I’ve been using Blender for the past two years now. Self-teaching from youtube tutorials and the odd course here and there, participating in several challenges (Pwnisher and Amodeladay notably), this has helped me to be more comfortable with the tools and produce various models and animations. I’ve been doing these in my free time after work, it was challenging and stressful but it was very rewarding in the end, learning something new and then applying it to a project. It was also humbling to see the number of things I didn’t know and how good some people are. This made me realize that I have a long way to go before even being called a Blender Intermediate user since my output is yet to reach that level.
So I’ve come up with a self-challenge titled the 5 rule which consists of modeling/sculpting/rendering 5 things in each of the 12 categories below (that I choose based on what I liked and because I want to be a 3D generalist I guess).
I’m planning to do 60 models in total which will help me practice and (hopefully) upgrade my modeling, sculpting, lighting, and rendering.
I’m going to be starting learning Character Animation workshops on AnimationMentor (which uses Maya) very soon so I hope this will also help me to not forget Blender for the duration of that (which is about 18 months).
I’m posting this here publicly in the hopes that it will help me keep track of my progress and not be discouraged from accomplishing this goal. I might not be called an intermediate user at the end but I’ll have some diverse work for my portfolio.
Anywho, if anyone is interested to tag along on this journey of mine you’re welcome to join!
Hi - am looking for some expert level blender generalists for modelling and rigging to support on a large scale project! Would you, or anyone in your network be interested in hearing some more?
Welcome to BA, @Conor101 – your search for generalists would be better served in either #jobs:paid-work or #jobs:volunteer-work, depending. Hardly anyone will see it here in #artwork:sketchbooks , which is quite off the beaten track for that sort of thing.
@figoyg Looks like a plan! Will keep an eye on this; always happy to see somebody new post in Sketchbooks. It’s IMO a good way to track your progress, and some of us congregate here specifically to support each other.
I wanted my first car to be something easy to get started with but I made the wrong choice with this model . It took me more than a month (on and off) to finish this car.
My initial plan was to (1)model every component of the car, (interior and exterior), (2) pay attention and optimize its topology, (3) have clear UV maps that I can use to texture it, (4) rig the car so it can be used for animations and finally (5) make photorealistic renders.
From those five initial goals, I was only able to accomplish the first and last one, unfortunately.
For topology, I passed the 600,000 polygons goal (reason why I didn’t post any wireframe images)
I also decided to use procedural and PBR textures from BlenderKit rather than uv mapping it (though iI still needed to do some UV projecting for some parts like the belts holding the tire).
As the front part of the car had a lot of components, I decided it would be counterproductive to learn how to rig with this car model as it would take much more time than it already did.
Now for the positives, I modeled every aspect of this car! and that was a looot of work! I got more familiar with some more tools, pay attention to details more than usual and I learned new ways to light cars among other things! I also was able to learn how to use Photoshop to create the illusion the car was moving and to color grade the first pic (first time doing that)
For the second car of this project, my plan is to choose a simpler model so I can achieve the rest of my car goals
I’m back with another model. This time it’s a Lion Character. For this character, I wanted to give a vibrant and happy feel.
The Character was sculpted in around 4 hours and I learned how to manipulate some geometry nodes for the hair and the tail. First time doing that. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to retopologize it and make the scene lighter. I’ll try to do that for the next character
The Lion is from a sketch by Eric Scaless on Pinterest.
. It took me more than a month (on and off) to finish this car.
and that was a looot of work! I got more familiar with some more tools, pay attention to details more than usual and I learned new ways to light cars among other things! I also was able to learn how to use Photoshop to create the illusion the car was moving and to color grade the first pic (first time doing that)
