Alright, so I decided to give this ‘Rob Roddy’ thing a whirl a while back. Saw some stuff online, you know, visuals, maybe some animation bits, that had this distinct look credited to someone by that name, or at least inspired by them. Looked kinda neat, simple but stylish. Thought I’d try and figure out how it was done, maybe use it for a little personal project.
Getting Started
First thing I did was just gather references. Found a bunch of images that seemed to fit this ‘Rob Roddy’ style. Mostly low-poly stuff, clean lines, interesting color choices. Nothing too complex, but it had a certain feel.
So, I fired up my usual software. For me, that’s mostly Blender these days. Seemed like the right tool for this kind of geometric look. I didn’t really have a specific plan, just wanted to mess around and see if I could capture that aesthetic.
The Actual Process
I started simple. Just blocking out basic shapes. A cube here, stretched it into a building shape there. Added a simple ground plane. The modeling itself wasn’t the hard part, the low-poly nature made that pretty straightforward. Just moving vertices around, keeping the poly count down.
The tricky bit started when I tried getting the look right. The references had this specific way lighting and color worked together. It wasn’t just flat shading, but it wasn’t realistic either. I spent a good amount of time just playing with materials.
- Tried different shaders.
- Messed with color palettes – getting those slightly muted but punchy colors was tough.
- Played a lot with the lighting setup. Sun lamps, area lamps, trying to get those clean-cut shadows without it looking too harsh.
Honestly, it took a few tries. My first attempts looked kinda generic, just standard low-poly renders. Didn’t have that ‘Rob Roddy’ spark, whatever that was. I went back to the reference images again and again, trying to pinpoint what made them different.
One thing I noticed was the lack of complex textures. It seemed more about solid colors and how the light interacted with the simple geometry. So, I simplified my materials even further. Focused more on the ‘Emission’ settings sometimes, or used specific node setups to control the shading.
Figuring Things Out
I think the breakthrough came when I stopped trying to copy one specific image exactly and just focused on the principles I was seeing:
- Keep geometry simple and deliberate.
- Use a limited, well-chosen color palette.
- Lighting is key – use it to define shapes.
- Don’t overcomplicate materials.
Once I started thinking like that, things began to click a bit better. I built a small scene: a couple of quirky buildings, some stylized trees, that sort of thing. Focused on composition and how the colors balanced out.
End Result and Thoughts
Did I nail the ‘Rob Roddy’ style perfectly? Probably not. It’s hard to replicate someone else’s unique touch exactly. But I ended up with a little scene that I quite liked, definitely inspired by those initial references.
More importantly, I learned a bunch just by trying. Got more comfortable with certain lighting techniques in Blender, thought more about color theory in a practical way, and appreciated how much style can be achieved with simple forms. It wasn’t about mastering ‘Rob Roddy’, whatever that truly entails, but about the process of dissecting a style and learning from it. Good practice, definitely worth the time messing around with it.
