Two months ago I did a small project to get used to Blender 2.8, Auto-Rig and GIMP. I got the subject from an illustration challenge set by a Finnish publishing house.

I really enjoy using Blender 2.8. I’m happy that the old layer system got replaced by the Collections and that the 3D Cursor location doesn’t change anymore by pressing the LMB. It took a while to remember some of the key changes, for example that the operator search comes from F3 instead of the spacebar. Only thing I will miss is the Blenders Internal renderer and its quick render passes.

With the AutoRig I created a rig for my character. The process was easy and I got satisfying automatic weights everywhere else except the clothes. To fix the skinning for the clothes I used the Transfer Data tool to get the vertex weights from the character mesh to the clothes. Before I was able to use the Transfer Data tool I needed to enable the Global Undo from Blender Preferences > System. This takes extra memory, but makes it possible to manipulate different tool settings that instantly apply to your model.

Using GIMP is a bit painful for me since I’m so used to Adobe’s tools but I’m trying to change the software I use because Adobe’s products are so pricey. With GIMP I had to learn new logics, especially with masking and layers. I missed Photoshop’s brush tools, adjustment layers and layer styles.

It was fun to create a small project, learn some new tools and work on character design which is one of my favorite creative visual challenges!