Eight months, thirty-one posts, one film. The user testing is complete, and the thesis has been submitted. What's left is to reflect and see where we might go from here. What the world made of John's Journey John's Journey has been watched hundreds of times since its release three weeks ago, and by the [...]
What I did: With animation complete and the snagging list worked through, the focus shifted to final post-production, delivery and getting the film out to testers. Final Amendments Following the weekly supervisor meeting, only two changes were required to the film itself. The first was a horn sound in the roundabout scene – it [...]
What I did: Following on from the walk cycles and lip-sync work in the previous post, animation continued for the remaining scenes. With several scenes involving moving vehicles, wheel rotation needed to be addressed. Since none of the car models was rigged, the wheels were separated from the body of each car, and drivers [...]
What I did: Production is now moving at a pace. Since the last post, scenes 2, 3 and the opening of scene 4 have been animated and rendered, the final scene is also in the can, and a significant amount of technical ground has been covered, with walk cycles, NLA strip workflow, lip sync [...]
What I did: With all character variants finally prepared, animation could begin. Scene 1 (the hallway, 1970s) is the opening scene of the film, introducing John at his proudest and most capable. Getting this right sets the emotional tone for everything that follows. The establishing shot Following feedback from Ronan Lynch (my former narrative [...]
What I did: With 'Retired John' complete and production-ready, the next character variant needed was a 40s/50s version of John for scene 3 – a brief scene showing him walking to his car, polishing the IAM badge and driving away. Given the short screen time, the decision was made to duplicate 30s John and [...]
What I did: With the alpha submission behind me, the next major task was getting 'Retired John' (the version of the character used in scenes 4–7) production-ready for animation. This meant resolving a number of issues that had been lurking since the 'John 30s' character was first created, and rebuilding parts of the rig [...]
What I did: With full production renders looming fast, I needed to make an informed decision about render settings and file format before committing to around 5,400 frames. The Cryptomatte desaturation pipeline – isolating the IAM badge in full colour while the rest of the scene desaturates – requires OpenEXR Multilayer output from Blender [...]
What I did: Two environments this session – one new build, one revisit. The road scene is for the roundabout sequence, where John is driving and suddenly goes the wrong way around the roundabout – a moment of confusion mid-junction that will be the key dramatic beat of the scene. I used my PCG [...]
What I did: I've been thinking about the transition from John's face in the nursing home bed to the front-on view of the memory cabinet. In my animatic, I used a fade between two shots with the memory cabinet as the anchor point. It sits on the far right of the frame as the [...]
What I did: With the animation now in its production phase, I've started reaching out to organisations and individuals who work in dementia, to ask if they'd be willing to view John's Journey as part of my user testing phase. The total commitment will be around 10 minutes, including the film itself and a [...]
What I did: Blocking animation typically means dropping cubes and planes into a scene to establish rough positioning and timing before committing to detailed work. But I'm a visual person, and I needed to get the images out of my head. So while I haven't started animating yet, I've been building the environments properly [...]
What I did: The first fully dressed environment is done – the hallway where the film opens. John, in his late 30s, is in the hallway when a parcel arrives through the letterbox containing his IAM Advanced Motorist badge and certificate. It's a moment of achievement, the height of his confidence as a driver, [...]
John's Journey is a practice-based research project, which means the animation itself generates knowledge alongside the written academic work. Every creative decision is grounded in research, and every research finding shapes a creative decision. This post documents where the research currently stands. Research Question: The research question remains unchanged from the project proposal: "How [...]
Image: Firefly 2026 Technical Setup: Hardware: MacBook Pro M3 Max with 64GB RAM and 4TB SSD. Additionally, I have multiple external 2TB SSDs for each facet of my work: Design WIP Animation Video Photography My setup handles Blender's viewport performance well, though final render times for scenes with heavy geometry and lighting will still [...]
What I did: Rather than spend weeks modelling period-accurate cars from scratch (which isn't what I'm being assessed on), I sourced free 3D models for the four vehicles John drives across the years. Getting them to work together as a cohesive set turned out to be quite a bit of work. The models: I [...]
What I did (back at the start): Before I even started modelling John, I created the script and storyboards for John's Journey. This was done right at the beginning of the project – before the character ageing work, before the rigging, before any of the technical challenges I've documented in this blog. Around three [...]
What I did: The Institute of Advanced Motorists badge is now complete – modelled and shaded in Blender. This might seem like a small prop, but it's the most important object in the entire animation. Why this badge matters: The IAM badge represents identity, achievement, and expertise. For someone who earned advanced driving qualifications, [...]
What I did: Facial rigging is done! Well, for the 30s John model anyway. I've finished the Gustavo Rosa course, Blender 3D - From Zero to Your First Character! - all 83 lessons completed - and I now have a character who can actually express emotion. Bones: Controllers: The technical bit: Using shape keys [...]
What I did: In order to ensure I did things thoroughly, I went back to where I'd left off on the Udemy course: Blender 3D - From Zero to Your First Character! by Gustavo Rosa. He really is a very good tutor, showing step-by-step what you need to do, and he explains why things [...]
What I did: Getting the mesh ready: Following my tutor's advice, I've done a good deal of cleanup and preparation work to get John ready for rigging: Deleted the body under the clothes: All the geometry hidden beneath the clothing (torso, arms, legs) has now been removed. I'd kept it there as long as [...]
What I did: Thinking ahead (I really just need to focus on the job in hand!), I wanted to understand the science behind facial ageing rather than just relying on my own observations. Like, I knew lips got thinner, skin sagged, wrinkles formed and your nose and ears were the two things that kept [...]
What I did: I found a really excellent article about face topology that I have to share. If anyone reading this is about to embark on modelling a human head for animation... STOP! Don't start anything until you've read this article. 3D Face Modeling: A Guide to Face Topology What I learned: This article [...]
Date: 07.12.2025 Source: TomGrave3D Time spent: 2.5 hours This tutorial uses geometry nodes to create a tool that can be used to quickly draw a variety of embroidery stitches, using the ‘Draw’ tool in Blender’s Edit Mode, which allows you to draw freehand splines. The node setup can be adjusted to create different stitches; here [...]
Date: 06.12.2025 Source: TomGrave3D Time spent: 1 hour This tutorial uses geometry nodes to create water droplets that could be used on loads of different objects, such as drinking glasses, bottles, cans, leaves and windows. I already had an orange that I had modelled for an earlier CA, so I've applied these nodes to that [...]
Date: 06.12.2025 Source: TomGrave3D Time spent: 0.5 hour This quick tutorial uses geometry nodes to create basic 3D drawing tools. Having watched the tutorial, I developed the tools a little by adding sliders in the Modifiers menu to make them easier to adjust. There are three tools, which I have called: Draw 3D Pipes Draw [...]
Date: 04.12.2025 Source: Ryan King Art Time spent: 3 hours While this tutorial makes use of geometry nodes to animate bats, the same nodes could very easily be used to animate any flock of birds, and probably swarms of flying insects too. There are two options for the bats, 'Never Ending Bats' which loop constantly, [...]
What I did: Firstly, apologies, it's been a while since my last conf... sorry, since my last post! I have much to report. The face I had created just looked off, but I couldn't pinpoint why. I also came to realise that in order for my character's face to animate well, there is a [...]
Date: 26.11.2025 Source: Vector Recite Time spent: 0.5 hour I followed a very basic tutorial on procedural neon signs. The setup's fully procedural; the text is live, you can change typefaces, in fact you can adjust everything very easily. As the type changes, the supports that hold the letters move too. Geometry nodes (overall view [...]
Date: 22.11.2025 Source: CrossMind Studio Time spent: 1.5 hours I followed a tutorial on creating electric signal trails using the Shortest Path node in Blender. The effect creates glowing circuits resembling energy pulses flowing across surfaces – perfect for sci-fi visuals. I applied this to Suzanne (Blender's monkey mascot). The procedural setup creates random paths [...]
What I did: I tried living with the model, but I wasn't happy with it. There was too much of a disconnect between the eyes and the rest of the head. A meeting with my tutor confirmed what I had been thinking. He also pointed out a couple of clothing edges that could be made [...]
Date: 10.11.2025 Source: Partly Ducky 3D Time spent: 1.5 hours Taking inspiration from a Ducky 3D tutorial on YouTube, I used the particle flow idea to create the logo for one of my clients. It was pretty straightforward, although I did do it a couple of times. The first time of doing it, I imported [...]
What I did: I've finished modelling my stylised John! Well, pretty much – there might be just a couple more tweaks needed, but the majority of the work is done. I've now gone through 50 out of the 83 lessons in the course, so I'm doing well. The demonstration model from the course is basic, [...]
What I did: Carried on working through the Udemy course and I'm making good progress. I've completed 43 out of the 83 lectures, so I'm just over half way through. I've got my base character mostly modelled – John in his late-30s is taking shape. He's not quite finished yet; I still need to create [...]
What I did: So today I started the Udemy course I mentioned in my last post – what a huge let down! The course description had promised character creation and modelling, but it wasn't at all what it was billed to be. Instead, it largely used an extension in Blender to generate semi-realistic human models [...]
What I'm doing: I've decided to invest in a full character animation course before I dive into modelling. To be honest, I'm lacking a little confidence. My Blender knowledge has been pieced together from multiple tutors and random online tutorials, so I'm pretty sure I've picked up some bad habits along the way! I've never [...]
What I did: Used AI to generate the style of character I want to model (as my drawing skills aren't great). I started off using Adobe Firefly, generating the same prompt until I felt I had a reasonable stylised likeness to my dad in his late 30's. Prompt: stylised 3d character of man wearing suit, [...]
Date: 12.10.2025 Source: Udemy – Ultimate Blender 3D Geometry Nodes Time spent: 0.5 hour Continuing the Udemy The Ultimate Blender 3D Geometry Nodes Course, I created this basic cityscape. This one was super simple to set up, and is fully adjustable. You can quickly and easily expand or contract the city to be a different [...]
Date: 11.10.2025 Source: Udemy – Ultimate Blender 3D Geometry Nodes Time spent: 1 hour I purchased a Udemy Course – The Ultimate Blender 3D Geometry Nodes Course. It covers Blender basics (which I skipped past) before going over the basics of Geometry Nodes and Shader Nodes. There are 320 lectures in total which span nearly [...]
What I did: Considered my options. For my main character, I need to show his age range from late-30's up until his 90's. I asked myself the question, is it better to model one character and use a switching system to show the character ageing, or to model multiple characters of different ages? With many [...]
What I did: Set up this research blog and defined my project goals for my Character Pipeline CA5 module as part of my MSc in Computer Animation. All going well, this will contribute to my final project next year. I'm creating a stylised character that ages from late 30s to 90 years old. The character [...]
