Best of Behance: 3D

by Taylor Slattery | May 10, 2022

3D has come a long way in the past 20 years. With the introduction of industry-standard tools like Maxon’s Cinema 4D and the open-source Blender to many school’s design programs, there’s a wave of fresh talent exploring the limits of the medium and finding new ways to make us say “wow”.

While Behance has plenty of great personal projects built using 3D tools, I thought it might be interesting to see the types of work being commissioned by clients. With that parameter in mind, here’s a collection of some of my favorite 3D projects from Behance.

Source: Liam Pitchford & Raj Davsi

This first project was created by Liam Pitchford and Raj Davsi in collaboration with Converse for Earth Day. Designed to highlight the transformative approach utilized in the “Converse Renew” line, the animated short starts with a flat lay shot of the shoe deconstructed into its raw components. Beginning with the plastic pellets found in the signature crater foam sole featured across the broader Nike catalog as well as the recycled plastic bottles from which the knit is constructed, a shoe begins to take form. Because the shoe’s incorporation of recycled materials is its whole selling point, the animation, which was created using Cinema 4D, Houdini, and Nuke, illustrates this zero-waste approach in a very literal way, while still incorporating a great deal of artistry in the motion design and composition.

Source: Juetofu & Akira Le

This next project is a series of illustrations created for the fintech app, Laybuy, by Kanook Studio. The set places a 3D spin on the popular spot illustration approach commonly found on the home page of many a tech company. Consisting of a handful of scenes of users making purchases with the app and a number of social-ready spot illustrations, the collection has a playful, almost emoji-like energy that is sure to appeal to Gen Z. The library of 3D assets allows for flexible repositioning to suit different digital applications across the company’s site, social content, and advertising. Created using Cinema 4D, Blender, Octane, and Substance 3D Painter, the illustrations feature a tactile collection of materials ranging from fabric and furs to semi-transparent resin and mylar balloons.

Source: Bark & Bite

This final project was created by the Leeds-based motion design studio Bark & Bite for Carolina Herrera’s fragrance, Amethyst Haze. With the goal of appealing to the luxury consumer market in the Middle East, the animation makes extensive use of the fragrance’s purple and gold palette, creating swirling seas of purple glitter and flecks of gold dust. This hypnotic display is intermittently interrupted by images of geodes, gems, and rocks, anchoring the fragrance and serving to highlight the coffee and floral notes found within. This collection of dreamy imagery is equal parts earthly and cosmic and communicates the luxury surrounding the product while retaining an air of mystery.

At the end of the day, the tools we choose to use are less important than the concept that guides them. While the tools used may have been the same, these 3 projects have shown some of the unique ways 3D can be used to communicate ideas and feelings in support of a product.