I'm excited to join the CGCookie community to push myself further into the realm of 3D! My progress may not come from a 100% beginner level, but having something to keep track of where I'm going seems extremely helpful. I've completed a few tutorials on YouTube provided by Blender Guru and Grant Abbit and decided to come to CG Cookie for more focused learning. I'm definitely serious about honing 3D skills for various applications, namely VFX and video work. If I could get some 3D models into games one day, that'd be pretty fun too!
For this log, I'm going to keep track of anything I've created by means of CGCookie.
I'm starting the Fundamentals of Modeling course and I've completed the exercise in primitive modeling. My example here:
I based the pen off of one of my stylus-pens as seen here:
Thanks again! I've been running a few simple exercises to continue using the tablet. It's definitely an inspiring way to work!
I've been a sponge with all this 3D learning. I ran through the Shaders course by @jlampel and it's a lot to take in. I'm very happy with everything I learned, as it's making a lot of the workflow feel far more tangible and opens more possibilities. I think I've learned that shading might be my favorite process (you get to make things pretty!)
I also rendered the scene with no sunlight. I wanted to see how the lamp and emission textures would feel.
This looks so good! I love that you tried two different lighting setups. Excellent work antonioc ! I'll leave more feedback on the submission itself.
@theluthier I can't help myself, hahaha! It's all so intriguing. Gonna keep on movin' 🚌
@jlampel Thank you! I really wanted to see the emissions and lamp in action, and i've got a few project ideas to take emissions further. Looking forward to your feedback!
Played around with the Generative Modeling techniques. What a great way to interpret how the modifier stack works! It reminds me a lot of how I create various procedural effects in After Effects. Felt right at home with this one.
I finally completed the Fundamentals of Sculpting course! I''ll be completely honest here, this was the most frustrating 3D modeling experience for me so far. Working in a free-flow manner was an experience entirely new to me, as I've been primarily a digital artist all my life using a mouse and keyboard. I learned how to use my Tablet quite efficiently throughout this process!
My biggest struggle was dealing with my mistakes more than actually modeling the Shark. Odd lumps or artifacts would occur that were fairly difficult to diagnose as a beginner. It's also tough to know which tool to use and when during these troubleshooting moments. I'm sure i'll get a better grasp over many sculptures, and I'm still excited to learn more! Thanks @theluthier for the fantastic tutorial, I never would have attempted sculpting if it wasn't for your well constructed guidance.
Here's the result!
Here's the SketchFab: https://skfb.ly/6VABZ
For a beginner sculpt that is looking quite nice antonioc I would give 1 criticism to the lower fin having a very sharp transition off from the body. Almost looks like a piece of clay separately attached with glue. Smoothing that out just a smidge would probably help a little. Other than that it looks great!
blanchsb That's a good point. It should look a touch more sunken maybe? Was trying to make sure the hard line was shown well enough. Thanks for the comment!joshcanfield Oh my goodness, you're right! I did the Gills in a pass before, but Blender crashed on me. Thanks for noticing that, haha!
Had enough time to update the model with Gills, a much needed feature. I'll play around with the fins if I can get time. Thanks again you two!
I'm so glad you took the plunge antonioc ! Very impressive for a first-time sculptor. Much respect to you for trying (and persevering) through something you're not familiar with ✊
I remember the frustration of my sculpts never being perfect; fighting bumps and dents the whole time. As a perfectionist this is quite hard for me (and most digital modelers I'd say). Thankfully sculpts can be made perfect with retopology. Take that as something to look forward to in your journey :)
@theluthier Being a perfectionist definitely added to the frustrations, but in the end it was still a very fun process. I couldn't pull myself away, haha! An example of artifacting that I couldn't figure out is on the lips where there are tiny cracks. Inflate / smoothing wasn't the solution, nor was subdivide collapse vs. subdivide edges modes.
I've been very interested in retopology and how that works and definitely look forward to learning it.
Do you have any recommendations on further practice with sculpting and what to look for?
Grant Abbit has some great sculpting lessons for beginners. He's got a bunch of sculpting youtube videos.
There are plenty of sculpting resources here on the cookie too. But Grant has some Blender 2.83+ recent ones that will make use of the newer tools.
blanchsb I remember trying some tutorials from Grant before moving into CG Cookie, I'll have to look into his new stuff. Thanks for the recommend! CG Cookie has been instrumental in getting me on my feet incredibly fast with Blender, so i'm sure those tutorials will be good for brushing up.
antonioc Shawn is right that most of our sculpting + retopo content on CGC was recorded with pre-2.8 versions of Blender. However now that you've completed the 2.8 fundamentals of sculpting course the hope is that you can apply the concepts of older courses with 2.8. This is possible since 3D workflows and concepts evolve much slower than Blender updates.
We've got tons of sculpting + retopo courses. Here's a list to get you started browsing:
If you find it too difficult to apply older course concepts with current Blender then I second Shawn's suggesting about Grant Abbit on YT! Also don't hesitate to ask questions here on the relevant videos.
@theluthier Thanks for the excellent answer, Kent! My worry was that the 3D workflow would be different in older courses, but hearing what you've said is reassuring to give older content a try. I'm definitely comfortable with the 2.8 interface now and seem to be able to find where things are between differing versions, so if the workflow is the same, I'll give these a go!
Ya'll are the best. Pushing onwards!