James Abell

Tradigital Sculpting Tools I Use For My Art in 2025

James — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:14:18 +0000

Tradigital Sculpting Tools I Use For My Art in 2025

My main passions are drawing and sculpting. I often mix real life clay sculpture work with digital processes to enable me to do things that a traditional sculpt would be harder or near impossible to do.

Traditional plus digital = “ Tradigital”.

Digital sculpture technologies continue to evolve and I find it can be hard to keep up with especially AI developments.

I write this in November 2025, but the tools I’m about to share are the ones I use in my practice. I’ll show you my favorites and processes—many of which are budget-friendly—and then I’ll give you alternatives so you can choose what works best for you.

Whether you’re a beginner on a budget or an experienced sculptor, this guide to the tools I use in November 2025 will give you some directions for your own creative ” tradigital ” sculpting projects.

Before I give you the tools, below is a list of 7 stages that I more or less follow with my tradigital sculpture work.

Sketch
Clay real life model building
Photogrammetry / 3D scan
3D digital sculpting
3D print or CNC setup Cura
3D print
Finishing and or casting

Raw Materials

I believe no matter how much AI will move into the space of sculpture/digital sculpture. I will always advocate using real clay at the start of your project and making by hand. It creates more creative depth, and real life is real 3D not screen 3D if you see what I mean. There are different types of clay out there. Form example, oven drying clay and clay you can dry in a kiln.

I often use air drying clay. For this I usually use Scola air drying clay.

12.5kg Scola Airdrying Air Dry Clay £19.99 approx

This will dry overnight to a good hard form that can then be digitally scanned. I sometimes just let it dry and then paint the original. This can also gives good long lasting results. You can also make the clay soft again just by adding water onto it which an be useful.

Prior to this, I often make sketches and rough ideas using paper and pen to help with the sculpture. Again, I advocate traditional methods especially at the start for more deeper art on a human level.

Hardware Essentials

Drawing Tablets

What I use

UGEE Drawing Tablet S640 £29.99 Approx.

I find this tablet great due to its size, it is small enough to take around with me when I work away. I find it just as intuitive and accurate digitally sculpting with this compared to more pricey tablets.

What a Google or LLM search recommends

The XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 ($59) offers excellent pressure sensitivity and programmable hotkeys, making it perfect for beginners. If you prefer a screen tablet, the Huion Kamvas 13 ($299) provides a near-parallax-free drawing experience that rivals more expensive options.

Photogrammetry Cameras

What I use I just use my normal phone in this case is a Samsung Galaxy A56 5G

Samsung Galaxy A56 5G £21 per month contract Approx.

The Samsung Galaxy A565G has a triple rear camera system, featuring a 50 MP main sensor, a 12 MP ultrawide, and a 5 MP macro camera, plus a 12 MP front selfie camera.

This previous post shows you how to use affordable photogrammetry processes

I used Substance Sampler by Adobe for my photogrammetry, they had a great feature. However in the new version they took this out. So I had to find an alternative and 3D Zephyr is a good user friendly way to get photogrammetry made quickly and fairly easily without bugs and crashes. Meshroom can work too but I find it needs tweaking a lot as sometimes the process will take a long time or just freeze. Meshroom is free however, so worth looking into.

What a Google or LLM search recommends

Creating assets from real objects? The Canon EOS R50 ($449) is exceptional for photogrammetry, capturing detailed textures and geometry. For those on a tighter budget, a used Google Pixel 5 ($150) can produce surprisingly good results with the right photogrammetry apps.

Budget 3D Printers and Fabrication

What I use and price

I just use the Ender 3 Neo really cheap.

Ender 3 Neo £199 Approx.

Don’t let the cheap price tag put you off.. I have used Ultimakier 3s a lot in Fablabs. The Ender 3 compares fairly well. Print setup and building the printer is a bit “maker” orientated. However, it is great if you don’t want to spend too much but get detailed 3D prints you can sand and add wood filler after the print to get rid of slight horizontal lines and print mistakes.

https://www.creality.com/products/ender-3-3d-printer

UltiMaker 3D printers

Don’t forget CNC and laser cutters, these are other ways to fabricate 2D and 3D objects. Stay tuned for future blog posts about this.

What a Google or LLM search recommends

Bringing your digital creations into the physical world is more accessible than ever. The Ender 3 V3 SE ($249) offers reliable printing with auto-bed leveling, while the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 ($229) provides stunning resin print quality for detailed sculptures.

Casting

Software Solutions

Blender the popular open source 3D modelling and animation application. My preferred overall 3D tool

Blender (Free): The undisputed champion of free 3D software. Its sculpting tools have improved dramatically, rivaling paid alternatives.

Paid Software

ZBrushCoreMini (Free, with full ZBrush at $179): While the full version exceeds our budget, ZBrushCoreMini offers core sculpting features.

Nomad Sculpt ($15): The most powerful mobile sculpting app, surprisingly capable for its price.

What I use and price

Blender sculpt mode is my preferred option. I used Zbrush years back. However Blender gives me enough tools to sculpt what I want as well as making other edits in modes like edit mode and modifier parametric tweaking.

AI Tools Revolutionizing Sculpting

Nano Banana ($29/month) free too

This AI-powered tool generates base meshes from text prompts, dramatically speeding up your initial workflow. Perfect for creating complex organic forms that would take hours to model manually.

Hitem3D ($19/month) free too

Specializing in texture generation, Hitem3D creates photorealistic materials from simple descriptions. Its strength lies in creating unique surface details that make your sculptures stand out.

Meshy

Meshy gives good results, with a free option.

The Future?

Realtime scanning? I envisage a time where I can pick up a piece of clay, sculpt it and see the model immediately in Blender that I can then edit there.

Building Your Toolkit

The beauty of this selection is its modularity. Start with the free options like Blender and the Ender 3 then expand as your needs grow.

What tools would you add to this list? Share your favorite budget-friendly digital sculpture tools in the comments below!

Where to Learn These Tools

Mastering these tools is easier than ever with these resources:

For Blender, email me , I have a folder with lots of mini tutorials I made in 2024,

To summarize the grid list below shows the tools I currently favour

Category	Tool	Price
Raw Materials	Scola Air Drying Clay	£19.99 (12.5kg)
Raw Materials	Paper & Pen	About £5 upwards."
Hardware	UGEE Drawing Tablet S640	£29.99
Hardware	Samsung Galaxy A56 5G	£21/month contract with Vodafone
Hardware	Ender 3 Neo	Around £199
Software	Blender	Free
Software	3D Zephyr	Not specified
Software	Substance Suite	Not specified
AI Tools	Nano Banana	$29/month (free tier)
AI Tools	Hitem3D	$19/month (free tier)

Want me to teach you how to make tradigital digital sculptures? Then click below and e mail me for a 30 minute free zoom consultation.

3D Scanning A Clay Sculpture Using Photogrammetry

James — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 15:55:29 +0000

3D Scanning A Clay Sculpture for Scaling and 3D printing

Photoscan Clay → Scale Art → Refine → Modify → Fabricate

Tradigital Sculpture: Clay Meets 3D CGI

As a tradigital sculptor, I fuse traditional clay techniques with digital tools to create my art. I decided to share this common workflow in my practice as of November 2025 for transforming clay sculpture (in this case a sitting monkey) into a scalable digital version of the sculpture—using only a smartphone and free software. I will show you how to to the same for your sculptures here. After reading this post, you will have a basic concept of how 3D scanning a clay sculpture using photogrammetry. will help your practice.

A "Tradigital" Process

This tradigital method combining traditional sculpture with digital 3D scanning solves important sculptural problems:

Digitizing physical sculptures (clay, stone, wood)
Enhancing them with digital tools (scaling, texturing, sculpting and morphing)
Re-materializing via 3D printing or CNC machining.

Why 3D Scanned Sculpture Is So Useful For Sculptors

Benefit	Impact for Artists
Preservation	Digitize the artwork before decay or damage to real life sculpture.
Scalability	Easily resize work to new sizes for digital fabrication.
Replication	3D print or use CAM machine in plastic, resin, metal without having to take negative molds of the original sculpture for casting.

Sustainability	Fabricate sculptures on demand production that helps reduce waste.

A Step By Step Workflow

Step-by-Step Tradigital Sculpture Workflow (Clay Monkey Sculpture Case Study)

In late October, I made a clay monkey sculpture with some 3D print elements embedded in the clay. A “tradigital” sculpture. Below is the process I used to 3D scan it then scale it. 3D scanning a clay sculpture using photogrammetry, is a great and affordable technique you will be able to start to try yourself after reading this post.

1. Prepare Your Traditional Sculpture

I used air dry clay for this sculpture because I didn’t have immediate access to a kiln at the time.
The sculpture was made on top of a potters wheel. On a part of my room with a white background. I took about 60 photos turning the wheel a few degrees each time, while holding the camera in place. Once the wheel rotated 360 degrees, I repeated the process at a higher or lower angle. Some recommend a black background. I find white works ok for me. I also didn’t spend too much time preparing the lighting. I find current photogrammetry technology is more forgiving than a few years back. As long at the room has fairly even diffuse lighting without a strong direct light, I usually find the final mesh turns out fine.
I sometimes add texture markers (white paint or black dots) onto the sculpture to improve the photogrammetry result. In this case I feel I didn’t really need to because it has an obvious solid shape.

2. Digitize with Smartphone Photo scanning

Tools: iPhone/Android + 3D Zephyr (alternative software available).
Technique:
- Capture 60+ photos (80% overlap) in diffused natural light
- Orbit at 3 heights (eye-level, 45° above, 45° below)
- Use $20 turntable for perfect rotation
Pro Tip: Disable phone flash to avoid shadow. As of October 2025, there are other techniques out there such as Nerf capture. I find photogrammetry currently works best for my individual sculpture pieces..

3. Generate 3D Digital Model

Software:
- Free: Meshroom or 3D Zephyr
There are many software applications out there to make a mesh using photogrammetry from photos. I recently have been using a feature inside Adobe’s Substance Sampler. However, they have omitted this useful feature in new versions as of Autumn 2025.

Meshroom is favored by many. However, I find it can stall with the out of the box setting. I prefer the software 3D Zephyr really works well out of the box and it has a simple wizard. It is free if you use less than 50 images. You have to pay for over that but it does give a 30 days free trial for the paid version. I would recommend you to try it. It saved me a lot of time.

A quick watch of a Youtube tutorial like this one will get you started in no time. In not time you will be 3D Scanning A Clay Sculpture Using Photogrammetry.

After the mesh is complete in your photogrammetry app. Check to see the integrity of the mesh by orbitting around it. The export the mesh in a file format that is compatible with your 3D software. In my case I exported it as a .obj file.

You then file>import the .obj file into your chosen 3D software to clean up the model and edit further and clean the model up. For example, deleting parts of the scan that go beyond the model itself.
in my case I used Blender to fix holes, reduce polygons, optimize for printing
I am also going to take it further by pushing around the form, smoothing it and adding more details using sculpt mode in Blender. You can see how the Mesh looks fairly decent already.

4. Prepare For 3D Printing Or CNC

Once you have the digitized mesh using software like Blender gives you scope to scale, modify or change it. That way you can then get a new scaled or modified version back into real life using 3D printing or CAM techniques. It also allows for duplication without having to make a cast of the original.

I wont go into the 3D print or CAM preparation process in this post. However, you can see the magic in being able to relatively easy get sculptures in real life into digital 3D space for a wide range of creative solutions.

The technology for this keeps getting better and now with AI tools such as Image to 3D, there are a lot of new exciting creative pathways to move along.

Why The Photogrammetry Process Is So Useful For Sculptors

Cost Efficiency: Replicate easily without always needing to make negative molds.
Creative Freedom: Power to evolve your original clay sculptures in 3D applications such as Blender using sculpting, poly modelling and modifiers.
Global Reach: Show your real sculptures interactively using Sketchfab or Three.js.
Artistic Legacy: Preserve your work forever in your digital archives or even display on the metaverse

Get More Help To Do This For Your Sculptures

If you found this blog useful and need more guidance, email me at info@jamesabellart.com to book a free no pressure one to one 30 minute trial. I can help you with the points below plus much more…

Smartphone photo scanning mastery (no expensive gear)
Blender workflow for professional 3D editing
3D printing secrets To improve your replicas

Book Now

My monkey now exists as both a handmade sculpture and also digital asset artwork I think that is an awesome thing with unlimited possibilities.

Explore more of my art at www.jamesabellart.com.
Questions? Comment below

Related Resources & Tools Mentioned In This Post:

Resource Type	Links & Descriptions
Software	3DZephyr – Good for making meshes from your smartphone photos app Blender – For 3D editing, cleaning, sculpting and modifying Ultimaker Cura – Good 3D slicing software
3D Printers	Creality Ender 3 – Budget-friendly FDM workhorse Anycubic Photon – Ultra-detailed resin printer

H2: Stay Updated on Tradigital Innovations

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James Abell
[Follow on Instagram: @jamesabellart | #TradigitalSculpture #Clay

Python for Creative Coding: A Visual Artist’s Guide to Generative Art (2025)Learning Python For Your Creative Practice

James — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:54:36 +0000

Python for Creative Coding: A Visual Artist’s Guide to Generative Art

“Architecture is frozen music,” wrote Goethe, capturing how structure can evoke the harmony and rhythm of a composition.

In the same way, a two-dimensional design is frozen music. Repeating shapes, variations, and grids create an architectonic pleasure—a visual score.

This is why, in the Summer of 2025, I am learning Python. I want to expand my art and design practice, using code to compose these visual rhythms. Python’s deep integration with AI will also become a critical tool, opening new creative pathways for my work.

If you are a visual person, you may find like myself, Python courses aren’t that stimulating.

I slogged through an initial Python for beginners book— As a visual learner, I only fully understood it when I took the code to an LLM such as ChatGPT and asked questions like “How do I use this in 3D?” As I did this, I started to understand the concepts of Python.

I need to learn by making and iterating. I also need to learn things that I can put to use in my work.

I often use the website Domestika to learn new thins and this course jumped out at me =

Designing with Python: Programming for a Visual Context

A course by Alexandre B A Villares

I would highly recommend it.

I just completed this course in the end of September 2025.

Learning things like this gives me new tools in my art box that I can apply in my workflow. The first day of a digital spring.

I am not going to get too m much into the code here too I am a Python learner. I am just going to talk about the basic concepts I learned.

The Concepts Learned

In the course, you get to learn Pyrthon concepts in a visual way. Particularly –

How to install thonny Python and Py5. I remember this before getting into touch designer
How to make a loop to make a grid

How to easily edit the grid rows and columns.
How to create and insert shape elements into each grid square at random.
How to add “recursion” with some of the grid square so that the pattern repeats itself again smaller within that square. I like to think of it as “Universes within Universes”
How to add a mouse click to change the composition again and again at random and press a key to save the compositions you are pleased with as PNG files.

As a tradigital artist who liked to combine digital with traditional methods. I wanted to use a simply 2D honeybee sketch in some of the cells. I wanted the work to elude to honeybees and summer flowers.

5. Then what I did was to add my own drawings tradigital, I had to look up and cheat (vibe code) and google to find out how to add an SVG of my original ork.

I also used Adobe colour sheme LINK to find a summer themed colour harmony. I then again used AI to change the code to add tha particular scheme.

You can check my code here,

because I am learning Python and I did use AI to help me go beyond the aspects of the course, please let me know if the code is not good.

A color scheme based on summer found on the Adobe Color palette generator. website

Working out the grid on paper, with three objects to be repeated, bee, circle and hexagon

Results

“The bees gather hexagon honey from the digital late summer flowers”…

The coding is set up in the course so that when you press S, the image will save into a folder on your computer. Left clicking the mouse will change the image each time randomly changing the pattern.

So you can click the mouse untll you find a pattern you like. S will save that.

“The universal patterns and honeybee tasks repeat as we fly higher”…

You can also easily change the number of columns and rows of the grid like below 10×10.

“Almost like a honeycomb now, patterns emerge, random or some kind of natural orfer?”….

Even to 15×15

Where Can We Take This Next?

With critical thinking skills, we should always think about all the things we can actually use things like this for.

Apply the designs to textiles and fine art signed prints.

Start to look to see how using AI and Python for these kinds of patterns could learn, adapt, flock. Stay tuned this is my next step..

Take it further in 3D using something like ThreeJSand or add interactivity to the 2D grid. Use it for interactive experiences using Arduinos and the Touch Designer software.

I can help you to make 3D and now integrate Python into your workflow email me to talk.

Useful Links

Designing with Python: Programming for a Visual Context. The Domestika Link

Py5 the creative coding framework for Python Link

Alexandre B A Villares website tutor of the domestika course Link

Three.Js language I used for the 3D interactive version Link

Pyde Processing Python examples Link

Python programming language Link

Buy versions of this print Shop

Get in touch with me for a 121 trial tuition session Email

The Nano Banana Architectural Revolution?

James — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 18:24:49 +0000

Nano Banana:
Architectural Revolution?

I often find myself hating to work with 3D CGI and graphics. I find my creative flow restricted. In these times, I think should just make traditional drawings and sculpture work.

However, 3D is such a powerful tool I always return to for both commercial and creative use.

I always strive to see how I can reduce all the technically slow aspects I find slow me down in mind and spirit and instead, focus on the creative freedom or “flow state” of the creative process.

It is September 2025 and Google has just released their latest AI tool – Nano Banana (officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image).

It feels quite a leap ahead with AI from my tests so fat in consistency and what it can do. Lets take it for a test drive here. You can read the official announcement on the Google Developers Blog.

There are also many you tube videos about how it can be used with 3D visualization such as this recent one.

This consistent and fast AI tool has massive potential in the creative process for both imaginary world building I explore in my Cities Of The Imagination book but also for more real world visualization projects. Using this would have greatly helped my recent apartment visualization.

Traditional visualization pain points

I want “Zero wasted effort. Maximum creative flow.”

I want to automate the grind, save time being wasted in nightmare technical wastelands and speed up my work. To me, Nano Banana feels like as tool that will do this the most at this point.

How can it solve some of the main pain points when making 3D worlds and visualization? Let’s test it out…

Nano Banana Will Visualise States In Time:

Before/After: Test Driving Nano Banana:

For a while, I’ve had the desire to experiment with Industrial Shipping container design for habitation and social center concepts. Shipping crates are a great example of recycling existing structures for building. The fact that they can be stacked and exist already as modular units creates many great possibilities.

The following stages summarize what I managed to do over a whole Saturday testing out how Nano Banana could help with the 3D CGI process in September 2025 –

a) Concept Sketch Crates

b) Blender Development Concept

After initial sketch ideas and a mood board taken from Google images, I imported some free 3D crate models and started to shift forms around in Blender and make some other simple pieces of geometry such as wooden struts and solar panels. I always really enjoy this part of the 3D modelling process. Its pure flow, 3D space and idea growth evolution.

C) Jump Ship To Nano Banana

Usually, after this concept blocking in stage, I would then proceed to time consuming model refining an UVW texture mapping. This is where I jumped ship to Google Nano Banana.

By uploading the concept screenshots from Blender and using prompts for the model development I found I could easily develop the structure, construction and materials of this shipping crate house.

You can see in the image above, it will render out different angles from the single render you give. I think that is amazing as the other views show extreme consistency with the 3D structure.

The Nano Banana feels very consistent. It is very close to employing another 3D artist for example ” add logos of a sea turtle with white paint on each crate “, you can see the result for that one in the image above.

In the future, I hope as artists and designers movements and gestures will be able to used more than prompts. I feel that word prompts can feel like a barrier when making visual things.

C) A Complete Change Of Structure

This was a major evolution. I decided to ask Nano Banana to expand the structure crates using the same construction, structure and materials methods. It came up with this, amazing!

So it means I don’t have to go back to Blender and make a shape like this from the existing blocks. Nano Banana does this for me.

You can see expanding the structure, the rooms inside all differ. They are not just carbon copies of the first interior.

It even allowed me to –

” render the structure at golden hour ” and ” add people inside the building rooms “.

D) Ability To Make Nearly Accurate Technical Drawings From The Renders

Another astounding thing is that Nano Banana was able to do here was to tell it to –

“make technical drawings of the structure “

I feel the solution was with fairly close solutions to what a professional working drawing. At the least, CAD technicians could use these as a proxy reference. It even seamed to give accurate dimensions

With a prompt like

” Make a detailing technical drawing for one of the crates, side view”.

It also allows a fairly good approximation of detailing technical drawings. In this case, showing one of the industrial crate units. Admittedly some of the words are incorrect. However as a base template to turn into a proper CAD drawing feels very certain.

E) Going Further

I will look at using Google Nano at a later point to make 3D models from the images it creates. At this point you still need a third party image to 3D creator such as Hitem3D to turn the images to 3D models. Then you can take them back into Blender.

The first image below shows the 3D model result in Hitem. The second shows it imported into Blender.

At this stage of AI technology the model is not perfect. However, it is useable for non close up work.

In turn, this model could be adapted in Blender and you could repeat the process again with a new structure back into Nano Banana.

Alternatively, you could take it to a Realtime engine such as Unreal or use Sketchfab or ThreeJS for Browser based 3D. I will be using the latter for this very soon, stay tuned!

E) Conclusion The future: An Iterative Flow?

This project took me about half a day to complete using Nano Banana. AI develops at a lightning rate so I am sure that this will get even better.

If I were to do this using Blender or 3DS Max and Substance Painter, it would take me at least 4 whole days. The extra time taken would involve what I feel are “medieval” processes compared to AI.

In the future, I would like to see Nano Banana AI embedded properly into Blender. There are addons now for AI into Blender is around now. Not for Nano Banana however.

There are negatives for workflow however as it exists now. The main point I feel is that I find text prompting is something I would rather use less and more a visual approach by being able to move and develop the AI result in a GUI interface.

Whatever happens, the future possibilities of 3D visualization and 3D as a whole for individuals will be extremely exciting for those who want to experiment with it and integrate it into the their creative process.

Yes it will replace many creative jobs, we have to adapt.

– James Abell September 07 2025

Links –

Google Nano Banana

An image to 3D AI mesh creator – Hitem

The open source 3D suite – Blender

I used Canva to put the animated construction GIF together

Shipping Crate 3D Models used in Blender concept stage

Sign up to my newsletter below or e-mail me at info@jamesabellart.com if you would like 3D training or to commission me for art and design work.

Creative Interior Design Visualization

James — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 14:33:56 +0000

Transforming Spaces: The Visualization in Interior Design Collaboration Project

As artist and designer, I recently decided to see what I could do by redesigning my apartment purely in 3D as a design and vizualisation exercise/experiment. A creative interior design vizualisation.

To do this, I used Blender, Adobe Substance Painter/Substance, and Photoshop to create a 3D visualization reimagining my apartment that I currently live in and own.

The Creative Process: Where Art Meets Technology

Working alongside my creative business partner Ishiika from new Delhi, India (we have been working on a new creative business together, keep tuned for news about this), we developed a comprehensive virtual interior design refit of my apartment.

Our collaborative approach combines artistic choice with technical expertise, resulting in spaces that are both beautiful and functional. After the success of this test piece, we have decided to offer both a virtual and real life interior design service. We already have people in the UK and India interested in this new creative avenue..

Throughout this project, I made the 3D elements while Ishiika and I developed and decided upon the visual interior design ideas and layout.

While generative AI and large language models are revolutionizing 3D visualisation. For example you can visualise something in seconds now using a basic sketch or very rough render. This is amazing in my view.

However, I used the 3D modelling route because I want in the future to turn this into a web 3D interactive app where visitors can walk around it like in a video game.

I did use AI to make some of the meshes using meshy.ai and also adobe firefly at the end. For example, in this image below. The red chair was made in seconds in Meshy from a photograph of a chair like this on a white background. This saves time to make it and also money to purchase a model. The quality of the model was not feature film ready but I felt it was adequate for interior design vizualisation work.

Style Choices: Personal Expression in Design

Our design choices for this apartment revamp directly reflect personal art practices and aesthetics, creating a seamless connection between creative visions and a functional living living space. This project demonstrates how interior design can serve as an extension of one’s creative identity.

Although I am an artist and designer, I actually graduated in Applied Design Interior Design from Edinburgh College Of Art in 1999. Ishiika studied animation a the National institute Of Design in India. These are both prestigious institutions and I believe a good art education allows designers and artists to be able to apply themselves to different creative disciplines.

Good art and design encompasses all things.

A concise workflow of the process for this project was as follows –

I took rough physical measurements of my apartment using measuring tape (sometimes its quicker) I tried to scan my flat. However, the result was not great. Even a good scan still in 2025 means you need to make the mesh again to look ok in a render or a 3D Realtime environment.

2. I used 3DS MAX for this part as I find it slightly easier to measure and make interior/architectural based basic shapes in Max rather than Blender.

2. Export to Blender. After the initial interior shell was made I then used Blender to model the dimensions in Blender using the measure tool. I did some light tests.

3. Once this empty interior was made, we both worked towards developing an interior design with a distinct style that would suit my tastes. I then applied materials. Throughout this project I used the Substance Add on for Blender.

4. We then started adding furniture. Most of the furniture here was from stock model sites including Turbosquid.com including the doors and sauna, I modelled myself.

5. In anticipation of future commercial interior design work rather than just importing the models. We set up a library using the Asset Brower feature in Blender to enable a library of categorized items that you can easily drag into your scene.

6. Finally the lighting. , sunlight, HDRIS and lighting simulating where the lights. We rendered it in Cycles (the built in raytracing render engine in Blender), cycles can take ages so a video like this helped!

7. I rendered some passes in Blender (image) which mean I could edit further in Photoshop..

9. In Photoshop we edited usual things like curves and color balance. By bringing in different passes in Blender, it enabled me to play around with the image on different Photoshop layers.

We also used adobe firefly to add some elements worked really well rather than spending ages modeling small items in the scene, Adobe AI did it in seconds.

The Visualization Dilemma: Pure 3D vs. Developmental Design

We balance quick collaborative sketches with final photorealistic renders. This hybrid process values client input and iteration as much as the final visual.

Recently, someone insisted there’s only one “correct” way to do arch-viz. I disagree. The goal is clear client communication, whether through a sketch, an annotation, or a full render. “Photorealism” is not always necessary and can often detract from what you are trying to communicate to the client.

From Micro to Macro: A Comprehensive Design Philosophy

Our interior design philosophy considers every scale, from the smallest decorative elements to the broader architectural context to imaginary virtual spaces.

We, create spaces that feel intentionally designed at every level. We believe we incorporates a design principle for each client that goes beyond generic interior design projects.

Our Skills and Your Deliverables For Your Interior Design Projects

Our expertise includes:

Creating detailed 3D models and environments using Blender, Adobe Substance and 3DS Max.
Interior Design: Crafting functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces suited to your needs.
Interior Architecture: Restructuring spaces for optimal flow and utility
Design Concept: Developing designs tailored to each client
3D Architectural Visualization: Bringing designs to life before construction begins
Full art installation or murals for your interiors.

We have developed a comprehensive design and 3D visualization service, complete with a process diagram that maps our journey from initial sketch to final render. We are implementing AI and old school techniques, speeding up technical aspects while increasing the creative and communicative human element.

Ready to Transform Your Space?

Revamp your space with us. We blend art and technical skill to transform your vision—from a single room to an entire property.

As an international collaboration, we are really excited to offer this service to people in all parts of the globe.

Contact us today for a free 20 minute consultation if you need design work for your interior spaces or if you are an architect or designer and you would like to learn/improve 3D visualization quickly so that you don’t need to pay for 3D visualizers. We look forward to speaking with you.

Useful Links Mentioned In This Blog Post –

Lidar for scanning interiors on an IPhone

Video showing how Adobe Firefly AI can be used in Interior Design renders

The Adobe substance addon for Blender.

Example of a stock 3D model store where you can find interior elements turbosquid.com

Image or Text to 3D creator – meshy.ai

Other recent 3D work from my folio.

The free open source 3D modelling application I used for the Interiors – blender.org

Spirit Of The Ages

James Abell — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:16:14 +0000

August 1990, North Norfolk, England

Unseen forces were operating high above the flat North Norfolk skies.

The long summer holidays became too bright, too windy,

Too many large billowy clouds creating a post cold war menace.

Too many fighter jets flying around from the nearby RAF base.

I was about 15 years old then.

Me and my friends decided to go and pick strawberries for money at a local fruit

farm. The sun was too hot for my skin, I burned even with suncream. Eastern European refugee immigrant workers had talk of distant wars. The local train from Norwich to Cromer passed by on the raised bank and stopped at the old empirical Gunton Station every hour or so.

During the picking duties, I spent most of the time speaking to my friends about the latest belle of the school or the latest budget sci fi desert 90s post apocalyptic film, or how tall, old or short film stars of the time were meant to be. Some of my friends managed to work hard and earn a “good” amount of money for the time.

I found it boring and in those nights I dreamed without intention of strawberries the horrific sweet smell would not go away even after a bath.

One particularly long day, I think it was day 6, I cycled home on my mountain bike.

The menacing billowing flatland clouds and wind tried to push me back to the farm.

I managed to get back home. A wonderful parcel wrapped in brown paper had arrived, dropped onto the terracotta tiles in the back kitchen of the old cottage where I lived.

It had a black rubber stamp on it – “ Multiverse Games, Post Mail Order”

I opened the package, a game…

I had ordered “SimCity” by Infogrames. My anticipation of making cities at least that day were destroyed.

It was the WRONG game.

However this game in the box was called “Spirit of The Age!” by Hawkwind labs. Was this a band? I think I had seen some of their albums in the CD rental stalls in the library. There was of course no Youtube in those old times to quickly find out. Was there now a computer game about them?

“ I am a clone I am not alone”

It was 3pm, and my parents were at work. I played the game for 6 hours on my AtariST.

By 9pm, I had played out the game and it resonated with the book Dangerous Visions by Harllan Ellison I had read on the school sports field before term finished in the sun, imagining I was in California not a Norfolk backwater.

I went for a walk, on my own around the path called “two gate lane”.

The moon was full so that would help me run away from the big black dog that roamed these lands.

The moon framed large billowing clouds over the north sea over the hill like black plate glass. To the west something strange a 10 degrees off the horizon,

One bead of light, then another and another.

The UFO books when I was 10 said they were ball lights.

Perhaps?

The summer rolled by, and I put the “Spirit of the Age Game” into a drawer along with the rapidly outdated AtariST.

Perhaps it was real or perhaps it was some weird fabricated dream from some future technology rewriting the past with false images.

Perhaps I had really had SimCity sent to me and this was all just a dream. We are all made of dreams…

September would come soon, the colder nights, the burning stubble fields and the promise of parties and first experience of alcohol. This moment in time would fade away and it would soon be time for kids, me and my friends to leave and study in the universities….

Meanwhile strange objects drifted across the sky and technology from the future planted false memories into us…..

I have no intention of picking strawberries again but I like them with cream sometimes and meringue these days.

Links –

Strawberry picking north norfolk in the 90s –

https://www.edp24.co.uk/things-to-do/20839463.remembering-back-breaking-days-picking-strawberries/

Gunton Station – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunton_railway_station

Hawkwind Spirit of the Age –

V1 –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSR5TnNGKmo

V2 –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePMlEnuXs9U

V3 –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXK_0H5m6sU

V4 – Remix by Hausfrauen –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_tsDS3NweU

V5 – Banco De Gaia –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFD-hXElndQ

Concept box images made with AI in Chat GPT and google gemini

PEOPLE IN FUTURISTIC CITIES: LONDON

James — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:05:41 +0000

We Are All Made Of Stars

I thought as a thank you gift for all of you who enjoy my work, you can now check my “People In Imaginary Cities – London ” out in its entirety below as a pdf reader app for you to enjoy on your browser.

“Strange drawings of people in a futuristic London who we may never meet along with glimpses of their life as words.”

“People in Futuristic Cities: London” is a 32-page zine by James William Crofton Abell, offering a glimpse into a semi-imaginary near-future London. This black-and-white zine features surreal drawings of people we may never meet, alongside poetic narratives that capture fleeting moments of their lives.

Inspired by my experiences in early Summer 2024, this zine blends reality with the speculative, creating an evocative and unique view of a London that could exist just beyond our reach. Printed in black and white, it comes with a saddle-stitched softcover and is signed by the artist.

Published by

James William Crofton Abell

Regular price £3.99

There you go ,a vision of London in the future that might be the present too. Something we can never grasp.

If you want a hard copy that will enable me to make more Zines about cities in the future you can purchased one from my online shop.

It is also available at –

Good Press – Glasgow

Gosh Comics – London

The Simian Beehive: The Monkey Tribe’s Temple In The Himalayas

James — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 09:33:36 +0000

by James Abell, March 2025

In the north west region of India where the hills become steep and force themselves upwards into the sky to meet the white mountains that meet the heavens, a legend unfolds.

The monkey tribe in these parts at some point in time decided to construct a temple to pay respect to the old Gods. The Gods who granted them more intelligence.

The Gods had long left this area. They only left some of their transparent jewels behind.

The monkeys decided to use these jewels to make a temple to remember the old Gods.

The monkeys worked in a group day and night.

They found an inscription to help them make the temple, using the jewels, earth and wood to make an ever expanding beehive like temple. The language was unknown to them, it was the language of the old Gods. However, they could understand the pictures.

Many of the monkeys said that this structure looked like the dwelling places of the old gods who lived packed together like the ants or bees where their chaos annoyed mother nature. This was one of the reasons why the old Gods disappeared from these parts.

The temple would grow over the years.

Due to the clean water and animals and food nearby the monkeys would start to settle here and come down from the trees. This would be the start of a monkey empire in these parts that would span far into the future!

The monkeys continue to build to this day…

A fallen sign on the ground that the monkeys cannot read shows the language of the old Gods, perhaps scholars in the future will be able to interpret what it means –

“ बंदर त्वरित बुद्धिमत्ता अनुसंधान संस्थान हिमाचल प्रदेश, स्थापित २०५५ “

Simian accelerated intelligence research facility, Himachal Pradesh province, established 2055

END

Story and illustrations by James Abell (c) March 2025

Further Reading

How Long Does It Take for Plastics to Decompose?

Link

Waste Warriors: Tackling the Waste Crisis in the Indian Himalayas

Link

Primate Intelligence: What Makes Monkeys So Smart?

Link

Himachal Pradesh: The Land of Gods

Link

Some Of My Science Fiction Illustrations For Other Stories

Link

James Abell

Tradigital Sculpting Tools I Use For My Art in 2025

Tradigital Sculpting Tools I Use For My Art in 2025

Raw Materials

Hardware Essentials

Drawing Tablets

Photogrammetry Cameras

Budget 3D Printers and Fabrication

Software Solutions

Paid Software

AI Tools Revolutionizing Sculpting

Nano Banana ($29/month) free too

Hitem3D ($19/month) free too

Building Your Toolkit

Where to Learn These Tools

3D Scanning A Clay Sculpture Using Photogrammetry

3D Scanning A Clay Sculpture for Scaling and 3D printing

Tradigital Sculpture: Clay Meets 3D CGI

A "Tradigital" Process

Why 3D Scanned Sculpture Is So Useful For Sculptors

A Step By Step Workflow

Step-by-Step Tradigital Sculpture Workflow (Clay Monkey Sculpture Case Study)

1. Prepare Your Traditional Sculpture

2. Digitize with Smartphone Photo scanning

3. Generate 3D Digital Model

4. Prepare For 3D Printing Or CNC

Why The Photogrammetry Process Is So Useful For Sculptors

Get More Help To Do This For Your Sculptures

Python for Creative Coding: A Visual Artist’s Guide to Generative Art (2025)Learning Python For Your Creative Practice

Designing with Python: Programming for a Visual Context

The Concepts Learned

Results

Where Can We Take This Next?

Useful Links

The Nano Banana Architectural Revolution?

Nano Banana:Architectural Revolution?

Nano Banana Will Visualise States In Time:

Before/After: Test Driving Nano Banana:

a) Concept Sketch Crates

b) Blender Development Concept

C) Jump Ship To Nano Banana

C) A Complete Change Of Structure

D) Ability To Make Nearly Accurate Technical Drawings From The Renders

E) Going Further

E) Conclusion The future: An Iterative Flow?

Creative Interior Design Visualization

Transforming Spaces: The Visualization in Interior Design Collaboration Project

The Creative Process: Where Art Meets Technology

Style Choices: Personal Expression in Design

The Visualization Dilemma: Pure 3D vs. Developmental Design

From Micro to Macro: A Comprehensive Design Philosophy

Our Skills and Your Deliverables For Your Interior Design Projects

Ready to Transform Your Space?

Spirit Of The Ages

PEOPLE IN FUTURISTIC CITIES: LONDON

We Are All Made Of Stars

The Simian Beehive: The Monkey Tribe’s Temple In The Himalayas

Nano Banana:
Architectural Revolution?