Wouldn't it be an idea to open a pinned thread in which users could suggest things/ topics they would like to learn more about? There propably would be a huge variety of ideas and a course takes some time but it might be helpful for instructors to see if a large amount of users want to learn more about a specific topic. I for example would love to learn more about creating game assets (similar to the weapon course) or how to build an atual scene full of assets. Also a course on how to create an interior visualization and use textures and lighting to make it look as photorealistic as possible (similar to the architectual visualization course) would be awesome.
Just an idea on how the website could be improved.
jgonzalez I definitely understand the struggle, since making a whole flow for it is too much, it can be added as a course or tutorial. Scripting and porting can really help understand programming in Unity. But I can't wait to see more stuff involving the revolver and of course the Scifi Gyrocopter! I will be patient of course, understanding the courseload you're dealing with! Best of luck, pal.
Some tutorial ideas for "Concept", specialized on figure art/drawing :
Figure drawing fundamentals:
Figure drawing advanced:
Everything could be combined in a "Figure drawing"- Flow
@fide Proko (Stan Prokopenko) has some good tutorials and courses covering gesture, figure drawing and proportions.
Definitely gonna have to add to the notion of anatomy (for 2D and 3D artists, as I know of the sculpting one but seems designed for sculptors, as you'd expect), especially considering it's vital for both 2D and 3D characters this would be invaluable. I've gone online and noticed most anatomy courses are really charging the big bucks so it's a pretty difficult subject to break into, I think the CG Cookie crew could really do justice to an anatomy course
3-D texture painting on complexly shaped objects, workflow, tips and tricks.
Including navigating in 3-D space comfortably while 3-D painting.
Using the Lightmap Pack for UV unwrapping, advantages and disadvantages for various uses.
Basic nodes course, with principled shader. What do all the sundry shaders, converters, colors, etc. do and where are they placed in the flow.
REQUEST: I think that the introductory courses (Blender Basics, Basics of Digital Painting, and Unity Basics: Introduction for Beginners) should take the student through the steps of creating a full Render, Painting, or Game. When I started taking the introductory Concept art and Unity courses, I was rather discouraged because I couldn't really get any results from what I had learned. I'm sure that if I had not taken Blender Guru's beginner tutorial series (Which does it the right way), I would have felt the same about Blender. I had always thought that the Concept and Unity sections were lacking something; now I know what it is.
williamatics The problem with making a game from a beginner perspective is the scope. Making a game is not easy. If beginner game projects were added, they would mostly involve a lot of premade assets and essentially putting things together. If you have an idea for a game project you'd be interested in seeing from a beginner perspective let me know. On that note, I did have the idea of creating a flow on very small games, usually based around one mechanic for a flow focused on "one hour games". It probably wouldn't be beginner friendly, but being small games they might appeal to the beginner crowd.
It's hard to create a full beginner friendly project with these subjects as we'd have to skim over a lot of stuff for the sake of keeping things simple and easy to learn. It's a double edged sword because then it goes from learning how something works to following a step by step process of what we're doing.
Face Rigging,
I want a course on how to properly rig a face for animation.
There is a animation course on lip syncing here, but I find I can't apply it to my own work as I don't understand the structure of the face rigs available.
jgonzalez How about a simple puzzle game where the player needs to push objects around to open the door that leads to the exit?
williamatics That sounds doable. I think for smaller projects I'd like to reference older games. They tend to have less mechanics involved and are generally less complex along with that. A simple puzzle game could be added in for a beginner friendly project. This was actually one of my favorite games of all time growing up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZM9kTGFeko and is a good example of a relatively simple mechanic but tons of fun.
williamatics I was thinking about this as well. I would love to know how to set up good looking fire, explosions, shattering objects, etc.
Some more ideas:
1) Concept art for games
2) Anatomy/ Modeling course for a realistic female character
3) How to find inspiration and get more creative
Seems like there needs to be a comprehensive tutorial series on materials in cycles. I went through the series called shader forge and it was a little advanced for me, great info but a little advanced maybe break it all down a little more.
Would also like to see a good series on python and blender.
$0.02
Some courses that I would be interested in would be something related to landscapes, mountains and the like, and proper water shading.
I think a Game Art Prop Class is ideal for the time frame of these live courses. We could make 2 seperate courses of which 1 would be "Stylized" and one would be more "Realistic" focused. Of course we can also combine the two into 1 bigger class (maybe 6 weeks).
We could even implement 2D Design/Drawing to either make your own prop design or "enhance" an existing prop design . This is a skill that many of us lack but is super useful in a real-life job.
Below an example of a class outline. Ideally the class would be 6 weeks if we would implement drawing assignments/2D but 4 weeks is also possible.
Complete Game Asset Course
- Week 1: Reference Gathering. Stylized vs Realistic analysis. Designing from imagination vs Enhancing an existing reference. Project set-up.
- Week 2: Interpretation of Reference. Blockout vs High Poly Modeling techniques. Sculpting details in Blender vs Zbrush.
- Week 3: LowPoly techniques. Understanding UV's, Normal Maps, Smoothing and correct Baking.
- Week 4: Texturing in Substance Painter. Stylized vs Realistic. Smart Masks. Analyzing reference.
- Bonus week: importing in Unreal Engine/Unity. Portfolio rendering.
tahariel I'd love to see a course like this. There are excellent grass and foliage courses (I haven't done them yet but I've previewed them); I think one or more courses covering landscapes, large rocky structures, and static and dynamic water would compliment them nicely.
I would also like to see more love for the Principled Shader and its abilities. For the purpose of learning the theory of shading, covering how and why to use the individual glossy, diffuse, SSS, etc shaders to make a material makes sense. But I think a slightly deeper treatment of the Principled shader and exactly what it can, can't, and should and shouldn't replace in a material-building workflow would be great.
It would be cool to see the weapon from the weapon modeling course be rigged and animated in a course.
Not a whole course but may be live stream video about how instructors at cgcookie organize their project files/folders, textures, models, hdri, references, project naming conventions, structure for animation movies etc..
I am still new here so guide me to place if it is already discussed.
My folder structures