#this is straight from blender's camera

[simandy]

I hauve THIS!!!!!!

[silence-ofthe-llamas]

More TexAid Mecha AU-AU stuff!

In this chapter - Vortex continues to be an oversized blender, First Aid has Quite Enough of it.

Pls excuse any errors, the tuxedo cat LOVES to sit on my lap and explore my keyboard when I write and I don't always catch everything.

The schedule board was a large, digital board that could be found in almost every major area. It was also available on their phones, easily viewed by all. The medics had one of the deepest levels of access to assess lone workers, and to track who should be where in emergencies.

And the schedule board was wrong.

PILOT: FELIX ANWYL

First Aid groggily rubbed his eyes at the bright light of the phone being shoved into his half-asleep face.

“Whuh?” He sleepily mumbled. His hand flopped around blindly for his glasses before he gave up and grabbed the phone, pulling it closer.

“You’re scheduled on as a pilot today?” Ambulon asked.

“I’m not a pilot.” First Aid pushed the phone away and flopped back down. “I was on the night shift.” He pointedly said.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry!” Ambulon sighed. “I just can’t figure out why you’re on the list!”

“Someone must have made a mistake.”

It was not a mistake.

It was sabotage.

Red Alert glared hotly at them all as the announcement was made. The schedule had been hacked. Anyone with any information was to step forwards immediately.

The only reason First Aid had gotten away with just twenty minutes of grilling was because he’d been in the medical bay for the night shift, and then immediately gone straight to bed – the cameras showed him yawning as he clocked out at the time when the system was apparently compromised.

It couldn’t have been him, and there wasn’t anyone he could have asked.

First Aid felt the cameras trained onto him burning a hole through him, and tried his best to ignore it.

It kept happening. Every morning, his name would be right there on the schedule. They’d tried to remove it only for it to appear again moments later. Whatever it was, whoever it was, were sitting waiting in the system totally undetected. They couldn’t scrub them out. The mysterious morning memos changed too – songs about wanton longing were quoted instead.

A compromised system was unacceptable. In lieu of a functional digital system, they made the switch back to paper. Every morning, a thick ringbound stack of papers would be dumped in the main areas showing everyones shift patterns at precisely 5:30am. First Aids name had finally been scrubbed – but he’d seen correction tape on the pages by Vortex’s name. He was still managing to infiltrate the system.

Pilots feeling brave or lucky volunteered to pilot Vortex, to prove they were made of the right stuff. First Aid watched and winced every time Vortex staggered back into the hangar, doing that grinding tremble that he did when he was laughing, and having the smell of a corpse hit him even from the wrong end of the catwalk.

He’s consuming them, First Aid thought. They’re offering themselves as sacrifices, he’s an altar to them.

Pharma hadn’t allowed First Aid to go back into Vortex to extract the previous pilot (shovelling into a bucket was more apt now) since he’d been stuck inside. He’d not been caught when he’d sneaked into him that evening, but Pharma knew. Somehow, he knew – he’d changed the positioning of cameras in the medics quarters, he’d changed how the doors logged entry and exits. He’d know in an instant if he went. So, he stayed and had to hope that Vortex could see his expression from where he stood behind the gate.

Instead of being the one to extract them, he was often involved in assisting the autopsy. Pharma lead them alongside Ratchet – a way to keep him under watch and on his best behaviour. First Aid never let Ratchet see him step out of line – his disappointment would kill him. Pharma would look at him each time as he catalogued each part, every chunk and shard and unidentifiable puddle, as if to say ‘this is a warning’. As if to check that he was paying attention, that he would see that this would be what became of him if he went near the mech again.

Only First Aid didn’t believe it for a second. They had a deal. Vortex wanted his expertise, and First Aid wanted his body. His expertise was worth nothing if he was dead, if he were rendered to nothing more than mush that soaked into the fabric of the pilots chair and ran into the gaps between the plating.

The day that Vortex’s visor opened and sprayed the remnants of the pilot on the catwalk and the approaching trauma medics was the day that First Aid snapped.

“For fucks sake I don’t care - he keeps killing them!” He swiftly evaded the grabbing hands trying to restrain him. “Look, that cadet’s been scattered all over the catwalk! How are we supposed to autopsy that?!”

“Leave the worrying about that to the pathologists, Felix.”

“I don’t know about your conscience, but I can’t stand it on mine when I know I can do something about it. I’m going to talk to him.”

“Do you want to die? He’ll kill you.”

“He won’t, he promised.”

“And you trust it?” Disgust blended with disbelief. “That AI is rogue, Felix. It’s… it’s broken. I don’t think it will listen to a single word anyone has to say.” First Aid didn’t reply.

“Let me through.” He politely said to the guard. The guard looked between First Aid and the simmering Pharma behind him.

“I don’t think-“

“Let me through.”

“No can do, Felix.”

Pharma had a smugness about him. “See? Now, let’s behave-“

First Aid took a step back, assessing the height of the barrier. He could make that, right?

“Hey-!” The guards arms flew out to catch him as he jumped over, his foot catching and flipping him over. First Aid grunted as his jaw smacked the floor with a crack.

“Stupid boy!” Pharma scolded. “You’re still healing from the last time you got inside that mech! Don’t add to your injuries!”

“I don’t care!” First Aid snapped. “People are dying! We’re medics! Why aren’t you doing what you can to help?!”

“By climbing into death traps? Don’t be silly, Felix.” Pharma roughly tugged him up to his feet. “You’ll achieve nothing if you’re dead.”

“I’ll do a damn sight better if I go see the mech throwing a tantrum because I’m not in it.”

Pharma’s eyes were hard. “Your potential is not to be wasted on some hare-brained scheme. Do not test my patience again.”

First Aid swallowed hard, feeling his legs go numb. Maybe he’d pushed his luck too far - Pharma looked very serious indeed. He relented, relaxing as best he could into his hold, and mumbled an apology.

It seemed to please Pharma. He apologised to the guard for the trouble his charge had caused, and trotted him straight back to the medical bay.

Pharma made a mistake in thinking that was the end of it. First Aid had made the mistake in going to Vortex when he was still full of a disembowelled corpse.

Nobody minded the medic walking with purpose through the pilots quarters. His heart was in his throat, his pulse pounding in his ears, as he hoped nobody recognised him as the medic who kept ending up on the pilots list. Pretend you’re meant to be here.

Pretend.

His target was a supply cupboard that held spare suits. It was still three hallways away when someone noticed him.

“What are you doing?” Their voice was sharp, piercing. “You’re not meant to be here.”

Perceptor. Of course he would pissing notice.

First Aid silently held up a blister package of paracetamol. He didn’t trust his voice to hold.

Perceptor was someone whom he had looked up to when he was younger - a member of The Wreckers, children far and wide knew their names, their faces, their stats on their Top Trump cards. First Aid knew he should have been more starstruck, that he should have asked for an autograph, but the adrenaline was gripping him so tightly he couldn’t think past the now.

Perceptor wasn’t buying it.

He opened his mouth to challenge him, frowning and folding his arms, cocking his hip to the side-

And the klaxon went off.

They both immediately turned to look at the nearest signboard.

FELIX ANWYL stared back at First Aid, glaring and red and flashing next to Vortex’s name.

Giving him a look that promised it wasn’t the end of it, Perceptor rushed off to answer the call. First Aid took a moment to recollect himself before utilising the chaos to plunder the stores and nab himself a god damn uniform. Passing through the crowds was strangely easy – he blended right in to the mass of bodies, and just his luck – another pilot was already rummaging in the cupboard when he had arrived.

“Can you pass me an S?” He asked. They didn’t even look at him as they grabbed it and shoved it into his hands, flicking through the carefully packaged uniforms as they hunted. First Aid quickly thanked him and shoved it into his bag before swiftly walking out.

It was all on camera. He felt them trained on him, watching his every move.

But he felt somehow assured that nobody would know. Vortex was watching. He’d make sure he left no tracks.

Vortex’s response time had tanked. It had never been so low, even when they were struggling to find seasoned pilots willing to enter his jaws. The brass were starting to sweat. Their sponsors and investors didn’t like mechs that inexplicably failed, especially when the mech was supposed to be the best.

Engineers and the maintenance crew confirmed that he was passing all of his tests – there was nothing mechanically wrong with him. His AI was responding as intended. There were no bugs, no faults, nothing out of the ordinary with him.

But First Aid knew what the problem was. Vortex was throwing a tantrum, and it was only the thought of letting anyone else get their teeth into the quintesson invaders before he did that got him out of the hangar doors. His need for blood always won out when it came down to it – and he’d make a show of it if he needed to.

First Aid wore the thin under-layer of the pilots suit under his medics uniform, and carried the thicker armour in his backpack. He stowed it under his bench, always within easy reach - he’d grab it and sprint as soon as the siren went off.

Vortex was always one of the last to launch. Finding a willing pilot to get inside of him was getting harder, and they’d had to start using new recruits. Fresh, green, and who didn’t have a damn clue who he was or about the rumours of his supposed haunting. And new recruits needed showing the ropes, needed to be shown how the helmet worked, needed to have the reason why his name was on the screen explained away.

So he had about three minutes to get to him whilst they plucked someone from the academy. The medbay was a three minute sprint away if you were an athlete. He could do it in five. It would have to do.

The first klaxon since he’d stolen the suit was a night time alarm. He was dead asleep in his quarters a good twenty minutes away – he was only aware that they’d launched when the alarm in the medics building went off alerting them to incoming casualties. He’d shrugged on his uniform and hopped onto the transport, ready to jet off to the medical bay, and silently cursed his bad luck. Vortex would be so mad.

And mad he was. Apparently, the pilot had been mauled before they’d even left the hangar, the mech continuing on with just a slowly dying nervous system connected to it. Blood had oozed from the visor, loudly splattering down Vortex’s chest. The instructor who had brought the cadet up had cried.

First Aid felt the cameras on him. It felt like Vortex was accusing him of something, but surely he was just imagining that. The cameras looked no different.

Perceptor hadn’t said a thing to him. He also hadn’t said anything to anyone – if he did, First Aid knew he’d have been frogmarched up to the top brass, chewed out until he was but a smear on the floor, and kicked out into the cold unforgiving world outside. Pharma had been the one to protect him when he’d been caught with the infant quintesson – he’d been the one to catch him, to pretend nothing had happened and handled his discipline internally. There wasn’t anything he could do when it came to him stealing a pilots suit.

Especially when one considered that Pharma had explicitly told him to not do this. He’d be watching his downfall with a glass of wine and canapés.

It ate away at him, clawing at his insides. What was Perceptor thinking? What was he planning? Was he waiting to see what he would do?

Relief came in the form of a distraction and of stars aligning. It had taken three alarms, three incidents, three deployments of their mechs, before First Aid was able to make it to Vortex. He had always been too far, off shift or dead in sleep in a building where they weren’t alerted to quintessons.

In the chaos of an attack, nobody paid much notice to the pilot who jumped the barrier. Overzealous, over excited. The guards shook their heads at him. First Aid didn’t catch his foot this time, and was audibly wheezing by the time he got to Vortex. He’d said it was a five minute sprint, but he didn’t say a thing about what state it would be leaving him in. He felt dishevelled. His hair was sticking to him. He’d never felt more awake.

The new recruit was there, bright eyed and excitedly drinking in the atmosphere. The instructor had a guilty look on her face as she let them take one last look at the facility, their last look at life.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m here!” First Aid called as he slid to a stop. “I’m so late!” He gasped for breath, trying not to laugh in how giddy he felt. Pharma would murder him. Ratchet would be so upset. But Vortex had visibly shuddered, his canopy trembling, and he couldn’t suppress his giggle.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” The instructor looked perplexed. “I wasn’t aware the mech had a pilot assigned to them?”

“Felix. Felix Anwyl.” He smiled at them, still breathing heavily from his nose. Was he sweaty? He felt sweaty. He felt hot. He couldn’t wait to sit down.

“But-“

“Thank you for your diligence! Your service will be appreciated, cadet!” First Aid said as he jumped into Vortex, the visor snapping down behind him with a sound of finality. The lock loudly slammed into place, and First Aid threw himself into the seat as Vortex remotely began the start up procedures. The harness seemed to buckle itself around him, holding him firmly into the seat as Vortex roughly shoved off the dock and began to sprint.

“Woah- wait wait wait I’m not ready-!” His hands were scrambling for purchase on anything, hands slipping from the sweat of his earlier exertion.

Vortex shook with laughter.

[WELCOME ABOARD, DARLING~ <3]

First Aid lost himself laughing. “I can’t believe I did that! Look at what you’ve got me doing!”

[YOU’VE GOT BIGGER BALLS THAN I THOUGHT, I WAS STARTING TO THINK YOU’D NEVER COME BACK]

[DON’T WORRY ME LIKE THAT AGAIN~]

He was pressed firmly back against the seat as Vortex left the hangar, speeding up now that he was clear. In the distance, First Aid could see smoke.

The quintessons had arrived. They were closer than he thought they’d be – he’d never realised how close they got…

The adrenaline slowly wore off and the reality of the situation quickly sunk in.

He had disobeyed direct orders. He had stolen a pilots uniform, he had impersonated one, and he was currently in a mech he was not trained or cleared to operate.

“Pharma is going to kill me!” First Aid panicked. “Oh, I’m so dead, I’m so dead!” He pulled his hair in despair. “Oh!” He moaned, burying his face into his hands. “What is Ultra Magnus going to say?!”

[RELAX]

“Easy for you to say! You’re already dead! You don’t get court marshalled!”

[JUST PUT THE HELMET ON, I WANT YOU TO FEEL THIS TOO]

Bright blue blood splashed up onto the visor. First Aid scrambled for the helmet.

Pain shot through him and he cried out, tightly gripping the seats. It had been easier to handle when Vortex wasn’t moving, when he wasn’t busy twirling and slashing and slicing and running around, but there was so much data. So much information he had to take in, and he didn’t have the hardware required to filter it for him. He didn’t need to know that the panel on Vortex’s left foot right by the heel was slightly loose because of how hard he’d started to sprint, but it felt as if something were out of place on his own body and it was all that he could think about.

“Sorry about that, babe. I forget it’s a bit much for you squishies.”

Suddenly, the pressure crushing his head lifted. He breathed a sigh of relief, pressing a hand to his chest as if to hold his heart in place.

“How many did I miss?”

“Three.” He carved through another, the scream loud and cutting off with a wet gargle. “Four, if you count that one. Pay close attention – you’re telling me what to do to the next one.”

He was horrified, but he couldn’t look away. His words had stumbled and tripped, unclear and garbled, instructions lost in translation. He couldn’t think straight and Vortex was moving faster than he could keep up with – he had to. There were so many. It suddenly made sense why their pilots always came back exhausted, why their mechs always needed repairs. It didn’t stop.

But he was learning.

“Come on, honey, don’t make me regret sticking my neck out for you.”

“Can I take control?” His hands hovered over the controls, a joystick nudging itself into his palm.

“If it’s you I’ll allow it.”

The next kill was more like a dissection. The quintesson felt squishier than he thought it would, clasped in his hand. He held it up as he carefully inserted the sword with scientific precision, the blade slowly gliding down to reveal the peritoneum – it shone like an oil slick in the light of the slowly setting sun, and he could see one of its pulsing hearts straining against it. He was sure it was screaming, but he couldn’t hear over the thunderous beat of his own heart in his ears and the endless praise pouring out of Vortex.

“It’s got multiple hearts. That’s fascinating.” First Aid commented. “Okay, carefully does it…” he thought back to his first dissection. His little hamster, Lucky. The feeling of joy and wonder that he had had, the quiet worship that came when one engaged with the natural world around them in a way that left them feeling much smaller than when they had begun.

His hands hadn’t been as skilled back then. He’d struggled to get hold of a knife sharp enough without his parents noticing and taking it from him, he wasn’t even tall enough to climb up onto the counter top – he’d seen a documentary on TV about the palaeolithic and flint knapping, and a few days later had noticed a piece of stray flint on the beach. His parents had been happy for him to take it, thinking he was just excited to find an interesting rock. They never found out that he’d whacked it against the boulder that marked the end of their driveway to break off a piece sharp enough to cut flesh. He buried it with the hamster.

The quintesson dropped with a wet squelch, the peritoneum breaking and its internals spilling out over the fields. First aid tutted.

“Damn it, I didn’t mean to cut that deep.”

“There will be more to practice on. Look, the next one’s headed our way~”

“Am I in trouble?”

First Aid staggered out of the mech, exhausted and giddy and dizzy and bleeding. They hadn’t suffered a single hit – they were fast but Vortex was much faster – but the strain of the connection had proven too much again. Red dripped from his nose to the floor, splashing up onto his boots and the shoes of the opposing officer waiting for them to return.

“Yes.” Prowl said. “Yes, you are.”

Pharma didn’t look angry. Somehow, that made it even worse. He couldn’t look at him as he walked by - he couldn’t look at anyone.

He’d saved the life of the cadet, he told himself. He would saved the lives of countless more – if they let him, that was. The silence was heavy and oppressive.

The walkie talkie on Prowls hip crackled loudly. He slipped it from its holder and held it up to his ear, brow creased in a frown.

A series of short and long beeps proceeded to play. First Aid didn’t understand what the hell they meant, but he recognised it from documentaries on the war.

Morse code. Four letters repeated over and over.

Prowl stopped to turn and stare at Vortex. Water was starting to be sprayed on his exterior, glowing blue running down over his visor. A singular red dot pierced through it – a camera inside of his cockpit. He was watching them.

“What’re they saying?” First Aid asked.

“… Mine.” Prowl quickly turned and resumed a brisk pace. First Aid stumbled after him, Pharma catching him in a firm hand. Blood dripped onto his pristine white lab coat, blooming like flowers.

[endvertex]

how would u recommend a beginner get into blender? Ima 2D art student but want to fill out my portfolio and it looks super fun and cool!

Yay I'm so glad you want to learn Blender!

Since you're studying 2D, you probably have a lot to learn and practice already. So I'll try to answer in a way that could benefit you the most in both practices.

You probably already heard Blender has a tool called "grease pencil" - it's a 3d object, but they also built it so that if you want to do regular 2D illustration or animation, you can do that too.

Learning grease pencil first could be a good way to familiarize yourself with Blender's interface. And because a lot of the toolsets share how they operate (for instance, adding modifiers to the stack is the same no matter if you're using a grease pencil object, curve, or 3D mesh), you can more easily move to different parts of the program later, like poly modeling or sculpting.

One really great tutorial for 2D Blender is this one by Kevandram - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZyB30-xZFs

From there you can move into tutorials that combine 3D and 2D - or just start with this if you're really excited to learn 3D modeling. Again Kevandram has a really great tutorial for that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBFjGy5z08

Something you'll wanna watch out for with Blender tutorials is the version they're using. If your version of Blender is newer, then maybe a button or menu a tutorial tells you to use might have moved. Or some functionality may have changed. Luckily since Blender is open source, they make all versions available to you here: https://download.blender.org/release/

Once you get more familiar with Blender, jumping between versions is easier. But for the sake of learning, if you find a really great tutorial that's using an older version, you can just use that version. You can have multiple Blender versions installed - right now I have 4.4, 4.1, 4.0, and 2.79. So for instance in Kevandram's Bakery Shop tutorial, he's using Blender 3.0 which you can get here - https://download.blender.org/release/Blender3.0/

If you're not interested in grease pencil, or just want to jump straight to 3d, this is a great beginner modeling tutorial from SouthernShotty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CFWDWTamo

It mostly sticks to modeling and then gets into basic material stuff. A simplified order to learn things in 3d would be:

Poly/mesh modeling

Modeling with curves

Adding materials/using the shader editor

Unwrapping 3d objects / learning the UV Editor

Texture painting / Painting texture maps (using that unwrapped map from 4) in Blender or some other program (Krita if you want to paint on the 2d map itself. Procreate if you want to paint directly on the model although that'll require a tablet).

A lot of beginner tutorials will take you through steps 1-3 usually, and maybe throw in some basic animation, camera setup, lighting, and rendering. More intermediate/advanced topics would be rigging, animating rigged models, physics simulations, and geometry nodes.

To bring it back to how this could benefit you the most as a 2d artist - something I see a lot of people do is prototype in 3d, and use that 3d render as a base to paint over. Some people strictly use grey boxes, and some people actually model/texture/light certain things and then render that out in layers to use in their painting program later. You can use as much or as little 3d as you want to help 2d painting.

Here's a couple videos showcasing that type of workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHIZtZ2JU3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5GSyytbABo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ZyW7K_yP8

Those use Blender's cameras and lights, which you'll pick up as you do modeling/texturing tutorials. Later you can get more advanced with those as well as the different rendering engines within Blender.

This was a lot, but I hope it helps clarify where you can start, and ultimately what you could get out of using 3d!

[salemssimblr]

Cozy Picnic ~ a Blender Scene by SalemsSims

❗️This is a scene for blender and WILL NOT WORK in game ❗️

Another birdseye (& nothing else) scene from me lmao

Info:

I RUN MY RENDERS IN CYCLES - this was built for cycles and NOT tested with Eevee! (but feel free to adjust/run in Eevee!)

Saved with and tested in Blender 4.2

Includes one camera setup (birdseye)

Organized files for easy editing

Includes a textures folder

Previews are edited for lighting/depth but otherwise straight from blender (see "raw" preview below!)

Includes de-noise & glare compositing

Optimized for the birdseye angle (there's no other furniture or anything, but feel free to add some!)

ALL CC CREDIT GOES TO THE CREATORS - this scene includes CC objects but no meshes (which means you will NOT be able to put any of this cc in your game)

Tested but as always please let me know of any issues!

Download all files in the folder, the textures included will be needed if anything shows up fuschia in blender!

TOU:

Do not redistribute or claim as your own

Do not steal pieces/parts to create your own scenes

Do not put behind a paywall

FEEL FREE to adjust/move/edit/recolor anything as you need it!

DOWNLOAD (google drive, free!) Make sure you download the .blend file and textures!

Unedited vs edited below the cut!

[cupcakeslushie]

I have a question and you might’ve been asked before, but animation, do you have any tips for beginners? Love your content btw 🥰

Even tho my degree is in animation I must be honest…😬 nowadays I very often don’t have the patience for anything more complicated than animatics. So I’m trying to stick to tried and true advice lol…

Probably the biggest tip would be that, yes the beginner exercises may be boring, and not look very cool, but they are essential to getting those skills you need down. The flour sack exercise, the wave principle—doing squash and stretch, and timing studies to really nail the way that movements should “flow” properly. These are absolutely necessary skills to master if you want to make fluid animations.

Planning is also another important, but sometimes overlooked aspect of animation. Some ppl (read:me) wanna just jump straight to animating. But planning in those first simplest stages really helps save you headaches in the later stages, when things are getting more complicated and all over the place. Storyboarding helps you plot your timing, choosing where key shots will go, camera angles, pacing ect.

And speaking of camera angles. STUDY STUDY STUDY cinematography! Something doesn’t have to be animated for it to be applied to animation. Perspective is a massive beast to tackle once you start storyboarding and unless you want boring shots and stagnant compositional framing, you need to learn all the ways you can frame a scene and your characters! Idk if you’re up for watching some horror movies, but those are a great source to pull from, as they tend to always frame, pace and even light their shots in really interesting and dynamic ways!

It’s also great to practice with free programs before you spend money on things like a subscription for photoshop or any other fancy software. Most interfaces are similar enough, that beginning with something free like Rough Animator or Blender can give you some good practice before you commit!

That’s all I can think of right now! And sorry if that wasn’t exactly what you were looking for…if you want me to try to give more specific advice on something just drop me another ask—I’m willing to keep rambling on!

Lastly, just few good videos I have saved!

Good traditional habits for digital animators <- basically Toniko Pantoja’s whole channel is a goldmine of knowledge!

Drawing figures in perspective

Every Frame A Painting is also a great channel for breaking down film/composition/writing—there’s a video for virtually every aspect of cinema

-Chuck Jones -the evolution of an artist

-Akira Kurosawa- composing movement

-Satoshi Kon- editing space and time

[ghostgirlcara]

// how do you make those videos ?? They’re incredible!!!

// so far i've been avoiding making OOC posts on cara's blog because it feels like its not really my place to do so, and i'd like to keep the immersion intact, but this seems to be a common question, and i do believe that part of the fun of art is being able to learn from art of other people, so...

long story short; its blender! you can get the .blend file here if you'd like to poke around, though i'll warn you that it's not pretty. it lags my machine to hell and back and im sure that just about everything in it could be 100× more efficient.

long story long; a while ago, i made a blender file that can take in maps from the gen II games as textures, and render them in 3D (assuming i've manually 3D-modeled every block in the blockset, that is). originally, i'd only been planning to use this to render out backgrounds for static photos, because... well, i'm not very good at backgrounds, hehe.

you can actually see my first test of this blender setup in this post; i'd initially used it only to render Ecruteak City, because "i'll probably need that at some point"

and then, i realized that it just so happens that Ecruteak City and Gen II Glitch City use the same blockset, so i could render out a full 3D Glitch City with basically no additional effort! i took advantage of that to render out a nice wide shot of Glitch City here, and used single-frame renders for the backgrounds of almost every other photo in the "Facing Fears" arc.

I'd been made aware of the Wishmade Sky event well in advance, so i had a lot of time to prepare. this post was actually just the result of my practice of rendering night skies for this arc! up until and including that post, i had been exporting higher resolution and color depth renders from blender, feeding those renders through an emulated Game Boy Camera, and then coloring them manually in GIMP. though, by that point, i'd developed a bit of a mechanical procedure for the coloring process.

it just so happens that looking up how to render night skies in blender introduced me to blender's "compositor" feature, for which i ended up writing a program that basically allowed me to cut GIMP out of the workflow entirely; i was able to crush the colors and introduce dithering directly in rendering!

but then, if i don't need to process each rendered frame manually anymore... why not render an animation? so that's what this video was a test of! seeing how well i'd be able to capture a GBC-esque style straight from blender!

anyway, uh... thanks for listening to my rant, haha!

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Quarterfinals, Match 4

expand to see all propaganda received! (enormous wall of text warning)

Tracy Chapman:

"I can’t think of anything clever to say because I’m too busy sighing dreamily"

"GUYS ITS FUCKING TRACY CHAPMAN VOTE FOR HER OR ELSE ILL EAT PLAYDOUGH"

"Tracy Chapman made the best song of all time (fast car)"

"ik im the hope sandoval guy but if hope doesn't make it tracy has to she made me realize i was a lesbian i just thought i was bi then i listened to her and now im a lesbian she is powerful she is strength if you looked at her and looked at my art you would see 20 years of inspiration from one single woman"

"she's too good to commit atrocities to me but im the gore guy and you aren't for that. i would let her take out my vocal chords and use them as floss. i would have her saw down my bones to make a vinyl of her music. i would go on all fours and let her slaughter me like a pig. i want to be her cat"

"The most powerful written and performed voice of the 90s. Everyone, of any nationality or belief system, could feel the words Tracy Chapman sang. She gets her dues but deserves even more."

Eddie Vedder:

"He's just a lil' guy. I want to pick him up and put him in my pocket and take him with me everywhere."

"Men peaked in 1992 when Eddie Vedder was on MTV Unplugged and just looked as pretty as can be. No one will ever top that."

"facial structure sculpted by the gods"

"that scene in singles where he’s just staring straight into the camera when they’re watching that bee documentary or whatever GOD"

"He's fun-sized and therefore easy to yeet into his natural environment of The Rafters. His height-to-hair-length ratio makes him the Cousin Itt of the final four: the party doesn't really kick off until he shows up. No amount of unhinged propaganda can be more unhinged than the little gremlin himself but by God it's worth a try."

"I want Eddie Vedder to spit in my mouth"

"I have no idea what the fuck he's saying literally ever and that's kinda hot I think"

"holy FUCK i want to i want to claw his eyes out and put them in a blender until they’re the consistency of mochi that’s been left out for like 10-15 minutes"

"icon of wet kittens you take home in a box everywhere. imagine scooping him up and carrying him away."

"listen to daughter by pearl jam like uh wow"

"Just a beautiful little guy. I love how expressive, emotive, intense, and passionate he is. The way he can make me weep or give me the chills with just his voice and a guitar. And how he (and the rest of Pearl Jam) has always been so outspoken and hands-on about numerous social and environmental issues and just generally being a force for positivity and progress. This man stage-climbed right into my heart <3"

"He has a really cute butt, like the peach emoji"

[tactical-mode]

Episode 12 - Airbuster

(Mama an Easter Egg behind you!)

Our hacked (hackneyed?) retelling of FF7 continues with AIRBUSTER. Also, a portentous flashback featuring Tifa…

You know the drill: story scenes in front, fight scenes at the back. Turn on CC to read the dialogue.

[Chapter 07] Scene 09

I just switched around two shots here and cut a little bit out of the music, starting the track later and ending it earlier. I sourced a heartbeat sound for that OG feel.

Scene 10

The establishing shot here is me playing with camera paths again, it took a few takes to run blindly up to the reactor core instead of coming into frame on the diagonal or not at all haha. The dialogue exchange between Cloud and Barret in OG has been replaced in 7R by a wordless gesture. The cut dialogues are:

Cloud: ”I know. You’re my watch, right?”

Barret: ”Damn straight. Tifa’s old friend… that ain’t good enough.” [gives him the bomb]

Scene 32-33

As the jump in scene number implies, 7R’s expanded journey from the core has been cut or moved to the previous episode. Lots of fun, with an incredible score! Snip snip.

There’s another shot with another preset path while I run up the stairs. Shots like this will probably become standard in the Episode-Episodes, now that I can do them! The scenery porn I used in Ep 003 — that I anticipated for all the dungeons — will likely be moved to Deleted/Extended-Eps.

Scene 34-35

The gods-blasted button puzzle just had to be included, uweeheeheehee. There is a sneaky cross-fade here as well, did you notice it?

The door-opening shots were done by approaching the doors, freezing the game, yeeting Cloud out of frame (and into the stratosphere), unfreezing and taking the shot. I’m sure there’s a better way, but I’m juuust proficient enough in juuust enough aspects of this to get it done with just a team of me.

Another preset path shot while Barret and Tifa run (serendipidously) center-frame. I was controlling Cloud… he was supposed to be running with them, but I must have run into a wall or something. Ah well, at least I didn’t biff the shot.

Scene 36

I really tried to find a way to get President Shinra to show up in person like he does in the OG. Unfortunately it’s not possible in-engine… at least, not with my abilities. If I ever find the time to fully re-create the original scene in Blender, I’ll do so. As it is, this is a mostly cosmetic change that doesn’t impact the story very much… except that it includes high tech drones and hologram-telecommunication, which the OG story lacks.

The music here is Shinra Inc from EC, chosen for its clanging synth lead and choral refrain — however, the first few seconds also include 7R’s version of Shinra Inc underneath, because that first D♭ from the EC version lacks the sonorous bass that is needed to sell the key change.

Tifa's line: "What's the President doing here?" has been cut... not only because it's kind of a dopey question, but also, because the President is not, in fact, here.

Scene 37

Airbuster!! 200+ shots and several hours of useable footage is cut down to 50 shots across 2 minutes. The first phase of this three-phase fight is all we need; in Remake this is a delightfully epic fight. Snip snip.

The music track here is the Black Mages recording of the FFVII boss battle music, Those Who Fight Further. I chose the Black Mages version, ironically, because it has the least amount of live electric guitar! The wailing synths that give this prog rock jam its texture are performed by none other than the maestro himself: Nobuo Uematsu!

Now that I have more of a handle on storyboarding, filming, and editing combat footage, I’m doing more combat storytelling than I thought I would be doing in this series, and it’s actually taking longer — weeks, in fact — but I think the results are better.

I hummed a bit on how to intro this fight, then I thought it might be fun to try and re-create the battle effects from OG. The swirling was done frame-by frame in a free photo editing program, I manually rotated and zoomed in. I then rendered the sequence into a file. I then overlayed it on top of itself with the second version starting on a delay and being 10% slower and blurred to high heaven with the exposure cranked up. It worked! The black curtains were made by blurring, pixellating, then blurring again the black bars, and pulling them apart. The establishing shot was a preset path while I controlled Cloud's basic attacks.

Heidegger's hologram is flying around this fight in 7R taunting us, and he ruined many good shots. It's a wonder I scraped together so many good looking takes.

At the climax, we showcase Cloud, Tifa, and Barret’s Limit Breaks — Cloud’s Braver has been demoted in 7R from Limit Break to basic move, but here it gets its due. I tried to mimic the limit break camera zoom with a preset path, and the timing was nice but I played the framing a bit safe - better than him bowing out of frame!

To get Barret and Tifa’s limits, I had to play through the chapter twice more, solo-ing the final fight with each character – to draw Airbuster’s big attacks (filling their limit gauge) as well as making sure that my allies’ attacks didn’t move the fight into the next phase before I had a chance to execute the limit break. For Tifa’s, I filmed it twice because the first take clipped through the wall. The second take also erred, but at the beginning, so I used the front half of one and then switched - see if you can spot the edit!

Final Thoughts

Kaboom!

In keeping with the “you can skip ahead once the combat starts,” pledge, we’ll leave the resolution of this battle for next time, and end the episode on a cliffhanger.

You know, despite the obvious departure of a giant glowing President Shinra, this is one of the more faithful sections in all of 7R; aaaand despite that, I didn’t even realize how different it was until I started making the episode. Fun to make, and I continue to outdo what I did last time. Happy.

[asktheimmune]

Chapter One: Deathless In Equestria.

Creator's Notes: Most posts won't have a neat art piece for them, for now. My modeling skills are still inadequite, and I literally can't find a Scootaloo model for Blender or SFM that isn't Illegal, or any damn clothes for Twilight or Starlight! Had to draw them on by hand!

TS: Twilight Sparkle | SG: Starlight Glimmer | FS: Flame Storm | SC: Scootaloo

Scene open, our Survivors are set around a campfire. Scootaloo is wrapped in a brown and red cloak, Flame Storm is sharpening a fire axe, Twilight and Starlight are musing over a scroll. Flame Storm’s attention is grabbed by the Camera.

FS: Twilight, the Camera’s back.

Twilight’s head shoots up and stares into the frame.

TS: Oh! That took a few hours this time. Uhm, hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle, and we are… currently trying our best to survive. A few weeks ago me and my… compatriot Starlight Glimmer cast a Sight Seeing Spell onto a camera, which is what’s watching us. We thought it got blown up, honestly.

SG: It Did explode, Twilight. It doesn’t exist anymore. We’re just talking to the Moon-Damned air to vent our anxieties.

FS: And yet you, and the rest of us, also felt its existence. Shut up and let Twilight finish, Glimmer.

Starlight glares at Flame Storm before Twilight continues.

TS: Sorry… Uhm, I guess we really are just venting, but I guess anything helps to keep our heads on straight. To recap, about 9 weeks ago some kind of Infection Has spread across Equestria rapidly, seemingly by a Pony’s latent magic pool. From what I’ve seen, Unicorn’s can’t teleport, nor can Alicorns, due to magic becoming incredibly unstable. Every couple of minutes some kind of Pulse goes through the “Veins” of the world, it keeps interrupting any attempts at teleportation.

FS: Or any other spell, like Healing.

Flame Storm raises his left arm, revealing a large gash that is bleeding profusely. He doesn’t seem bothered by it, instead lowering it onto a pillow made of bandages.

FS: Hurts like hell, as it turns out.

TS: Sorry…

Twilight rubs her arm, looking away.

TS: An-anyways, me and this group, I believe, are some of the only Immune in the whole of Equestria. Other Alicorns are, hopefully, also immune, but these three seem to be special.

SG: Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sparkle.

Scootaloo simply smiles and leans against Twilight.

FS: Whatever this thing is, it’s highly infectious. Turns normal ponies into freaks, rotting their bodies from the inside out in the blink of an eye. And that’s before it mutates you.

TS: From what I’ve seen so far, these Infected seem to ignore several laws of Magic and Physics, like the Square Cube Law, or Starswirl’s Law Of Magic Conservation.

SG: Magic cannot be created nor destroyed, that’s the quote, right?

Twilight nods. She goes to continue but is interrupted by distant sounds of groaning and moaning. Flame Storm glares sharply to the right and gets up, bringing the bandage with him. He leaves the frame, armed with his axe. Scootaloo covers her ears in preparation.

SG: It’s… a little concerning how nonchalant he is about killing those ponies…

TS: Whatever they are, they aren’t ponies anymore, Starlight. They’re… it’s a mercy. The closest thing we can Give them, at least.

Starlight falls silent and stares into the fire.

The sound of growling ceases, replaced by the sound of flesh being torn and cut. A few seconds later, the sound of a growing fire is faintly heard. Flame Storm returns to frame.

FS: If we’re going to leave, now’s the best time. A group like that reads that an even bigger group is coming, possibly a hoard. And I’m not doing much with this axe.

Twilight nods and stands up, bringing Scootaloo up with her. The Camera has begun destabilizing. Twilight gives it one last fleeting look.

TS: I... Hope it returns this time.

END SCENE.

Our Survivors.

[thorns-and-rosewings]

And here we have the third installment of the Reaper King AU 💀. Yeahhhh I love to write and I am so completely overdoing this, but honestly I am having a blast writing this silly thing. Hope y'all are enjoying this as well :)

TW: Same as before, touching on dark stuff but less in this part than the last. Still lots of mentions of murder.

Part 3

So this might be a sillier entry...

To describe the area these individuals live in, the main cavern is massive, with a towering ceiling and it serves as the main hub of where this whole weird family lives. It's entryway is pretty well concealed from the outside, one would actually need to know exactly where to look in order to find it as it blends into the mountainside almost perfectly. There are all sorts of assorted caves throughout the area that can lead back to this specific cavern, but it's like trying to find a way through the Minotaurs Maze if one doesn't know where they're going. Not to mention it does have some truly treacherous areas to it, such as sheer drops that are hundreds of feet straight down and extremely narrow and slick walkways.

The initial cavern is where the family keeps the larger things that they aquire, like generators and equipment as well as random things ripped from various RVs and campsites. Like a propane oven (That is only used for certain occasions to conserve the gas) a blender and two toasters. They have assembled a very comfortable living space here although its still definitely on the messier side.

In the center of this cave there's a large fire pit that is usually only lit for the roasting of meat, but also works for stews or s'mores, or if there's enough patience amongst the kids (And Bloodmoon) that they can wait and not eat their food raw.

...Which isn't all that often all things considered...

Essentially the main cavern is the family room. It's also where the main pack of Moon Wolves also uses as a den. There's also a section of wall they hung up a projector to watch movies on occasion. But scattered all throughout the main cave are hundreds of bones... Remains of past meals and also just the results of Bloodmoon having some fun killing sprees.

Branching off of this main cave are dozens of smaller tunnels that honeycomb the entire mountain. Some smaller shallower dead-end tunnels function as personal rooms or storage.

Now for the fun part... 😈

Bloodmoon actually LOVES the caves. He has built-in nightvision and he can see in total darkness, as can Killcode. One of Bloody's favorite things is finding out there are humans who plan on entering the cave systems. It's one of the only times he will patiently wait for his victims.

When he finds some idiots exploring the caverns he will always be watching from a distance. Steadily creeping closer and closer... The less experienced explorers are his favorites because often they get lost or don't pack enough flashlights or batteries. He waits patiently for his favorite part which has two variations...

When they decide to take pictures...

Or they break out their own nightvision cameras...

That's when Bloodmoon gets right up amongst the humans... Only to scare the life out of them when he's either seen in the photo or in the camera lens.

That's when the killing starts...

It's like the movie 'The Descent' only the monster can see perfectly fine and is laughing his head off while killing people.

He knows exactly where to chase the humans for a variety of kills. Gutting them himself, chasing them towards sheer drops with pointed stalagmites growing up from the floor, causing them to be impaled when they fall, drowning them in the underground waterways... He just has a blast.

Sometimes someone gets away, only to end up getting murked by another member of the family.

One guy was barely managing to outrun Bloodmoon barely managing to stay out of the way of the psychopaths claws...

He didn't look where he was going and ran into Killcodes scythe which was held at his necks level.

Bloodmoon: We almost broke our record for killing in the caves! Why did you intervene father?!

Killcode: (Unfazed, just picks up the severed head) Its breakfast time. I'm making pancakes, did you want brains in yours?

Bloodmoon: 🤩 Brain Pancakes! Brain Pancakes! We want blood in them too!

Killcode: The blood is going in the syrup. :)

Bloody just grabbed up the rest of the slaughtered human and followed after KC like a puppy that smelled treats. This brought a smile to the Reapers face and he chuckled a bit.

Killcode: You had a good time all morning I see.

Bloodmoon: We are very satisfied! And now pancakes!

Killcode: Actually... I am thinking about baking a cake later. A 'Bloody Red Velvet Cake-'

Bloodmoon: My favorite! Everybody's favorite! Make the cake! With frosting!!

Killcode: Yes, but I am in need of some ingredients...

Bloodmoon: Then we'll get them! We'll bring everything! Bring blood and-

(About an hour or two later... Bloodmoon stands in the parking lot of a local grocery store, holding a fairly long shopping list.)

Bloodmoon: ...this was a setup... grrrr, sneaky old man!

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

the borderlands artist's guide

(this was originally posted on Cohost but I believe it merits reposting here)

hello! are you a fanartist who's into Borderlands or considering getting into Borderlands? do you find the characters difficult to draw? then do I have the solution for you: references! ...however, it might be difficult to find said references, or at least accurate ones. so here's my guide to such things. i will be going through the 3 big options of finding accurate references in ascending order of difficulty, but don't worry, none of these are too difficult to do.

option 1: artstation

artstation is probably the most straightforward way to get references, as gearbox employees post their official work there. you're pretty much guaranteed to find whatever you need. as a bonus, you might even find concept art that didn't get into the game proper, as well as environments, enemies and props. yes, artstation does also host fanart, but you can easily tell what's official and what's not by the game logo: if it's there, it's official.

while this is easy, it doesn't really let you rotate the character as you please or look at their raw textures. for that, we'll need the second option.

option 2: umodel

umodel is a program that lets you view and export assets of most unreal engine games, borderlands included. however, it works differently for different unreal engine versions. i will only be talking about Borderlands 3 models in this section, as they are easier to access and view. in order to do so, simply install umodel and extract it from its zip, then start the executable. this will bring up a gui. in the top bar, select/write the localization of your game files, which should be a folder obviously named Borderlands 3. check the override game selection box, pick unreal engine 4 from the left dropdown and Borderlands 3 from the right dropdown. leave everything else intact. click ok to start the file extraction process. the files are encrypted, however, and umodel will ask you for the key, which is 0x115EE4F8C625C792F37A503308048E79726E512F0BF8D2AD7C4C87BC5947CBA7. simply paste this string into the box and confirm, and umodel will work its magic. when it's done extracting the files, it will present you with a file browser of basically every game asset. models are located in the Game folder, with NPCs in the NonPlayerCharacters folder and playable characters in the PlayerCharacters folder. navigate to the folder of whatever character's model you want to view, open it, select the folder named Model, right click it and select open folder content. this finally will open the viewer, which you look through by using the page down and up keys.

this method allows us to look at the models with greater detail, and even view the raw textures. but it doesn't let us zoom in to see even finer details. for that, we'll need the third option.

option 3: deviantart + blender

this option has a few steps. first, go to user kabalstein's deviantart page of Borderlands models. it's full of models ripped straight from the games, converted and made for the xnalara program... but we're not going to be using it. download the models of the characters you want, and unzip them into a folder named appropriately (make sure all the model data is in one folder!) instead, download blender and xpstools. DO NOT UNPACK THE ZIP THE LATTER COMES IN!!!!!!!! open blender, go to edit -> preferences, and you'll find the add-ons section. click install, which will open a file dialog. select the xpstools zip. refresh the add-on list, and you should find the addon, which allows you to import and export xnalara files in blender. then, go to file -> import -> xnalara/xps -> xnalara/xps model, which again will bring up the dialog. select the model folder of the character you want to view, and bam, you can now view them any way you please, thanks to blender's advanced camera controls. you can even turn off all lighting effects and pose them if you need.

i hope this guide was helpful to at least someone, and i eased the fears of at least one Borderlands artist. see you!

[axiasart]

Blender, Fusion, and the Background Headache

The original artwork without background here: Link

Have you ever had one of those moments where a project that should be straightforward turns into a total nightmare? That was me trying to add a background to my 3D illustration. I swear, it felt like I spent a decade just trying to figure out how to make it work, and all because I didn’t plan ahead for a background. I thought, “No big deal, I'll just slap some walls behind it.” Big mistake. I wasted what felt like half my life trying to add those walls, only for the camera clipping to mess everything up. After countless tweaks and frustration, I finally threw my hands up and said, “Screw it, I’ll export the damn thing with transparency and deal with the background in compositing.” And so began my Blender-to-Fusion saga...

That was only the beginning of the chaos.

For reasons I still don’t fully understand, I couldn’t figure out how to render with transparency in Malt. On top of that, some crucial passes—like shadows, ambient occlusion, and bloom—are only available in Eevee. Then came the Cycle render times (painfully long) and the headache of exporting the noise, color, and focus textures I’d procedurally created in Blender. To make matters worse, Blender’s compositor seemed incapable of handling masks, or maybe I just didn’t know how to do it properly. Either way, it felt like the universe was against me.

Here’s how the madness unfolded:

First, I rendered everything in Malt without transparency and saved the EXR file. Simple, right? Ha! Not for long.

Next, I rendered in Eevee to export the various passes I needed, one by one, since the File Output node straight-up refused to work. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to do it all twice because, for reasons beyond my comprehension, the files got emptied on the first attempt. Yes, really.

At one point, I thought I was a genius for coming up with the idea to use HDRIs for the background. Even lucked out by finding the perfect HDRI—a kitchen scene with sunlight streaming through the windows, just like I envisioned. It seemed like a brilliant solution, the only grace this adventure allowed me… until transparency came back to bite me. Again. 😡 So I ended up exporting the environment pass in Eevee instead.

Then, I jumped into DaVinci Resolve Fusion, armed with the beauty render from Malt, ready to tackle the next steps.

Step one was making the environment pass blend nicely with the scene. I had to use the 3D Keyer effect to remove the black parts and get the transparency I wanted. I also threw in some Gaussian blur to fake depth of field—first small victory!

Step two involved adding all the other passes. But of course, this was when I discovered the files had been mysteriously emptied, so back to re-rendering I went. Once I had everything in place, a bunch of Merge nodes did the trick.

Step three was adding the Cycles light render. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, though I did shed a few tears and blood during the process—but hey, I managed.

Now for the worst part: the textures. I tried everything, wasted an hour on it, until I finally resorted to using Blender’s compositor to render the textures as PNGs. Dumb, but it worked. Except the textures alone weren’t enough, because I had applied some color ramp operations on them in Blender. 😭 Spent another half-hour trying to figure out why there was no transparency, only to realize that one of the colors in the ramp was black instead of transparent. 🤦‍♂️ Fixed that, though I kept the black for the focus part since that didn’t need transparency.

Step four was bringing all of that into Fusion. It wasn’t difficult, but man, was it tedious.

By stage five, 90% of my Blender render was successfully rebuilt in Fusion. The last 10%? Light rays and lens distortion. Given the nightmare I’d already been through, I was expecting a catastrophe, but no. Those were the easiest part—one node each, and done! I legit cried tears of joy at that point.

So, after all the headaches, frustration, and a few mental breakdowns, I finally finished. And yeah, it looks amazing. I learned a ton throughout the process, but I’m still salty about the trauma Blender and Fusion put me through.

[salemssimblr]

Warrior's Rest Blender Scene

❗️This is a scene for blender and WILL NOT WORK in game ❗️

I've spent the last week compiling this cozy, warm medieval bedroom for my OC Unixian. But it turned out so beautiful I wanted to share it with you all too!

The vibes are viking/warrior's retreat (there are weapons and books alike all strewn about)

Some info:

I RUN MY RENDERS IN CYCLES - this was built for cycles and NOT tested with Eevee! (but feel free to adjust/run in Eevee!)

Made with & tested in Blender 4.1

Includes a few preloaded camera setups

Includes an "ambient light" folder to brighten up an otherwise dark scene, feel free to adjust or remove those at your leisure

Organized files for easy editing

Previews are edited for lighting/depth but otherwise straight from blender

Set up with glare and denoising compositing

Features CC (but NO PACKAGE FILES) from @thesensemedieval, @kerriganhouse, @remysa, @tv-sims. @simverses, @lilis-palace, @flowermilksims. @mara45123-blog & others - NO PACKAGE FILES means you will not be able to put any of this cc in your game, but it will work in the scene

Tested but as always please let me know of any issues!

Download all files in the folder, the textures included will be needed if anything shows up fuschia in blender!

TOU

Do not redistribute or claim as your own

Do not put behind a paywall

Otherwise, do literally whatever you want with this scene

FEEL FREE to adjust/move/edit/recolor anything as you need it

DOWNLOAD (sfs, download all files)

[brocoffeeengineer]

Should You Start with 2D or Dive Into 3D Animation?

Every aspiring animator eventually faces the same crossroads: begin with traditional 2D principles or dive straight into the immersive world of 3D. The decision feels weighty because it shapes how you spend your study hours, the software you buy, and even the studios that might hire you later. Yet the choice isn’t as binary as it looks. In 2025 the industry values hybrid skill sets, and AI-driven tools are blurring lines between dimensions faster than ever. This article unpacks the pros and cons of each starting point, highlights fresh tech developments, and offers a roadmap that keeps your long-term career in focus.

The Traditional Path: Why 2D Still Matters

2D animation is where the medium’s foundational principles—timing, squash and stretch, arcs, and staging—were born. Whether you draw on paper, an iPad, or in software like Toon Boom Harmony, each frame forces you to confront anatomy, perspective, and emotional clarity. Recruiters still rave about candidates who can flip through rough pencil tests and explain the intent behind every gesture.

Latest trend watch: Toon Boom’s spring 2025 update introduced AI-assisted in-betweening that respects an artist’s line weight while filling gaps at a chosen frame rate. Students who grasp core spacing rules can now finish assignments in half the time, freeing them to iterate on acting choices rather than grinding through cleanup.

The Modern Shortcut: Starting Directly with 3D

Beginning in 3D lets newcomers play with fully lit scenes, dynamic cameras, and complex simulations right away. Tools such as Blender 4.1 (released in March 2025) offer drag-and-drop asset libraries and a new “Quick Rig” feature that auto-generates bone structures from a single character mesh. For many visual learners, seeing results rendered in real time keeps motivation high.

However, the convenience can conceal weak fundamentals. Without exposure to hand-drawn spacing, it’s easy to compensate for stiff poses with clever camera moves instead of solid body mechanics. Mentors often advise blocking in stepped keys—essentially turning off auto interpolation—to mimic 2D pose-to-pose thinking even when you start in full 3D.

Hybrid Workflows and Industry Expectations

Studios no longer divide departments as strictly as they once did. Modern productions mix 2D effects overlays with 3D character rigs, or render stylized 3D frames that are painted over by layout artists. Spider-Verse-style hybrids have become the new visual gold standard, and that means employers search for artists who speak both languages.

Local perspective: enrollment in an Animation course in Bengaluru has surged because institutes there now teach Blender, Harmony, and Unreal Engine side by side. Students storyboard in 2D, animate in 3D, then export back to 2D for line-art passes—mirroring professional pipelines. That cross-training prepares graduates for everything from mobile game loops to feature-film previs.

Your Personal Goals and Learning Style

Visual storytelling focus If your dream is directing or storyboarding, starting in 2D sharpens draftsmanship and cinematic staging. Even a quick charcoal gesture sketch drills the skill of communicating an idea in the fewest lines possible.

Technical artistry focus If you’re fascinated by shaders, particles, and virtual cameras, 3D’s node graphs and physics fields will feel like a playground. You’ll learn to debug rigs, optimize scenes, and script small tools—skills every VFX house rewards.

Time and hardware constraints A mid-range tablet can handle most 2D tasks, whereas 3D simulations often demand a strong GPU. If budget limits you now, 2D might be the practical entry point until you can invest in heftier hardware.

Curriculum Trends and Fresh Tech News

Blender 4.1’s Stroke Projection blends Grease Pencil lines with volumetric lighting, letting artists sketch 2D strokes directly onto 3D geometry.

Unity 6.0 (beta since April 2025) ships with AI-guided retiming: drop a 24 fps clip into a 60 fps project and machine learning fills new in-betweens that respect weight and momentum.

Adobe’s Firefly Motion plug-in now turns rough thumbs into colored animatics using text prompts—perfect for pre-viz on tight student deadlines.

Curricula that fold these updates into coursework help students graduate with reel pieces that look 2025-ready, not 2015-retro.

A Balanced Roadmap to Master Both

First eight weeks: 2D fundamentals

Daily gesture drawings, bouncing-ball exercises, and simple walk cycles.

Next eight weeks: 3D blocking

Import those 2D walk cycles as reference planes and recreate them with a free rig in Blender.

Weeks 17–24: Hybrid short project

Design a 30-second scene: 3D characters, 2D effects passes, and a camera move that enhances, not hides, the acting.

Ongoing: Critique and iterate

Swap edits with peers, focusing on clarity of intent over polish.

Capstone: Industry mentor feedback

Many online mentorship platforms now pair students with pros from global studios for monthly critique sessions—an excellent reality check before graduation.

Conclusion

There’s no universal rule that says you must master 2D before touching 3D, or vice versa. The smartest path blends both—which reflects where the industry is headed and lets you speak the full creative language of modern animation. Start where your curiosity burns brightest, but schedule time to cross-train so you can pivot with confidence when technology evolves again. And if you’re mapping out formal study, consider how a vfx course bengaluru might weave CGI, compositing, and 2D dynamics into a single cohesive pipeline, giving you the flexibility to thrive no matter which dimension your first job demands.

[jc-fmp-2025]

Making a crew capsule Pt4:

There was another issue. The issue was that if I tried to paint on the model, it would come up with this message.

Here, I switched to 'Edit Mode'. From there, I pressed 'U' to bring up a table of unwrap options. I then clicked on 'Smart UV Project'.

Next, it came up with this small box. I then clicked on 'Unwrap'.

This is what had resulted. I wasn't feeling too confident in it.

I clicked on 'Texture Slots', the '+' and then on 'Base Colour' to add a plain texture that I could use to draw windows and a hatch door.

Here, I set the resolution to 2K resolution and unticked the 'Alpha' channel. Once I did that, I added a new texture by clicking on 'Add'.

This had applied a texture however, it doesn't look the way I wanted it.

I then remade the texture by using the documented hexadecimal for the capsule. Meanwhile, I changed the brush colour to black.

I felt that the brush was too big.

As a result, I changed the size from 19px to 5px.

The problem is that I couldn't draw straight lines.

I then searched on Google if there was a way of drawing straight lines. Fortunately, it looks like it is possible.

I used this video to help me.

In the meantime, I received some feedback from Daniel. His idea was that I should have made my model with quads. This is what the model currently looks like in the 'Wireframe' viewport.

Here, I changed the 'Stroke Method' from 'Space' to 'Line'. This will enable me to

Next, I dragged out a line and held down 'Alt' to snap it straight. I then clicked 'LMB' to confirm drawing it.

I did this as I rotated around the model. However, I find it looks too messy still.

I tried again, but I had faced the same issue.

When I clicked on the 'Erase Hard' brush I tried to tidy up the ring. For some reason it didn't seem to work.

I decided to undo that last step and work on the hatch of the capsule. Meanwhile, I used the viewpoint preset nodes at the top right of the screen to navigate around the mesh like before.

I didn't think it looked too bad from the side.

I zoomed out as it would save me from having to adjust the size of the brush. I did this to make it look like a window.

Here, I drew on a handle for the hatch and beneath the hatch. I didn't feel the need to add new windows to the capsule as more and more rockets use cameras now.

Next, I clicked on 'Image' and then onto 'Save All Images' to save the texture.

I clicked on 'Layout' ready to test render the model.

I then clicked on 'Render' and then 'Render Image'.

I don't know why my model turned out black.

I checked with Daniel if he knows what went wrong with the model as he has much better knowledge on Blender than me. He even showed me on his computer an alternative and more effective way of making the model. Daniel told me to add a 'Sun' light source and set its strength to 13.

Here, I moved and rotated the camera so that the model would fit into view.

Next, I looked at an older blog post I made for the rocket engine model and added the following to the world event graph in the 'Shading' workspace.

[nookflex]

3,256 products tested by passionate team, insider access.

Website Blog

Discover the Latest Insights from Our Passionate Team

Welcome to our website blog, where we share groundbreaking information, hard data, and innovative findings from our team of experts. With a meticulous approach, we have tested and reviewed a staggering 3,256 products to bring you unbiased, trustworthy insights.

At [Company Name], we are committed to providing you with insider access to the world of electronics. By signing up for our membership program, you can gain exclusive knowledge and stay informed about the latest trends and advancements in the industry.

The Power of Data and Passion

Our team is driven by data, and our operations are powered by a dedicated group of engineers, testers, technical writers, developers, and more. Each product we review undergoes rigorous testing and examination to ensure accurate and reliable assessments. We believe that numbers and concrete data are essential in providing objective and informative content to our readers.

In line with our commitment to transparency, we are proud to disclose that we are supported by our readers through insider access. When you make a purchase through the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This enables us to continue our mission of delivering high-quality content and unbiased reviews.

We are constantly expanding our team and looking for talented individuals who share our passion for electronics. If you are interested in joining us, please visit our careers page for more information.

Uncovering the Best Products

Our rigorous testing process involves evaluating a wide range of products across various categories. Here are just a few areas we specialize in:

TVs

Headphones

Monitors

Soundbars

Mice

Keyboards

Printers

Vacuums

Projectors

Toasters

Blenders

Air purifiers

Keyboard switches

Speakers

Cameras

Laptops

Our team is dedicated to providing comprehensive and informative reviews in each of these categories. Through our in-depth analysis, we aim to equip our readers with the knowledge they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

Looking Ahead

As we strive to be at the forefront of the industry, we are constantly researching and developing new technologies. Our R&D department is continuously exploring innovative solutions to improve the overall user experience and bring you the best possible content.

In addition to our reviews, we offer a range of resources to enhance your shopping experience. Our forums provide a platform for like-minded individuals to discuss products, share insights, and seek advice. You can also stay updated on the latest deals and offers through our dedicated Deals section.

To ensure you never miss out on the latest news and updates, we encourage you to subscribe to our newsletters. By doing so, you will receive exclusive content, special promotions, and personalized recommendations straight to your inbox.

Join the Conversation

We value your participation in our community and invite you to engage with us. Share your thoughts, feedback, and product experiences in our forums. We believe in the power of collective knowledge and aim to foster a collaborative environment where ideas can flourish.

Now, we pose a question for you to ponder: How can the insights gained from our extensive testing and research influence your next purchasing decision? Consider the impact of reliable reviews and objective data in guiding your choices and ensuring a satisfying experience.

Before we conclude, we would like to introduce you to our company NookFlex. As a leading provider of electronics, NookFlex offers a wide range of high-quality products to meet your technology needs. Visit https://www.nookflex.com to explore our selection and discover the latest innovations.

We hope you find our website blog informative and insightful. Thank you for choosing [Company Name] as your trusted source for electronics reviews and industry knowledge.

Source: https://www.rtings.com/keyboard/reviews/best/ergonomic&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjmmOHNkcuGAxVtFVkFHZUZESMQFnoECAkQAg&usg=AOvVaw0oFDChMxmr0WZEaYCpiP5r