Quick update on modelling in Blender

My 'person' tutorial from a the past few days is finished, with hat in place. I'm going quickly into materials and textures tutorials, so for now I'll just share what you'd end up with if you follow the tutorial I did.

Again, I'd like to share that the wikibook tutorial is well-written and easy to follow.

Blender progress with wikibook: simple person in progress

Simple person tutorial finished

After several short sections, my person is finished. Soon I'll be adding a hat. FYI, the tutorial is found at a wikibook link called Blender 3D: Noob to Pro and it's very easy to understand. I'm using Blender 2.73 and the tutorial works fine. Some older tutorials I found were difficult just because keyboard shortcuts and other instructions didn't seem to work with 2.73, which is currently the latest stable release of Blender.

I'm starting to get an idea of all the modification and sculpting one can do with basic geometric building blocks and "modifiers." Then, apparently, so much more can be done physics simulations, textures, bones, and rigging. Between cgcookie.com's Blender tutorials and the Noob to Pro wikibook, I'm having fun and getting a good, organized feel for the software. I think it's a good sign that already, just a week or so into the process, I'm starting to get ideas for characters I want to model and environments I want to construct in Blender. 

Then I get inspired and get out my pastels or watercolours and draw quick sketches as usual to keep track of ideas and try them out with my trusted tools.

Here's my completed person, at several stages of modification today.

Computer hardware issues

I'd like to mention that I haven't found any hardware problems. I'm using a one-year-old iMac, base model with 16 GB memory, and it works fine. In the olden days, an ordinary personal computer wouldn't run programs that involved 3D calculations, I recall, and we always had extra processors in my family's computers to make sure drafting programs like AutoCad would run alright. 

It's very exciting to me, to see people without any drafting background able to work with an open source program that does extremely accurate visuals without having to struggle so hard and rely on technical math, programming, and drafting principles. 

And it looks awesome! I dare ya to search Google for Blender samples of graphics and animations. Films too, don't forget those! Here's one page of samples that I like: 27 Inspiring Blender Animations.

Blender exercises going well using wiki books

I'm following two sources to learn Blender so far. After some trial and error, I found that http://cgcookie.com and http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/ have good tutorials and information.

Cgcookie has some free tutorials, and many more are available which look useful once you join their modest $18/month membership. I may just join them myself. I'm doing approximately one free tutorial per day, and I predict that finding good ones for free will eventually become frustrating. Rather than seek endlessly for free learning, I'll probably be ready to pay up for some respected course or tutorial membership site. Meanwhile, perhaps like you, I want to learn enough to understand what I'm getting involved with.

Unsurprisingly, learning Blender is invigorating my traditional art practice as well. I have made two drawings that were important to me, in the past two days. I recall saying the same thing three days ago, too! I also want to learn Corel Painter but that one is further down my list right now for practical reasons - I have upcoming projects that will benefit from understanding Blender and 3D animation.

Today's tutorial exercise - modelling a basic human figure

Following a tutorial in Noob to Pro, I was able to produce a basic building-block figure without flaws,  following very clear instructions:

As the day (and week) progresses, I'll add more pictures. The next part of the tutorial starts to look a little more like a normal human figure!

Latest drawing - this one's a creepy, crawly figure

Here's a quick shot of a drawing exercise today, turned watercolour painting:

Cellphone snapshot of a drawing today

The exercise instructed me to start with a stick figure, which I took as an opportunity to draw an unfortunately weary human form. Then add mass, and colour, with light and shadow.

I didn't get so far as adding light and shadow specifically, but I did add an ominous tornado-like dark force at left, creeping up behind the poor traveller. Oddly enough, he seems to be heading into the light.

The paper was quite wet upon finishing, and I added some sprinkles of salt to try out the technique of using salt to add a textured look to watercolour washes. I sprinkled three areas - both of the red patches of background, plus the blue tornado element. I suspect the blue was nearly dry, as the salt had little, if any effect.

Note that my teen drawing was often creepy like this - some deformation but still recognizably human. This drawing takes anatomy more seriously though, to coincide with the thorough discussion of anatomy in the drawing books I've read recently.

This time, instead of starting with the feet, I started with the head; I really wanted the figure to not be completely in profile, and here he is turning away slightly so we see the back of his head and just a hint of an eye and nose. Then the basic pelvic shape, then the legs hanging off awkwardly, with dainty slow steps beneath.

I think he looks stable on his feet, but that crazy life-adjusted back curve tells a story that this person is not the same man he was years ago...although it still was just a drawing practice exercise!

Also note that his feet are able to articulate. I wonder if I drew that so prominently, at a time when I've broken some toes in my foot and can't make that shape with my own foot (yet?) !

This exercise reminds me that I love to make drawings of figures doing things. Sports is ideal for me, and I've done lots of that in past (not recently). And I also have fun using my imagination to create unlikely or unlikeable situations for the characters. Or maybe exciting and positive situations too. We'll see what happens at my next practice session, I guess!

Progress on Cafe Guy line drawing started at Starbucks

I like this little drawing I made at a cafe. I was trying to keep my people-drawing skills active. Doing it reminded me that I feel comfortable drawing people, even when they're not in intense action.

Here's a screenshot of the work in progress, on a bigger sheet of paper now. The original was about 4x5" at the cafe, and now it's 8.5x11" on watercolour paper.

Ink drawing of Cafe Guy, copied from sketch book

I actually made two copies at the larger size. The first was drawn simply from the original as a model, and without precise scaling. The result is very close to the original little sketch. By the way, the guy left while I was drawing - he was a cafe customer and I hoped he was merely gone briefly to the bathroom - but really only the table portion was missing, so I turned it into a ledge. He never returned, anyway, so I stand by that decision.

The other large copy was made by tracing the first enlargment, after it was inked. The violet ink I chose was barely visible when blank watercolour paper was laid over the enlarged, inked copy, taped to the window. This copy was also inked.

One of these larger copies will become a hard pastel illustration, and the other a watercolour. I'm in the mood for lively, fanciful colours and backgrounds lately, and this subject gives me lots of opportunity to play.

Some of my thoughts were captured on video using my cell phone, soon after making the first enlargement, and they are shared below. I hope my video comments throughout this blog will give you insight into how I work, and get the results I do.

I'm always learning more, don't get me wrong! It's been a while since I had full-time creative work. I miss it and want to get there again, using the internet regularly to share work, and push myself to ever-greater skill. The quality of illustration I see online these days, and now digital arts too, humbles me but also thrills me.

I like this sort of line illustration. It reminds me of doodling during high school math class, or drawing objects under force in high school physics. I recall very much having notebooks full of doodles that didn't relate at all to what I was supposed to be doing, as well!

Since my last office work position ended earlier this year, I am confident to keep practicing the excellent training I've had in live classes, and tutorials found online. The techniques are out there for all of us to practice and experiment with. I'm just relieved to find sites like fiverr.com that let me offer skills for convenient sale! Find me there- my handle is "Island Geek" and I have 100% 5-star ratings, and a 3% world domination value!