Hey Reader,

Zach here,

With some spicy inspirations from the 3D world.

This week we have a cool lighting tutorial from Gleb Alexandrov, a dynamic animation by Pierrick Picaut, a beautiful cinematic trailer for the new season of League of Legends (done by the authors of "Arcane") and a fun breakdown of a Doritos advertisement (partially done in Blender).

As a cherry on top, PolyPaint will show you how to recreate the 90s anime vibes in Blender’s Grease Pencil.

Let’s dive in.

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​A simple Trick to make your Lighting more Cinematic​

If you ever struggled to make your renders look interesting, eye-catching, and (no way to avoid this overused word) cinematic, you’ll love to learn this secret trick from Gleb Alexandrov.

It turns out that a simple approach using the right principles can get you very far, and Gleb’s amazing renders are living proof that it just works.

​Flawless Kung-fu animation in Blender by P2Design​

Getting good in 3D animation is very difficult. It may even feel like learning Kung Fu. It is much easier though when you have a great master to learn from. Pierrick Picaut has once again proved to have a black belt in Blender animation with his latest personal project (a fighting, "Overwatch" styled Gorilla).

If you want to learn the secrets of this art from Shifu Pierrick, I recommend enrolling in his ‘Alive’ course:

​Join the ‘Alive’ - Blender animation course here (affiliate link)

​Stunning Trailer from the Creators of "Arcane"​

You don’t need to be an avid League of Legends player to know how great the Netflix show "Arcane" looked. Now the animation studio responsible for that great success has made another beautiful creation.

This time, it’s a teaser for League of Legends’ 2025 season 1. The whole thing lasts five minutes, and you won’t regret a second you spend watching it.

​How to make a Doritos Ad in Blender for the Superbowl​

Perhaps you’re tired of seeing ads everywhere, but stay with me, this unique advertisement is fun to watch and the people behind it are very inspiring. Did I mention that Blender was used in the process?

The video contains cool practical ideas about general filmmaking and creative approaches to mix video footage with 3D graphics that you can implement in your projects.

All of this is packaged in an entertaining video with a message at the end that resonates with my personal story of how I got into making 3D.

​Recreating a Shot from "Princess Mononoke" in Blender​

80s/90s anime had a unique and beautiful vibe, especially known for the handcrafted style of Studio Ghibli that created such masterpieces as "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Princess Mononoke". PolyPaint challenged himself to recreate this iconic style and to do it he used a Blender and Krita combo.

Blender’s Grease Pencil seemed like a good choice to create the simpler cel-shaded characters (that were traditionally painted on transparent sheets of celluloid (hence the name cel animation) and Krita was perfect to get the painterly backgrounds done.

By watching this video, you can learn more about the process and what PolyPaint has learned throughout this project:​
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That’s all from me today, have a great week and till next time.

~Zach