Procedural Asteroid Field in Blender

Welcome to my series on learning Blender for @AdobeVideo After Effects users.

I’m learning Blender, the open-source 3D modelling and animation tool. I’m very comfortable in AE.

About a year ago, I created an asteroid field using CC Particle World and wanted a 3D rock for the foreground. I got something acceptable using Cinema4D Lite, but it was a frustrating experience, so I’ve been working towards replacing it with Blender.

In this video, I’ll take you through a procedural technique for creating lots of rocks. The concept isn’t mine, it came from @AugustRenders – they made a 60 second tutorial, which works great if you know Blender, but it’s a little hectic if you’re still learning the difference between Edit and Object modes.

We’ll take a cube, add an array modifier to it, then convert that into separate models. We’ll then use the subdivide tool to create organic, fractal shapes. Once we’re happy, we’ll then use Particles and the Hair options to distribute the rocks throughout a volume of a cube.

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