CORE | Fundamentals of Digital Sculpting in Blender

Instructor:
Kent Trammell

Learn to Sculpt with Blender

You may be familiar with Mesh Modeling as the primary method of forming 3D shapes with Blender. But did you know Blender also offers 3D sculpting?

Where mesh modeling can be a bit more like carpentry, sculpting offers a more artistically intuitive shape-forming approach - like being a kid again, building with digital clay!

Tried and True Curriculum

We designed this course for beginner sculptors. If you've never picked up a digital sculpting brush, you're in the right place!

As the 3rd iteration of this course, the curriculum benefits from a decade of student results, feedback and suggestions. Beginners can trust this curriculum to guide them towards an intermediate level of understanding and beyond.

Chapter 1

Sculpt Mode Overview

All of Blender's sculpting functionality lives in Sculpt Mode. From brushes to features to tools, this is where you'll find everything you need to sculpt amazing things with digital clay!

Chapter 1 (cont.)

Brushes & Features

Brushes are your primary tool when sculpting and Blender offers a long list! Additionally there are a plethora of features, menus, and parameters to customize your sculpting workflow.

Chapter 1 (cont.)

Sculpt Mode Tools

Beyond forming digital clay, there are tools for posing your sculptures as well adding color through painting.

Chapter 2

Sculpting Formats

Blender offers 3 sculpting 'formats' to accommodate various situations: Multires, Voxel Remesh, and Dynamic Topology. Each has powerful benefits as well as limitations to inform our workflow.

Chapter 3

Sculpting a Shark

Finally we'll apply the tools toward the reason they exist in the first place: Sculpting cool things! In chapter 3 we'll sculpt a stylized shark character from concept art, start to finish.

Get Caught Up

Are you brand new to Blender?

These courses should help you get up to speed in no time.

Get this course and 264 others by joining CG Cookie

Awarded upon completion:
100xp +
Course Curriculum
8 Reviews
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    Martin Aversa(cgtin) ·

    You can really tell how Kent keeps growing as a teacher. The pacing for the course, the time you take explaining every tool and the reasoning behind why you make certain choices, the tips and tricks, it is all very enlightening. Thanks for keeping the bar so high up!

    This is a great course for beginners, but also for people that already might know some sculpting, it is good to get here to remember some stuff you might forget or not apply so often :)

    10/10

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    Paul (Drennyn) ·

    If you're like me, you've prolly skipped past that Sculpting workspace tab 1000s of times. Β Well no longer! Β Kent will show you everything you need to know to get started and no longer be afraid of it. Β There's a lot covered here from tools, tool options and techniques plus workflow guidance on how to approach various tasks. Β You'll start from a ball of virtual clay and end up creating a model based on an existing illustration.

    You will have fun. Β You will work past any frustration. Β Kent provides all the techniques you need to completely surprise yourself when you see what you're capable of.

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    Arnulfo Torres(arnietorvall) ·

    I have always liked Kent's method of teaching. He is very thorough, but everything he explains is very clear and it just makes sense. You can tell he has a passion for art and for teaching. It is rare to see people who are truly gifted in what they do, as well as teaching it to others. Kent is just that guy. He voice is also very easy to listen to and throws in the occasional joke here in there making it easier to follow along.Β 

    I liked that every tool was explained in detail, and everything came together during the final project. Definitely recommend starting with this course if you have never sculpted in Blender before.Β 

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    MichaelJoseph ·

    Kent's method of teaching this course aimed at beginners is perfect. You learn the tools, usage, and interface, as well as plenty of hands-on experience, but without being overwhelmed. It truly embodies the "cookie" part of CG Cookie. You're given the small bites that take you very far.

    You learn everything and more that will allow you to start sculpting your own creations with confidence.

    I can't begin to express how great this course is and how much more comfortable you will feel in your own Blender 3D Sculpting journey. Thanks, Kent!

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    Lewis Thorpe(DripInspector) ·

    A great jumpstart on sculpting in blender, this course will give you all the knowledge and skills to spark the passion of sculpting.

    Kent delivers this course in a very detail oriented manner but in a way that is easy to understand. As someone that has tried sculpting before with little success, this course has started back up my passion for sculpting :)

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    Ian Gamble(technicolorwildlife) ·

    For years I've seen professional sculpts and never even considered trying my hand at it because of how complex the sculpting interface looks. Kent does an excellent job of clearly explaining all the various tools, their settings, and use cases.Β 

    The first time I had ever sculpted in blender was the OG fundamentals of sculpting, and so I came back to this one as a refresher, but picked up a lot of new technical information as well as developed my confidence to push myself beyond the shark assignment.

    10/10 would recommend to a friend.

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    T4ku3n ·

    Never took time to fully complete a course for so many years.
    Good to be back with an updated course and blender 4.2
    Always easy to follow unlike Sketchfab (ending up with an Epic game account and still error 13 with a blend file)
    I hope Kent will also update his Human realistic portrait course.

    Great job, keep it up.

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    Nathi Tappan(nathitappan) ·

    I have taken the original Fundamentals of Sculpting course and it was an amazing experience. I wanted to take this version too just to see how the tools have evolved/changed and if Kent would approach the sculpt any differently. It was yet another amazing experience!

    His approach to teaching is very easy to follow along, while still being super thorough and leaving no details behind.

    Sure, it will take practice as with anything, but this course truly gives you all the fundamental knowledge to tackle any sculpt you can imagine! 10/10 recommend.