Hello, my name is Zack and I’m going to tell you the story of my journey with 3D Modeling, how I integrated it into what I do here at a Marketing company, and how you or someone on your marketing team can make it happen without having to spend money on programs or classes.
The reason I first got into 3D modeling was actually kind of an accident. I play a lot of tabletop and board games, and one day after a local 3D printing company opened in my city, I thought to myself, “It would be really cool if I could take character models from video games and print them”.
I found out that I could either pay $30 for each 30” figure, or that I could just buy my own printer and print the figures for less than 10c each. I bought my own printer.
So of course, I did what any unreasonably motivated person with too much time on his hands would do. I downloaded a free 3D program called Blender and started watching YouTube videos.
What I Downloaded and How I Learned:
I read through some articles and forums and found out that there was a free-to-use program with a ton of functionality and a steep learning curve, Blender. Blender is currently the only 3D modeling program I’ve used, and it’s powerful enough for my personal hobbies, my 3D marketing renders, and even my 3D video.
I’m sure there are plenty of websites you can pay for courses through, but save yourself some money and watch The Blender Guru’s tutorials for free on YouTube. His very first tutorial series shows you how to set up a scene with a donut on a plate next to a coffee cup.
Before you start, here’s my warning: Blender’s User Interface can be overwhelmingly complicated. You will most likely find yourself looking at a screen or menu you’ve never noticed before. I struggled through these sort of issues for about 2 weeks before I got my footing.
Pro tip: Google is your friend! For every issue I came across, hundreds of others experienced the same troubles and shared their answers in articles and videos.
As I write this article, I’ve been 3D modeling for about half a year now. By no means do I consider myself a master or an expert, but the first character model I made back in December took me a whole month of pulling my hair out with mistakes. These days, I can make much more complicated models in only a few hours.
How I’ve Used 3D Modeling in Yas’ Marketing:
The first things I worked on as a 3D project at work were some shiny new graphics to display on our website, blog posts, and ads.
Here are some of my creations:
When I got a little more comfortable, I made the commercial you saw earlier in this post. It’s only 6 seconds, but I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to record the models moving like that.
After those applications, I kind of hit a wall as far as what I could actually do with this skill.
How I Wish I Could Use 3D Modeling in Yas’ Marketing:
Yas is a marketing, website, and branding business, which means we don’t sell any product. I’ve spent a good amount of time looking around the internet to see how I should use 3D modeling in my business, and I quickly found out that the absolute best use is for product marketing.
If I had product that came in bottles or cans or tins, I could spend 20 minutes making a simple cylinder shape and wrapping my advertisement image around it. Then, I would set the lighting just right, add some splashes of color and voila! No more bland photographs for me.
Now, I’m not going to stop figuring out clever ways to use my 3D modeling skills in my industry, but that brings us to the question of the article:
Should You Learn 3D Modeling For Your Business?
If you sell products or take part in any sort of visual marketing, this skill can bring your team ahead of the competition! However, don’t forget that it’s quite difficult at the start and will take a month or two to start to feel comfortable doing.
What would you use 3D models for in your marketing? Let me know in the comments!
