In this workshop, Martin Nebelong shares his experience using 3D tools free from the “shackles of the polygons”: No pulling vertices and no high-to-low poly workflows. Martin demonstrates how he uses Dreams, a piece of creative software based on SDFs, also known as "Signed distance fields." With Dreams, Martin creates expansive mountain ranges and distant space stations without touching a mouse, keyboard, or tablet, using only his two hands and two glowing wands, 6DOF controllers, outside of VR. All of that at speeds Martin says is impossible to achieve with more traditional workflows. A bold claim!
The SDF technology we see in Dreams is slowly making its way to more widely known tools like Blender, and it's a tech that is cropping up in experimental 3D tools like Unbound.io and Womp.3d. During the workshop, Martin branches out from Dreams to talk about and give examples of using these tools as well. Martin also briefly touches on how these quick 3D visuals can drive generative AI more under the artist's control than the slot-machine-like nature of many other generative AI workflows.