Okay, so today I’m gonna walk you through how I tried to “make a horse” – and by “make” I mean create a 3D model, not, you know… the other thing.
First, the Idea Hit Me: I was scrolling through some art online and saw this really cool stylized horse. I thought, “Hey, I can totally do that!” Famous last words, right?
Picking the Tools: I decided to use Blender. I’ve messed around with it before, so I’m not a total noob. Downloaded the latest version, ready to rock.
Started with a Cube (of Course): Everyone starts with a cube in Blender, right? I subdivided it a bunch of times to get something I could actually mold. Tried to picture the basic horse shape – kinda like a chunky sausage with legs.
Sculpting Time: This is where I realized I’m not Michelangelo. Using the sculpting tools, I started pushing and pulling the mesh. Got the basic body shape down, then struggled with the neck. It either looked like a giraffe or a bulldog. No in-between.
Legs From Hell: Oh man, the legs. I tried extruding them from the body, but they looked like weird tubes. Then I tried adding separate cylinders and joining them, but the topology was a nightmare. Spent hours just trying to get four legs that didn’t look completely deformed.
Headaches over the Head: The head was another beast entirely. Trying to get the snout right, the ears, the eye sockets… It was a mess. Ended up watching a bunch of YouTube tutorials on horse anatomy. Turns out, horses are complicated!
Adding Details (Or Trying To): Once I had something vaguely resembling a horse, I tried adding details. Muscles, tendons, little wrinkles… My horse just ended up looking lumpy. I gave up on realism and went for a more cartoonish style.
Texturing Woes: Figured I’d slap on some textures to hide my mistakes. Found a free horse texture online and UV unwrapped my model. Let’s just say the seams were… obvious. Spent way too long trying to fix the UV map.
Rigging? Forget About It: Initially, I thought I’d rig the horse and make it run. Then I remembered I barely managed to make it stand. Rigging is a project for another decade.
Final Result: After way too many hours, I ended up with something that kinda, sorta, maybe looked like a horse… if you squinted and had a good imagination. It’s wonky, the proportions are off, and the textures are questionable. But hey, I made something! It’s a learning process, right?
Lessons Learned:
- Horse anatomy is harder than it looks.
- Sculpting takes practice (a lot of practice).
- UV unwrapping is my nemesis.
- Maybe I should stick to drawing stick figures.
Would I Do It Again? Probably. It was frustrating, but I learned a ton. And maybe next time, my horse won’t look like it lost a fight with a lawnmower.
So yeah, that’s my “make a horse” adventure. It was a wild ride, and I’m definitely not an expert, but I had fun (mostly). Maybe you can learn something from my mistakes!
