Learn Blender for Packaging Designers and Graphic Designers

Blenders initial screen looks really overwhelming. First users will see the screen split into sections, some of which we'll never use when all we want to do is render some 3d products! This lecture breaks down what the screens are, how to move them around and whats inside them.

An important part of using Blender is knowing how to set up the environment to do what we need it to do. Some parts of editing the user preferences are actually pretty crucial, so we go into this early to get set up for future lessons.

Here we learn how to navigate around our 3d workspace when we only have a 2d screen!

Practice using Blender's screens and views by setting up and modifying your workspace, and navigating around the 3d view.

How to delete objects, select objects, create a mesh and move it.

Further manipulation of the object we've created by scaling and rotating. We also manipulate the position of the camera for a better view of our object.

We take a look at Edit mode so that we can see how to manipulate individual vertices, edges and faces for our object.

We see how we unwrap our 3d model into a 2d texture by letting blender know where the seams are, by fixing the scale and rotation aspects and by UV unwrapping. We also see how manipulating the UV map in the UV window is very similar to manipulation in the 3d view.

We briefly look at using a UV texture in our full resolution designs - keeping sight of our dpi sizing and bleed amounts.

We learn how to import an image to the UV map window, and how to line up our UV map. We then see how to apply a material to an object using nodes, and how to create a node map that uses an image to apply a 2d texture to the object.

Create a portfolio-worthy design and apply it to the 3d model!

Here I describe my super fast studio setup - less time fiddling with lighting/lamps, more time getting a super clean white background, with a glossy floor for a nice reflection and lighting you can tweak for the best effect.

Learn how to set up the textures of the studio we've created.

Position your camera, then tell Blender what resolution, file type and processing you want it to do when we go to the render stage.

Learn how to manipulate the nodes and studio set up to get the best out of your scene.

Learn how to set Blender to render your scene, how to get crisp clear scenes and how to save the resulting image.

Create a photo-realistic view of your model!

How to allow for sections of your 3d object to be transparent - define where the transparent sections are within your PNG 2d file and set up the nodes accordingly.

How to add foil printing effects to your 3d renders - I also show you how to manipulate the world environment to provide detail to show in the reflections of the foil.

How to add embossed detail to your packaging or graphic designs. Also see how to deboss and how to make the embossing/debossing stand out even more.

Create a beautiful render of a 3d object with either transparent sections, foil stamped sections or embossed/debossed  sections.

Where to find 3d models to use for product mock ups.

When filming the following lecture, I ran into an error that I'd never seen before. Instead of changing the model to find an error-free model I decided to show the process for troubleshooting - this is an essential skill for working with Blender as you're almost guaranteed to run into difficulties at some stage.

This lecture shows how to take a 3rd party model (lots and lots downloadable for free or low costs, see the 'Downloading 3d models' lecture for more information), and UV unwrap it ready for your own 2d design.

How to take your 3d modelling skills further than the simple box!

Use a 3rd party 3d model to create another portfolio-worthy rendering.

Now that you have a very desirable new skill I just want to ask you to consider freelancing your skills - I want this course to enrich your life monetarily as well as with a new skill!

A bonus text tutorial on the steps required to 'fold' a die cut shape that you can import into blender. Thus, if you have a box design to work with you can precisely work with it in 3d.

Often graphic designers will want to create 'flat' objects such as posters and business cards, or other items made from paper/card. This bonus lecture shows three ways to achieve this:

1. Make a cuboid object that has a very small thickness. This is recommended as it reflects real life - all real paper has a thickness, even if it is 0.01 mm!
2. Make a plane object and assign different textures to it's front and back faces using a Geometry node.
3. Make a plane object then create a thickness using the Solidify modifier.

Further courses that you may be interested in and a little more about me and what I do.

My other Udemy courses:

Make money at home online:

https://www.udemy.com/how-to-run-a-business-with-your-home-computer/

The Memory Course:

https://www.udemy.com/memorise-asias-countries-and-capitals-with-a-memory-palace

My company:

http://www.kestreldesign.co.uk

My Etsy Store:

http://etsy.com/shop/kestreldesign/

My 'Mindfulness Mandalas' Adult Colouring Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Mandalas-Adult-Colouring-Book/