I want to be able to model 3d objects and people, but I am hopeless at blender. I don’t even understand the UI.
I’m fairly proficient at Photoshop and Sketchup (Except I can’t for the life of me make a clean sphere without resorting to a plugin in Sketchup).
How steep is the learning curve? How long will it take for me to be able to make pretty decent looking models without having to go to Blender University for 4 years?
I’m looking into 3d more as a hobby, maybe model some silly characters for tiny games later.
Your looking at most people here, because most of us are hobbyist who had to learn the interface and such through either internet/playing around/books etc…
The main thing I recommend is just stick to this site. You have a question, search for it first through the search option on the site, then try google, and if you still can’t find it, just post another question. Normally questions take at most 5 - 10 minutes to be answered depending on the time of day. Don’t let the UI scare you, it just takes time.
Its funny how not that long ago I sounded exactly like that… I still somehow feel like a fake whose just winging it. the real break for me came when I found super3boys tutorials and realised how easy it was. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozlwcQT-U20&feature=related
Blender is no harder to learn than photoshop, its just that the information you need can be a bit sketchy at times. theres so much you just wont figure out by yourself.
the concept of blender is that theres no buttons telling you what to do, not like oher 3d programs where theres an edit menu, and a command, and then it asks you how many times you want to do something etc. blenders based around shortcuts, like R for rotate, S for scale because once youve been doing it a few months, you`ll realise how all those menus and options get in the way.
the interface was build for ppl who knew how to use it, because it was “inhouse” software. that became public domain. not software that was made for public use. but dont let it put you off, cos its an amazing bit of software for free.