PreViz and Planning — tyson hand-did

I have been using a program called Blender since 2009. It is a free, open source 3D creation platform that makes it possible to do all kinds of cool things from sculpting and modeling in 3D, to creating movie effects, to planning out projects in the real world. Here is an alien character I did a couple of years ago:

That thing existed nowhere except in the imagination. Blender is a great tool for making the invisible things of the imagination into things that can be seen.

We also used Blender this year to model Hannah and Sara's Christmas ornaments and have them 3D printed. Some of you have seen these already:

As you can see, a very cool program that allows you to do a whole lot of cool stuff. The learning curve for Blender is kind of steep but well worth the effort to learn if you are interested in doing these types of projects.

Blender is also a great way to plan and previsualize real-world projects. I have used it to redesign our dining room into a study for the girls, plan out a loft-bed for Sara, and several other things.

Right now, for my guitar project, I am planning out a small and portable luthiers work bench:

Once I have all the dimensions worked out and the way I want the work surface to flow, I am able to quickly and easily calculate how much and what types of lumber I will need to complete the project.

I am also planning out some guitar bodies and ideas in Blender, but I will save that for another post.

If you are inclined toward such things, you should check out Blender. Very cool open source program with a huge support community to learn from.