Last week, SCCA alum and designer Andrew Nedimyer spoke with our class about his journey. Starting from his beginnings as a skate park designer, to enrolling at SCCA, starting his own studio and now working as a product designer, Andrew shared a lot of his wisdom with us that was quite inspiring. He also spoke a bit about the importance of personal projects, and that really resonated with me.
Since joining the program, I have become incredibly interested in the world of computer graphics and 3D, and how I can use those tools to help my designs tell a story. During winter break, I began tinkering around with the program Cinema 4D, which is considered the industry standard in the world of 3D, especially for product visualizations which is something I want to get good at. My progress so far has been a bit stagnant, mostly due to the overwhelming nature of 3D, but Andrew’s talk has inspired me to go for it even more.
The personal project I want to complete is to create a visualization of one of my school projects. To do this, I need to dedicate the time to properly learn and understand the program. As a beginner, it’s not easy to jump in and create the things I want, so I will be stuck in tutorial hell until I am comfortable enough with Cinema 4D to use it in my own way. Luckily, YouTube provides excellent tutorials and content, ranging from beginner to advanced. I am also lucky to be a part of a community of 3D artists through Discord, who share plenty of resources, help and encouragement. The only thing holding me back right now is a lack of discipline. I think the only way to combat this is to dive right in.
While I have some basics under my belt after doing some tutorials over the break, I plan to increase the frequency of learning by doing at least four hours a week of a Cinema 4D course I found. Since this course is laid out in a way that starts you off with the basics, it should be easy to follow through.
After becoming comfortable, I want to create a visualization of the packaging product assigned to us by Jill. (I have not decided on which product to design, but plan to this weekend.) I want to at least work on it for two hours a week, once I am comfortable enough in Cinema 4D. I don’t plan to turn this in along with the project, as that might add a little bit of unnecessary stress upon me this quarter, but I would like to complete it during our spring break.
Other than the time needed, I believe I have all the resources I need to execute this idea. I am currently on the student plan for Cinema 4D, which brings costs down to $20 a year; an absolute steal of a price. It also comes with other tools, and the popular render engine Redshift, so nothing is barring me from creating professional renders.