I posted some of this on Twitter a while back, but never put it anywhere else. This was a little project I put together as a kind of mini-tutorial for Blender’s Grease Pencil. The goal was just to show how jumping back and forth between Grease Pencil lines and quick modelling, can be a really efficient way to design in 3D, whilst leveraging 2D skills that you already have.
Not having to model panel lines, or figure out the topology for more complicated body work is really freeing. Especially if, like me, you have a lot more experience in 2D packages like Photoshop as opposed to 1000s of hours spent in Maya.
I‘ve got a bunch of working files, at different stages in the process, and I’ve been meaning to go back and record some audio talking through them. Maybe one day… For now, here’s a little spinny animation showing some of the key points. The gist is, draw in 2D, move your lines around in 3D space, and then model “inside the lines” - essentially using your Grease Pencil strokes like the lines of a colouring book.
It’s a really fun way to work, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’d like to dip their toe in the water of 3D, but who doesn’t want to learn about modelling (yet - if you mess around in Blender long enough, I’m sure you’ll want to take it further). It’s a nice bridge between the two, letting you work with a tablet and linework, whilst getting to grips with navigating and editing in 3D space.
Final Sketches
Process Animation
Turntable Animation
