Low poly 3D landscape scene created in Blender by Xavier Wendling
Low poly 3D landscape scene created in Blender by Xavier Wendling

A new creative dimension

5/23/2019

So thrilled to be introducing something new and fresh.

I am starting a journey to mastering Blender, the reference open source 3D creation suite. The project brings me back to a passion born years ago when I had an opportunity to explore and use 3D Studio and learn the basics of 3D modeling, rendering and animation. At the time I had developed a few personal projects but my professional trajectory would eventually lead me to other areas of interest and expertise. It is such a joy to be reconnecting to that earlier passion.

So far I can tell Blender is an impressive piece of software backed by a community of passionate professionals and developers. So powerful it feels limitless, so feature rich it could be intimidating and overwhelming, and yet feeling so intuitive and enjoyable to use already. I have only scratched the surface so far. I can't honestly tell I am mastering all keyboard shortcuts yet. But it already feels quite natural to navigate between the various tools for scene composition, object modeling, materials and textures, light and camera setup or rendering.

I can't wait to becoming a skilled and experienced user, to be developing my first projects including more low poly scenes such as the one featured here, one of my first learning project so far. Other areas of aspiration and upcoming exploration include architectural rendering, realistic urban lanscape simulation and character animation.

Something significant has changed since the years I was learning 3D Studio on my own, mostly relying on the well designed yet rather dry official user manual. Today the internet, search engine technology and YouTube have made it such an accesible and enjoyable experience to master new skills. It has never been so easy to access high quality training resources created by passionate creators and get answers to any problem or question.

As I become proficient with Blender, my aim is to make 3D graphics and motion design an integral part of my creative skillset along with photography, video and [graphic design][3], to unlock new visual storytelling opportunities. I believe they are endless. I can't wait to be there.

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