Original subtitles

About Me

Hello, I am James Tralie.

Welcome to the wonderful world of 3D environment creation in Blender.

I'm a full-time producer and animator at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,

making cool animations that explain complex science

in exciting and thrilling ways.

I often use software like Blender in my work to create these animations

and have fun learning new things every time I go back to the software.

In my free time, I'm also a freelance 3D designer

represented by H+ Creative out in LA.

I've done a lot of work for a bunch of clients

in the music, TV, and film industries,

making commercials and also album artwork,

and even animated concert visuals behind the musician as they perform.

I often use Blender for these projects

and it's fun having the mindset of learning new things

every time I open the software. There’re always new developments to learn

and it's fun to keep up with the pace of those new developments.

I got my start in film when I got a flip video camera many years ago

and made LEGO stop motion animations with a lot of my LEGO toys

and kept that love of film going as I grew older.

I started to submit a lot of my work to film festivals,

where I started to get confidence in my work

and started to realize that this was a career that I could do professionally.

I ended up going to Princeton University where I majored in geosciences,

but always kept that love of filming going throughout my studies.

I did many film and animation work while I was an undergrad

and tried to merge both my scientific research

and my creative side together through my research projects.

For one project, I made a 3D-modeled tropical cyclone.

For other ones, I tried to make cool animations

that graphically represented the data I was studying for a lot of my projects.

This led naturally to a career

at the intersection of the science and arts at a place like NASA where I now work

and have the honor of communicating the fantastic science

that a lot of planetary science missions are doing

across the solar system and beyond in the search for life

and other fundamental questions about our existence on Earth.

I distill that complex science into engaging film and animation

that I'll create through software like Blender

or other software that I love learning

like Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D or Redshift.

I'm always trying to learn new things, new techniques,

and new developments in the industry.

I've also built a strong following across social media

as I began to share my work.

I've always wanted to pay my love of learning

and all the 3D knowledge I've obtained over years of development

back to you.

I'm excited to teach you

the fundamentals of 3D environment creation

in my favorite software of all time, Blender.

In this course, which is 3D environment creation in Blender,

I'll walk you through the entire process of 3D environment creation from gathering references from the real world,

sourcing cool references from artwork

and other architectural design that is available online,

building out a mood board that will inspire our project design,

building out our project in 3D

from sketching the basics with pen and paper,

and taking it into our software, creating our scene,

and adding extra natural elements, texturing and design work

to make our project come alive.

Then, putting the bow on top, doing final compositing and rendering,

taking it into Photoshop and making our final scene.

For my project, I'll be taking on a beach scene,

but feel free to do any design that inspires you,

specifically, from our photo walks of exploring the outdoor world.

Source inspiration from the world

and create something that means something to you.

Next, I'll walk you through some inspiration from artists

that have contributed a lot to the design work that I create.

I often source back to these artists and look at their work when I'm creating my projects.

I hope that they inspire you as well

as you design this project and any other projects.