Early Modeling Work — Pengqi Zheng

This post looks back on my early experience of learning to model. When I first tried Blender in October 2024, I fell in love with this remarkable piece of software that could turn imagination into reality. The year or so that followed was an important time for building my foundations. I kept learning and exploring, running into countless problems and working through them one by one. Along the way, I developed an intuition for constructing 3D objects, a better eye for art, and greater proficiency with the software. I went from knowing nothing at all to being a beginner modeling enthusiast with a little understanding of the field and the industry.

An early rounded cartoon character in the Blender viewport — Early forms in Blender01

A small robot model with headphones shown from several angles in Blender — Building a small robot02

At first, all I could do was follow tutorials on bilibili step by step. Whatever the instructor did, I did too; wherever they clicked, I copied them.

A stylized owl character study in the 3ds Max viewport — Following a character tutorial03

Front, side and rear views of a stylized character with long twin tails — A stylized character turnaround04

I then moved on to slightly more advanced tutorials and started making simple cartoon characters. I gained an initial understanding of mesh editing, UV mapping, and topology. With each new piece, I could clearly see my skills improving.

A texture-painting workspace with a white-haired anime-style character and texture maps — Learning character texturing05

Texture painting for a blue-haired anime-style character wearing a pointed hat — Developing material and color detail06

Next, I began learning the full workflow for modeling anime-style game characters and discovered how character artists at game studios build a character step by step. With practice, my techniques became more fluent, and I picked up some more advanced texture-painting skills.

Anime-style character reference, model and wireframe views in 3ds Max — A full character workflow07

By October 2025, after a full year of learning, I could independently and efficiently complete the entire production process for an anime-style character. The quality of my finished models could meet professional standards, though I still wasn't fast enough.

Later, I began learning the PBR workflow and making high-quality realistic models. The learning experience followed a similar path, so I won't go into it again here. You can see my next-gen realistic work on the homepage. This stage brought even tougher challenges, but I eventually worked through them. Moving from searching for tutorials to exploring freely and completing work independently is all part of learning.

Looking back, I'm surprised by how far I've come. My skills have kept growing, reaching a level that I would never have imagined when I started.

Interest is the best teacher. Never underestimate the power of persistence and passion!