After three years of production, Ian Hubert, king of the one-minute Blender tutorial, has uploaded the first episode of his sci-fi series, Dynamo Dream. And it’s been worth the wait. The series is a mix of live-action and CGI that follows a salad merchant on a seemingly normal day through the dense streets of the Sunset District, a futuristic metropolis filled with fax machine drones, giant mutant crabs blocking traffic, and flying assassin bots.

The episode is visually stunning and seems to be endlessly filled with details. Every frame can be paused and observed, each containing hints to an expansive world that stretches beyond the camera’s frame. The world is convincing and surprisingly charming. 

While bearing resemblance to other gritty dystopias, the folky music, calm atmosphere, and moments of pause let you know that humanity isn’t totally lost in the world of Dynamo Dream. There are still small joys to be found in the hustle and bustle. This continues into the protagonist, a merchant with a green thumb who sells salads in mugs. She’s a flower growing out of the cracks of the concrete, though things may not stay peaceful for long. Hopefully it won’t take another three years to find out.

Over the years, Hubert has shared behind-the-scenes looks at this project and has become a well-known figure in the 3D art community — namely, for making impressive work with ingenious animation methods spotlighted in his Lazy Tutorials series on his YouTube channel. His videos show you how to make a lot out of a little, often in under a minute’s time. Even more impressively, all 3D models used in this series were created using Blender, a free 3D package. Compositing was done using Adobe’s After Effects. 

You can check out a few of those tutorials below and support Hubert through his Patreon, where he shares tutorials and 3D assets with his patrons.