My Path to Learning Blender
- Ethen Dent
- Feb 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 17
Throughout my time at Escape Studios, I've learned and used Autodesk Maya for years. Maya, however, is rather expensive and to keep OddWatch financially viable, I've started to learn Blender to do the bulk of the assets for Project Horizon. This blog post will go over my journey learning the software package and I'll update this blog post as I go.
02/02/26
THE DONUT
"Over the course of this month, alongside work and Project Horizon, I have been learning how to use Blender as an alternative to Maya. The place to start... Blender Guru's Donut Tutorial. The starting place for a lot of people who start with this software package. I have a little more work to do in regards to lighting and rendering. Perhaps some rework for what material the table is but for now, it is fine."
[IN PROGRESS RENDERS]
[FINAL RENDER]
12/02/26
BLENDER FOR BEGINNERS: ANIMAL CROSSING CHARACTER
"After the donut tutorial, I'm keeping naviagtion and environment knowledge fresh by doing a simple tutorial that practices skills learnt previously as well as additional navigation skills on top of that. When I first saw this tutorial, I immediately thought of Animal Crossing back when I played it as a kid. Animal Crossing Wild World was a game I played and Aurora was my favourite character as she was a penguin."
[IN PROGRESS RENDER]
[FINAL RENDER]
"After finishing the tutorial, what I would do differently in future is alter the texturing process and use Substance instead."
"From the previous 2 projects, I'm beginning to get acustomed to navigating Blender. I've brainstormed ways that can help accelerate my learning and something has come to mind. I feel proficient at Maya. And it makes sense, to me, to follow a similar path in Blender. So the following projects will consist of similar briefs during my Maya journey."
LINEBECK'S BOAT
Task Description - One of my first assignments consisted of making a toy train. This project will do the same but change it slightly to a toy boat. To keep with the same theme of 'The Legend of Zelda', Linebeck's boat is the perfect choice. A quick search indicates to me that there aren't any high quality versions of this model. A perfect opportunity to present a high quality Linebeck's ship model.
3D HEALTH ASSET
Task Description - An assignment originating from a game asset foundation course, create a video game asset of a health pickup less than 1,500 polys.
JUKEBOX
Task Description - Model a high detailed asset and integrate it onto a single frame plate. For this, I will follow the same theme and model a jukebox. This time, it will be a different model and year.
SLEUTH ANIMATION
Task Description - An assignment coming from the animation foundation segment of the course. We will make a short animation focusing on a character. This time, we will delve further by realising, rigging and animating a character of our own.
ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATION
Task Description - This assignment consists of a very simple task. Integrate CG onto a plate. In Maya, I modeled a small retro shop and integrated it into a plate of an underpass.
COMPLEX ORGANIC CHARACTER
Task Description - This assignment was meant to utilise ZBrush, but I felt it appropraite to extend this in my path to leanring Blender. The assignment was to model an organic character of choice. Originally, I modeled a Mudokon from Abe's Odysee as my interest in the upcoming remakes was high.
ENVIRONMENT INTEGRATION
Task Description - And finally, this task consists of a CG environment integrated onto a plate of choice.
What I’ve been listening to:
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