The Art of Blender

I recall stumbling upon Tony, @peanut.knorr when he was around 15-20 followers in. His earlier work revolving around pixel and digital art. It eventually went around to blender art. Which is 3D modeling. He did have a mini hiatus, but he came back and it's been great seeing how he's changed with his work and what's he currently doing. Check out his art work over at @peanut.knorr

Before we begin Tony shares a bit about what he's enjoyed recently "In general, I've recently been enjoying my free time making new friends and spending time with my buds and people I vibe with. Been going out to some of the local events and shows at tropicasa, gremling and other local spots. Been listening to a ton of funk and french dance music lately, trying to keep up with my 3D art stuff!" I recently tried blender and created a small visual animation sort of for the Provoker show on September 18th. It was a lot of work and it took me over 12 hours to complete! Blender is crazy to use and especially with the fun tutorials! Overall it sounds like Tony is enjoying especially with his work which is good. He continues by giving a shout out to a couple of 956 individuals "There's an abundance of talented artists and musicians here in the valley! (I follow most of these peeps on instagrams so i'll refer to them by their handles) Some of my favs would have to be @xuanlicerio_, @nuinc0, @raid_33, @larateramusic, @pillowsnake956, @leahchucosplay, @silkyspell, @italia182, @valleyswerve, @spidspill, @tofu_squares_bench, @roni.co_ to name few. Really been digging everything Neighborhood Molino is doing! Amazing food, great vibes all around. Throughout the week I'll hit up the Mercado District on 23rd. They've got good food options, but my go-to's would have to be Kabubi Arabian Tacos & Gyros (los gyros de falafel, uuuffff), Sticky Rice Sushi, and Lovers Lane Coffee. The peeps at Lover's Lane are super friendly, and I frequent them so much that they know my order as soon as they see me walking up. Seriously, go order an iced Choco-Coco from them. " Yooo there's a lot recommendations that I'd for sure have to try out soon!

As I like to begin by asking where the root of their creative work stems from or how they began and Tony explains it to us by saying "Well it's kind of hard to pinpoint when I started doing creative work. But I'd say it would have to be back in like 2005ish. I was a teenager and had just learned all about torrenting and p2p sharing. I, uh, acquired a copy of Photoshop and installed it on my old Toshiba laptop. It could barely run the software, but I managed to make flyers, posters, and other small print projects for some friends. I learned a bit about photo manipulation and collaging in a digital format. It kind of kick-started creative drive. I kind of stopped after a while and moved to college and focused solely on school for a bit. Around 2010 I got my first DSLR camera. Although I picked up photography to get some freelance gigs and make some cash, I always had an interest in learning to work a camera and use it as an expressive medium. But I never did much "artistic" photography, per se. I did plenty of freelance work for a while until I decided to go back to school. My interest in photography kinda naturally transitioned into an interest in film/videography. Along the way I learned a bit about motion graphics. These interests all seemed random at the time; little did I know they would all kinda meld into a love for digital multimedia production/art. I really didn't start using Blender till May of 2021." Tony surely has had his hand in differently creative outlets which is good! In expression, experimentation, or even just plain old fun. I tried blender and I want to continue with it eventually. I just picked up a camera to film and take pictures as well. I'm trying new things too as we all should to be honest! Interesting how Tony went from cameras to blender, but do you think he'll try something else?

Blender is stupid hard or well from my experience but its fun and frustrating! I wanted to do something different than a Photoshop flyer so I wanted to try blender, but what got Tony or rather what got him interested in blender? "As a kid, I was always fascinated by 3D art. I didn't realize it at the time of course, but looking back, it's pretty evident. I have a very fuzzy memory of running some very primitive open-source 3D software on that same old Toshibe laptop. The comp struggled to do the most basic of stuff without eventually crawling to a stop, so I soon uninstalled it. Being a poor kid from a low-income area of the valley, 3D modeling seemed so unattainable, so I kinda just forgot about it for a while. As an adult, you know with a job and expendable income and all that jazz, I learned about blender and how it was open-source and free to use. I decided to buy myself a decent rig to properly render my projects, and, well, now I'm hooked on it. I'm not sure what I would call my 'art', but they can be referred to as 3d art, 3d modeling, and procedural modeling. Sure there are better terms out there, but that's what I think would be most accurate." It really is crazy how blender is free to the public when I initially thought it was like $100 to use it or well own it. Of course I think to render it does require a certain rig for sure, but at least it is free! He may have forgotten about it as a kid, but he surely has been pushing out great work on his Instagram page that's for sure. May his creative ideas continue to flourish.

From the first piece created to your most recent, how have you seen your growth and how do you wish to keep growing? "Oh man, I think I've learned a lot from my first piece to my latest. It's kind of hard to list because there are lots of 3D modeling concepts that are kind of all interconnected. Learning about procedural generation has for sure been one of my fav concepts to study and fiddle with. I feel like I've learned a lot in a short amount of time, so I hope I can keep up that momentum. But to be honest, I think growth for me right now would mean starting to collaborate with other peeps in the art scene down here in the valley. I've been following Xuan's digital mapping ar/vr stuff and he reached out to me a while back. Collaboration is great for growth and pulling one out of their comfort zone." As he mentions "3D modeling concepts that are kind of all interconnected" because when it comes to one thing it surely can't work without the other. There's so much that goes into just a "simple" blender project. Even when I was creating the fonts with the depth and chrome it involved so much more in the background to make it all work It all comes together to create your render. I'm also glad to hear that he's been reached out to and I don't know what kind of collaboration to expect from those two other than it'd be great!

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with in terms of your work? "As mentioned above, I think it would be cool to do some AR/VR work, maybe start with some instagram filters or something. Very interested in experimenting with that, but I've got to find some time to do a deep dive and learn the ropes. Collaboration would help with that as well; it's amazing how quickly you can learn from others compared to doing everything on your own." That'd be super cool! Having your own filters to be used or collab filters too for events! The possibilities are surely endless! I agree that you can surely learn a lot from others especially if its in the same filed of interest. They way y'all could be doing something different or make something run better or just bouncing off ideas back to back is good. From everything it can lead to more future experimentation.

How long does it usually take when creating something on blender? Do you have a certain process when it comes to creating? "It's kind of difficult to answer that one, since I've only been doing this a while. But I notice most of mine take around 6-8hrs on average? That's just a guess really. I usually sit down when I have time after work or on weekends. Sometimes I finish stuff in one sitting, sometimes I work on it for a few evenings, putting in the time when I possibly can. Sometimes a project is like 98% done, and I just spend hours tweaking small things till I'm happy with it. I recently did a piece for @amariesgems that took me quite a while. I had to recreate some of her jewelry pieces, so modeling all of that took quite a bit. Well, for me at least. I'd say it all just depends on the complexity of the project." I have to agree that once your project is done that the time really does add up on the project trying to get all the final details just the way you want it or if there's any final changes of course. I spent so much time shifting things around and changing colors then I learned how to add music so it just keep adding up, but it was fun for sure. It can surely be hours upon hours, but as Tony says "tweaking small things till I'm happy with it."

When it comes to your work, what is something you really focus on? From the textures to the detail to the theme as he says "I like to focus on feeling and like, overall vibes I guess is how i'd describe it. I definitely like my work to have a variety of forms and textures throughout. I enjoy seeing the play between the matte and the shiny, the metalic and the opaque. I particularly enjoy making glassy or glossy materials with light-altering physical properties such as glass distortion or chromatic aberration. Because of my interest in photography, I focus on lighting and composition within the frame. I like to create things that just feel right to me. I get inspired by random objects and spaces I encounter in my everyday life. I might see some vintage piece of hardware, or some weird looking toy at the supermarket, or notice the roughness of a stucco wall and get inspired to replicate their color, texture, or just their overall aesthetic. Maybe even meld these into some sort of object or texture that does not exist in the real world. There are people who believe that we live in a sort of hyper-advanced-ultra-realistic simulation. Creating imaginary objects and ideas that mimic reality and come to 'life' in a computer environment is kind of fascinating, and it kinda lends credence to that theory if you bounce it around your head for a while. But that's a whole other thing lol. " As he mentions " Because of my interest in photography, I focus on lighting and composition within the frame." with everything he's worked on before all really comes together to his projects which is interesting. Even looking at Tony work as he mentions "Creating imaginary objects and ideas that mimic reality" like it really is something else that blender allows the user to create. Almost like video game world as an example the image shown below.

From Magic Valley to Quasi Stellar Ganglion, are there other series you have planned or themes? "The thing about @peanut.knorr is that I never really planned for it to be a 3D modeling account. I just wanted somewhere I could post my random little projects and doodles that I created in my free time. I started those series to give myself some sort of theme or idea to play off of consistently, as opposed to just doodling sporadically. I will likely continue both of those series and incorporate new ideas in future iterations. For now, I'm just having fun with it." Honestly all that matters is that he truly is having fun with it and that we don't expect a daily or weekly release since it is his own work and it is not for us.

From pixel art, to clay, to blender what do you think comes next? "As I mentioned earlier, I'd like to collaborate with more artists and chill peeps. I've already got a couple opportunities lined up, so keep an eye out for some fun stuff in the near future. I also want to translate my work into some sort of physical medium. I'll probably start off with something chill, like some prints or turning the ganglion babies into stickers. Maybe fuck around and design some tees, we'll see. " As he mentions "I've already got a couple opportunities lined up, so keep an eye out for some fun stuff in the near future" Truly has me curious for whats to come even with the idea of prints which I would love to one day have.

Tony shares his thoughts on the local valley scene,

I think the Valley scene is wonderful and thriving. Growing up, people would say "there's nothing in the valley" or "nothing ever happens here in the valley." I don't think that's the case anymore. I think recent events like MIRAAA Fest and all the stuff going on at tropicasa have revitalized the scene, and there are some incredible things happening down here. I'm not going to pretend like I know much about other art scenes in other places, but one thing I know for sure is that the people down here are like none other in the world. It is the wonderful, creative members of our community who really make this a magical place.

Tony shares one final comment,

I've never considered myself an artist, but I'm glad people are digging what I do. For those of you who read this whole thing, I hope you enjoyed some of my ramblings; thank you for your time. PuroPinche956ALV