Top Blender Projects to Sharpen Your Skills and Build Your Blender Portfolio

Blender is an open source software used for many functions, including making 3D printed models, feature films, animations, motion graphics, and visual effects. It supports all functions of the 3D pipeline, including modeling, animation, rendering, simulation, motion tracking, game creation, compositing, rigging, and video editing. 

Today, Blender is one of the most used computer graphic platforms. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the employment of special effects artists to grow by 16 percent from 2020 to 2030, which is much faster than the national average for all occupations. If you want to learn Blender and start your career in tech, check out the best Blender project ideas below.

5 Skills That Blender Projects Can Help You Practice

There are many career paths you can pursue after learning how to use Blender, including animators, video editors, game designers, and special effects artists. However, there are a few things that you should know before you can start working with this software. Having the skills listed below will make it easier to learn 3D animation and practice projects in Blender. 

• 3D and 2D Modeling. 3D modeling refers to the process of creating three-dimensional objects or representations using Blender. It involves concepts like UV mapping, which entails projecting a 2D image to a 3D model’s surface. 
• Drawing Skills. Animation involves using creativity and imagination to create drawings or positions that demonstrate an illusion of movement in a sequence. 
• Video Editing. Blender comes with a built-in sequence editor that performs video editing functions such as video cuts, splicing, video masking, and color grading. 
• Game Development. Blender is known for its modeling, texturing, and shading functions, but it also features a game engine that allows developers to build games.  
• Rendering. Rendering involves projecting a photorealistic image from a 2D or a 3D model using computer software. Blender comes with a powerful rendering engine that offers ultra-realistic rendering. 

Best Blender Project Ideas for Beginners 

Blender is a popular choice for many students working on projects. We’ve developed a list featuring some Blender project ideas for beginners to try. These projects and video tutorials will focus on giving you a Blender foundation to help you work on popular projects for your portfolio. 

Create Grass with Particles

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, rendering

The aim of this project is to create a representation of clean grass, which can be rendered with cycles. The process is fairly straightforward. You’ll start with a clean scene, then add “sun lamp,” followed by a plane. You’ll utilize the particles panel to change the brush to hair to mimic grass. You can play around with the software and adjust the settings to edit and fit your mesh.  

Master Texturing with a Wall Project

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering

In computer graphics, texture is key in creating realistic images. Many Blender users face challenges when making variations in texture to create a realistic and stunning image. This Blender tutorial from Andrew Price works as a step-by-step guide to help you gain insights when texturing and creating variations of this project.

Creating a Mesh in Viewport

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering

This project will help you lay a solid foundation in meshing. A mesh is an object made of polygons. The aim of this project is to create a mesh to help you understand the difference between a polygon mesh and a non-uniform rational b-spline. You can also learn why modeling with polygons is a great practice. 

Green Screen Masking for VFX

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering, video editing

You should check this project out if you are interested in green screen and masking basics in Blender. This YouTube Blender tutorial from CG Geek also features videos to help you start creating a mask around a green screen. This project will help you understand mixing real-world footage with CG using a green screen. 

Rig a 3D Vehicle 

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering

This 3D vehicle project from Creative Bloq was created with the help of expert animators. The aim of this project is to learn more about bone constraints in Blender, how they work, and how to set them up. You will begin to learn more about advanced sculpting tools and architectural visualization in the Blender internal system.

Best Intermediate Blender Project Ideas 

If you’re familiar with the basics of Blender, the projects listed below can help you to test your skills and learn more about this helpful platform. These intermediate projects will prepare you for more advanced projects as well as gain real-world experience for your future portfolio.

Speed Up Sculpt with a Character Animation

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering, drawing skills 

Blender has a huge collection of 3D tools such as Dyntopo sculpting, which rival software giants like Maya and Modo. This project aims to create an animation character of your choice and use vertex paint speed sculpting. This will allow you to use a wide range of brushes to paint the geometry nodes while skipping textures and unwrapping. 

Create Interiors With Blender’s EEVEE

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, rendering, drawing skills, game development

This project from Creative Bloq requires you to create an interior found in the Noara game teaser. This project also features a tutorial from Pierrick Picaut who’ll help you advance your skills in EEVEE to allow you to render a realistic and visually appealing dark interior scene. You’ll also learn to work around the limitations and challenges that arise. 

Model a Low-Poly T-Rex

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, game development

This 3D modeling project from Envato Tuts+ features a tutorial to help you along the way. The aim of the project is to create an optimized 3D model suitable for animation or gaming engines. You’ll delve into UV mapping and create unique hand-painted textures. This project adopts a universal approach meaning you can apply it to other software as well. 

Create Ingredients on a Shelf 

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, rendering

You can work on a Halloween-themed challenge using Blender to create witch ingredients placed on high shelves. This project will allow you to explore the sculpting and modeling of simple objects such as a cork, a jar, a mushroom, and a fang. If you’d rather pick a different theme, you can try using baking ingredients or ingredients for your favorite recipe.

Model a 3D City Scene

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, rendering

Creating a city requires some experience in modeling. This project serves as a great way for advanced learners who want to take their skills to the next level. First, you’ll need to gather inspiration from existing cities and work from there. You’ll create a sketch and a composition to model the city structure. 

Advanced Blender Project Ideas

Below are some challenging projects to keep animation experts engaged. These projects will build on basic and advanced skills. If you want to become a game developer or animator one day, mastering these projects will help you along the way.

Design Character Hair

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, rendering

Most animators know how challenging hair can be to model and animate, even with the best animation tools. Practicing designing hair will help you learn how particle strands work, basic hair shading, and how to style top and bottom hemispheres. You can also start to design your own characters, such as a shepherd girl for a video game or ancient spirits for a DnD visualization.

Create a 3D Darth Vader Model

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, drawing skills, rendering

Creating a realistic 3D model of Darth Vader is challenging because there are a lot of sharp edges. This presents an ideal challenge for those looking to test their lighting, modeling, composing, scattering, and texturing skills. You can work in the Blender animation studio to use extra Blender capabilities to animate your Darth Vader model and even start on a movie project.

Combine Multiple UV Maps into One Blender

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling

It’s common for artists to find themselves with a model featuring one mesh with a texture that also has multiple UV maps. This project will help you learn how to combine two or more UV maps into one. You can use this skill in later projects to help you avoid overlap and create streamlined projects.

Help the Armory Development Team on GitHub

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D modeling, game development

GitHub is home to some useful open source projects like this one. Armory is an open source 3D game that features full Blender integration. You can join the development team and put your Blender skills to the test. The game engine is currently available for early preview, and you can find this Blender project on Awesome Open Source.

Freeciv Web on GitHub

• Blender Skills Practiced: 3D and 2D modeling, rendering

Freeciv Web is an open source game that can be played in any HTML5-capable web browser. There is a 2D version with isometric graphics and a 3D WebGL version. You can contribute to the game by looking at the animation issues and selecting tasks to work on. Just like the above project, you can look at the Awesome Open Source project page to learn more.

Blender Starter Project Templates

Blender projects are an excellent way for beginners and advanced Blender users to learn more about this computer graphics software. However, starting a project from scratch is often time-consuming and tedious. For this reason, you can consider using starter project templates to give you more time to focus on the task at hand. 

• Blender 2.8 Low Poly Texturing. This is a low poly template featuring 3D computer graphics with simple polygons to get you started.
• Free Motion Graphics Blender 3D Template. After downloading this template, you’ll change the text and adjust the animation line to your liking and render it.
• Human Female Free Low-Poly 3D model. This template is ideal for animators looking to create a 3D model of a woman. It is available to be used for gaming purposes.
• Base Head Meshes for Blender Free 3D model. This template will give you a headstart when working on a 3D model of a head.
• Blender Project Template. This template features scripts and guidelines used for managing multiple Blender projects on the same computer or device. 

Next Steps: Start Organizing Your Blender Portfolio

A Blender portfolio is a resource that showcases some of your best projects in Blender. It also highlights your education, skills, and talents. A portfolio is one way to show a potential employer what you are capable of. Below are a few tips that you should consider when creating and organizing your portfolio. 

Keep The Target Audience in Mind

Having a portfolio might be the best way to showcase your skills. However, when working on your portfolio, it would be best if you kept the target audience in mind. Try to keep your portfolio simple, clean, and uncluttered. 

The main aim of your portfolio is to impress viewers and potential employers. Be sure to include projects that demonstrate the skills needed in the job you are applying for. Include the Blender basics and your knowledge of the animation pipeline. You can also include previous versions of your projects to show how you’ve grown.

Include Testimonials 

Your portfolio highlights your previous and ongoing projects. It’s an essential part of your personal brand to attract employers or customers as a freelancer. You can include testimonials and recommendation letters or feedback from previous clients. You can also add descriptions of each project, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. 

If you haven’t worked with any clients yet, you can include notes from teachers or people you’ve worked with. For example, you can get a mentor to describe your 3D character creation skills or your ability to design a realistic light source.

Showcase Your Best Work   

Your target audience might not have a lot of time to go through all your projects. For this reason, you must be selective with the projects you highlight. Before adding a project to your portfolio, ask yourself if that particular project demonstrates relevant skills, knowledge, and capabilities. 

You want to include only the most relevant projects for the job you’re applying for. You could focus on Blender VFX or include the basics of character animation projects if you want to design games. One awesome feature of an online portfolio is that you can create tabs to organize different types of projects.

Blender Projects FAQ