Blender 3D projects

Backgammon

A dice game.

Part of a weekly Blender collaboration. Topic "Dice game".

Mousetrap

A weelky Blender collab done in cycles.

Did some mouse sculpting, trying to keep a cartoonish style. While using Cycles and its realistic renders.

Alarm clock

A Cycles render.

Project done in Blender Eevee, but this render done in Cycles. Goal was to create an adverticement. So I went for a durable clock, no batteries or power needed. Save the nature ...

Neon

Neon street sign.

A quick project, because the subject was neon. So what to do, create a street sign. I had no real inspiration for the subject. So I decided to do this one in Cycles (1024 samples, no denoiser). And make it more realistic.

Steam airplane

Piece of high tech in 1908.

One week Blender challenge. Original idea was to make it more steampunk. But I didn't have the time before the deadline to add more details, more steampunk.

Also, I started this as a Eevee project. But Eevvee renders volumentric object as a box, not as a sphere. So I switch over to Cycles, but then rendertimes went up.

And to add more appeal to the image, more steam is needed and a background (more reference). Maybe a next project ...

Fish tank

A different view on aquarium, a real fish tank.

This project was based on a subject for a weekly challenge.

I used Eevee as base render. And Blender compositor to make the lens distortions to give it an underwater impression. Most time went in composition, materials, and lightning.

Hair salon

A weekly Blender challenge 'Hair salon'.

Visiting a hair salon is problematic in some parts of the world. And not allowed due to COVID-19 measures. Which means hair will grow and grow ...

I gave the hair a tree like shape and colors. And added the chainsaw as the main tool to work with.
Renderend in Blender Eevee.

Hair salon spraycans

A prop for the 'Hair salon' project.

I needed a prop to emphasize a hair salon. So I made a hairspray can. Glossy metal look, plastic cap.

In the air

A weekly challenge, March 2021.

"In the air" was this weeks theme. The only reference I had, was a music piece from Phil Collins "In the air tonight".

Then I looked up what it meant in a dictionary. And saw some examples of sentences with 'Spring'. It's a strange combination. And maybe nobody gets the visual link. But I liked the concept.

Retro game

A weekly collab challenge.

Retro game definition is - Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and/or collecting of older personal computers, consoles, and/or video games, in contemporary times. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are obsolete or discontinued.

The game PONG wasn't played on a PDP-1. They played Spacewars originally, also known by the name Asteroids. The monitor was a cathode ray tube (vector-based).

Maxanthium grenade

Developing a 3D object using 2D drawing techniques.

This small project started as 2D drawing challenge. Starting with a cylinder and adding or removing shapes from it in an orthographic drawing perspective.
Goal is to learn orthographic perspective and practice drawing ovals.

From 2D to 3D Battle axe

Following a 2D game art course, from Grant Abbitt

Complete Game Drawing Course - Learn How To Be An Artist From Scratch by Grant Abbitt.

I'm using this 2D game art course to upgrade my 2D drawing skills. So I can easily sketch my 3D designs upfront. Just because I like to do so. Pencil and paper give so much more freedom.

Gerrit Rietveld 'De stijl' 1917-1923

Influenced by Piet Mondreaan

Gerrit Rietveld designed his chair arouned 1917. Paint design around 1923, influence by Piet Mondreaan.

Space Tourism

The first new challenge in 2021

Introducing 'Five-O-Pus', an octopus with three legs less.

Created a cell shader for a more comic look-and-feel. And getting more experience with the Blender material shader functions. Because the material node shader is a real gem. But difficult to master.

Gnome home

A study on Blender Eevee renderer.

I wanted to design a fun and colorful cartoon-like house. And tried to gain some experience with Blender Eevee render because of its speed.
Later, I decided to use this in an animation project. But the current model brought me in to troubles. Eevee only renders what can be seen in the viewport. So objects outside the view, casting shadows, are not part of the render.
Not a problem for still renders, but in animations it is notable.

Vintage parking meter

A weekly challenge.

I had only time to create the model and stencils. But then had problems with texture painting. It is difficult to draw textures while moving your mouse, but you will slowly see results on the canvas.

The lack of standard brushes in Blender doesn't help either. So spend time researching this topic. I have some homemade stencils, but how to manage them and easily reuse them.

Mad Cow

As in smoked beef.

Just a study on how to make a comical and funny figure.

War on COVID-19

A study.

Focussing on materials, composition.

Protective Suits

This was a weekly design challenge.

Create a protective suit.
For me it was all about storytelling and composition. I kept modeling simple because I wanted to use Cycles. With low lighting conditions, so noise could be a problem.
This project was all about composition, rule-of-third, focus, guiding the viewer. Explaining why to use a protectice suit.

Well

A study.

While the basis are very simple. The well is a simple construction. I've tried to add more details to this dark scene.
Focussing more on composition and materials. The scene is a bit dark, because I want to use candle lights.
I've tried to use the rule of one-third. Personally I liked the outcome.

COVID-19 Injections

A pre study for the "War on COVID" project.

Used a syringe as an object particle to populate this cartoon character.

Dip pen

A study on texture paint.

Using textured pencils.

Ink bottle

A study on materials and texture paint.

using textured materials.

Thor's hammer

Just a study on materials and composition.

Spend a lot of time on composition this one. It hard to tell a story behind the visual.

Cube Dude, animation props

Focussing on Blender animation.

Trying to follow the 12 animation principles of Disney. And breaking up the animation in several camera shots.

"What makes a clown laugh?"

Subject of a weekly challenge.

Maybe visiting a prank store on black friday. "Yesterday, 70% off", "Used pranks", ...

I reused a lot of objects from other projects to fill the shop window. But not enough time to make it more realistic. Which is hard to do.

Snow globe

Personally I love these Minions.

Minions are so simple in design. But very expressive in face and accessories.
Goal was to animate the snow particles, which is hard to do.

Repetitive cube maze

Inspired by an Dutch graphic artist M.C. ESCHER

My goal was to create a cube and reuse this cube to build a random maze by just rotating the cube.

To give the cube somesort of dimension, I added a person figure. Also to give an indication of the different perspectives.

Visit the website of M.C. Escher

Valentine's Day

Do aliens have a Valentine's Day?

This was part of a weekly challenge.

Halloween 2020

A weekly challenge submission

I wanted to do something different from the default pumpkins.

#UseThePlatform wallpaper

This was a Google I/O statement to start using browser functions in web application.

And I'm a fan of Futurama Bender. So I combined those two in a wallpaper.

Alien cartoon figure

A simple cartoon figure to perform animations on.

I like animation a lot. Which is also a lot of work.
I want to have a simple low-poly figure. Simple hands and feet, less armature to handle. And with other experiences, like the Cude Dude, it should be possible to give 'life' to this figure.

Knight in shiny armour

the outcome of the weekly challenge.

I call this one "Wannabe"-Knight.

I found this one a fun subject. I could add more details and naughty kid expressions.

Bender wallpaper

Created this Bender figure with Blender 3D as a 3D print model.

And reused Bender combined a lamp as a wallpaper. The lamp was created as part of a tutorial in the GameDev.tv complete Blender creator course.

Happy Holidays December 2020

A collage of cartoon figures.

In my mind, I had a scene visualized from the movie “The Right Stuff”. Also used in the movie “Monsters & Co.” and probably in other movies too.

The first two, from the left, do use the same figure shape. Then 'Cupido', the Orc, Mr. Alien and Cube Dude.
If you scroll down you will recongnize them in other projects.

Have fun, stay healthy and I wish you all the best for the new year. A merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Coffee & Donut

Following a Youtube tutorial, created by Blender Guru.

Creating a donut with sprinkles.

Food

Food challenge

Spend about an hour on this weekly challenge. Done with Eevee.
Reused my cartoon character and added some props.

And yes, he wears shoes. My low-poly figure doesn't have feet!

Fish tunnel

Working with HDRI surround images.

Mechanical fish, swimming in the air inside a tunnel.
Problems where the shadows and lighting. Especially those on the walls and floor. The lights point where fixed because of the used HDRI image.
It was a good study project.

Space Station

This one was all about architecture and generated textures.

The complex or carefully designed structure of something.

I choose the subject of space which was difficult to compose nicely. I wanted to focus to material nodes and less on modeling and image textures. The planet material is completely node based generated. Even so the universe with stars.
I used Blender compositor to combine 4 scenes into one. The Universe, planet, planet blue halo and the space station. Partly to make the renders faster, because once the universe and planet was done. I could use the rendered stills and focus on the station.

Weekly challenge submission.

A glass jar with eyeballs

A study on glass and fluid materials.

This was a difficult process. Slow renders, because of the noise (2.79 Blender).
Bad understanding of this material type in combination with modeling and interaction of different objects. Like glass in glass ...

It was a fun project to do. Because of the things I've learned. But now with the Eevee render engine available, things are repeated. You need to study how Eevee handles this subject.

Collage

Outcome of one year Blender 3D study.

In 2016 I started a Blender course on GameDev.tv. It took me about a year to finish the Blender 2.79 version. Nearly every aspect of Blender was explained, but not in every detail.
Since then I did also two other courses. Just because it gave me a lot of fun. And I learned a lot.

This collage presents some of the things I've made during this course. Targetting Blender aspects like modeling, hair, particles, animation, physics, explosions. And much, much more.

Fish low-poly

Weekly challenge based on fish.

And as an additional design challenge, the number of vertices was not allowed to exceed 1000.

I created the fish first, so I knew the basic vertices count. And calculate the number of maximum fishes. Adding more details, means less fish.

I also did some Blender compositing manipulation. Merging three render layers into one; blue background, fishes and as third the light beams.

Think

Getting grip on materials and texture paint.

To get more experience on Blender texture painting, I created a small project to work on. The mesh is fairly simple. No difficult process in unwrapping these objects and adding texture paint on them.
Or adding material node configurations on them.

'T' texture paint, 'H' particles grass and texture images, 'I' texture paint, 'N' material nodes plus texture paint (bump map) and 'K' grass and flower particles.

Fire hydrant

Fresh out of the box.

I like the shape of this object. And the intention was to make it old and worn out. But then I didn't know how to do this. Didn't know about texture paint and material nodes.
Maybe I should revisit this project. But there are so many other creative things to do.

Pausing

A test run to see if the armature (rigging) works.

But due to the tile texture on the floor and background wall. A strange effect unfolds. The image tilts but it doesn't.
Only the wall material node tile texture has a rotation mapping applied to.

Hair test

Applying some Blender physics to the hair particles.

Hair is a difficult subject for me. It makes my renders slow (I have a simple laptop). So I try to avoid the subject. But knowledge about this subject is a must.

initial I tried to create a little Angel with wings (X-Mas challenge). But I canceled the project due to render slowness. I even tried Eevee but having troubles with Eevee setup.

Christmas

Three wise men on route.

A weekly challenge where I choose for a different style. Low-poly, flat faced models.