KSD Community Updates

• Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to my first newsletter! I really appreciate it and if you find it useful, please share. If you could let me know if you were able to successfully see the welcome email, I’d appreciate it because I can’t see that from my end.

• At this point, I am also open to suggestions about what may be most helpful for you in the newsletter as I am still choosing what I will include. Also any tutorial/video suggestions are welcome.

• Discord is alive and growing, come join the fun and learn with other 3D artists: https://discord.gg/QYByQKZcSZ

• I shared a tutorial on Particle Advection in Houdini and Redshift on Youtube, I will upload that project file and all future newsletter freebies here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qlWbLpYesVHzIFQ-du3yh_j1PzaZioIs?usp=sharing

• I’m currently working on another 3D short film and am super excited to share it once I’m done and all the behind the scenes stuff I have learned

• I have some longer term plans to make Youtube videos and possible online courses about the general path to getting started with 3D art and becoming a 3D artist as your career, stay tuned.

What’s New In 3D

• Blender 4.2 LTS has been released and includes an upgraded version of the real time render engine Eevee along with tons of other improvements to other systems.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwpBgtKilvw

• Houdini 20.5 is out with some amazing updates including the new MPM multi solver and the Substance-Designer-esque toolset Copernicus.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iOqERDE6jI

• JangaFX, the masterminds behind Embergen have released an Alpha version of Liquigen, a real time fluid dynamics system. It is available for a 14 day free trial, including total functionality and exporting. Their products are always impressive and the ability to iterate in near real time is incredible. The tools aren’t as flexible as building something in Houdini but they are very simple to learn and you can get great results quick, definitely recommend checking these out and doing the trials.

  • https://jangafx.com/software/elemental-suite/try

• Free Course on CHOPs and the Sop Solver in Houdini

  • https://www.houdini.school/courses/hs-239-experimental-motion

• Blender Guru has released a new version of the famous donut tutorial for anyone interested in learning Blender. This is truly a great place to start if you’ve been wanting to get into Blender/3D generally. He covers the most important content quickly and explains things well.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haAdmHqGOw

• Somei Sun, one of the best 3D artists out there, released a new 3D short in the Evangelion universe

  • https://x.com/someidesign/status/1813060460461334537

• Video AI models are becoming more available, with Runway, Luma and the new Kling offering free demo tests.

  • Magnific AI offers image adjustment and upscaling features

  • Video Upscalers and frame interpolators are on the market as well with options such as Topaz Labs, Flowframes and more

I want to start my first newsletter with a short discussion of something that I have dealt with and hope that it resonates with others. I think the underlying message is fairly universal and applies outside of 3D work. I’ve also considered making a youtube video about it, so if you think that would be cool, let me know.

Disconnection and Curiosity

Most of my life I didn’t believe that I really had any artistic talent or skill because when I grew up I couldn't draw or paint or do any traditional form of art very well. It didn't come naturally to me, so I thought that I wasn’t meant to be a creative person. So, I never really put much time into creative pursuits.

That door just didn't feel open for me.

In hindsight, I recognize that improving at anything is 90% or more a result of dedication and putting hours in. However, I believe you need to be guided and driven by a joyous curiosity to keep putting time into something when you know you’re not good at it yet. Part of what I want to achieve with my newsletter and building a community is to help people discover 3D art and ignite that curiosity within them.

When I discovered 3D and digital art through social media in college, I was in awe. I was struck with wonder and inspiration for all these amazing images and videos I was seeing. My obsession began and has continued throughout my life so far. Once I started using 3D software, I realized, hey, this is kind of a happy medium for me because I'm fairly good at learning software, navigating technical interfaces and problem solving. Ultimately, 3D work is a balance between art, technical skill and problem solving. There's so much problem solving that's required creatively and technically. So, you never really feel like you've totally mastered anything. You have to accept that you’re in a state of constant learning and the discomfort of not knowing how much you’re really improving when you’re in the thick of it. You can feel like you’ve mastered one thing then hit a problem you’ve never encountered before the next day. Learn to love the journey, embrace the challenges!

The first part of this journey was all inspiration and discovery and curiosity, it fed some hungry part of me that wanted to create and an analytical part of me that wanted to deconstruct how the things I was seeing were created. Then I noticed something else started creeping in at times. Feelings of stagnation, disconnection and aimlessness would occasionally take over. I would go from peaks of intense, obsessive focus to various states of disconnection. The solution I found time and again was to try and reconnect with that burning spirit of curiosity that has always existed within me and that I believe exists within all of us.

This meant taking any steps, no matter how small, to stoke that fire.

Some days this means completely removing myself from the context of my 3D work and allowing my curiosity to take me elsewhere. Some days this meant just browsing Pinterest and Behance and mood boarding things I like, refining my taste, understanding what I like and what I don’t like and where I fall as an artist amongst all the other work out there.

This process of exploration and discovery is a joyful process of growth and empowerment. What is so powerful about pursuing your curiosity is that it can take you to places you never believed were possible for you to reach and you can find yourself capable of things you would never have imagined you could do. But you have to keep stoking the fire, and trying to take the smallest steps you can when you start to feel disconnected. Be patient with yourself. It’s okay to feel disconnected, it’s okay to drop something entirely and do something else. But I would encourage you to keep trying to follow your curiosity and allowing that magnetism to continue to pull you through the world.

I’m hopeful my experience can be useful as you follow your own paths, towards 3D art or whatever else lies ahead for you.

Again, thanks so much for being here and spreading the awareness about 3D art with people in your networks.

Cheers,

Kyle