From Scratch

     To me, one of the greatest downsides, and conveniences, of working with 3D is the freedom to make anything from scratch. As a blessing, working from scratch means everything will be exactly how I intend it to be. Scenes can be arranged however I want, with as much depth as needed, and as simplistic as I want if you need to crunch. But this much freedom also hinders, as everything has to be made. Choosing to leave a detail or two out in the first few steps causes a significant lack of detail in the final product. But how do I intend of using this to its fullest potential so as to save time but still make something detailed? By prioritizing what matters. 

An example of what it's like to start a new project in Blender

    Focusing on a few of the most important scenes or sequences I want, I'll be able to fully detail them, without needing to compromise the rest of the film. When outlining a scene, or even a single shot, you need to create a story, otherwise you'll just be padding out time. For example, in the following sequence I'll create a shot, with the intent of introducing a character.

    Starting off with an idea, I want to have the setting be a city, and so I chose a fire escape to start off with. But to link everything together I had to play around with some ideas first. One way to find what works is by starting somewhere, so doing some research helps a lot. I personally like to use models, so I used this model from KnightFallows to start somewhere. Playing around with it helps me think of something that works, as motion helps tell a story better than anything else.

A bit hard to navigate, but this is somewhat the process I go through when coming up with ideas from scratch

    With the main point/s down, you can flll in the rest with whatever makes the most sense. And if things still look a bit too dull, you can add more details to make a scene more dynamic.