Learn to Create Delicious Stylized Orange Iced Tea in Blender

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Farrukh Abdur Rahman, I am from Pakistan. Currently, I am working as a freelance 3D artist in the games and design industry with different clients around the world. 

I am also now focusing on publishing new learning content for my YouTube channel and building some 3D assets for the community.

I would like to thank 80 Level for this opportunity. They have been very supportive throughout my art career by featuring my art before and promoting it to reach a vast audience. My last interview with 80 Level was published about 5 years ago, and I am happy to be back again.

Autumn Tea

The autumn season carries its own unique special touch. Each year whenever the season is coming, I try to prepare a unique autumn theme artwork.

This year’s Autumn Tea project holds a very special value. It was inspired by the colors of the autumn season and oranges of Palestine. The oranges represent national identity and connection to the land.

From a technical point of view, I was looking into making procedural stylized shaders, using real-time lighting with Eevee and exploring more of Blender’s Grease Pencil tool.

The references are based on three main parts:

1. Autumn theme images to identify which colors and elements to include, like leaves.
2. Orange, lemon fruit images of different shapes.
3. Teacups and latte drinks images.

Some resources I used include Alamy and Unsplash, they are really good.

I usually try to study real-world image references, but sometimes AI images do come in search everywhere, so finding good references can take time.

Here are some of the references I gathered for colors and different objects.

Modeling

I usually start the modeling process with simple primitive objects like cubes, cylinders spheres, etc. Once the basic blockout shapes are in place, I add further details.

Most of the modeling is based on low poly shapes with a Bevel or SubDivision modifier added on top to add a soft round shape.

Some models were slightly sculpted for a more organic look. Here are some of the model examples.

Topology and unwrapping were done in Blender. Since most of the models are already low poly, there was not much work to recreate any topology again. For sculpted models, I used Blender’s built-in QuadriFlow remesh tool for some lower-resolution topology.

For other details, like leaves, I created flat plane shapes and added a Solidify modifier to control thickness. I was not going for a really accurate look.

As I was planning to use a procedural texturing approach, I had the flexibility to skip adding UVs for all objects. Some objects needed some basic UV unwrapping, and I placed some seams to help control some normal texture mapping flow.

Texturing

I created different color variations from one base procedural material and then adjusted values to apply to the 3D models. To maintain a consistent look and feel, I reused the same material for all the objects in the scenes.

A procedural texture can be a bit limited in some places as compared to hand-painted texture in terms of control, but still works for this project.

Here are some of the stylized materials that I created.

Basic UV islands can be created to control the direction of the texture if needed.

The texturing technique is based on using normals in the material setting. It involves mixing certain noise nodes, which helps produce a stylized effect. The good thing about using procedural material is that it does not require any UVs and it auto-adjusts itself on the model topology. 

The glass material was the most challenging to set up as it needed transparency and some refraction depth. 

The following is the complete node setup of one base material. The rest of the other materials are simply duplicates with color and values changing.

I have shown all of this setup in my stylized material and pizza tutorials as well.

Lighting & Rendering

For the rendering, I used Blender’s real-time Eevee.

Starting with the background environment, I added an HDRI map to add some ambient lighting to the scene. It is always better to use an HDRI map that matches the overall look you need.

I usually set the color of the background to solid but keep the HDRI lighting coming through. This is the world node setup I normally use.

Manually replacing the HDRI map one by one to test and changing its settings can be time-consuming.

For this, I recommend using a free add-on, “Easy HDRI,” which makes it fast and easy to switch between different HDRI maps and change their settings. 

For additional lighting and shadows, I used a sun light with a strong strength, which makes the procedural materials shine more. Lighting is really important in any rendering of a 3D scene, otherwise, the overall results may look quite dry or flat.

Below are the settings of my main light. I tried to find different angles at which most of the models can catch more highlights and shadows are also not lost.

For post-production, the settings are simple. I use the Filmic color mode in the color management with high contrast settings.

Later, for extra details, I painted some 3D strokes with Blender’s Grease Pencil tool. The brush strokes can also snap to the underlying model mesh and allow you to draw easily over them. This process is shown in my pizza tutorial as well.

Conclusion

Creating something appealing may not depend on just one thing. It involves a concept theme, modeling, materials, lighting, and overall presentation. Usually, I try to keep things simple and reuse assets wherever possible. It helps save time and allows you to focus more on experimenting with different results.

A model can be simple in design, or it may have great details, but if the right materials or lighting are missing, a very detailed model may not look good. So it is important to spend time on almost every aspect of the project as a whole, not just modeling.

My main challenge was to explore a stylized art style, which is real-time and based on procedural methods. Overall, I am really happy to see the results that I was able to achieve. I created three variations of tea drink designs.

My advice for anyone starting in art is to keep learning and experimenting with new techniques and workflows. Regular practice and doing small projects can help keep interest and refine skills.

Trying to make the best possible project in every way may drain a lot of energy and sometimes is not needed. So it is just better to complete something and be happy about it. And not to worry about how many likes it gets on social media. 

The learning part never ends, and I find a new thing each time with every other project. With so many art resources available these days, there is something for everyone to start and make a career from despite the challenges.

And that is all from me. I hope this article is useful. Thank you very much for reading, and thanks again, 80 Level! You can find me on ArtStation, Instagram, X/Twitter, YouTube, and Gumroad. See you soon! Take care!

Farrukh Abdur, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine