What I learned in Blender in the past 3 Months
Week 01 - Interface & Navigation
In week one, the lecturer gave us a Lego model to play with the user interface and menu in blender. I learnt how to use the grab, rotate and scale tool. I also learnt how to parent objects, which is the most important concept in Blender. For the classwork, the lecturer let us to make the Lego characters to have the same pose as the reference picture. I managed to use a random weird picture from wikihow as reference.
How to get a girlfriend?
Week 02 - Mesh Modeling
In week two, the lecturer thought us how to model a simple android. I learnt there the two modes in blender: Object mode and Edit mode. In edit mode, I can alter the vertex, edge, and face of an object. Then I tried to construct this minimal 3D scene with only 10 cubes as classwork.
Week 03 - Mesh Modeling
In week three, I learnt to make interior objects. I found the modifier tool is very powerful and I should apply object smooth after I finished the object to make it smooth.
Week 04 - Material & Shader
In week four, I learnt that Material and Shader will determine the how an object feels. I learnt to use different BSDF materials to make the objects feel like Plaster, Plastic, Metal, Gold, Silvery etc. I can even make a material emit colored light, by using the Emission material.
Week 05 - Texture mapping
In week five, I learnt how to apply texture with Shade editor and UV editor. I found it is so annoying to apply UV until I found that is a hack to use the Shade editor to create texture. We can use a addon called Node Wrangler and press ctrl + shift + t to create texture in no time.
Week 06 - 3D Scene Set Up
For assignment 1, I have to make a scene. This is what my sketch look like:
Assignment 1
However when I started to work on it, I found one of my groupmates is holding the same camera angle as me. Then I decided to choose another camera angle. I also made the scene different from my groupmates.
I actually made a large map so I thought this scene could be used many times.
Final Output:
Week 07 - Three Points Lighting
In week seven, we learnt the lighting, which is the most important thing in setting up the scene. I need to set up 3 different lightings, one is called key light, another two are called back light and fill light respectively. A good three point lighting will definite change the feel of an object and thats why the lighting is the most important thing when setting up 3D scene.
Week 08 - Indoor & Outdoor Lighting
In week eight, we have another lighting practice. I found there is actual difference with indoor and outdoor lighting. For indoor lighting, I need to bake the light so the scene will look much better.
Week 09 - Key-framing & Sequence output
In week nine, I learnt to make an animation for the helicopter. I found animating is actually not as hard as I thought. Blender is so powerful that it will calculate the movement for me. I just need to insert keyframes.
Week 10 - Character Modeling & Rigging
In week ten, I was working on my first model. The progress didn’t go well, because I tried to use the sculpting tool all the time. The model was too bad. I decided to rework it and try to build my model from some simple cubes. Then I and my group mates started to look for some online tutorials from YouTube.
So Terrible… But It will evolve!
I downloaded a hair resource from the Internet.
Then I used the arm model to be leg, in order to save effort.
For the hand, I tried to use a online resource and modify it.
Finally my model is done! Then I tried to apply rigging. I didn’t encounter much problem.
^ Final Model
Week 11 - Walk cycle
In week eleven We learnt to make walking animation. I followed the lecturer in the video and made the little girl walk like a boy. My friends think the animation is quite smooth so I decided not to rework it.
Assignment 2
Then I managed to make 2 more animations for the assignment.
Walking
Scared
For this scared animation, I have looked up a lot of reference on the Internet but no to avail. Then I tried to imagine a scared girl.
Posing
Before making this posing, I was running out of idea. I can’t think of what should I do to this little girl. Then I looked up YouTube and found some random posing.
She is so cute. Then I decided to take this as reference. In order to make the pose look natural, I spent a lot time in tuning her leg movement. Since in the reference her leg isn’t shown, I have to imagine them.
^ I tried to change the color of my character clothings and hair so they will 100% match.
Final Project
This 3 Scenes are what I put into the movie:
Walking Scene
I applied 3 point lighting into the character.
To render this 1 second scene, I literally cut everything in the Blender file.
Final Output:
Television Scene
This is my first idea. Since I knew empty(image) cannot be rendered, I managed to use a greenscreen to key the video later.
Then the lecture told me that there is actually add-on to let me directly put the image. How convenient is that.
Originally I was using warm color tone for the scene. Then I added a bit purple to make the scene mysterious.
I asked for lecturer’s help and he think I should change the light on the little girl.
Then finally, I added some extra stuffs in the scene, applied some texture and bake the lights.
Final Output:
Shooting Scene
This is my first idea. I used some red lights to indicate this is a killing scene. But first I need to make the rifle actually fire.
I used the 2 resource from the Internet:
Then I added them as plane, to add some lights on it. But I didn’t know how to make it appear for 1 frame only, so I asked lecturer and he shown me that I can actually insert key frame into the render setting.
I wanted to add red to my scene to show this is a killing scene.
Then I asked lecturer, he said it is too red. I managed to reduce the red and try to add some purple.
Then finally, I added some extra stuffs in the scene, applied some texture and bake the lights.
Final Output:
