In any 3D program there are a set of building blocks or shapes such as cubes, planes, spheres, cylinders, and cones used as starting points to build anything you can think of. Many of these programs will call these shapes primitives. I know how archaic of them.
I remember discussing this with a faculty member at the University where I received my masters degree. I was preparing to teach a class in 3D modeling and animation. This faculty member who was also my advisor gave me an early suggestion on how they usually started with primitives when teaching the course in 3D modeling. When writing the syllabus I definitely kept their suggestion in mind. However, the premise of building blocks in 3D design goes far beyond these basic shapes.
When starting a project in 3D, it can be conducive to create the building blocks of the project first before creating the overall composition. These building blocks are called assets. In this particular project above, the assets were rather simple shapes like arches and steps, but they could be more complex like figures, plants, or buildings. The client had told me that their vision of the CD cover was geometric and architectural. Once I had the assets created I knew I could play around with some interesting designs.
What is so exciting about 3D design is the ease of play once you feel comfortable in the program. I can scale, rotate, and move the objects around the scene whenever I want. Having a background in drawing and painting, I know how painstakingly difficult It can be to get an angle perfect in a figure drawing or a brush stroke just right in a painting. I love being able to throw assets around at random. You can take it further and modify those assets using arrays, particle systems, and so much more.
After sketching and researching take a moment and think. What are the building blocks of my project? Creating them all separately first can alleviate a lot of stress and give you far more time for play later on.
Another notable design I had fun with before I became obsessed with the shapes.
