I am new to Blender and going through the "press start" lesson. I have gotten about ¾ the way through . . . about 5 times now. I go along just fine, then something just happens. Though I try, I can't find a way correct the issue so I have to start over. My biggest question is, if I keep with this, will I learn ways to correct issues without having to start over? I am praying that this is just a learning curve issue and all this will pay off over time. After all, I'm really good at watching my normals, snapping and I have a number of shortcut keys committed to memory.
I recommend keeping incremental versions of your projects as you go. If you go to "save as..." and hit the plus button it will add a number to you project: "myProject1", "myProject2", etc. This way you can go back if something irreversible happens in the file that you're working on. I find this especially helpful with sculpting, which I find to be a little buggy at times.
Don't give up! There is definitely a steep learning curve to Blender. but it's worth it if you stick with it. I does easier until gets hard again. But that's one of the fun things about learning Blender. It's a challenge. You never stop learning new things. And even though it can be frustrating it always makes me feel good later when I do find the answer and over come the challenge. It will get easier. Don't give up! And use the forum if you're having problems. So far everyone has been very helpful to me and very kind. =)
I agree with Wendy. There are hurdles, but it is worth it to have access to and understanding of a free program that can do so many things and gets better every version. I am 42 and have had to work around ADHD all my life and have been using Blender for about 6 months. The struggles can be super frustrating, but it is completely worth it.
I go along just fine, then something just happens.
I remember that happening in my beginning days of using Blender (and I guess that happens with 3D modeling in general); I'd follow a tutorial (any tutorial, not only on CGCookie) to the letter and then at some point it went all wrong and I couldn't get the wanted result...re-watching that part several times didn't help, so I also started over and then it went ok...up till the next part in the tutorial where I messed up (and couldn't find why).
This goes away with time! It will become easier and then other things will get challenging; you will never stop learning. Do not give up, it's an amazing journey!
I appreciate reading what others have gone (or still) go through. I appreciate a good challenge, but I hope that I can get to the conclusion of this project before too long. I have already figured out that there is more to this software than I will ever know, yet it is very intriguing so I can't wait to explore more. Thanks for sharing, your note is encouraging.
I wholeheartedly agree with Jammingammon as to saving versions incrementally, especially when you're putting your heart and soul into a project. I just finished the Pothead Course and I must have saved over 50 versions so I wouldn't lose any work. I'm using an experimental version of Blender and often have a movie or music playing too so spontaneous crashes were common. I never lost a significant amount of work though because of how many versions I had saved.