Whether you want to animate characters, create game assets, or work in less conventional fields such as medical or architecture, the right Blender course can set you up for success.
Our goal at CG Cookie is to provide a range of courses with your future career goals in mind. Our courses are produced and presented by instructors who have a range of professional 3d experience. We have a wide range of topics to choose from, whether you want to become an expert modeller, sculptor, animator or illustrator, our library of over 200 courses will surely cater to your interest.
🤨 The question is, what would we recommend for the path you're on?
Why Choosing the Right Blender Course Matters
You may have heard that Blender isn't an "industry standard" or that it is the software of hobbyists, but you don't need to attend one of the annual BCON events to see that Blender is being used in TV, film, architecture, and more.
Can you build a career using Blender? Here's our very own Jason van Gumster on that topic:
Specialization is common - perhaps you would like to Model, or animate? Perhaps you're interested in producing simulations for scientific research? Or maybe you're interested in creating concepts?
It's a fair assumption that even if you've had years of experience using other software for any of these tasks, you're going to need a primer on Blender, and figure out how you can transpose those skills.
Our Blender Basics course is a free, easy-to-follow overview, and it is not just for beginners!
Blender Learning Paths by Career Goal
Want to Become a 3D Animator? (Film, TV, Games, Advertising)
Animators create movement for characters, creatures, and objects. The skills can vary and are not limited to just working with armature rigs or simulations. An intimate knowledge of animation curves, keyframes, and rigging help immensely, as understanding what goes on under the hood allows you to troubleshoot and tweak subtle moments in your animations to lift your game.
Movies like Next Gen and Flow were created largely using Blender, and games like Untitled Goose Game used Blender for key areas of rigging and animating.
The principles of animation are universal and software agnostic. There are some amazing resources to help you understand what these are, such as The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams.
We have an extensive library of content that leans heavily on these principles - but in a Blender environment - so you will learn the specific tools, terminology and get familiar with Blender simultaneously.
Key areas of technical learning include:
- Keyframe animation
- F-Curve manipulation
- Hierarchies and rigging
Along with these technical skills, you will also have to master:
- Character Acting
- Timing
- The physics of form and shape (sometimes known as squash-and-stretch)
Our instructor Wayne Dixon is an expert in presenting these concepts in clear and fun ways. Peruse reviews on his courses and you'll soon see how students quickly become Wayne fans.
Top CG Cookie Courses for Animators:
As mentioned above, Wayne conducts some exceptional courses to help you level up those animation skills. Here's just a small selection:
Want to create assets for Games? (Game Dev, VR, Assets)
Game asset creation is a fantastic avenue for work. Whether a game is programmed in a game engine, is procedurally generated, or (as we'll likely encounter in years to come) AI is involved, assets still need to be crafted and supplied in correct file formats.
Modelling, in general, can encompass a range of methods, from simple box modelling to sculpting. Sculpting requires the further step of retopologizing so that you can reduce the poly count of the asset - remember, a game is going to spawn A LOT of instances, and the smaller you can make your asset file, the better the game will run.
A good Blender tutorial that will give you a solid understanding of modeling is Press Start by Jonathan Lampel:
Having a good understanding of topology and UV mapping is vital for game design, and luckily we have some fantastic courses to help you understand these areas.
Take a look at Ewa Wierbik-Ziąbka's Blender Texture tutorial:
Games differ from film and TV in that optimization is key. If you want to see how you can put it all together,
You can't go past Relic by Chunck Trafagander:
3. Industries you might not have considered Blender to be useful in... but they are!
Architectural Visualization, various medical fields and outdoor entertainment may not seem like industries that will make you think "Blender" but there have been some amazing presentations and talks at recent Blender Conferences that have showcased just how Blender has been used here!
1. Architectural Visualization
Promoting future developments, houses, and producing virtual walk-throughs are all tasks in which Blender can be extremely useful!
While Blender is not a program with a specific use like CAD, it will work with real-world units, take information from specific cameras, and produce realistic lighting and camera effects to match references.
While not specifically for architectural visualization, a number of our courses demonstrate techniques that you can absolutely apply. Below is a pretty old one, but new ones are in the oven for this year!
Automotive
There are areas in the automotive industry that reach beyond the designing of cars.
Onboard infotainment and promotional material require accurate modelling and rendering of technology, and various studios have used Blender to accomplish tasks in these areas.
Medical
Medical visualization involves several skills which include knowledge of anatomy, but also how to take data sets and represent them for practical uses.
Creating 3D models relies less on artistic interpretation, knowledge of good topology, or the ability to recall how biological assets move and interact, and more on taking existing data to create simulations and visuals to help students and medical practitioners better understand procedures and concepts.
The range of skills needed can be as varied as the areas where medical visualization is used. For example, the skills to provide assets for VR training will be different from those where you're simply presenting research data, or producing educational videos or images.
Entertainment:
This may sound like working in film or games, but Entertainment can include creating eye-catching promotions, outdoor spectacles, and more.
Check out our DeNoise interview with Studio Khimaira, Wolverine VFX, and Hello There Animation to hear how they used Blender to wrangle millions of assets and produce various promotional material for blockbuster movies.
Listen to podcast - DeNoise Podcast - September 7 2024
Or what about controlling thousands of drones? Yup. Someone's used Blender for that, too!More and more, the lines between the virtual and real worlds are being crossed. Software like Blender has also been used to assist with commands for robotics!
Conclusion: Your Blender Career Starts Here
As you can see, while Blender is an ideal tool to learn if you want to work in film and games, there are so many other industries where Blender knowledge is useful.
Thanks to a worldwide community that includes people who have thought outside the box and asked the question "Could Blender help me achieve the task at hand?" More viable avenues for employment have opened up.
But it all starts with learning the software. If you've never opened Blender before, or need to reskill, or just have an interest in dabbling to enhance your own workflow, we are here to help!
From Blender Basics to our CORE fundamentals and even something as sophisticated as HUMAN, we have a range of courses that will help you learn Blender quickly, but more importantly, understand the software in ways that will allow you to apply what you have learned to a range of pursuits.
- Paul Caggegi
Happy Blending!
