Where to start?

Support Basics & Interface
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So … Brace yourselves, grandmasters of Blender. I have a silly question incoming.

I started playing with Blender about a week ago, basically because I have too much time on my hands due to the fact I am currently unemployed. For years I wanted to do something similar, but my former job left me barely any time for such activities so I never really took up design as offered by Blender as my hobby.

For a week i have been playing with 3d modelling - doing tutorials, setting up and tearing things down - the dominoes, domino towers, coins falling, dice, etc … Anyway it came to me a good way to start might be to ask here. Where do I start? There are so many FUN and interesting tutorials online and i have a hard time figuring out where to start? Any recomendations?

Also silly (and a bit shy) question nr 2: what are the simplest things one can design and have them paid? I know there is a panoply of demands of all sorts of design Blender can offer out there but … I just wanted to ask. If I am doing something for fun I’d like to start with basics and maybe basics that pay off a bit in time. Hopefully I get a job again before that. :slight_smile:

thanks guys

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ok first, dont worry about payment. there are a TON of things you have to learn before even considering it. expect a year untill you can charge money for anything.

as for what to make, well i suggest you go on Artstation.com . That is where i find most of my inspiration.

for tutorials i recomend Tutor4u. he makes really easy to follow tutorials, to the point where you cant stand him, once you know basics :slight_smile:

when you get past the beginner stage, look up Andrew Price - Blender guru. he has a ton of cool projects, and fun videos. also a lot of educational videos such as color composition, camera, light, etc.

if there is anything you wish to make, spesificly, feel free to post it here and we can help you getting started :slight_smile:

and also, Welcome to Blender, and Blenderartists comunity :slight_smile: hope you will have a great time with it.

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Starting on the vine glass. Thanks so much :slight_smile:

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Going to grab on the word “design” there because if you don’t already know, it will be helpful to understand the difference between design and modeling from the start and avoid problems later.

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Design is a pre-production step which presents, develops, refines, ideas. It may have specifications/requirements/limitations to start with, but design solves visual or functional problems and communicates that visually.

Modeling is a production step that takes an existing design and reproduces it as a 3-dimensional model which also takes the requirements from the end use and other pipeline stages into account.

Blender can be used as a design tool but it’s most often used as a production tool. The bit that is helpful is to know that if you don’t have an existing design to look at, you shouldn’t be modeling. It’s the design stage that solves problems like forms, proportions, looks, style, and functionality, which a modeler needs to know and see. If you start modeling and can’t interpret those, there will be problems.

How to deal with those problems varies and depends on the experience, but if you’re the one to push through those, it’s likely you have to recognize you’re supposed to wear a designer’s hat and probably should use different workflows and/or tools than what is used for modeling. Have to concentrate on solving the design problems before moving on to modeling.

Using bad references is a common problem. For example, a line drawing doesn’t show form so it can be challenging to interpret those in 3D. A 3/4 view helps but can still be problematic http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mJ4lc_Q9Q6k/TI-dvGWHUSI/AAAAAAAAsBw/YcX-5POKy1k/s1600/1a.jpg
Not impossible but wouldn’t recommend for someone completely new to modeling and thinking in 3D https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?338238-Simple-Blender-question&p=2656498&viewfull=1#post2656498

Another is too small photos or photos with bad/stylized lighting, which also hide forms and details.

Blender can be used for many things, but these should help whatever you do
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0AfIdK08E7_PKsXOO_yuAql9b3hdcwPR
Those also include introductions to some modeling tools in edit mode pt2.