Learning 3D modeling in 14 weeks
By: Samantha Zhang
Tags: Design, 3d, UX, Learning, UI

At that point, I felt confident that I could create a low-poly model of almost anything I want in Blender.

3. Cultivate 3D Sense at Every Opportunity

Another important piece of this journey was cultivating my 3D imagination at every opportunity, because I had none at the beginning.

My ability to understand and imagine things in 3D was so bad that I sucked at 3D games for my entire life. It was embarrassing when my friends urged me to try World of Warcraft. 75% of the time I was asking “Where am I?” “Where are we going?” “Wait, where are the enemies coming from?” and “No…” because I died again. The other 25%? I was just spacebar following someone. At least that was easy :) As a UX designer, I can easily see 2D designs in my head before I put down the pixels. Not being able to do the same in 3D was frustrating.

So, what did I do? Deliberate practice, but in fun ways.

The first thing I picked up is Minecraft. It’s a 3D game in its simplest format. Exploring caves and abandoned mine shafts, finding my way in roofed forests and ravines, I slowly grew from having to constantly cheat and check coordinates to having an idea about where I was going in winding tunnels.

The other thing I did was signing up for a pottery class at my local community college. Physically holding clay in my hands and doing 3D modeling in real world gave me a fresh perspective, and the relatively slow pace gave me time to think.

I now have a way better ability to see objects in 3D in my mind. And interestingly, it also helped my drawing-I had little real training and used to struggle with perspective a lot, but now that I’m better at imagining objects in 3D and turning them around in my mind, it really helps.

4. Enter Competitions

Now the last point, the secret ingredient: enter competitions.

We all need motivation to keep us going, and competition provides a clear objective, a clear timeline, and an opportunity to put our skills to the test. It’s especially fun to join as a newbie since you’ve got nothing to lose; and if by sheer chance you win something, that’s great external validation. Even if you lose, you will still have some really polished pieces, probably the best work you can do at the time.

I joined three Sketchfab competitions as I was learning 3D modeling.

I. My Ideal Planet (Voxel)

The first competition I entered was around week 06. I was lucky that a voxel challenge dropped while I was deep in MagicaVoxel.

The brief was about creating one’s ideal planet in voxel, and that immediately led me to thinking about how the little prince traveled to many planets. What’s the most ideal planet? Definitely the scenario in which he returns to his planet, with the little sheep in the box. The sunset planet was the only competition, but that would be relying on a sunset backdrop to work, not the modeling itself.

So I started, day and night, tackling a way larger canvas than I ever had before. To make the composition more interesting, I put the little prince at a diagonal angle, and that took a lot of trial and error. The little prince and his little sheep were the only two living characters I’ve ever modeled. I also picked up more MagicaVoxel to Sketchfab exporting skills along the way.

Although there are a lot of imperfections (my biggest regret is I put the volcano in the dead center of the orb, which makes it too uptight), my hard work paid off, and it got both an honorable mention and a staff’s pick!

II. Utopia (Low-poly)

The second challenge dropped around week 13. It was about creating futuristic utopian assets under 2k triangles, which was perfect for my skill level. I wouldn’t have a chance in many Sketchfab challenges. Having a limit on the number of triangles leveled the playing field a bit for me.

I took the opportunity to learn simple animation in Blender, and again, just so I’d have a slightly better chance at winning, I spent more time on lighting and rendering in those challenges than in my weekly room practices.

Here’s the final rendering:

It didn’t win me anything, unfortunately, but that’s expected. Even without any prize, it’s a very nice piece that I created towards the end of my journey, and I adore the end result.

III. Medieval Fantasy Asset Pack (Low Poly)

The last challenge, and the real proof of how far I’ve got in 14 weeks’ time, was the medieval game assets challenge. This is a highly competitive challenge, with far higher prizes (10x monetary value) than Sketchfab’s typtical challenge. I know I had basically no chance to win (take a look at the winning projects -I really had zero chance), but it was such a great concept.

I am a huge fan of Dungeons & Dragons, and I was scoping out my capstone project for my VR nanodegree at Udacity at the time. I saw the opportunity to morph the two projects into one and create the assets for a medieval-themed room escape game.

What’s more, it just so happens that the Udemy course I bought has an entire chapter on game asset packs. It’s like I kindled 3D-modeling-related things here and there, and they all led to this serendipity.

So I got to work. From modeling each component, to setting up a grid system so both external walls and roofs as well as internal decors and furniture were modular (my knowledge of design systems also played a role here), and then on to cycle rendering and baking lights… It’s amazing how much I learned just to do well in one challenge.

Beautiful rendering, lights, shadows, and textures. Definitely the best work I could have produced with my skill set.

That’s not all: because I spent the time and made everything modular, I don’t just have this one room. I have components that would allow me to make many medieval rooms: