I chose Blender as tool to learn in this brief. The project I chose to recreate was fantasy teapot by kikimori (2023), It’s a teapot inspired by the work of Sarah Tang’s concept design.
The main thing that inspired me in this project was the fantasy aspect of it. I made me think about how blender is a tool that is used for world building and letting your own creations come to life in that world.
First draft of written response:
I tried to navigate the programme without watching many tutorials, so that I could explore it on my own terms. I noticed that many tutorials demonstrated multiple ways of doing the same thing, which made me wonder why so many shortcuts and panels exist to achieve identical outcomes. I wanted to discover my own ways of working within the programme, but I found myself repeatedly relying on the same tools to make shapes. I also felt that Blender encourages a fundamentally different way of thinking about how shapes are constructed. In a sense, this felt limiting. I was constantly rethinking how shapes work in 3D rather than exploring freely.
I assumed that copying the shapes from my reference project would be straightforward, but it shifted the way I see form entirely. You must think in 3D and identify which shapes build up the object you’re making. The challenge wasn’t just learning how the programme works but genuinely relearning how 3D objects are structured. This makes sense given that Blender is a 3D building programme, but it highlighted that working in 3D requires a different kind of knowledge to use the tool to its full potential. I also sometimes found the panel viewports overwhelming. Searching for the right tools could feel like a task. That said, I do feel that Blender allows you to create your own designs and bring ideas to life. It really does let you build your own world, which is exciting. However, I feel you can only use it to its full capacity once you truly understand the programme. For beginners, it can feel somewhat limited. Blender offers the possibility of building an entire fantasy world. One created purely for its own sake, without needing an external purpose. But this raises the question at the heart of my enquiry: how can you create something freely and new without first mastering the skill?
Leave a Reply