Alexei Balakin

3D daily challenge

A year of daily Cinema 4D and Redshift practice

3D challenge cover

Context

I like 3D, and one day I decided to give myself a challenge: a small project in Cinema 4D and Redshift every single day for a year. I had no prior experience with the software and wanted to learn it through regular practice rather than tutorials. Over the year I produced about 300 pieces — small, but constant. I tried different materials, angles, lighting, animation; I dived into simulations. Every day I had to come up with something to make, and that seriously trained my creative thinking and visual literacy: you learn to not wait for inspiration but to generate it.

Progress

A visible example of how my skills evolved.

Step #1
Step #204

Projects

This wasn't client work or a product — just personal practice. Below are some of the 300 projects that came out of it.

Piece #6
Piece #7
Piece #3
Piece #9
Piece #11
Piece #15
Piece #18
Piece #19
Piece #21
Piece #22
Piece #24
Piece #25
Piece #26
Piece #27
Piece #28
Piece #30
Piece #32
Piece #33
Piece #34
Piece #35
Piece #38
Piece #39
Piece #40
Piece #41
Piece #42
Piece #43
Piece #44
Piece #45

What I got out of it

Over the year I made 300 pieces. I tried very different directions: materials (glass, metal, fabric, organics), simulations, animation, abstract compositions, typography. Every day I had to come up with something, and that seriously trained my creative thinking — you don't wait for inspiration, you learn to generate it. The main things I took away from this year: — Consistency beats talent. An hour a day, every day, produces results that bursts of effort can't. — The experiment matters more than the outcome. The most interesting pieces came out of trying something for the first time. — Visual literacy is a skill. When you hunt for references and ideas every day, your eye gets sharper.