Finished the Tutorial: Droid Creation and Animation

This free, four-part tutorial on YouTube is one of my favorite tutorials so far, including paid ones. You learn to sculpt the droid using hard-surface modeling; then to rig it so you can move the parts and animate it; then to texture-paint it; and finally to animate it and make a video. I think a rank beginner, if they paid close attention, could complete the series. I ran into a few snafus, but when I replayed the videos and followed along step by step, I discovered what the problem was. The tutor, Ryan King, also answered questions I posed in the comments section within a day. His style of instruction is, at least for me, very clear, concise, and he uses strategies to simplify the process while achieving maximal results.

Here’s the video I produced.

And here’s the instructor’s final video.

Ryan has lots of other free tutorials covering a wide range of blender techniques. I want to do the series on how to use Blender for video editing. You don’t just get a free sculpting and animation package with Blender, you get a video editor.

I did this as general training, but also specifically in order to produce my own droid, though initially I didn’t think I’d go so far as to do an animation. Now I’m planning on it.

If you follow my blog, you’ve seen my droid, and a few short animations I made so far. This one will be a bit more ambitious.

I think I’m going to have it landing on the surface of a large vessel in space.

Stay tuned.