Newbies, starters, tutorials, first time blender

Hi all.
I didnt know where can i ask and get best answer then the blender comunity.
I think many will have same questions and i didnt found answer here.
If you would start now too use blender 4. Where and with what would you start so you can improve things. I know it needs years but with good guide maybe not 5 year. I want too oriante my self on buildings, and objects.
Thank you all who take some time and answer.

Hello,

If you’re a newbie, it doesn’t really matter from what version you would start. Whether it would be the newest 4 or an old one like 2.93. Also, it depends on your hardware, the better hardware you have - the less lags you’ll get in new versions of Blender. Keep that in mind.

To see current system requirements, visit this link.

As for me, I’ve been working with Blender for almost 2.5 years. For that time, I’ve gained myself some skills in low poly graphics, modeling, texturing, creating some simple characters and so on, though I still feel myself like I am on the bottom level of knowledge. Won’t speak for everyone at the same time. Guess it varies on each person. I just told how it happened in my own case.

As for things you want to know, namely buildings & objects - there are a lot of videos out there on YT which could help you to gain yourself some practical skills in modeling etc. Just type something like “blender architecture tutorial for beginners” on YT, and you’re good to go.

At the end of the day, if you really have that passion and motivation to become a good 3D artist, that automatically solves 50% of all of your problems, in my opinion.

Cheers,
Sergey

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in the beginning everything should be fine to learn, it’s best to learn a bit of every skills so you know a bit of modeling, materials, lights, render, animation…
So you can produce something from start to finish, even if it might be a bit rough on the edges when you start.

From there, you could start to look for more specialized tutorials, more aimed at what you want to master.

You can start by doing the famous donut tutorial from blender guru. Grant Abbit is a great instructor and got good beginners friendly videos : https://www.youtube.com/@grabbitt/videos

This one from CG boost is cool too : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j14b25SnYRY&list=PL3UWN2F2M2C8-zUjbFlbgtWPQa0NXBsp0

Obviously, a lot of tutorial are older than 4.0, so don’t worry too much about that, start what you can, and if you are really stuck (because they use an older version or whatever reasons) don’t worry and start another one. And eventually come back a few days after. When I started I barely finished any tutorials, but after a bit of practice I learned in one what I was missing in another and from there things started to get easier :slight_smile:

Have fun !

4 Likes

Welcome to the forums and the Blender world…

Read the Manual. Two weeks later you will be remembering those things and will not spend a day randomly searching for the wrong things on Youtube.
Learn the Menus. Remember they change when you change the mode you are using. Select Menu has a lot of useful ways to do things - especially in edit mode.
Learn the Preferences. The Add-ons and the Key Maps are the two parts you will use the most.
Learn the interface. It is terrible that there are people who have used Blender for over a year but do not know what these important Icons are for…
Useful tools

Start watching tutorials about topology and about re-topology.
Things to learn from them include supporting loops (or edge loops), changing direction with edge flow, what poles are, making the topology correctly for stretching during animation. This is so you can make anything. Do not be a person asking for a tutorial on each thing you want to make - just learn how to make anything.
Sometimes it is good to start with a curve to get a basic shape - then convert it to a mesh (Object Menu >> Convert).
A car is three cubes and 4 cylinders. Always break an object you want to model down into parts in your head. Cubes, spheres, half spheres, cylinders. Use those basic shapes to make the bigger shape.

Subscribe to Ryan King Art on Youtube - he is a good materials teacher.

Start learning the basics of Geometry Nodes. For something like buildings they are a fantastic way to make repeating shapes. You do not need to learn all the animation and logic/math part of Geometry Nodes.

Take notes while you learn. I use a program called Zim Desktop Wiki. It lets me add lots of different topics - each with their own page or pages. And you can add links to useful things. Use something like Zim for note taking - then you can cut and paste things. You cannot do that with a pad and pen.
Also get a good screen snapshot tool that lets you draw on the snapshot. You will want to grab things from video tutorials.

The search tool on this site is a useful tool.

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Welcome :tada:…

You know the search feature ( top right; :mag: -icon )

The well knows video platform also do some “suggestions”…

And of course here is the category Tutorial, Tricks and Tips…

Also in blender Help → Tutorials will give you a first start… the somehow older versions which they are done with doesn’t really matter… in fact it trains the users to investigate themself… like some tip to watch beginnder tutus for other 3D software… it’s always good (even in general) to learn the principes and not the one by one keypressing procedure of one specific app…

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Thank you. Computer is fine. Have all needed. So start with tutorials and that is the best way too go.

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Thank you m8 for your time too help out. I started with donut :slight_smile: its fun. I just leak in time but I try too improve in any free time I have

Yeah, definitely it is. At least that’s how I was doing that back in the day. Was watching a lot of tutorials and did exactly what the author says in there.

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Thank you very much, this information you shared is just what I needed too know on what too concentrate for my goal, so I can start from there and dont wonder around too much if not needed. Thanks for this shortcut

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Thanks, yea in search I tried other words…newbies, beginners but didn’t pop out that one. Thanks for sharing it m8, I appreciate it