I’m trying to improve my modeling skills. I’m starting to model shoes for my training, but I’ve been trying to do it for 3 days (around 10 hours a day), I managed to make a model with basic shoe components, but I still don’t think I’ve progressed enough with the time I spent, no I don’t know if I’m in a hurry and should continue, but I feel frustrated so I wanted information on how to overcome this problem or a story about how you overcame it.
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I had already created a post like this, but I ended up duplicating it, I’ll delete
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Almost 2 years ago, I decided to learn how to procedurally model cities. I felt that frustration too.
Besides making my peace with understanding it will be terrible amount of learning ahead, what helped me the most on day to day basis (ok, more like week to week) is that I don’t feel guilty keep switching from one element to the next whenever I feel like I’m getting stagnant on the current one. I keep switching disciplines to keep my enthusiasm fresh and also keeping things organised before I temporarily leave them, so they’re easy to get into once more.
To translate into shoe talk, start simple and just make a shoe. If you don’t like it, that’s normal. Start again. This time focus more attention to a specific area. Start again, this time give focus to different part of the shoes. Rinse and repeat.
Side note. I don’t feel like this is universaly good advice and suits me specifically. There might be better ways for you to get better. We’re all different, so you should find what keeps you motivated and also brings you desired results in reasonable time frame. Try to set yourself a goal for everything both theoretical (timeframe for a learning course to finish) and practical (the shoes). If you fail to meet your deadline, it’s not the end of the world, but you’ll get an important experience on what’s achievable for you and what you need to take into account next time.
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Yeah mate, that’s not going to do it. Seriously, it can take years to master modeling. I blame these ridiculous youtube videos ‘become an expert in 10 mins…’ BS. Or ‘master human anatomy in 20 mins…’ It’s absolute nonsense.
By spending years modeling. It’s as simple as that. It’s like anything worth learning and mastering. It takes practice. Focused practice. Dedication. Passion. And a will to succeed. Yes, it’s very frustrating in the beginning. Again. It’s like anything: learning a musical instrument. Learning a new language. Etc.
But you have to have that passion. You have to do it because you really enjoy it. That’s if you want to master it, or at least get to a level of comfortable proficiency.
Obviously it’s a lot different now compared to when people like me learned to model, because you are overloaded with infinite video resources, whereas we had to sit down with a 1200 page book. 
Seriously though, because there are so many resources for beginners now they probably become overwhelmed and jump from one to the other, rather than really focusing on trying to improve the basics. The fundamentals are key. Learn the techniques and tools in small chunks, based on small, focused exercises.
Forget about the whole shoe. Just take the sole of the shoe and concentrate on that. Try to understand the shapes from all angles of your refs. It’s the same from modeling anything, no matter how complicated it looks as a whole, you can break it down into its components and basic shapes. Most objects can be broken down to their most basic forms: cubes/spheres/cylinders.
Once you start to think of things you are trying to model like this it will become easier.
But like I said, be prepared to spend years if you want to truly master modeling. Training your eye to see and your brain to translate the shapes is actually more important than the modeling tools themselves.
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I think there’s something to be said even for formal training getting this wrong- someone going to art school will get a few classes in modeling, probably 8 months total, but of that, it’ll be more like 3 hours class a week and 3 hours coursework a week over those months, maybe 200 hours total over the course of your schooling. I’ve observed, by paying attention to my college graduating class, the ones that are successful are the ones that kept learning and practicing after college, and the ones who aren’t doing well generally don’t.
I mean, it’s not really the schools fault in that case- school gives us the tools we need to learn, but no one tells us what to do with them after school. Some of us are lucky enough to figure it out and keep learning and growing, and some people don’t realize that’s the whole point of life until retirement.
Tangential, I recognize. You just got me thinking
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Of course. Nobody can really ‘teach’ you modeling or sculpting. They can show you how the tools work, but this is a learning journey that you have to take on your own. Nobody can teach you how to train your eye and brain. You have to make those connectors yourself through endless hours of practice and experimentation and trial and error.
I never went to school for any sort of 3D myself, but I imagine that those that succeed are those that always push their boundaries/skills/knowledge far beyond the classwork of the school curriculum.
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I didn’t either- my observations were about marketers, web developers, and the like- but it has been interesting to see how the people who just focused on turning in assignments and speeding through generally did really well in school grade-wise, but have struggled to move forward in the post school world. I know for a fact I’m making more with my dismal GPA than many of my 4.0 peers, not to blow my own horn, just observing that I was always the kid staying up late working on a passion project. I’ve always loved learning and practicing new things, a trait I’m immensely grateful for.
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The link below is a topology lecture.
The whole process is slow. If you’re used to lectures these days, you might feel bored.
https://www.youtube.com/@Motionworks/videos
I think it is necessary to watch various quality lectures and continue to follow them and build your own style.
If you’re simply obsessed with copying, you can’t cope with a variety of situations. 
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