MKM Benchmark #3- 3D MODELING

Stylized Y2k Bedroom in Blender

I began the project by setting up the scene and camera first, since the camera angle was critical to achieving the isometric look I had seen in references online. I added a floor plane and positioned the camera before modeling anything else. I set the camera’s focal length to 200mm to create a compressed, isometric-like perspective rather than using true orthographic view. This helped establish the overall composition early on.

I then imported a reference image as a camera backdrop, which allowed me to accurately match proportions, scale, and object placement while blocking out the room. This made it easier to work consistently across the scene and ensured that the final layout stayed cohesive.

Most of the furniture in the room was modeled from scratch, including the desk, nightstand, wall shelves, and books. These objects were built as polygonal meshes, helping me practice basic mesh creation and navigation within Blender’s interface. For the bed, I used a pre-made mattress model for efficiency, but modeled the bed frame myself using Bezier curves and cylindrical forms, which helped me explore smoother, surface-driven shapes within Blender.

For the curtains, I sourced a model from BlenderKit and then edited the mesh directly, adjusting proportions and scale so it matched the rest of the room. This process helped me understand how to modify existing assets rather than relying on them unchanged.

To populate the scene, I included a guinea pig and enclosure. The enclosure itself was modeled using basic geometry combined with a Wireframe Modifier, allowing me to create a clean metal grid structure without overly dense geometry. The guinea pig was made through procedural, IE, coding model generation. It is wrapped in a reference image for the surface/shading. It looks a bit like one of my old guinea pigs, Strawberry. The guinea pigs were duplicated.

I also made the Britney Spears poster on the wall in Canva.

Throughout the project, I relied heavily on non-destructive modifiers, including Solidify for thickness, Bevel for softened edges, and Subdivision when smoother forms were needed. This workflow helped me keep the models clean and flexible while learning how modifiers affect final geometry.

For lighting and rendering, I used an HDRI for ambient house lighting and added Area Lights to shape the mood and draw attention to key objects in the room. All materials were created using Principled BSDF shaders, focusing on simple color, texture, and shading rather than realism. I also combined Ambient Occlusion with a ColorRamp to achieve soft, stylized shadows that fit the overall aesthetic of the scene.

The final result is a fully rendered isometric bedroom scene that demonstrates my growing familiarity with Blender’s interface, mesh modeling, basic surface techniques, material setup, lighting, and scene composition. More importantly, this project helped me build confidence in a new 3D modeling tool that I plan to continue using for future animation and visual storytelling work.