How should i start with blender?

Hello guys i started with blender and watched and copied some tutorials but i dont know what to do next.

Should i stick to tutorial videos until i am capable of doing bigger things by my own ?
or
should i just start doing something without any tutorial?

i ask because i am afraid that i will be too much dependent on tutorials and wont be able to do things by my own creativity.

Nothing wrong with doing tutorials, it won’t make you less creative, the most important is to practice a bit everyday.

At the begin you don’t have to worry about originlity, creativity is nothing but the clever use of repertory, no one creates from nothing, we aways build upon the work the ones before us left. The ‘great masters’ (painting) also learned their craft by copying their masters. So choose your masters and copy them, for practice, of course.

Tutorials are a really good way to get to know the software language/intarface/tools, and you wanna get that out of the way to better express yourself anyway. But in parallel to that you should do “your thing”. Doesn’t have to be nothing fancy, try to do things simillar to the ones that you like (game characters, movie scenes, art style, etc) and within time you will develop your style. And try out every possibility of the 3D world: modeling, sculpting, retopo, texturing, painting, rigging, animating.

So to me these are the 3 goas: Learn the tools, keep doing your thing even though you don’t know what that is yet and try out everything to develop your skills and find out what you like most.

But the most important, as I said before, is to practice everyday. So be cool and just keep doing it. And good luck on your journey. :grinning:

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Hey, welcome to the world of Blender!

The first thing I’d ask is: Are you enjoying it? - if you are, then great! Keep doing what you’re already doing.

It’s very easy with Blender to try and dive right into the deep end, only to forget that you can’t swim, and you’ve forgotten your arm bands. Of course, for some people, this method works just fine too - so it really is up to you.

You can learn an awful lot from tutorials, and as I started with, if you’re happy doing that for the time being, then don’t be in any rush to stop. There’s no clock, so to speak.

You’ll probably know when you’re ready to do more, when the tutorials start becoming easier. When shortkeys, and tools etc… become easier to remember, and you find yourself following the tutorial less and less.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from starting your own projects now, and learning as you go. Just realise that, if you need help, or look for a tutorial, there might not be a specific thing to help, and you’ll have to use ideas as a basis - If that makes sense.

So really, it’s entirely up to you, and what you are comfortable with. There is no right or wrong answer here. :slight_smile:

Simple advice: "Just start!"

Don’t ask anyone else for “affirmation.”

And, expect to very-reguarly “take a sip from the fire hose” as you feel once again that the software has hit you in the face with a hot cast-iron skillet. :slight_smile: (Because, I guarantee you, “computer software” is incredibly good at that …)

One thing that has helped me greatly is: “a loose-leaf notebook and a number-two pencil.” Whenever I encounter yet-another thing that I do not understand, I immediately write it down. Now that “the butterfly has been stuck-through with a pin and attached to the board,” I know that I cannot lose it … and that I do not have to deal with it “right now.” I can record the fact that the white-rabbit existed but I do not have to chase after it … yet.

I leave space in the same notebook for me to later write down notes about what the solution actually was – and how I found it.

“My memory is not what it used to be,” so I continue to use that notebook as a resource.

In the same notebook I often also keep a “Captain’s Log.” I write down, extemporaneously, what I am doing and what I am thinking – every single day. (It later makes for quite interesting reading.)