Hey Reader,

Today we have quite a lot of good stuff to share, so stick with us to the end.

We’ll start with Polyfjord’s new tutorial on animated loops, followed by a hilarious and heartfelt Pixel-art animation about learning Blender. Next, we’ll share a cute animated short that won the Suzanne Award for Best Animation.

We'll also share a new 3D challenge (and remind you about our ongoing Gift Factory challenge and the CG Boost Birthday Sale).

Finally, a new free wood textures set straight from Polyhaven.

Let’s dive right in.

​Polyfjord’s Looping Animation Tutorial​

Polyfjord is playing with polyrhythms (synchronizing and desynchronizing animations) again, and he shares his whole workflow in this video.

With a cleverly thought-out rig, he's able to animate the entire scene within just one single action, which can be later procedurally modified using Blender’s NLA editor.

Polyfjord also digs into the animation's sound design, showing some cool audio tricks in Blender and a free, open-source Digital Audio Workstation called OpenDAW Studio.

​Learning Blender is Hard (but Worthwhile)​

WOAH QUEST tells the story of his Blender learning experience in a fun animated form.

The animation has a cool pixel-art-collage style and some really funny jokes inside. The main story, though, can touch the heart of every 3D artist. It's the feeling of freedom to create anything you want that 3D art sparks in all of us.

It’s also heartwarming to see the overwhelmingly positive comments under WOAH QUEST’s videos (not so common these days). We hope these are the friendly vibes that we can nourish in our community as well.

​Bib Bop’s Adventures: Puppy Puddles Play​

​This cute animation by Duncan Rudd (we’ve previously shared his amazing ‘The Ballad of the Pale Blue Dot’ short) is just perfect for the rainy weather season to cheer you up.

No surprise that it won the ‘Best Animation’ category in this year’s Suzanne Awards at the Blender Conference. The simple and heartwarming story is animated with so much detail and believable motion that it truly comes alive despite the very simplified forms and toy-like design.

Of course it was done in Blender.

Check out the HelloBipBop channel for more episodes.

Ongoing 3D Challenges

Our ‘Gift Factory’ challenge is still running until November 6th (and there are already some cool WIPs to keep an eye on, shared in our community), so we encourage you to join the fun and create your own animated gift.

If this doesn’t spark your interest, you might want to join another 3D challenge that was announced by Render Juice (a Blender-oriented render farm) under the title ‘Speed’.

The goal is to create an animated interpretation of speed (5 to 30 seconds long). How you envision this concept is 100% up to your creative interpretation.

There’s a nice prize pool to win in cash and render credit (that you can use to quickly render even more cool Blender projects).

You can learn more details here.

​Polyhaven’s Wood Works Vault​

Wood is a great and versatile material that comes in many shades, colors, and patterns. That’s why 3D artists are always hungry for good wood textures. Polyhaven has recently released a big set of high-quality wood materials called the Wood Works Vault.

It includes 55 new wood texture sets, free to use in all kinds of projects (including commercial work).

That’s all from us today. Have a great weekend, and till next time.

Jarosław & Zach (the CG Boost Newsletter Team)