Announcement #5 (9/4/18): This class if officially over. See page 26 for the closing post and don't forget to fill out the questionnaire!
Announcement #4 (8/27/18): REMINDER that this week's stream is on Wednesday, NOT Tuesday. I'm out of the office Monday (8/27) and Tuesday (8/28) but will be back in full grading force on Wednesday.
Announcement #3 (8/6/18): New way to Submit Homework. Please create a unique forum thread to contain all your homework submissions for the month, rather than everyone submitting in this main thread. More info on page 12.
Announcement #2 (8/7/18): Zsolt has done it again. He's prepared the report card document for this month. Feel free to monitor your grades there throughout the next 4-5 weeks.
Announcement #1 (8/6/18): Class is officially in session!
**Experienced Blender users are Welcome! Clarification about involvement on page 2 of this thread.
Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8! If you're interested in computer graphics, 3D modeling, and you're new to Blender / new to Blender 2.8, this class is where you need to be.
This "Class" format invites all Citizen members to focus together on a particular topic/skill for a month. Participation looks like this:
WHEN? The class will take place from August 6th - September 4th.
Abstract: The goal this week is to simply get familiar with the application. We’ve all been there: Opening Blender (or any 3D package), gazing at all the crazy UI, trying to orbit in the viewport, crying...Ok, maybe you were stronger than me and didn’t cry. But the reality is 3D software is daunting. There’s SO MUCH to digest especially when you’re a beginner.
This first week we’re going to overview Blender 2.8 and 3D from an absolutely beginner perspective. What is Blender for? What can it do? Wait, this isn’t a juicing seminar?
Goal of the Week: Get comfortable with Blender 2.8's UI, viewport navigation, creation and position objects.
Pre-recorded course to watch:
Week 1 Live Event (Remember to RSVP!)
Homework:
Abstract: Enter the world of mesh modeling: The oldest form of building 3D objects with your computer. We’ll discuss the technical art of “pushing and pulling verts” as modelers often call it. Welcome to this wild, geometric world!
Goal of the Week: Practicing editing a polygonal mesh's components to create a custom 3D model.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Week 2 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: Digital sculpting is the more artistically intuitive method of 3D modeling. If pushing and pulling verts felt like the hard way of doing things, sculpting will be a welcomed alternative!
Goal of the Week: Practice digital sculpting.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Article to Read: Big Idea: Digital Tablets
Week 3 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: At this point, you've been introduced to the key 3D modeling methods. Meaning that you have the tools you need to MODEL STUFF! This is where practice will make perfect. This is where you build stuff.
Goal of the Week: Be inspired to continue modeling and spend the week modeling or sculpting a challenging object.
Pre-recorded courses to watch: Modeling in Blender Learning Flow
Week 4 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask Kent and fellow participants questions and to post homework. As the instructor of the class, Kent will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of Auguest to review homework and answer questions.
Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication and participation is reserved for Citizens.
Looking through the homework submissions, I'm seeing a lot of great work! Keep it up!
For those who are tackling the "extra credit" head for a first time (ie you've never done one before) don't be discouraged if you struggle getting it to look right. I find I struggle getting them to look right initially. One of my first "successful" sculpts that I did, I think I spent 30-40 hours on it before I actually got it starting to look correct. But once I got there, it was immediately recognizable. You never know what you're going to do that will make it click (in at least your mind, if not others).
The biggest thing that will help is working on the larger forms, general proportions, and such, refining and iterating as you go. Keep at it. Sometimes, a small change will make a huge difference and suddenly, the likeness you weren't seeing magically appears.
Hi I am been sick so I was not able to start the "BC1-1808 - August 2018 Class Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8
"
better late then never
my question is since I donot have a num pad on my mac keyboard how do I in 2.8 Alpha and Alpha 2 do I use focus on a selected object? if I had a num pad normally you would just use the period
gradyp i am glad to read this. i was like how many hours can just eyes and refininga nose take . and then overal the full head. still not completed but i guess its normal then to take this long.
Wanted to give you a little reminder, in case you missed it:
This weeks stream is on Wednesday, instead of the usual Tuesday.
Hope to see you all there 😊
yyukinoh1989 Not all of my sculpts take so long to reach recognition... a more recent one I blocked in and spent about 2 or 3 hours on, but people recognized it (even in the rough form). But I wanted to encourage people that especially on that first one, it can take a while as you get used to getting the forms right. It definitely helps to work on the larger forms first and then work smaller and smaller details.
Even now after I've gotten a little better at getting it to look right faster, I'll often go back and forth on whether it looks right for some time before it feels right. And sometimes, I'll get it to look right from one angle only to have it look terrible in another, which is a part of the reason for this back and forth. That's why it's useful to have references not just for front and side but also a "3/4" angle (ie at an angle between front ahead and off to the side).
I've even had a couple that almost looked right, but seemed off just slightly.. that once I started adding in hair (at least blocked in), it immediately started to feel recognizable to me.
I see in homework for week 3 it says we have to submit the exercise and link it in the thread. Early in this class we were allowed to only post an image due to some problems with 2.8 and sketchfab. Is that changed or does it stil apply, do i have to submit my Melvin exercise now?
aarev There is a way to get 2.8 files it into Sketchfab, but it's a workaround and I found that it doesn't always work well.
I think the better and easiest way would be to select your object and copy it with Ctrl+C, then paste it in a new file in 2.79 with Ctrl+V, and then save it. Then you can upload the 2.79 file with ease. Make sure all modifiers are applied (if you have any), because they won't transfer (well).
If it doesn't work for you I wouldn't worry too much, @theluthier did change it to just pictures for a reason 😊
ssmurfmier1985 I know he changed it to pictures, but it doesnt say that iof you look at week 3 homework section. Thats why i was wondering if it had been changed....
aarev I can't say it with 100% certainty, and @theluthier is out of the office today+tommorow so I don't think he'll be checking here until Wednesday...
Maybe wait and see what he says when he's back? You can always upload it later after his answer, I'm sure he's okay with that!
ssmurfmier1985 Even though he's out of the office, he's watching. All hail Big Kent.
Even though he's out of the office, he's watching.
You know I can't avoid peeking in on you all 👀
Thank you ssmurfmier1985 for reminding everyone about the unconventional Wednesday stream this week. I logged on primarily to do that but you have me covered 🙇🏻
Indeed I'm out of the office today and tomorrow but have a little bit of internet access where I'm at. That's to say I may be out of touch more than I'd like for a class but I'll be stomping into the office hard on Wednesday morning - Ready to grade homework and stream with all my heart.
This is the last week of BC1-1808. Let's make it COOOUNNNNT!!!
@theluthier YEAHHH!! let's do this guys! and girls! 😉 Let's finish strong, give it our best shot and and make some beautiful great badass cool final project all! Can't wait to see what everyone will make 😄 Good luck to all in your endeavors 👊🏻
In regards to the sculpting brush changing on 2.8.. the build I downloaded from yesterday is still doing it somewhat, but not as frequently as it was before. One thing I've noticed is each group has a "hotkey" and it's more likely to cycle through the options when you repeat the group key. So the Grab, for instance, is G and if you were to double tap G with it set to smooth, it would cycle to thumb. Every so often, in the brief playing around I just did, I would be on another tool (like snake hook or inflate) and press G. Most of the time, it was switching to grab but occasionally would switch to Thumb, but not nearly as frequently as the version I downloaded late last week.
One other quirk I noted, more on the shading side, was that it wasn't letting me use the full HSV values. It would still keep it close, but wouldn't let me use the "precise" values, either from slider or typing in the numeric values. Not quite as much of a deal breaker as the other annoyance, because it still kept the values close enough to work, just not what I'm used to expecting. (And I tested multiple color inputs, and every one has this, so it's in the color selection itself... but figure that they're working on things that crash right now so not too worried about it in grand scheme of things.)
Anyway, just thought I'd mention that since it was an issue last week with the sculpting.
@theluthier I found some very strange issue with JavaScript on event page. If I open past stream page on desktop, block, that contain video starting to get small. I fear that this can happen with the upcoming stream page when it's starts.
Using Chrome at Windows 10. Firefox doesn't have this issue.
UPD: seems to work fine during stream, but past event still has this bug
yyukinoh1989 Launch 2.8, then go to File->Open, and you should be able to load a 2.7x file into 2.8.