My Treehouse Portfolio

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Hey everyone!

I’m really excited to share my portfolio project with this amazing community where I’ve learned so much.

https://michael-durkin.com/

It was about 2 years ago I actually started making this in Three JS in my spare time, then I learnt React Three Fiber to complete a project at work, which made me want to completely rebuild my portfolio using R3F. My favourite bits were getting the character walking, shooting a basketball and the overall process of modelling and bringing it all to life on the web. My treehouse contains a blog site, embedded with an iframe, and shows off another project I built with Three JS, my Ring Configurator. I really tried to cram in as much 3D as I could :smiley:

I’ve been doing web development for around 25 years now, and I have to say - Thank you Three JS - you have re-ignited my passion for web development again !!

I’ve really been pushing myself with 3D work at the moment and I appreciate any feedback you guys have and I look forward to what else this journey may bring.

Thanks,
Michael

10 Likes
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The experience is a buzz! Great work!

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Hi Lawrence,
Cheers thank you very much, I’m glad you enjoyed it!

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It is really great.

Loved the experience.

Just started out with three.js can you guide me on what kind of projects I should focus on?

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Amazing!
Went all the way to the top and then used the slide.

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Hi @Ammad ,

Thank you, I’m glad you had a good experience.

Since you’re new to Three JS, I would recommend building some small practice projects so you can learn about:

  • creating simple objects (planes, cubes, sphere)
  • materials (basic, standard and textured materials)
  • placing them in a scene
  • lighting
  • controlling the camera
  • some simple interactions like clicking on a mesh

You can do this in vanilla three js, or if you’re comfortable with React, give React Three Fiber a go.

The projects need to be small and simple, so you can actually complete them and feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction. You don’t want to aim too high too soon where you never actually complete anything and consequently feel depressed that you’re not improving and progressing.

After completing the small projects, start looking around at other websites or anything that gives you inspiration to start a larger project. Something a little more challenging than the smaller projects, but again, not too big! Share your progress with the community here for feedback and make sure you complete it.

As a software developer, some typical use of your skills should allow you to:

  • present a product beautifully so someone would want to buy it
  • process large amounts of data and present meaningful insights for a user
  • handle user accounts that offer some kind of a service

These challenges would present a larger project you might want to start when your 3D skills have improved and should allow you to show off and land a job at the same time.

Get in the habit of coding regularly, every day, or every other day, and before you know it, the knowledge will start to stick.

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Hey @Josh_hall ,

I’m glad you made it all the way to the top and used the slide. I do wonder how far people actually get into my website and what they interact with.

Which items of my website do you think stand out the most?

Maybe I should put some google analytics into it and track which elements people are interacting with to get an idea what’s popular.

Thanks again,