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.
@theluthier I have a question. What is my proccess if I want to put textures on multiresolution sculpt? Do I need to bake normal maps, or it's okay to unwrap a, for example, 10kk quads multires mesh? What is the best approach?
I believe that when you unwrap a multires sculpt, your UV map comes from the base/simplest level, no matter how many times you've subdivided it for sculpting. I could be wrong - but it appears to be the case when I look at for example the UV map of the multires pancake from the pancake hobo course.
I don't think you really need to bake a normal map unless you plan to export the model to a game engine for example.
jakeblended oh yeah, forgot to mention if I should apply multires before hitting unwrap. Yeah, if I unwrap unapplied multires, UV comes from basic mesh. And I should apply it anyway if I want to put it into Substance Painter.
@theluthier Hi Kent, I think you couldn't find the nature course yesterday because you've accidentally overwritten the course pictures with pictures from new events you recently added.. 😅
Happened with the 'game character modeling' and 'creating plants' course..
ssmurfmier1985 What in the world....what a strange bug 🤔 I'll report this to our dev. Thanks for figuring this out, Miranda!
@theluthier Aaaand I forgot add-ons are disabled in 2.8. I'd love to extract from a mask right now.
Though I didn't follow along the class the whole month (though I wish I had), I just want to give two pieces of advice for those who are new to working in 3D modeling.
First, don't be afraid of a "big, complex" scene. Because when you get down to it, all a big complex scene is is a bunch of little projects all pulled together into one "big" one. The highly detailed architectural visualization piece is really nothing more than taking a bunch of individual models.. a room, a chair, a sculpture, etc.... and putting them together into a scene. Whatever big project you undertake, just take it one piece at a time.
Second, avoid my biggest mistake for much of my 3D modeling "career" -- especially the first half of it. Don't wait 3-4 months between projects. Pick something new to work on, and go for it. There's nothing like daily effort to boost not only your skills but also your confidence in using those skills. And if you take a long time frequently between projects, you might find you're having to "relearn" some of the things on each project as you try to remember how you did something months ago instead of having to remember something you learned just last week.
I've seen a lot of great stuff out of this class and look forward to seeing what you all have to share in the future!
gradyp thanks for the tips. i surely will use these tips. i still am slow but i am sure i gonna become faster if i keep this up. and like you said each time a small project will give you the big project you wanted to archieve. my eevee for example is for a big project. that is why i choose her . and she was harder then i tought.
A reel update: I just sent the final version to Kent. But I know that some of you are still working on their submissions. If you can upload them tomorrow at least an hour before the stream, I'll do my best to create an updated version. After all, the idea behind the reel is to show everyone's hard work. If you managed to get this far, it would be a shame not to show it. :-)
After posting the Week 4 final homework, it is the first day since around 1,5 month, when did not do anything in Blender. Strange feeling a little bit, a kind of emptiness.
Anyway only today managed to watch the recorded version of the live last stream, @theluthier Kent you have some amazing skills to sketchup so fast with Clay Strips brush.
Also there was an interesting question at 1:03 about the goals with Blender, whether being determined to be a professional, so just thought on this empty day would summarize the results of that :D (if someone added a some kind of middle answer but mentioned 1, then it was counted as 1, also added a 2 from my side as I am learning Blender from love)
Urrrgh, the collision body falls into infinity in 2.8. Trying to simulate the lower portion of the dress and it's not going well lol. Might have to jump back to 2.7.
shiennar Hi Kate, just letting you know for the reel, I've just uploaded my final homework submission 😊
csehz Awesome Zsolt! I like your little stats updates 😁 that's a lot of one's!
hello @theluthier
again with work i wont be able to follow full class today(still gonna try to sneak out for 5 or 10 minutes to take a fast look at the class live stream). trough i looked forward to watch it today.
i hope i can ask the questions i have here . Or maybe you can think of it like i been asking it during class and answer them there xD.
1)for blender 2.8 is there a way in sculpting to assign a key ? like for inflate its i etc that you choose the keys themself ?
if so how do you do that ?
2)what video's are best to watch for retopology my eevee ? i watched the course already of the robo orb but i wonder if there are other courses that are important to watch before i do retopology on the eevee.
3)the eevee model would it be good enough to use this and retopo bone it etc to animate or should i resculpt certain area's ?
4)i know this might be beyond this course but take eevee's fur. when i retopo them should i divide the fur is certain parts or make it one whole fur object ? later for animation i am not sure what choice would be best.
5)with gesture sculpting you first have the blockout then add some more shape and then refine details.
i wonder what is a maximum time limit you should set for youreself ? and how far should we go with refine the details ?
i tryed a mewtho but wonder if i should added more details or did perhaps too much for gesture sculpting (like the second time i needed 35minutes for further details on the hand and refining the body shape etc
i think these are the questions i have so far
csehz Thanks for graph-ifying that question from the stream! It confirms that members taking our classes are more professionally-minded about their Blender / 3D education than the average member. Which makes sense I suppose, after all the format is designed to be a more serious 4-week learning period..though I am a little surprised it was 80%. I thought for sure it'd be more 60/40 or 50/50 with more people doing it like you, purely out of enjoyment/love.
yyukinoh1989 We'll miss you in the stream! But no worries, I'm happy to answer your questions the best I can.
1. I just tested and while there is the option to add a key (right click on the brush and choose Assign Shortcut) it doesn't seem reliable. I added "I" to the Inflate brush (which is grouped with the Blob brush) and it didn't switch from Blob to Inflate as expected.
2. After the orb retopo video, I'd say the retopo section of the Piero course is appropriate and/or Jonathan Williamson's pilot character retopo.
3. From what I can tell, your Eevee sculpt will work great as a rigged, animatable character once you retopologize.
4. I'd probably retopo the fur as one solid object based on the sculpture I'm seeing. Alternatively you could make the fur actual particle hair (like real hair) but that's a pretty complex option. I've always received questions about doing an animal fur/hair course...maybe I should sooner rather than later.
5. Details are not important at all with gestural sculpting. I'd say 25-40% of a sculpture is my limit. And the time depends on your relative speed. Maybe start with 30 minutes for your first gestural sculpt, 25 minutes for your second, 20 min for your third, 10 min for your fourth. The whole idea is to learn to sculpt faster and more sketch-like, resulting in a better understanding of general form.ssmurfmier1985 I'm so happy that you've managed to finish him. :-) I'm rendering the updated version now (there were couple more adjustments I squeezed in). And there might even be an easter egg...