6 Mistakes I'd Avoid (if i were to learn blender all over again)!

so I've been part of this blender world for around seven to eight years at this point and for the first six years or so of that Journey trust me when I say this the rent as I was making were always below par always lacking in some aspect to the other you take one look at them and say this could not be made by someone with six years of experience and I would agree with you but for the last two years I feel like something has changed something that has caused a clear jump in the quality of work that I'm producing I mean it's still not world class it's still not top one percent or whatever by any means but it's definitely better than the level I was stuck on for six years changes that have led to the making of my first ever short animated film and several other short animated projects as well in just a matter of months so what changed you might ask what caused this spike in quality all of a sudden what that's what this video is all about it's about these six things that I changed in my workflow six things that I would do differently if I were to learn blender all over again so yeah let's begin by the way this video is sponsored by Squarespace but we'll talk more about them later in the video for now let's cover the first mistake I made as a beginner the mistake that got me stuck at that same beginner slash intermediate level for almost 6 odd years the mistake being spending eighty percent of my time watching blender tutorials and only 20 of my time actually making something in blender it's a weird thing our minds do we think if we just watch Andrew price making a cabin in the woods or just watch ducky making Sleek looking Motion Graphics or watch Paul if you're making awesome mechanical creatures we somehow assume that we can make them do now we have absorbed all the necessary information from that video and are just ready to make anything along those lines but then you get to blender and you start the whole project and you very soon realize you have collected absolutely zero skills from the video alone because you never really did anything you never really opened up blender it's like you're watching a friend finish Island Rings or something and all you did was just sit by him and do nothing but claim that you you've played the game from start to land that obviously does not sit right and guess what this was my biggest mistake as a beginner and even as an intermediate artist later on I don't know how I didn't grasp this idea of putting pen to paper at some point for such a long time and to do it consistently day after day to see any kind of progress at all in these early stages so if you're also stuck on a tutorial Loop like I was for several years all you got to do is flip those numbers up a little bit spend at least 60 to 70 percent of your time actually making something in blender rather than just watching tutorials after tutorials no matter how bad it looks no matter if you are just copying a tutorial step by step you just do it within blender rather than just watching the video and do it consistently for maybe six months or so at a stretch and tell me if you don't see some crazy Improvement in your 3D skills tutorials are great and an integral part in every beginner's Journey but we have to make sure that we don't get into the habit of just watching them stagnantly and not really make anything within blender but this was just the beginning because if you get on this part of actually starting to make some scenes within blender you're soon bound to hit that second biggest problem most 3D artists face at this level which is impatience impatience to get to the highest level in blender in as short of a timeline as possible impatience to make tons and tons of money with blender with merely weeks of effort put into the software and the skill set I'm gonna let you know right away blender isn't one of those instant gratification kind of skills like some of these new AI tools are this journey with blender is going to be extremely long and excruciatingly slow with usually extraordinarily little gratification along the way so if you are here and you are here to learn this tool to the best of its abilities you should be here for the long run that bridge between what you imagine your render will beat what it actually ends up being will only be reduced with effort and experience and nothing else so getting tired of not seeing any significant results and not seeing any progress in your renders is part of the journey and as demotivating and pessimistic it all sounds it's just the harsh truth so now come that instant gratification expectation as soon as you can if you want to grow here okay these were just mistakes I made as a beginner my real struggle began when I hit the intermediate level where you're comfortable enough with blender you know where all the buttons are you know what all the notes do and you know what the strengths and weaknesses are of the tool but you still suck you still make mediocre things you still are far far away from where you really want to be and that's a sucky place to be where you know all the ins and outs of the tool which is still not good enough so let's talk about some things that help me get through this intermediate stage in my blender Journey before we do that let me tell you a little bit about today's sponsor Squarespace Squarespace have been at the top of the game in the website making business for several years now and for good reason with a state-of-the-art fluid engine and countless Niche specific website templates and easy to use user interface and highly customizable controls for literally everything you see in at your website Squarespace is a no-brainer if you're looking to make a website for your business or portfolio or even a personal blog so head on to squarespace.com and try it all for free and whenever you're ready to launch your website go to squarespace.com stash to get 10 off your first purchase of a website or a domain so yeah go check them out before the deal Runs Out all right let's continue let's cover the first step that helped me grow as an intermediate artist and it's a tip you've already heard a thousand times and you think you've got the hang of it but I don't think you do neither of us really do actually and I'm obviously talking about reference images now I know what you're thinking you think you're some hot chart with a prf board with tons and tons of reference images you don't need to hear this tip but you do okay trust me when I say this I had those same prf boats that you do now I had plenty of reference images up there 10 20 50 you name it but those numbers do nothing because it doesn't matter how many reference images you have if you don't know what to do with them and how to use them I used to think reference images are just for modeling so you could have a bunch of different angles and a bunch of different design choices for whatever you wanted to make but the more I look at these expert artists reference boards the more I realize how far I am from them in my planning stage of a render these guys have a reference board for literally everything the lighting the textures the composition the story the sound design the color grading literally every minuscule detail you can think of and it's not even per project more often than not most of these artists have a master reference board that they come back to from time to time for inspiration so that's what I've been doing too for the past six months or so and I think it has helped me level up my 3D game like nothing else because I also now maintain a notion board for literally everything lighting materials colors composition even poster design and thumbnail design and not just that I even save some of my favorite YouTube tutorials on that tutorials that have taught me something new or a new way to do an old thing just to keep a record of important tips and tricks that could come in handy in future projects basically what I'm saying is you might think you've got the hang of this reference image thing so did I for the longest time but trust me when I say this both you and I need to level up our reference game if you want to get anywhere in this 3D World alright let's talk about another tip that got me going on my intermediate stage which was finally understanding that free stuff can only get you so far and to explain that let me preface it first by saying saying that I am Indian and I think anybody watching from India would wholeheartedly agree that we hate spending money we hate spending money on anything we don't absolutely need but hey obviously it's not just us Indians it doesn't really matter where you're from I think this is just a mindset thing and please know that I'm not talking about college students or people from really poor backgrounds or impoverished economies I'm talking to people who can't spend the money but still choose not to it is sometimes just a pride and a delusion thing where you just think you don't need a paid asset because you can do everything yourself or it somehow beneath you to use other people's assets sometimes it's just habit getting too comfortable in the Free World especially in the blender space where so many good plugins and assets are available for absolutely free of charge you feel like it's unnecessary to take the paid asset route but trust me when I say this my skill set literally skyrocketed when I subscribe to my favorite artists patreon and bought some important paid add-ons and and watched a bunch of paid courses and started buying good looking 3D models this is when I really saw some crazy Improvement in my craft and my skills so all I'm trying to say in this tip is try and get out of this horrible habit of always taking the free route for whatever reason free can only get you so far and that's just the truth and to the people who cannot afford them I understand what you're going through I was once in that same exact situation as you are where buying even a one dollar add-on seemed like an extravagant purchase and most of these CG sites and add-on sellers don't practice purchasing power parity they just set up a USD price value and don't understand that a 50 course or a 50 add-on is just absurd in countries outside of North America or Euro so I understand how you feel but there's nothing much we can do about it other than just persisting with our craft and making do with what we have and just powering our way through all of these problems bit by bit and maybe slowly and steadily we get some kind of financial stability in the future so we can afford our wishlist plugins and Assets in the future but just promise me if when you get there you don't hesitate to spend the money out of habit of Pride like a lot of people do this is an investment you're making towards your craft so there should be no dilemma about it in your head but hey while we are on this topic of expanding our skill sets through paid add-ons another tip along the same line that has helped me grow in the past year or so is not limiting myself to always rely on blender for everything I think this is the biggest most toxic trait of the whole blender Community right now we love this software so much that we are not even ready to give any of the other competitors even a try but the truth of the matter is blender although greater a lot of things is obviously not the Holy Grail of all 3D softwares it still lacks a lot of fundamental features people prefer Marvelous Designer for clothing Houdini for all kinds of simulations and version for smoke and fire simulation resolve for color grading and so much more blend is great as a starting point for all these use cases but it's obviously not the best at it it's not the industry standard by any means and I know affording each and every one of these proprietary software is just impossible for any Indie artist but for me just a simple jump to resolve which is a free tool to color grade your renders has been a jump enough to realize the importance of sometimes branching out of blender to do things it's known not to be too good at so I guess we can approach this step the same way we approach paid add-ons we just try and keep an eye on the developments of these tools and softwares and as and when we can afford them we at least give them a try if nothing else because relying on blender for everything is just unreasonable and it can be very limiting if you want to grow as a 3D artist that's it but let me now finish this list up by telling you what I think is the final stage on this journey of transitioning from a beginner artist to an expert artist it is I think the habit of constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone I still call myself an intermediate artist and this is something that is fundamentally different about me and every other expert artist that I admire they seem to chase what scares them the most it's weird it's like they're addicted to always is doing the next most difficult thing while me on the other hand am always looking for the short way out a shot from Celsius was actually the first time I ever took a step in this direction of discomfort and I'm not gonna lie as painful as it all is during the process when the final product comes out better than what you've expected and it's not just that the amount of knowledge you gain by just crossing that threshold again and again is just immeasurable so I feel like this is definitely something I'm working towards too and if you feel like you're in a similar headspace where you seem stuck as an intermediate artist I hope this nudges you to go chase that project that has always scared you in the past don't make it unpleasant for yourself of course that's not at all what I'm trying to say here there's no point in doing all of this if you don't get any joy out of the process I'm just saying that I think we can all sometimes be a little too lazy and tend to stop before we really need to stop if that makes any sense at all I hope it does I hope all of it does cause this has been it this is all I wanted to say in this video the this was an important video that I've been wanting to make for a long time because I get messages from beginners and intermediate artists all the time on how they should approach this treacherous journey of getting better at 3D because they feel stuck at a particular level this is what I've always wanted to tell them but typing it all out would have been just absurd so I'm just gonna redirect them all to this video from now on but yeah I think that's it that's all I wanted to say here I would love to know your thoughts and opinions about this topic in the comment section below drop your two cents of wisdom down there for what has helped you out at a time of distress in your blender journey and maybe others going through that same thing can benefit from your experience too so yeah don't forget to do that if you feel like you have something valuable to share but this is it from my end thanks for watching till the end if you did I will hopefully catch you guys in the next video bye

Channel: stache

Views: 269,697

Keywords: bledner, blemder, #d, 3d, cgi, bledner 3d, blemder 3d, bkender, CGi, vfx

Id: l_N53XCqsxk

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 18 2023