Hi all!Ā I'm BRAND new to CGCookie's membership and could use a lil roadmap guidance as to where I should start.Ā I've been learning Blender for about 6 months and uploaded a few of my recent projects I created prior to joining to my 'My Projects' page.Ā Per the level I'm currently at, I'm wondering where I should pick up from (which tutorials to start with).Ā I went through the Basics tutorials which was a lotta stuff I knew mixed with a decent splash of "... omg, how did I NOT know that??? THANKS CGC!".Ā
The results of my projects might look 'fine' but underneath the surface is subpar topology (99% quads, but probably too many edge loops and nonsense edge flow).Ā
Just looking to solidify and improve my existing skills (hard surface modeling with CLEAN topology and smart edge flow) before jumping into the other fun stuff I look forward to learning (sculpting, retopology, baking topology, rigging/animating characters, and more elegant shader node setups instead of always leaning on basic materials without leaning so heavily on noise/wireframe/bump/etc.)... sorry for the long inquiry. Lol
ā¦ just seeing Omar Domenechāa awesome and insightful response in the ānot sure where to start in blender? Begin hereā community convo. My bad š
Hello Joe. Sounds like and looks like, by looking at your gallery, that you're an intermediate Blender wizard. As you say, watching the Basics, even though you'd think you didn't need to watch them, that there's lots of golden nuggets to find. I'd say the same for the Fundamentals courses if you haven't watched them, the CORE series:
After watching Core, you can watch individual courses like Pothead, which guide you through the whole pipeline and completion of a goal oriented project:
https://cgcookie.com/courses/pothead-create-a-hard-surface-character-in-blender
There's lots of other modeling courses. Also materials and composition like Sessions:
lol, you deserve that self high-five, māman! And yeah, getting into the core so I can take mental note of things I missed in my self learning journey (like how much camera clipping impacts Z-fightingā¦ which is why another project Iām working on probably looks so flickery/grainy as itās a BIG scene with a decent amount of kit-bashingā¦ and clipping set from 0.1-1000. lol. Ā Iāma comp it in Davinci via EXR output and transparency turned on so I can adjust clipping from one part of the scene and re-adjust for the background elements).
ALL that to say, itās been less than 24 hours and Iām already seeing the payoff of signing up with this WONDERFUL community š„¹
2 reasons even after 10+ years of doing Blender I still watch "beginner" tutorials occasionally. 1) To become a master, you must master the basics :D (a concept I heard about in relation to martial arts, but really applies to just about everything.) and 2.) You never know when you might learn something you didn't know or hear something explained in a different way than you have before that makes something make more sense. Even if it's from someone you've watched beginner tutorials from before, they've learned more on their journey and may pass on insights they've learned. Not to mention different people do things in different ways so you might learn a new trick, a new tool, a different way of doing things that you've never thought of before.Ā
Another thing I learned a long time ago is to treat what I'm learning like canned spinach... If you like canned spinach, then by all means you grab some, but if you don't like canned spinach, you don't have to take it off the shelf. But just because someplace sells canned spinach doesn't mean that there aren't other things in the store that I want. So if I'm watching a new tutorial and I don't agree with something, I look for what I can learn or what resonates with me and leave the things I don't want "on the shelf" so to speak :D
Also, lots of great intermediate tutorials on here, depending on what your long term goals are. Kent's tutorials are usually great, especially the SESSIONS ones and HUMAN.
Thanks so much, Grady! Ā Yeah, Iām starting from the beginning. Ā Already watched the basics. Ā Now Iām building a snowman in fundamentals andāll post it in my project folder for funzies when Iām done.
for me itās def all about learning the smart ān healthy habits and breaking any BAD habits I mighta picked up along the way. Ā Thanks so much for your super thoughtful and insightful response! Ā Truly appreciative āŗļø