a common pattern for referencing blender work
in a way that lets me share data-light, gif-like experiences
I have used blender for a number of different types of work, from rendering, prepping models for unity, exploring shaders, and editing film. I have found a pattern I like with orbit renders that can funtion as an infinite loop
this orbit loop pattern is generally nice for remembering work that I have done while showing off a model in ray-traced lighting in a 360 degree sweep
for any given project, i'll drop a single empty arrow and parent the camera to it.
then i'll set the camera to face the z-axis of the arrow (which is usually aligned to the center of mass of the model i am interested in orbiting.). after that i'll keyframe the rotation of the empty arrow at frame 0/zero degrees and at last-frame/160 degrees. for each keyframe changing the interpolation type to linear will create a seamless loop
the killer application of this is to publish on a website (like this) using the video tag, loop, and mute with highly compressed av1 encoding. the job of the render is really to be a reference for more complicated work or video demos. at a few hundred kb, looping, and no audio, these renders serve as a nice reminder and reference