Hi - I'm looking for some help determining the order of my next courses.
Soon I'll be finished with most of the fundamentals: Intro, Press Start, Modeling, Lighting, Materials, Texturing. I'm deferring Sculpting and Animation until later due to less interest. I've also done some personal projects to reinforce what I've learned in the fundamentals.
Next I'd like to get into some of the more project based courses that use multiple ideas that I've learned already. I'm considering: Assemble, Cubicity, Astray, Pothead, Stylized Forest and Treasure Chest.
Could anybody suggest an order that takes into account my experience but also builds upon some of the stuff I've learned already?
I'm probably most excited about Cubicity but am curious if it would be beneficial to do some of the others I've listed first?
Thanks!
Greetings,
I would suggest you pick what you find most exciting to begin with but try not to ignore the courses you find less appealing for too long. I often find myself picking up key skills in the courses and lectures I least expect.
I tend to stick to one long form course at a time but given the streaming nature of course content/e-learning platforms nowadays i often dip my toes into a course I'm curious about when I have some down time or hit a roadblock in a project.
I might watch a couple lectures on 2x speed to see if the course and its content excites me or can teach me something new.
I keep a list of any key skills I want to work on and rotate my primary focus based on where I feel I am most deficient.
When you start to transition from beginner to intermediate its often at this stage that your development may stall if you get trapped watching too much of the same kind of content.
I used to put off learning certain skills or tools as I didnt feel they were necessarily relevant to what I was pursuing but in actual fact I found out the hard way that this can actually stifle your progress.
So I always tend to pick one passion project and one 'chore' project and alternate between them as my motivation ebbs and flows.
Where you focus primarily depends largely on what your end goal is, how much time you have to learn and why you are interested in pursusing blender.
It really helps to write down a list of learning objectives, set specific goals, find a way to measure your progress or performance and tick them off one by one. Making sure that your goals are time-bound and realistic.
This will help you stay motivated and focused.
You can add new progress goals and learning milestones as you find courses that interest you, but the more you map out your learning in advance the easier it is to build a rounded skillset.
I am a big proponent of keeping a journal or notepad to wrtie down goals and to do lists - online note taking apps such as Milanote or Google Keep can be great resource for this as well.
More than anything else though - follow the fun.
If you are not enjoying learning you are unlikely to stick with it for the long-haul and I find that managing burnout is actually one of the most important skills for a budding artist or student and is something that does not get covered enough.
I personally really enjoyed the Cubicity course - as it has a nice mixture of things to work on. You get to practice multiple skill sets and you are likely to learn a few new things regardless of your experience level.
Assembly is a bit tougher to digest as it is more technical - so I would suggest completing cubicity first and then moving ahead to the assembly course personally.
Sorry if I rambled a bit - I just thought I'd share a few pointers as I found the transition period from fundamentals to intermediate one of the hardest times in my learning journey.
Stay focused, stay motivated, enjoy what you do and I am sure you will really come along quickly if you commit to what you want to learn and make it a habit.
Best of luck!
Hi Eric,
With your current level, you should be able to take any of the courses you mention.
They don't really have an order in which to take them. All are really fun to do and cover a lot of different techniques.
Assemble is, as mentioned above, indeed very technical and concentrates solely on Geometry Nodes. Astray and Stylized Forest require a more than minimal computer. Otherwise I agree with SSecresteyn , just choose what appeals most to you.
Hi Eric,
I agree you should do what interests you most, given that I would maybe suggest this order.
Assemble, Cubicity, Astray, Pothead, Stylized Forest and Treasure Chest.
Treasure chest - it gives you more modeling experience and a touch of animation.
Pothead - more modeling experience on a more complicated model. After these two courses many of the hot keys will be second nature and you will have learned a lot of modeling.
Stylized Forests. - this still does a lot of modeling, but adds more one lighting and rendering, plus you end up with a nice scene and this gives you another view of what blender can do besides a single object. There is also a live stream that Kent shows you how to turn the scene into a winter scene. Sorta of neat. to see what a few changes can do.
Astray - In this course you also end up with a great scene. You are encouraged to add many of your own details.
Cubicity - definitely fun and the modeling is pretty easy. I put this one here, because after doing the other ones you will have a good background in blender and could pretty much do any course.
Assemble - is totally geometry nodes, was great fun. There isn't much modeling, lots of node work. Definitely shows you a. different aspect of blender.
You should also definitely consider the animation courses, Wayne does a great job. As for sculpting, it's the way to go if you want to. create a more than low poly characters and the joys of retopology, so waiting for that makes sense.
After taking these you should also be familiar enough with blender so if you take a course with another version of blender you should be able to figure out how it works in your version. Have fun!
Thanks for all the good suggestions everyone. I will definitely finish the other fundamentals soon, just wanted to slide in some project based training for a bit.
Hey XTremeDaddy,
Don't forget to check out the playlists,
and you can also create your own private playlist to work through.
