As someone who is primarily focused on modeling, texturing and sculpting, does learning fundamentals of physics offer any benefits? Physics simulations look very fun and it's tempting... but perhaps I shouldn't get distracted? I would like to know your opinions
Yeah I agree with Adrian. You don't have to learn every aspect of 3D, in fact it is way too much to learn and Blender is always evolving and new tools getting added all the time. Nothing wrong on focusing on what your main interest is and then slowly dipping your toes in other stages of the pipeline.
I would say physics is used more in animation. With that said, Rigid bodies and cloth sims can be used for setting up/modeling scenes. Cloth sim can help to make balloons and even laying blanks/throws on to furniture. It can even help get a good start for cushions and then combine with the cloth brush to add/adjust the finer details. I've use rigid body to place dice on a table, because it was faster than rotating and moving them. I've used it to with crumbled pieces of column to create a ruins scene. Those examples where single image renders. Technically the ruins was a texture to be put on a 3D coffee mug. I haven't done it, but I do have a friend that uses the sewing or stitching(I don't know what it's called) feature of the cloth sim to take clothes sewing patterns and make clothes for her character. I have no idea how to do it, but she says it's built into blender and there is no need for addons.
I'd also suggest you stay focused on what you're interested in.
You can always learn it if you need it (like in the examples Dwayne mentions, for instance), or even start with the Fundamentals of Physics, when you loose inspiration and don't really know what to do next, or get stuck in a project; that way you can still do stuff in Blender and at the same time 'un-freeze'...
I hope that makes sense.
