Turn Your Drawing Into a 3D Model
Concept artist Jama Jurabaev shows how a free program can help you cross the divide between 2D illustrator and 3D sculptor.
No other creative software has the potency of 3D programs like Maya and ZBrush – but no other software has such a steep learning curve. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to draw inside your 3D program, with brushes that are familiar to artists, then turn it into a 3D model. Well, it turns out there is…
Blender is a free but very capable modelling, rendering and animation package with a gem of a tool called Grease Pencil, named after the pencils traditional animators sketched with. You use Grease Pencil to draw on a plane inside Blender – then you use Blender’s 3D tools to add the third dimension to your drawing.
Jama Jurabaev guides you through the process in this video, showing a few different possible ways to develop your line drawing into a full 3D form. In the most jaw-dropping sequence, a flat side-on sketch of a triceratops rapidly becomes a rounded-out dinosaur skeleton. Blender enables Jama to set up the basic form and proportions, then pose the creature to make it feel more alive. Jama’s personable narrated chapters are punctuated with silent time-lapse videos that show the techniques he’s just discussed in more detail.
Once you’ve grasped the basics, later chapters explore some of the potential of Grease Pencil. You’ll see how Jama uses it to create surface details that would take longer to add in something like ZBrush, and how a few quick brush strokes can become organic-looking plant formations.
With plenty of 3D files to download and open for further study, this is a masterclass on a tool that could enable you to cross the divide from 2D drawing into 3D modelling – and it’s a tool you can get for free.