Blender work
I don't think any piece of software has had as meaningful an impact on my life (or on the life of many others') as Blender.
I still try to use it whenever I get the chance.
I first installed it in 2010, back when the old 2.49 interface was still the norm. That version felt a bit daunting, and I gave up on it at first, only to come back when Blender 2.5 was released. That was the moment it opened up for me. The possibilities suddenly felt endless, and I quickly started making projects as a way to express myself artistically.
Eventually I discovered the Blender Game Engine (rest in peace), and that it could be used to create artificial life through simulated evolution. It was a gateway drug into Python programming, and in hindsight one of the earliest steps toward the career that followed.
Exploring Blender's many sides
A lot of this period was about developing an artistic touch. I was drawn to lighting, composition, atmosphere, and the feeling an image could carry, even when the scene itself was relatively simple.
What made Blender special, though, was that it never stayed only about images. The deeper I got, the more it opened up into different ways of thinking. I touched meshing, rigging, particle systems, materials, nodes, and later geometry nodes. Each of them felt like a different layer of the same tool, and each one expanded what I thought was possible to make.
What kept happening, again and again, was that the desire to achieve a certain outcome pulled me into a deeper understanding of the systems underneath. You might start out simply wanting to rig a character, but end up with a much better intuitive grasp of matrices, transforms, and the difference between world, local, and camera coordinate spaces. Blender kept rewarding that kind of curiosity, where artistic intent gradually turned into a more technical understanding of both 3D graphics and the math behind it.
Real world use
Blender ended up mattering to me not only as a tool for making images, but as a genuinely practical tool for real-world work.
It has been surprisingly effective in robotics and consulting contexts: generating URDF files, designing 3D-printable parts, preparing mockups for clients, and building real-time digital visualisers.
Artificial gravity
A ring station and its docked structures, built around orbital scale, artificial gravity, and suspended light.
Blocky world, softer light
My Minecraft redstone world, rendered in 8K as a dense field of contraptions, experiments, and engineered clutter, softened only by the light.
What I can do
Modeling and mesh cleanup, geometry nodes, rigging, scripting, integrations, and custom plugin work.
Blender has been useful both as a visual medium and as a technical tool, which means I can move between form, systems, and implementation without much friction.
What it can do for you
For the right project, Blender can be a practical layer in the workflow: mockups, URDFs, simulations, 3D-printable parts, and technical visualisation.