Written By: A. Pacheco Spark Specialist UNT Junior Media Arts 

My name is Aiden Pacheco. I am a Media Arts major, and I will most likely go beyond this major in the future, hopefully in the cinema or VFX area. A majority of my projects now and in the future are centered around the visual department. I love working with cameras and software such as Adobe Suite, Blender, or Cinema 4D. I am also extremely passionate about videography and photography. I am hoping I can have more projects that involve video or photo editing soon. Luckily, I found the makerspace here at UNT. Now, I can brainstorm projects with other makers and make cool stuff. I still have so much to learn, but I am beyond excited to learn from my peers. It is amazing having access to equipment I had never heard of before and being around people who are passionate about creating using said equipment. I feel like now I can properly branch out and grow creatively.

Here recently, I have been most interested in Blender in creating models, texturing, and making virtual scenes. It first began with creating models through TinkerCAD. I created an R2D2 model entirely from scratch, no premade shapes or help.

Learning how to combine and manipulate shapes may sound simple, but it led me to more complex modeling. When I first began using Blender, I was immediately overwhelmed. I was lucky to have been introduced to TinkerCAD and Cinema 4D first and have implemented similar methods of modeling into my Blender projects. I have found that the modeling community is massive, so finding .obj models is not difficult.

I’ve been teaching myself how to texture these models accurately. It was more difficult than I anticipated, so I have been trying to expand my knowledge so I can further this project to the best of my ability. I am glad I have the help of my coworkers. This will hopefully become a virtual tour of our location at Discovery Park, with the help of my peer, Hanna.

The Makerspace here at UNT has become a new home for me. I have never worked at a place where I have felt more comfortable to be myself and to share my ideas. I know I can always depend on my friends here to push me creatively.