Regarded as one of the most popular applications used in the world today, Blender is a 3D modeling application that has captured the hearts and minds of a global community of digital artists with its incredible tools and features, and all without costing a penny to use.
Blender can be used for many different tasks and project types, including…
- Game Design
- 3D Animation
- Concept Art
- 3D printing
- Image Editing
- Video Editing
- Architecture
While Blender is stronger in some areas than in others, it cannot be understated just how versatile this software truly is and how much you can do with an application that you can download and begin using in a matter of minutes.
What Is The Primary Purpose Of Blender?
The primary purpose of Blender 3D is to act as a 3D modeling application, allowing you to create 3-dimensional models and scenes on your 2D screen.
It allows you to go through the entire digital creation progress from start to finish. You can import reference material such as reference images and then use Blenders modeling tools to construct those 3D objects based on those reference images.
Once the base form of those objects has been made, you can add materials and textures to the object’s surface. Materials are used to change how light affects an object’s surface, while textures are used to define the pattern and appearance of the object.
Once you have created your materials and textures, another step that you can take for certain projects is to wreak your models in preparation for animation.
A rig is required for more complex models with various moving parts that behave differently. For example, a bouncing ball doesn’t require a rig because it’s just one piece. However, a human character has multiple joints in the human body. And so each of these joints will need to be animated independently, which can be done by adding a rig.
Depending on the complexity of the objects, you may or may not have added a rig to prep that model for animation. Different models can be animated in different ways, and not only can we animate 3D objects, but we can also animate other elements such as the camera and light objects.
Not all projects require the animation stage, particularly ones that are only tasked with creating 3D models and scenes for still images, however, regardless of whether or not you are creating a single image or an entire animation. One of the last steps is going to be to render your project.
Blender uses two different rendering engines depending on the specifications of the project. You can use the Eevee render engine if you are looking for fast results that allow you to create conceptual designs.
On the other hand, if your goal is realism, then you will want to use these Cycles X. Render engine, which, at the cost of added time for renders, allows you to create realistic-looking objects and scenes depending on your previously Applied Materials, textures, and lighting.
After the rendering stage, you can also use the compositor in Blender, a node-based system allowing you to edit your rendered images and animations within the blender software. For example, you can use the compositor to apply effects such as silhouettes and glare to your rendered images.
In short, the primary purpose of the blender software is to allow you to go through an entire digital project, whether that be a single image or an entire animation from start to finish. But while this is the primary purpose, it is not the only functioning workflow of Blender.
Different Ways Of Modeling With Blender
The traditional way of modeling in blender is to add a primitive object which acts as the base shape and then begin using the various modeling tools found in edit mode to reconstruct that primitive object. However, this isn’t the only way that you can 3D model in Blender, and there are several alternative workflows that you can choose from.
For example, instead of using mesh-based designs, you can use curves that offer a different workflow for constructing models in Blender.
Certain objects will be much easier to create using curves than they will by using traditional mesh models. For example, any object that follows a symmetrical pattern can have that pattern generated by a curve and then be transformed into an object using modifiers.
Another way of creating 3D models in Blender is using the dedicated sculpting tool suite. In the 3D viewport, you have access to various modes. When selecting a mesh object. The default is object mode, allowing you to manipulate the object’s relationship with the 3D scene.
Edit Mode is where we can access the traditional modeling tools that allow us to reshape and design our object. Another mode is sculpt mode, which allows you to use a wide variety of sculpting brushes to add tremendous amounts of detail to your models.
This workflow style is best suited whenever you are creating models with tremendously high levels of detail and is better suited for rendering images than animations due to the effect that higher polycounts can have on render times.
A more modern approach to modeling with Blender is to use geometry nodes, a procedural node-based system that allows you to use nodes of data to construct your 3D model and then make changes at any point in your node setup to alter that model.
These changes are nondestructive, which is what we mean when we say procedural. You can make any change that you want based on your node setup, and if you don’t like that change, you can very easily turn back to the previous state by resetting the changed parameters.
What Else Is Blender Used For?
In addition to the ability to create 3D models, Blender also has many other capabilities, and its versatility allows it to be used in multiple industries. For example, one thing that blender can be used for is photo editing, thanks to its compositor.
Not only can you edit your renders created within the blender software, but you can also import your images and use the compositor as a node-based method of photo editing.
In addition to being able to edit still photos, we also can edit animations and entire videos with the video sequence editor. Blender has its own video editor that allows you to import and begin performing basic edits to your video content before re-rendering them using the same rendering tools we use in the traditional modeling process.
This variety of tools has allowed Blender to excel in multiple fields and industries. It can be used either exclusively throughout an entire project or integrated into almost any digital ecosystem where 3D modeling or digital editing are required.
Thanks For Reading The Article
We appreciate you taking the time to read through this article, and we hope you found the information you were looking for. If you are interested in learning more about Blender and how we can use this software, check out some of the articles listed below.
