What was once a fading club with irregular meetings and almost no turnout has re-emerged over the past two years as one of McLean High School’s most quietly creative communities.
Senior Nathan Zamsky revived the club after it had gone dormant almost a year ago during his junior year.
“It was previously a club, but it didn’t meet for around a year,” Zamsky said. “I decided to start it up again since I wanted it to be a thing at McLean.”
Now in its second year under Zamsky’s leadership, the club meets almost every Wednesday in room R193, where students gather around the room’s provided desktop computers to build 3D models, animate scenes and experiment with one of the most complex creative softwares available for free: Blender.
Zamsky explained that the club attracts mainly newcomers who are interested in trying Blender for the first time. His goal is to help them get started and give them enough support to experiment on their own.
“The hope is that people are going to come, maybe with some experience, and make things of their own,” Zamsky said. “I usually guide the people who are new and I like to help explain how the software works and how exactly to make elements.”
For many of its members, Blender Club is a creative space to play around with digital modeling tools.
Junior Fernando M’Bachi says the club helped him discover a passion he didn’t realize he had in the first place.
“I love Blender Club because you can use your imagination to build a lot of cool, unique projects,” M’Bachi said. “There’s so much creativity—you can explore new tools, make your own animations, and there’s a lot of potential on what you can produce with it.”
M’Bachi started with no experience. After joining last year, he began learning step-by-step, eventually improving enough to begin a full animation.
“I’ve started attending regularly this year, and I’ve only been doing animation for a month,” M’Bachi said, showcasing his current Minecraft-themed animation. “Within just a few weeks I’ve been learning a lot of skills on Blender—it really shows how much you can learn.”
Other members share similar paths—they began this year, but under consistent attendance, have become proficient with the online software.
“I’ve been doing Blender for about half a month if you count the total days I’ve used it,” sophomore Mitchell Lin said. “I’ve already been working on a detailed rendering of a Rubik’s Cube, which I’ve begun to even animate.”
Lin, despite being relatively new, is already dedicating much of his daily time into creating the program.
“I’ve been doing some projects here and there, especially on my main computer, where I originally learned the basics,” Lin said. “Blender definitely has a learning curve to it; it’s hard at first but it just took time to really get.”
One of Zamsky’s long-term hopes is to create a group-animation project—something the club attempted last year but struggled to finish.
“We did a group animation last year, but it was hard to find the time and not too many people put in that much effort,” Zamsky said.
This year, he hopes to work towards this animation project with passionate members like M’Bachi and Lin.
Though Blender Club remains a relatively small organization, many of its members feel the skills they learn are valuable and give them a newfound creative mindset. For students who may be opening Blender for the first time, the club offers a low-pressure space to learn and create at their own pace.
As the club continues to grow under Zamsky’s leadership, he hopes that increased participation will allow members to collaborate more closely and bring larger-scale projects to life.
“I think there’s a lot of room for growth in the club,” Zamsky said. “Even though we’re small, the amount of things you can do with the software makes the possibilities endless.”
