The Lack of Good Tutorials Out There?

Hello everyone, I want to bring an issue to the table that I’ve been mulling over for a week or two now. The lack of good tutorials out there.

Now I just started with blender about a month and a half ago. Of course that means I’ve been actively searching out any and every tutorial on everything. And…I’ve rather hit a wall.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great tutorials out there. Great about one tiny specific area. Andrew Price’s tutorials for example, top of the line. You can’t get a better tutorial. But they have no structure. He doesn’t tell you which one to watch next or where to start. The problem is, there are virtually no tutorials out there that have a structure. CG Cookie for example does have a starter tutorial. It’s only 6 videos long, and then dumps you on a website with 500 other tutorials.

I really was hoping to find a tutorial to guide me a long way through before releasing me on my own. Once I understand the basics of blender, I want to know where to go next. Do I try water physics? More modeling? Particles? Materials? Textures?

When I watch a tutorial I have no idea if it will be my level, be for a noob, or be for a professional.

I need a list that tells me what to try next. What will be easiest. Once I knew how to use hotkeys and the interface, tutorials dumped me into a land with so many options I don’t know what to do next.

I really feel there needs to be a better tutorial system that guides you along a lot more. It will start with the basics, like the UI, hotkeys, simple modeling, moving meshes around, and ect. And then slowly guide you into what area is best to try next. Be it water physics, materials, or particles. It should be flexible enough based on your rough interests. Do you want to focus on Modeling or Animation? Then roughly guide you into areas best for you to do next.

Right now I’m just running in a circle biting my tail. I go to a tutorial website and just wander around. I don’t know what area to really do next. I can’t build upon my current skills because I don’t know what to learn next. It will be water one day, particles the next, and materials the day after.

I want to improve my modeling, but should I learn water physics first? It seems important. But before I learn water I have to learn materials or else my water will look bad. But wait, I can’t learn materials without learning how to better use Meshes or Cycles. And I really can’t use meshes until I can model better. But what should I learn first?

I really need help with this issue.

Thanks for reading.

Blender Fundamentals Training http://www.cgmasters.net/training-dvds/master-it/

I want to improve my modeling, but should I learn water physics first? It seems important.
It’s only important if you want to model fluids. This will be worthless to 99% of users since they’ll never want to make crappy fluid sims. Everyone has different needs so you really need to know the basics: How blender does things, modelling tools for object and meshes, materials and rendering. Everything else after that depends on what you want from blender

Look at the wiki manual and go down the line of the table of contents, that should be a pretty accurate list order of what is important to learn when.

Fact is, depending on your desired specialty, there are lots of tutorials that might be weaker in one area and yet give great insight to another.

A major advantage of Teaching Institutions over other types of instruction (eg books, online) is that they offer structured programs. As long as you’re self-taught you’ll be facing the same problem. It takes an experienced instructional designer to create what you’re looking for. Of course such programs cost. Good instructional design doesn’t come for free.

Oh, yeah, it’s a jungle out there.

Look, Meed96, there is a reason the introductory tutorials stop once they have introduced you to the basics. The people who write tutorials are not mind readers. They don’t know what you want to do with Blender, what your artistic sensibilities are, what you current skills are, and so on.

To make progress in good looking renders, if that’s your goal, you do need to know how to model, texture, light your scenes, maybe use particle systems and so on. But you won’t get any specific advice here (and we generally specialize in giving good advice, believe it or not) until you decide where you want to go next.

Here’s how it works: you post some renders of your current work, in Work in Progress. Someone comes along and says: ‘your textures suck’, or ‘you topology won’t work for animation’ or ‘your lighting looks flat’… whatever. You’ll get some expert advice on what skills you need to improve.

You reply: “so what can I do to fix that?” and chances are someone else will give you some hints, a mini tutorial in their comment, or a link to a tutorial that explains how to do what you need to do. They are out there, you know.

You follow the advice and improve your work, and you post an updated render in the same thread, thanking whoever gave you the advice that worked for you. That lets people know you are willing to follow good advice, and encourages them to give you more good advice.

So:
Step 1: Decide what you want to do: better modeling, more beautiful renders, realism, cartoons, animation, games…
Step 2: Work on something and post a Work-in-Progress thread
Step 3: Accept well meaning help from others
Step 4: Rinse and repeat

Oh, I’ve got a tutorial that I’ve been following which I’m fond of because of the structured nature it has. :slight_smile: It’s totally free and the guy who makes them is a college professor so what’s not to love. :stuck_out_tongue:

It might not be super long but I’m finding it to be of decent length (not done yet), and I believe he’s still adding to it. The great thing about the structure is that it really shows that he’s got a teaching background. Every chapter includes a number of video tutorials that explain the tools and give examples. Then there’s a ‘follow these steps’ type of tutorial, and after that an exercise that you figure out on your own. And every couple of chapters there’ll be projects that you do totally of your own accord, they’re fun. It helps you learn faster/easier by doing things yourself, which isn’t often the case with the standard ‘watch me do something and follow me’ video tutorials that are the most common.

I’ll end there before I get too worked up on a rant, lol. Here’s the link, good luck and have fun! :slight_smile: http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Just thought I’d chime in to say that we are working on addressing this. You’re certainly not the first person to have trouble formulating all the tutorials into a coherent flow :slight_smile:

the thing about art is its not quite the same as other things where you can learn in a linear fashion, like reading you learn the alphabet,then how to make words then how they fit in a sentance etc. with art i find that it is a case of doing it until you hit a problem. mking a character? alls going fine til you realise you have no idea how to do hans, so you google “how to do hands in blender” or “character modelling” then your hair looks rubbish so you google how to create hair, how to texture the back ground, whatever. you can follow a series for months but the chances are you’ll still have to go through and find those specific tutorials any way.
learn the basic pushing a cube around tutorials for an hour or two to get to grips with working the 3d viewport, then just learn what you need when you need it.
there’s a beginners series on my youtube channel that attempts to cover everything from poking the cube to animating a basic scene, its nowhere near as professional as the cgcookie guys but it might be useful to you, just check the link in my sig

I agree with Small Troll. I learned 3D attempting to create specific things I wanted make. Doing architecture with interior design was my first challenges so I focused on tutorials that were relevant to the subject matter after learning the basics of the programs of course. I find that doing a subject that stimulates your interest will drive your thirst for knowledge in the subject. But if you are just learning without a goal, I don’t see the point when it comes to art. What is it that you want to see made or express?

At some point you have to leave Tutorial Land and experiment on your own. You won’t break anything. Tutorials can show you what is possible, and a well made step-by-step tutorial is very useful when you’re just getting started. There is no comprehensive list of things to be learned in order because everyone is interested in using Blender in different ways. It seems to me you’re more interested in a general course in CG, but taylored to Blender’s specific interface and way of doing things.

It’s like saying, “I want to learn Photoshop.” There’s lots of tutorials on Photoshop out there, but what do YOU want to do with it? Image editing? Painting? Comic books? And so it goes. You can find videos that demonstrate all of these, and every single one of them will show the same program being used in a different way.

I agree with you thats how i’ve learned blender , from this same amazing man!

I agree at some point I will have to leave tutorial land. I don’t go to tutorials to learn how to make a specific item. I go to tutorials to learn what the buttons do, and more ways to achieve a task. I guess I really want to learn everything. I don’t really want to leave tutorial land until I can complete a task without thinking “I wonder what that button does.” or “I wonder what would happen if I dragged that slider all the way to the right.”

Yes, I realize blender is a constant learning experience. But I really don’t want to leave tutorials until I know enough to learn more. Until I reach the point where I can experiment enough to figure things out, I have to learn the basics.

I feel that I may never leave tutorials. Whenever I come across a button that I really want to learn about, it’s back to tutorials.

In the meantime, I can’t achieve anything, so I know I still need more tutorials.

here’s a solution:
make a subpage from this website named something like ‘work log’ ?
and then what people do it they record the whole process of what they do and they put it on a video hosting service, and a pic of the final product, then when people go into the page, they see the final product and they can choose to watch which ones they think is gonna help them.

JUST A SUGGESTION,

I feel the same way. Thanks PepperJack! I started going through that course after reading through this thread and I must say I got further along with using Blender than with any other tutorial material in a very short amount of time. The only thing I would say is to be careful when going through some of the pdf tutorials. Not sure if things in the interface changed since he made these and keep in mind that there are many ways to do the same thing in Blender. But for the most part, I strongly recommend the OP to go through this course.

I am focusing on getting a freelance carrier going with Blender, what I could offer, what I feel I lack now is, people just working and explaining the ideas and workflow.

Like step A) to B) finish thing, is good when a client demands something you have no idea to make. You can watch a tutorial on that specific topic.

But what I would like to do is more freestyle, explain the idea behind, first show some rough concept art or reference images. Then explain where I look in Blender to get starting and where I know stuff exist that can help.

Man I’ve encountered so many hard balls lately, stupid things like mirror modifiers preventing me from apply them because I’ve done Shape Key animations early on. When in fact X mirror in modeling & sculpting (two different settings) achieve the exact same result but is way less destructive workflow because you can have Shape Keys etcetera on the work in progress mesh.

Anyway just wanted to vent that, what I tend to do also if I first get that freelancing thing going on, and then have time to do tutorials is only to make tutorials on paid projects, not so much… I want to do a THING here’s a tutorial on that. No more like, client wanted particles hitting a fluid sim for example.

Unless you have a really good understanding of how Blender works under the hood, or a lot of experience, you will keep running into those hard balls. Best advice I can give you is to do what you can to get that experience. Work on small projects, but work them start to finish. Keep good notes of the procedures, and the work-arounds, and the glitches.

Any time Blender does something you think is stupid, put it in your notes so you can avoid it next time. Like your notes on Shape Keys should say: “Apply mirror modifiers before making shape keys!!” Then it simply becomes part of your work flow, and not a stupid problem anymore.

Its interesting that this thread came up as I’m in the exact same position as the OP. Lots of great tutorials but all of them (for the most part) are disconnected and fragmented from each other. This is a result, in part, by non-industry standard software in this area so the major training sites have not invested in large series like you see with Maya, 3DSMax, and C4D. A perfect example of what people are looking for can be found at digital tutors dot com. This is a perfect example of what the OP (and myself) are looking to find.

You have an “essentials” series and then they split it into “tracks”. Each track in itself is hundreds of hours of content down a specific pillar of functionality (whether it be lighting, UV/texture/materials, animation, etc.) Most importantly, the content is structured, linear, and builds on itself. I had introduced myself to 3DSMax and Maya some time ago with that content and it was great. Blender, despite being simpler than Maya, is much more difficult to learn due to the lack of a structured training series like this.

I asked the aforementioned site if they would be doing a Blender series and the response was that not enough people in the industry use it. Basically, nobody in the industry at this point anyways takes Blender serious enough to warrant the investment. Perhaps this will change at some point but it is a major deciding factor that makes many people go for the costly option over the free one; they will be able to pick it up and learn it at a much faster rate.

I’m on the fence as to whether I want to start actually paying the $200 a month subscription for Maya since my spin-up would be so much faster. I’m a hobbyist 3D modeler/game developer (programmer full time) so don’t have all the time in the world – if I could become productive and deliver in 6 months as opposed to years based on the difference of learning tracks and not because of sub-par software (since Blender is an amazing and capable competitor) then that is a strong influence that can sway me and countless others.

-t

Spot on Mead.

You are right about what you are saying. The truth with blender is that there is so many free tutorials around the net. For example i m working on something and fought out and new trick, i will quickly make a tutorial and share it may be it will help somebody. What i may suggest is that try to be humble and active in those BA, facebook, blender.stackexchange.com, and ask where can i get good tutorials for beginner or advanced user about this or that. I believe you will be surprised with the result you may found. It may be free or not. But there is a lot of tutorials out there about Blender. The problem is some people are more talented making tutorials then other.
During some tutorials you may fall asleep or it might to fast to follow or …
Don’t give up, it took me so long to understand Blender just because i wasn’t courageous enough to ask around me or to buy a dvd from Blendershop, or get a monthly subscription in Blendercookie or lydie or …

I hope you find your way in Blendaa :slight_smile:

I think your title is a little misleading. There’s a good tutorial for almost everything, so the problem is just structure, as you later mention.

Did you actually look at the “500” tutorials on that website? That is pretty close to what you are describing as lacking. He goes through everything from the complete basics, how to set up blender, what the basic controls are, the difference between edit and object modes, what every modifier does, camera set up, texturing, materials, lighting, animation and also mixes that up with some basic projects as you work your way through to apply the stuff you have learned.

There’s a lot of stuff on there because there’s a lot of stuff to learn, even to just see the absolute basics of everything…but they are organised into lessons, and there is a very distinct easy to follow order. Maybe those are a little dated now (they are just pre-cycles) and the level artistic skill on display may not be the greatest which may be a demotivator for people who can’t otherwise appreciate the core of the content…but it really is aimed at the absolute beginner, so what should we expect?

FYI - I went through his entire course, and I think I have a pretty good foundation in the basics because of it, I have seen almost everything once so if I need to do something I often already have a reasonable idea of where to start searching for more advanced information, or I’m able to figure it out myself because of the familiarity with Blender resulting from working through all those tutorials.

An up to date version of that would be pretty exactly what you are describing I think. The only thing missing is a ‘where now?’ at the end. I did feel a little lost again for a short while afterwards, but it didn’t take long to find a direction after having gained a pretty decent understanding of the basics.