Yurguen Breidenbach

Tag: 3D Art

  • From Vision to Re(new)ality: A personal 3D project that revisits an old render through new tools, storytelling and AI-assisted techniques

    From Vision to Re(new)ality: A personal 3D project that revisits an old render through new tools, storytelling and AI-assisted techniques

    Introduction

    Over 15 years ago, I made a render that meant something deeply personal to me. It wasn’t perfect. In fact, looking at it now, I can clearly see everything that went wrong. It was full of flaws and limitations, but the motivation behind it was honest. I was trying to capture a moment filled with uncertainty: A little girl asleep, unaware of a mysterious presence reaching out to her. I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant back then, but I felt it. And that feeling was enough to make me want to create it.

    Sometimes, the simplest moments hold the deepest wisdom. That image has stayed with me. And recently, I felt the need to return to it.

    this is the 2011 version, and it’s the starting point for this Project

    Not out of nostalgia (well… perhaps a bit) but absolutely not to fix anything. What drives me is the feeling that there is still something alive in that idea. Something I couldn’t fully express back then, but that still deserves to be told. The emotion behind it is still clear to me. And now, after years of experience and learning, I feel more capable of giving it the shape it was always reaching for.

    My tools today are very different from the ones I used when I first made that image. Some of them didn’t even exist at the time. Artificial intelligence is one of them, it’s going to become part of my workflow… and yes I should give it a try and it should help me spend more time where it really counts, so I’ll be focusing on the parts of the process that feel most rewarding and creatively engaging. It’s not about doing less, but about doing more of what brings me joy.

    What surprised me most about revisiting this project is how personal it still feels. It’s like sitting down with my younger self and saying:

    “I see what you were trying to do. Let me help you say it more clearly. Let me bring your idea into the light it always needed”

    This isn’t just a remake

    It’s a way of reconnecting with a version of myself who didn’t have all the answers, but who was brave enough to ask the question. And now I want to continue what he started.

    Wrapping Up

    the Sweet Dreams Girl [Remastered] Project, will be a journey that connects who I was with who I am becoming. It will allow me to explore new tools and methods while staying true to the emotional thread that first inspired the idea. As the project unfolds, I’ll share the process piece by piece, as a technical exploration, as well as a way of reflecting on what it means to grow alongside your own work.

    I believe that even an old and imperfect idea can evolve into something meaningful, as long as we’re willing to revisit it with care, patience, and a fresh perspective. 

  • AI is Creating 3D Art in Seconds! Now, What?

    AI is Creating 3D Art in Seconds! Now, What?

    A 3D artist’s honest reflection on fear, identity, and the quiet anxiety of creating in the age of machines

    Today, I saw something I wasn’t ready for: An AI turned a single image into a fully detailed 3D model… in seconds! And not some rough base mesh either. It was clean, elegant, even beautiful. It felt like watching the future unfold in real time and realizing you’re not the one holding the pen anymore.

    Input Image to AI Generated 3D Model

    I didn’t freak out. Didn’t get angry, neither wanted to smash my keyboard nor think about quitting… I just sat there, letting the weight of it sink in. A quiet kind of fear. The kind that doesn’t shout, it just stays. Because this isn’t just about a new tool. It’s about something else creeping in. Something that doesn’t get tired. Doesn’t doubt and doesn’t feel pressure or creative blocks.

    And here I am, someone who’s spent years learning this craft, fighting with topology, pushing verts, redoing UVs, trying to get that “feel” right.

    So yes… I couldn’t help but ask myself: Where does that leave us? I’m not saying I don’t believe in what I do, really. I know how to see. I know how to choose what matters in an image. But for the first time in a long time, I felt like maybe that wasn’t enough.
    Not in the face of something that can do in seconds what I’ve trained myself to do over the years.

    This isn’t about adapting! (we’ve always adapted) to new render engines, plugins, pipelines. We figure it out. But this? This feels different. Like the ground beneath our feet is rewriting itself as we walk.

    I found in my old PC this render I made back in 2006 while studying 3D. I thought it’d be fun to see if ChatGPT could replicate it. So I uploaded it and asked it to generate a similar image.
    And here’s what DALL-E came up with… Scary! Huh?

    Well… I’m not here to wrap this up neatly. There’s no lesson. No “this made me stronger” line. No silver lining. Just the truth:
    I’m scared and I don’t know what to do with this feeling yet.

    So Now What? I wish I had an answer. And it’s likely that I won’t have it tomorrow either.
    In fact, this article does not have an end point. And this (like my relationship with AI) is a work-in-progress. But right now… this post is the best I can do. And like me, it’s unfinished.

    I’ll be back when I have something else to say.