The Start of my Blender Journey
Ever since I was a child I've been fascinated with movies
I've always wanted to be involved in film, always. I did my post-grad studies of film in Los Angeles at the New York Film Academy which was an incredible experience. Getting to make movies on the Universal backlot... I mean its the home of movies!! What more could a budding young filmmaker want?!
After I returned to England I started my working career in film beginning with short films. Each getting larger in scale until it got to the point where I felt I was ready to take on a feature film.
Wasteland, my first feature, was an epic journey; a battle of endurance. It took a good few years to complete and and then get released which we were thrilled to be able to do. It's available in a range of outlets, including Amazon.
So this is where I was at. I went on to start working on a second feature called Vengeance, which is filmed and edited but this is where there is a sharp turn in the story. My family was pulled into a legal battle for an education placement for our eldest daughter. It was one of the most destructive and mentally and psychologically draining experience I've ever had and ended up in a high court case, which we won. It took everything from my wife and I, and left us needing to rebuild our lives.
After a prolonged period of not being involved in work or really anything to with the life I was building previously, I decided I needed to get back into working towards getting back to where I was. My confidence was at its lowest point. I didn't really know what to do. I wanted to be able to tell stories. I want to feel that thrill of seeing a narrative come together, but I didn't know where to start.
One day I was on Instagram and I came across a collection of images that had been created using a software called Blender. I remember looking it the programme about 5 years earlier and trying it out and not really getting on with it. I found it difficult to navigate and just an overwhelming amount of buttons.
So one day in June 2019 I downloaded a copy of Blender. Installed it and start to play around I figured the worse case scenario was that I'd have to delete the programme a re-install it. After a few hours of clumsily trying to figure out how to do literally anything I had this my first render.
Now I'm totally aware this isn't going to blow anyone way but for me in that moment I'd created something. Something I didn't think was possible, especially after the battering my mental health and confidence had taken in recent times. I was quietly pleased with myself. Not for this image, no, this is awful, but because I'd tried to do something that I didn't know how to do and I'd achieved it. It was a baby step to returning to where I was before.
My mind now started to wake up. The possibilities were suddenly endless, but so endless I didn't know where to start.
So I did what everyone does, I tried to do it all, and all at once. I went off in every direction.
I went in straight for a cloth simulation and a liquid simulation. My computer did not know what hit it.
Needless to say this was a step forward from my chair but there are lots of issues with it. I then tried to go down a sci-fi route, an environment route and a creature design route. None were very successful because I wasn't getting the basics right.
I was getting a little bit disheartened. My need to achieve something was starting to impact on my ability to get to my goal. I took a break.
After a few days of not touching Blender I decided to learn properly. I started trying out Blender courses online. I paid for some courses and did a lot of free one on youtube which is an incredible resource for learning. I would do the tutorial and the I would try and make some for myself without using the tutorial just to see what I could remember.
I was starting to get a few result I was happy with
My confidence started to return. I started looking at more and more images for inspiration, each time I would look at the render results and look at an area that I thought needed work on. On the next project I'd focus on that more...
Sometimes it was pretty clear what was wrong, but each time I learned so much especially in term of how to keep things organised and make sure I wasn't costing myself rendering time with unnecessary geometry.
After a while I felt more and more comfortable to try more complex ideas. I was getting quicker at the workflow, still moving slowly but I could build things in a week rather than many week.
This was the render that really inspired me to keep building and see if I could possible do this more in terms of a future.
After 6 months of using Blender I exported out a little showreel, not for anyone but me just to see the journey I'd been on. I've always found it comforting to see the progression of my work.
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