Announcement #5: This class has officially come to a close. Please check out the closing post and thank you for joining!
Announcement #4: Week 2 is officially complete! Thank you for submitting your homework on time. Let the grading commence.
Announcement #3: Week 1 is officially complete! I'll be grading 55 homework submissions by my count. Thank you for submitting on time. I'll be busy today :)
Announcement #2: First week's live stream recording is available and I've started filling out the homework roster. Feel free to keep an eye on the Report Card throughout the month if you'd like.
Announcement #1: Class is in session! We're all going to learn a lot and have fun the next 3 weeks. I wrote a kickoff post on page 3. See you tomorrow for the first stream!
Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Get Started Building Stuff with Blender 2.8! If you're interested in computer graphics, 3D modeling, and you're new to Blender or just new to 2.8, this class is where you need to be. Ushering in the modern era of Blender, we will familiarize ourselves with what's new as well as get up to speed with how to build STUFF in 3D.
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 JULY 29th - AUGUST 20th.
This time the class curriculum is project-based. You will have the opportunity to choose between 3 assets to create throughout the month: A wooden sign, a barrel, a sword or a treasure chest. I chose these assets because they're fun to create but also conducive for teaching fundamental skills.
The goal week 1 is to get familiar with Blender 2.8 and model your chosen asset. If you're brand new to Blender it's very important that you spend time each day of this week getting comfortable with Blender's interface. Once you're comfortable, you will have a more enjoyable experience learning and practicing modeling.
Courses to watch:
Homework:
Plain gray models can be boring. So we paint them with colors! This is where "textures" work their magic. But before we can paint on our 3D models, we have to layout UVs. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry. After you watch the texturing course and the live event for this week, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
Course to watch: Treasure Chest Course (Chapter 2)
Homework: Layout UVs and paint textures for your sign, barrel, sword, or treasure chest.
Texturing introduces color to your models but materials make your model appear to be plastic, or wood, or metal, etc. If you're asking yourself "What's the difference", fear not! I will make sure you know the difference by the end of this week.
We will also be exploring the Eevee engine and how it works together with texturing and shading for a realtime workflow.
Pre-recorded courses to watch: Treasure Chest Course (Chapter 3)
Homework: Create materials and establish appealing lighting for your sign, barrel, sword, or treasure chest.
This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Get Started Building Stuff with Blender 2.8" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask me and fellow participants questions pertaining to the class. As the instructor of the class, I will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of August.
Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication and participation is reserved for Citizens.
Am I allowed to make a minor edit to my model in the texturing stage? 
silentheart00 gave me some feedback and I want to know if it's too late to implement it.
williamatics Of course you can make changes during texturing (of any time after grading). I usually leave critiques with the grade so ideally those will be acted upon anyway :)
I pressed onward to learn a little more about UV unwrapping tips and tricks and I found a workflow that I thought was quite helpful from this guy regarding the smart UV unwrap. Somehow this way of doing things clicked for me because I absolutely am having a hard time marking seams. Perhaps it is cheating but maybe someone could watch it and comment on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJH7_-dNtZg the guy has an accent but once I got past that I learned a lot of the power of the smart unwrap and how to use it to suit your model.
Also on this youtube video there is an explanation why there are two different live UV unwraps. One in the UV image editor and One in the 3D view. Around timestamp 17:00 he explains there differences and the cool utilization of live unwrap and pinning combo in the UV image editor only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWPD2aEd8tY
@theluthier Oh my goodness, there are so many! That's really awesome to see! Onward!
Could you please someone advise is there maybe some visualization option in Blender 2.8 version to distinguish Triangles, Quads and Ngons on a certain mesh? Maybe with different colors?
Not sure how technically that is difficult, but such tool could help in analyzing topology issues
csehz I am new and don't know of a button per-say but if you use the edge cut feature (Ctrl + r) it will not try to cut along anything that isn't a quad. You can also go into edge or face select mode and select loops using (Alt + Mouse Select Click) and the loops will either stop or veer away from non quads on.
I know this is kind of a tangent but there is a great learning flow on topology in the mesh modeling bootcamp tutorials. My skills are taking a small boost while going through that.
csehz At 3:30 minutes in this video Jonathan Lampel demonstrates a selecting technique to select n-gons. The settings can be adjusted to selecting quads and tris.
ssmurfmier1985 , spikeyxxx that is great to know, thank you very much.
You answered so fast with pointing to the same solution.
blanchsb Yes that is also a logical and good idea for fast area test on a mesh whether a loop stops
Hey everyone im new just signed up today. Am I too late for the homework submission? Im a bit of a beginner at blender.
so excieted to get started and seeing everyones work.
love the livestreams your doing an awesome job Kent.
ccero100 Hi Stephen - It's not too late to join the class. You can still participate by submitting week 1 and week 2 homework together by midnight sunday, August 11th (your time). A few other people are were asking the same thing, so you're not alone :)
love the livestreams your doing an awesome job Kent.
Thanks a lot! I appreciate that 🙇♂️
@theluthier Hi Kent, was going to to ask this on the livestream yday but had to leave early and never gotten to it. i know this is blender specific course, however do you mind for texturing if substance painter is used?
Hi All,
I decided to redo my half finished model of the treasure chest, but unfortunately I am stuck at the sharing object data.
Last week it worked perfectly for me but this time around I seem to do something wrong but I cant figure out what it is?
louhikarme Sure you can use substance painter if you'd like. So long as it's a legit copy (pirating not welcome despite what the treasure chest theme might suggest) ;P
You're on your own there though. I have zero substance experience.
justjenn ... I think it's repositioning every single object in your selection to the exact location of the last selected object. So, they're just stacked on top of each other.
spikeyxxx oops I thought I did that already, but apperently I didnt and it fixed the problem XD
I feel stupid that it was something so simple hahah
Thanks Spikey!
