Lee Dixon

Blender Week 004 Wooden Box Already into week 4, thought I would try a couple of different simple builds this time around. Wooden Plant Box and a Glass Bottle of sorts.....  Starting with the box, my strategy was to make it the way I would if I was making it out of wood, so a bottom, four sides and blocks to hold it all together. Really simple, nothing too taxing in this. Using the same perceptual material from last weeks table  helped with the look. Next was just creating a plain and subdividing it about five times and using proportional editing with random setting to make an uneven surface for the soil. And a tile-able texture image applied worked ok, though later I thought it could of done with some depth by using some displacement, but I'm not at that level yet of knowing how to apply this in the right way.. 

Blender Week 003 Continuing on from last week's wooden table, I thought I would pull back a bit from using too many elements like the modifiers, I need to walk or even crawl before I can run.. So a table is still a good start and wood yes, going for just a simple slab of wood, and splitting it in the middle to make it look interesting in some way. Next I added four very simple cylinders for the legs. Again I added my studio sweep (getting good at making these), and then a few lamp light sources around my table. Now this is the part where I cheat, but please bare with me, it’s for a very good reason. As I have said in last post, materials and texture are really going to be the thing for me, and most likely the hardest to get my head around. So…. I got hold of a free material that is procedural called chocofur wood, and as you will see in the images below, a good material makes one hell of a difference. Now I haven't the faintest clue about this material an...

Blender Week 002 A little reading, a little watching of video tutorials and a little playing around with Blender, so let's get building….. Thought I would start with setting my screen up just to what I need to see. As with most software like this you can customize it greatly to fit how you need it to work for you. Main window for working in, small window for render preview and a node window. Pressing (T) key hides the menu tab which gives a little more space, it’s all about the shortcuts… A small rustic like table is what I thought I would have a go at first, so starting with a rectangular block I apply an Array modifier to the count of 4, then a Subdivision Surface modifier, then onto a Displacement modifier with a cloud texture to give the wood a small uneven surface, and then finally a smooth modifier. After that I applied the same to four legs.       Needed something for the table to sit on so created a Plane and curved the backend up to give it a...

Blender Week 001 My first week with Blender has been kinda slow, I have been gathering as much information/websites/books/videos as I can and trying to absorb them. One name that keeps coming up is Andrew Price, he runs a website called Blender Guru and that’s one to check out, he also has a keyboard shortcut guide that is free to download, which is very handy, as Blender is a program that will need you to remember shortcuts to speed up work flow, very much like Photoshop. I also picked up his The Wow Factor book which is way ahead of anything I can do and is really for once you have created something, how to give it that extra little thing that makes it stand out and look more real. For a later read someway down the line I think ;) Video wise have have hit YouTube and have created a blender playlist that you can have a look. I will be adding more to it over time when I find something that I believe will help me in m y quest to make something. I do find that watching ...

New project, learn to use the 3D software Blender. I have been playing with the idea for sometime now, but have really not put the effort into having a good go at it, and something like this needs just that, effort and time. Now I thought if I start doing maybe a weekly blog post about my progress, it might make me push myself more. I am aware that I blog for myself more than anyone else, and that maybe no one will even read this, it's still my way mentally to get my arse in gear…. As some of you may know my line of work is Photoshop. I had been a photographer for around 16yrs, then digital really took hold of the industry and I realized that the craft that I had learnt had gone, as it was no longer needed to get the right shot in one or two goes, you could shoot 100+ shots and pick one. So I looked towards the digital editing side of the business and trained myself until there was a position for me. And now I’m starting to think the same again about the industry. Every...