Please advise Blender or Sketchup for this?

Hi, everyone. I am new here and considering Blender as my first 3D tool to start with. I would like to have a suggestion if I would do Blender first or start with Sketchup Pro as most in my research say SketchUp is easier for complete beginners but my ultimate goal for the learning is to do these kinds of videos https://www.youtube.com/c/Virtuscapes

I hope somebody here can share their thoughts if where should I start to generate these types of videos especially creating or maybe if available importing models to get started easily with animating flame, coffee smoke, raindrops or leaves, snow, and fireplace.

Thank you!

Welcome to BA :slight_smile: I would recommend learning Blender over sketchup for several reasons:

  • Blender is easier to use
  • Blender has wayyyy more features
  • Blender has more comprehensive documentation, more tutorials, and a larger community
  • SketchUp is for very specific purposes. Blender is generalized 3D software
  • Blender is free
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Hello !

Blender seems to fit better what you’re looking for, but it has a steep learning curve.
So I suggest before trying to do these Virtuscapes, first invest at least 3/6 month on learning the basics, especially if you’re new to CG in general.

Because the final result, even if not the most complicated thing to do, relies on a lot of individual things you’ll have to learn and each one can take like 2 weeks / a month to master at a basic level. And it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all these technicalities if there are too much of them at the same time.

So start by doing tutorials on basic modeling, lighting , materials.
Then move on to do grass, snow, importing objects
Then simple animations,
then more FX like smoke, fire etc…

That’s already a lot, be prepared to spend some time…
And eventually once you’re confident you get a basic knowledge on these you can try to build a more complex scene that mix all of these elements.

The best way to fail is to start with too big projects, it’s a common mistake hard to avoid.
But in fact it’s way simpler to take your time and accept that you won’t do something complete for some times. You’ll get faster to the point and accumulate less frustrations too.

In that regard, Sketchup is simpler to understand, but it’s probably not the best tool for your end goal. You can try a bit of both to begin with. Try something in sketchup and then redo it in blender and back and forth. It’s not wasted time because sometime understanding something in one software helps to get it in the other…

It’s not meant to discourage you, but just keep in mind that learning all that can takes time. If you’re a fast learner that may not be your case but it’s better to prepare for the worse :smiley:

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Thank you for this advice. It means a lot. I am much more motivated the moment I get these replies and realizing I am not alone in this journey. I will keep that in mind. Any idea what course to start with to start learning? Thanks

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Awesome !

This one is a good starter :

This one also :

Once that’s done you can check their channels and see if there is something that interest you !
And from time to time try to apply that knowledge to some little personal projects.

It’s difficult to learn all this but it’s also very fun to play with blender, I’m sure you’ll have a good time !
Feel free to ask on this forum if you’re stuck at a particular issue !

Good Luck !

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lol yes, I am considering the Donut tutorial with 3.0 version which is the latest from Blender Guru. And thanks, I surely will come here often from time to time and I want to say thank you for all your help and in the future.

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