surface of the improvements in modeling I think Blender has to offer. I plan on diving into the nitty gritty of some of these things in future posts (as well as covering add-ons, workflow, and tip/tricks).

Blender Learning Project

In the meantime, I'm using this opportunity to work on a diorama that will feature all modeling done in Blender. It is an homage to my late grandmother and will be a section of her kitchen. It will provide me a good chance to get settled into Blender while discovering what it can do for me in game art production. The final scene will be presented in Unreal with textures being created in Designer and Painter. I look forward to sharing more in the future!