3D modelling is a very useful and oftentimes necessary skill in the world of design. Digital design, in particular, is something that interests me a lot and because of that, I was driven toward 3D modelling. At first, I already knew what software I was going to use Blender. So, with little to no knowledge of the subject, I immediately jumped right into it and started experimenting and learning through personal interest. Granted, this was only possible because of my previous endeavours in the world of game development which had taught me how to manipulate objects in a 3D plane. However, I soon realised that my rudimentary skillset was nowhere adept at modelling when it came to blender. So I started learning by watching youtube videos and reading forums. Once I had the very basics done I started creating 3D models of my own and slowly progressed my skill level by learning more and more and creating a more complex model every time I learnt something new. My first models were a simple sword and a boat, my second ones were a rhino horned mech, a kunai and a full classroom scene. After that, I got even more deeply into the ordeal by learning to trace and started making very complex designs such as a detailed model of a katana from an anime and a dagger from a webtoon. Right now I am exploring the world of hard-surface modelling and am creating a detailed droid from Star Wars.

I plan to pursue 3D modelling further and have uploaded some of my models onto a website to sell.

Through this process, I have come to realise some of my personal strengths and weaknesses. One of the things that I am really competent at is steep learning curves. I can very quickly learn the basics of any skill by observing and researching, at least when it comes to digital media. There was barely 24 hours of time from when I opened blender for the first time and when I started making my own models. Within a week I had already mastered the basics and moved on to complex techniques such as tracing and shading. By 2 weeks time, I was learning new workflows such as booleans and subdivision to optimise time management and to optimise the models themselves. A weakness that I identified was that I need to work on my monotone approach toward skills. This means that I need to constantly try to find new and easier ways of achieving my goals when it comes to software. For example, when I was on models I always used the tool ‘bevel’ to smooth out edges because that was what I learnt first, this was very time consuming and often took 10-20 minutes just to smooth an entire model. It was also quite finicky since it often caused the geometry of certain parts to deform, creating ‘artefacts’. If I had stopped to think and research about this topic even for just 2 minutes I would have realised that there is a much simpler way to go about it and I could use the help of various modifiers to save a lot of time. Learning about these strengths and weaknesses gives me a lot of confidence because I can use my past shortcomings as guidance for my future

The challenge that this experience provided me was truly exciting but at times exhausting. Learning a new skill is always challenging and especially in the case of 3D modelling, it is difficult. The main challenges throughout the process were first to assimilate to the 3D environment and the x,y,z cartesian plane. This process was definitely made a little easier because of the time I spent a year ago when I was learning level design for games and had to work in a similar 3D environment. Then it came to learning the different tools and their functionalities and how to implement them into my models. All of this was relatively difficult and time-taking but it doesn’t even begin to compare to the exhaustive roadblock that I hit once I started to progress toward somewhat advanced models. This huge challenge was modelling curved surfaces. The idea of somehow producing curved models when the only thing that makes up those models is actually just polygons was definitely something that frustrated me. I spent a lot of time researching through youtube and forums but all I ended up finding was a curve modifier and a very long and painstaking process of adding a simple curve to an object. Obviously, learning from the past mistakes that I made with the bevel tool I did not accept such a solution. Thankfully, I received help from a friend who had been using Blender for many years. He showed me a way to overcome that challenge by critically thinking: using bezier curves and the ‘convert’ command to turn them into meshes.

This was a very enjoyable and enlightening experience and I am glad that I undertook the challenge of 3D modelling since it has helped my critical and creative thinking skills grow. I feel that it is very important to undertake big challenges such as this because it helps me grow and improve myself when I tackle them. All in all, this was an important experience and it has helped me improve my thinking skills and has also taught me a technical skill that is fun and also useful for Design and Technology since in that subject we can use this skill to make product models, prototypes or develop new design ideas. If there is one thing I would like to change with this experience if I did it again, it’s that I should have approached my friend earlier. As fun as it was learning on my own, it would definitely have sped up the process significantly. As of now, the big highlight in my modelling journey has definitely been the dagger since that is the project that I am most proud of and the one that I like the most.

Link to all the models and images: https://www.cgtrader.com/dhruvd