How to make a 3D design portfolio in 15 minutes with Carbonmade (2024)

To spend the time perfecting every detail of your 3D designs – the texture, lighting, color and more – only to show it off in a poorly designed, outdated portfolio? Makes no sense!

Today I'll show you how I created my own 3D design portfolio in 15 minutes using Carbonmade. In less time than it takes to eat a sad sack lunch at your office desk, you could have a beautiful new 3D design portfolio.

Here's what we'll be making.

Let's get started.

Requirements

The only thing you need for this tutorial is Carbonmade, which is free to use until you launch.

Before we get started, Sign up for Carbonmade and pick a starting point for your layout. Feel free to pick what suits your work & style the best. I’ll be going with “Full Screen & Bold.”

Step 1: Edit the intro on your homepage

First, edit the Heading and add your introduction. Next, hide the sub-heading and use the "Title & Teaser" block below the cover to add a little more information. Click the ⚙️ gear icon to swap out the hero background image with your own image.

Step 2: Create your first case project

We’ll now create your first project. Click "Project" in the left-hand sidebar and upload a thumbnail to represent the project. Hit "Publish" under the thumbnail, and it will appear on your homepage and link to your project page.

Within the project, add the "Fullscreen Cover" block and drag & drop your hero image onto the cover. I removed the Heading so the focus was entirely on my full-screen hero image. Looks pretty damn good, right?

Now drag & drop the "Description & Intro" block into the page and add the title of your project and a short description. Be sure to note what role you played on the project and if you're feeling extra nice, credit your team.

Moving on, let's add the "Gallery Grid" and "Text/Embed" blocks into the page. Drag & drop a few images from your desktop onto the Gallery and write a short description beneath. You can duplicate and replace the images and text to include more of your work.

Finally, drag & drop the "Two Column Layout" block onto your page to add more visuals to your case study. I added a little video from the project in this section (Carbonmade has no limits on videos or file size, and all videos load insanely fast. You can even change the style of the player UI).

Step 3: Changing the Navigation

Under the Design tab on the left, click "Site Navigation" and change the preset to "Four Corners." While you're here, you can also upload a logo or change the title by going to the "Logo & Title" section.

Step 4: Create your about page

Go to your default About page. I'm going to customize mine a bit beyond the foundation Carbonmade gives me. So I'll start by removing all the existing blocks and setting a nice background color for the page.

Next up, Add the "Image/Audio/Video" block and drag & drop your image into the block.

Now drag & drop the "Text/Embed" block, edit the text, and tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What type of 3D design do you usually do? Are you a cat person or dog person? Show a little personality here. Make sure we remember you.

P.S. Don't forget your contact info so that you don't miss out on your dream project! Simply add your email address and social links or drag a "Contact info" block onto the page and swap out the text.

Step 5: LAUNCH

That's it! Now it's time to launch. Simply click the GO LIVE button, choose a domain name, and you're LIVE.

In minutes, you created a beautiful, personalized portfolio to showcase your 3D design work.

Now share it with everyone!

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The best part about Carbonmade: You can easily update it at any time to add new projects or refresh your site style.

Want to redesign your homepage? Simply change the Gallery Grid layout or choose a new navigation and it's instantly a new site.

Want to change the colors of your site? Under "Global Styles," in the design tab, change your global font or background.

Want to add more 3D projects? Simply duplicate one you already built and swap out the text, mix and match a few blocks to switch things up, and you're done.

To see examples of other portfolios built with Carbonmade, visit this page. If you create your portfolio with this tutorial, let me know on Twitter. I'd love to see it and share it!