Final Vintage School Desk in Blender, 2 versions

The first version is essentially all Blender, and the second incorporates using Photoshop to show one desk as mostly wire-frame, and the other partially so. The concept addresses the theme of “modern learning”, and I was commissioned to create something along those lines for a forthcoming publication. My idea, because I am so busy learning Blender, was to use those skills to produce an image which also directly shows some of the process involved, while also addressing the content of the theme: we are moving from learning in the classroom, to learning digitally.

The fruit are a bit of an inside joke for people who do Blender tutorials, or know that I created the banana specifically as an exercise in texture painting. The apple comes directly from a tutorial by CG Boost.

Only people who follow my blog would recognize this specific faux banana, but it serves a more general purpose. The apple is the classic gift to the teacher, and the banana just a variant. However, in the predominantly blue image of the second version, yellow is the complementary color, and serves as a visual hook to grab the viewer’s attention. That will inevitably induce the intellect to probe the other desk for a corollary piece of fruit, at which point one will discover the wire-frame apple.

I’m just going to go on a little tangent here about digital learning. The last couple months of learning Blender online (a free program, mind you) rival any similar period of learning in my lifetime, and certainly surpasses most of the time I spent in college taking art classes in person. While I’ve shelled out around $100 for a few full Blender courses with hundreds of hours of video instruction and other materials — I’m still working on them — one could learn everything for free using YouTube alone. The paid courses do reflect a serious attempt to produce a more conducive learning environment. They have to compete with each other, and free content, and will rise up to the challenge out of necessity. $100 is nothing compared to college tuition. Not just for digital art, there are high quality paid and free courses on all aspects of physical drawing, painting, and sculpting. But for Blender in particular, you can get a valuable art education for free, or cheaply.

I spent a lot of time honing the shadows and reflections in the version above. It showcases the materials fairly well, and that the desk can open, and the chair can swivel. It works for me because of the overall composition, both as a flat image, and as three dimensional objects in space. Just between us, I enjoy looking at this in the same way I can stare at an abstract painting, such as a Mondrian.

In version 2, the shadows/reflections aren’t as pronounced, but the floor grid ads an element of direction and movement. The desks are definitely traveling to the left, and the wire-frame version is about to launch into warp speed. The more physical desk becomes like a seat in an amusement park ride you are about to get into, and then it’s Space Mountain time.

The first version doesn’t really have a conspicuous message, other than two variations on the theme of a digital vintage desk made visibly solid. But on a purely visual level, I may prefer to look at that one, though that could just be my current mood.

As with the banana or apple, the desk may reappear in future creations.

~ Ends

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