INTRO TO BLENDER FOR FOOTWEAR with Dashaun Hightower

In this 2-hours x 8-sessions, over 4.5 weeks course, you will learn how to work with Blender from scratch specifically for footwear. Between the last two sessions, you will have a 15 minute personal call with the instructor to go over your work, any questions you might have, get critiques, and incorporate it into your final project for the last class.

This is an online, zoom class, but it will still be intimate, and we hope that you will get the most out of what we have to offer!

Instructor DaShaun Hightower has taught at RISD online, and has extended his knowledge to the BKSS community as well.

Week 1: Intro to the history of footwear with a  breakdown of the basic anatomy of a successful shoe through case study of popular brands.

Blender tutorial I: Navigating the Blender workspace. Introduction, and basic modeling techniques with vertices, edges and faces.

Week 2: Functionality vs Embellishment in Footwear

Blender Tutorial II: Basic modeling techniques using edit mode to refine the base model. Exploring the shading editor to create custom materials

Week 3: Concept Development-How to distill inspiration into a final product.

Blender Tutorial III: Exploring the shading editor pt.II Sourcing materials/Applying materials We also will set up quick animations with keyframing.

Week 4: Prepare for final project presentation

Blender Tutorial IV Setting up environments to render your sample. This will include a lighting demo(studio lights vs HDRIs), backdrop building, and rendering settings.

Between this class, and the final class, there will be a 10-15 minute zoom call with the instructor individually.

Week 4.5: Presentations / Peer review