D

Daniel Mercer

3D Character Artist and Animator

6
Courses
4.68
Rating

Teaches in: Design

About Me

I've been working in 3D for about twelve years now, starting as a freelance artist making assets for indie games and eventually moving into full character production for animation studios. Blender has been my primary tool since version 2.7, and I've watched it grow from a scrappy open-source option into something that genuinely competes with paid software. I love this craft. There's something deeply satisfying about taking a blank viewport and building a character that moves, emotes, and tells a story.

My teaching style is project-driven. I don't believe in showing you a tool in isolation and hoping you remember it later. Instead, every concept gets used in a real project, so you understand not just the how but the why. Students in my courses finish with actual portfolio pieces, not just notes. I keep explanations clear, I don't rush past the hard parts, and I'm always available in the course community to help when something doesn't click.

Expertise

Blender 3D Modeling Character Rigging 3D Character Animation UV Mapping and Texturing Shape Keys and Blend Shapes Particle Systems Materials and Shading Lighting and Rendering

Experience

Ironvale Studios

Lead Character Artist

Redshift Animation

3D Animator

Pine & Pixel Creative

Junior 3D Artist

Achievements

  • Published Blender Character Workflow on Gumroad, selling over 4,200 copies with a 4.8-star average rating
  • Speaker at Blender Conference 2022 on procedural character texturing techniques
  • Created the open-source Blender addon Auto-Rig Lite with 12,000+ downloads on GitHub
  • Completed character animation work for an indie game that won Best Art Direction at IndieCade 2021
  • Holds a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer credential since 2020
  • Contributed rigging tutorials to the official Blender Developer blog, accumulating 90,000+ reads

Teaching Impact

  • 6 Courses
  • 4.68 Average Rating