For additional practice, I’ve decided to set myself a similar challenge: Pick a random word and make a short animated scene based on it. I’ll set a 1 week project deadline for myself, and make it a priority to work on the project each day until it’s complete. For now I’ll choose a word on Thursday, start modelling on Sunday, and complete the scene the following Sunday. Using a random word generator, let’s see what the first word that comes up is. 

Transportation 

Before I start modelling, I need to brainstorm the scene I want to make. What kind of transportation do I want to show? Will it be a real life vehicle, or something futuristic or fantastical? Is it over land, sea, air, or space? The first thing that comes to mind is the Hyperloop project, which looked cool in concept but is too complicated and unsafe to use in practice. But since this is my version, how about a Hyperloop in Space? 

I considered modelling a space train, but while looking at the cylindrical shape of a Hyperloop car, I imagined multiple rounded cabins attached to each other in a larger shape like the feathers on a bird’s wing. Some playing around in Blender later, my finished model became a spaceship, the USS Coatl! The wing shaped parts house passenger cabins, while the main body is for restaurants, shops, meeting spaces, and staff areas. It’s “beak” is inspired by the Concorde airplane and houses the main computer and sensors, while the ship’s Bridge is in the sphere just underneath. 

I also made time to create a model for this week’s Create with Clint challenge, “Path.” It’s a rocky island in the North Sea home to a hermit, who’s home is placed in the crater of a long dead volcano. The path goes up to the hermit’s house from the dock, as he is often visited by those needing advice. Many of the materials, HDRI’s, and models are from Blender Kit, a website that supplies free and paid subscription resources for Blender projects. 

I’m going to continue my Blender practice with both weekly challenges, and monthly challenges like those on The Rookies website. Not only will this help me improve my technical skills, but generate cool animations and 3D graphics for my demo reel. I’ll try to switch up my workflow by completing similar challenges in Unreal Engine, Adobe Animate, and other animation programs so I can have fun while moving toward my Motion Design dream job.