3D lemons made using Blender are based on a reference image found online. The art style is supposed to mimic the look of a painting.
While working in Blender, I created the general shapes and layout. The most challenging part was modeling the quarter pieces of the lemons. To accurately reproduce them in Blender, I cut an actual lemon into the correct shapes for reference.
The UV unwrapping process went smoothly. I organized all the UV maps on a single sheet, which made the texturing process much more manageable. I then baked a normal map and blended it in Photoshop to create a rough surface texture for the lemons. The most time-consuming part of the process was hand-painting the texture sheet in Photoshop.
In Blender, I built two materials. The first material consisted of the base textures defining the brush strokes and colors. The second material was used to outline the models, creating softer edges and helping blend the entire scene, giving it a more painterly look.
I set up a three-point lighting system. Lighting and shadows presented another challenge, but the results were acceptable given the time frame I set for myself.
In the final two days of the project, I rendered several images and two videos without any issues. I then combined the process images using Photoshop.
