Isolation Day 11: Keep On Learning

Educating Jim

I’ve come to the conclusion that if I don’t set myself a task for the next 10 weeks, I might go from "eccentric" to full-on "padded wall" crazy. So, I’ve set myself a new mission: learning how to use Blender.

I dabbled in 3D modeling back at university and really enjoyed it, even if it was frustrating at times. While I started on 3DS Max, my student license expired long ago, and since I primarily use macOS now, I needed a better solution.

Why Blender?

For a free program, Blender is absolutely incredible—it’s packed with professional-grade features. I’m already getting interested in motion capture, and it’s mind-blowing to see that Blender has most of the tools needed to pull that off. It also features the Mantaflow simulation engine and a wealth of plugins that can generate complex terrains or even import 3D models of any city in the world using Google Maps or OpenStreetMap data.

My First Low-Poly Attempt

I decided to jump in with a simple beach scene. After a few hours of wrestling with keyboard shortcuts, a fair bit of cursing, and some long render times, I finally hit a roadblock. My initial fire effect looked rubbish because I had just placed a bunch of pyramids and rotated them to look "spikey."

A quick Google search led me to the particle system. It’s surprisingly intuitive once you get the hang of it: create a spawn point, define what it "spews out," and set the direction. After following a tutorial or two, I managed to create a decent low-poly fire effect. I also added a quick rotation to the cube I used for the water to give it that "tide coming in and out" animation.

Looking Ahead

I want to take this scene further. The goal is to make the house look a bit more realistic (while keeping that low-poly aesthetic) and add more environmental detail—maybe a sun that actually affects the lighting, dynamic clouds, and some variation in the trees.

What do you think of my first attempt? Do you have any favorite tutorials for beginners or tips for improving low-poly scenes? Let me know in the comments below!