Any tips for optimizing the render? Blender crashes every time I try to render and it has a hard time getting into render mode, saying I'm out of memory. Sorry if this is too basic! I just got a new computer, it's a big upgrade from an old laptop so I figured I would be able to make it further in the course. but alas, I am stuck again! 
Yeah as you can imagine, you just need more power, a more powerful computer. But if you don't have a powerful one, you can work with less geometry for example. Try not to get your models too complex. When you get to rendering, trade some noise for lower samples. Try using collection instancing where ever you can, also instead of duplicating objects try making a linked duplicate with Alt + D if you can. And I guess overall, make your scene not too large in scale so you can use less objects. Hope this helps.
