Hi Andrew, I'm turning 70 and I am still trying to learn Blender. I just want to tell you that I listen very carefully to your sound advice. In fact, my children do not care at all about Blender, but I am still forwarding your advices to them, because they apply to anything... Thanks a lot, really!
tl;dw: *#1 Set a clearly defined goal* (Set a goal and some restrictions, be focused and don't jump around tutorials forever) *#2 Deconstruct* that goal and figure out how you are going to get there *#3 Set a practice routine* (Do this a little every day) *#4 Set a release schedule* and stick to it. Don't be perfectionist, move on *#5 Find and attack your weaknesses* *#6 Get critiques* especially from people in the industry *#7 Give yourself a consequence* if you don't reach your goal.
Okay if I don't release my game on steam by 2018 I'll cut one of my fingers off, Thank you. Edit: I didn't release my game nor did I successfully cut my fingers off, although I am still programming because I love it.
Mike Mortensen I taught my self how to make games, since i was 13 I'm now nearly 18 so yeah though it should be noted it was only when i found unity i became quite good.
Thank you! very helpful and motivating. For anyone who wants to re-cap or look back on a concept. 3:02 #1 Set a clearly defined goal “ The easiest way to avoid being overwhelmed is to create positive constraints: put up walls that dramatically restrict whatever it is that you’re trying to do.” Tim Ferriss, the 4-hour chef 5:14 #2 Deconstruct…. the process that you are follow to get towards your goal. 7:05 #3 Set a practice routine 9:30 #4 Set a release schedule 13:23 #5 Find and attack your weaknesses 15:30 #6 Get Critiques 17:38 #7 Give yourself a consequence
I'm 17 now and started learning when I was 15. I learned most of the stuff I know now from you, Andrew and I can see my improvement from when I started. I think my biggest flaw/weakness is that I want to learn everything quickly and I lose motivation on the process. I'm working on it and I know I'll get there eventually
I'd really love it if you would upload more of your personal work, maybe a timelapse of a project of yours. It would also be interesting to see a video where YOU try something new and show us how you tackle new problems on the go, even if the vids are longer, i doubt anyone would mind :)
I know this is older now... but man... what a great and approachable communicator and teacher. Yer a natural and your enthusiasm is really key to your success online.
When you talk about the ''perfectionnist time'' vs the practical time, there's actually something called the Pareto Principle, which (basically) states that 20% of the work (or 20% of the time) is responsible for 80% of the results, and inversly, 80% of the work/time spent translates to 20% of the results. This is a good principle to keep in mind.
There is so much to learn on Blender its insane. I want to learn all the functions, but I have been learning for a week and just realized there is so much more to learn.
Welp! Andrew just said the daily idea isn't good. However, I'd like to say I'm doing that for practice. I didn't go into blindly. I had a plan set that will last only 7 days. Day 1: Practice microdisplacement. Day 2: Practice different lighting schemes. Day 3: Practice volumetric lighting. Day 4: Practice texturing. Day 5: Post-processing... you get the idea. I can say that it has helped A LOT. I'm discovering my strong points, my weaknesses, what I spend too much time on, what I can do to make things quicker while still maintaining good quality... Basically what I'm trying to say is that I think if you go into any sort of schedule for yourself, also have a plan and purpose set for it.
Andrew I love this style video! I don't even use Blender but these talking videos have been so helpful for me and I think could be helpful for anyone doing anything creative! More, I say! :D
Rather than go out spending money in the pub, I'm not saving loads and enjoying my time spent using blender and learning. Good advice, wish I'd discovered blender when I was younger. Onwards and upwards. Thanks for your vids and taking the time out to do them, I really appreciate it, always helpful.
I started learning blender in 2020 when I was 12 years old. It was so overwhelming to look at those buttons, but I kept going and watched blender guru, cg geek and cg fast track tutorials. And here I am, learning to create a minecraft scene.
Hey Andrew, what if I want to learn everything in blender. I don't have anything specific that I love the most but one thing I know is that I want to make animated shorts so I have to make everything in them like interior, exterior, characters, cars etc. So can I learn everything?
You are the best!!!I am 33 years old and I started to learn Blender just now! Never haven't experience with staff like this, but i believe in my self can doeth!! Sorry for my bad English;)
i tried to get into the industry long ago and i realized there's too much competition and it's too much work for mediocre pay. that's the truth of it. don't mean to crush your dreams. i make a little money off of selling a couple of models on turbosquid. but not much. there's too many models there as well. so really it never was more than a hobby, but i used those skills to make some game models for mods and indie games and that was fun i got paid as comish/freelance. that's what i have the most experience with in the end. it is also what pushes me to the edge the most as well. trying to represent a complex thing like a tree with realistic materials into a low tris model is very challenging. but it's not like it won't benefit me greatly. i have since moved onto indie game devving and let me tell you - most indie devs are terrible at art and 3d (they are terrible even at programming) and they don't have the cash to make it happen. so it's good if you are good with it and can make those for free with just spending your time. my advice is this - if you are set on learning 3d then try and make something that has a theme to it that you can profit from. for instance you could make a little movie or something. working for other people is the same that i experienced when i studied design in college and what other designers complain of. if you work for someone they will have 0 respect for you and they will want you to redesign stuff for them after you are done, for free. most people who hire you have no idea of design/3d design and they think they are paying you to make exactly what is on their mind. but if that's what you agree to then you will work 3x for 1x pay. if you still want to work for other people, then go to arch vis industry. your client will give you floorplans in autocad format and there's not much guesswork involved. you have to build the thing they designed, light it realistically and decorate inside, it's the least messy of the cgi work you can get IMO. game art is pretty rewarding as well if you want to work with a dev team. especially if you have a dedicated concept artist that the lead designer has already whipped in order to make his vision come to the page. i have also made animations for people, make their product in 3d, i worked for a big bottle manufacturer and i modeled their machines in 3d, animated their bottles inflating from little plastic tubes. that's also an ok, job to have it's more work but it pays a little better as well, but even those clients are anal. i remember making a realistic corkscrew design for their plastic bottles that you put the cap on, i did it with pathtrace on a spiral spline and modelled from there, but they wanted 2 and a half turns and the spiral going the other way. even though in the actual video you couldn't even tell. yea seriously. that's what's ahead of you. i have been close to strangling some people. also keep in mind that i started doing 3d when i was 12 in the year 1998. by the time i was 21 i could make anything but i still had to learn about physically based materials and that's when my renders became realistic, i purchased a course from zapp anderson who works at mental images he taught me how to make production quality stuff. by the time i was 24 i had pretty much completed my learning but i am 30 now and i'm working in a different field as i told you. still - i don't regret it. and i am sure you can learn faster, i struggled with some stupid stuff because there was nobody to teach us the proper ways sometimes back then. i spent countless hours and days tweaking materials that were never going to look good in the first place. i realized that when i learned from zap andersson "master zapp" and his course "production rendering techniques for mental ray", but it's the same information that blenderguru gives you in his 'PBR materials' and 'secret ingredient to photorealism' videos pretty much
This is very good advice basteagui and thank you for sharing your experiences. I feel the same as you do about earning cash at this. I think it is possible, but definitely is not easy. I hope others read your post. I myself use like it as an artistic outlet, something I would not be good at with contemporary mediums like paint, clay, paper, etc. :)
thanks for the comment Liana. i wish you good luck in your endeavors. i think even blenderguru knows about what i talked about which is why i suspect he got the idea to make these tutorials, and sells his rock essentials packs. he realized working as an employee is a raw deal. as for me i haven't given up on learning art. right now i am trying to become professional level at drawing and 2d art. my current mentor is youtube user istebrak. she's a great artist and teacher. at the end of the day that kind of 2d work and concept art has less competition and pays better but it's a craft that is like thousands of years old and you walk in the footsteps of artists who made the masterpieces in the museum. you just have to go and study hard.
OM MY GOT THIS IS SO RELATABLE, i just started learning blender about 8 months. and i just jumping from some tutorial to another toturial without finishing a single one. even tho everytime, i almost finish it. and now i just feel saturated, because there's nothing i finish, completely, in blender. so thank you so much for this video, i think will make target to finish one project this week. and i'll make sure to focus on what i'm doing right now.
when i heard from you, i thought wow so much same we are in a way how we perceive and understand "learning process" and other thing. I saw 7 habits of artists that are effective and i smiled because i have the same ideology and i could to say few things about you with watching only two vids that people can take you for granted around you but you know you can do that when you are really serious and that can happen anytime because you know how to do it. happens to me too.
I actually have another learning procedure: I start work on something, work every second I find, then at the end of each day I write down what I learned and take a look at the older version of my work again. If I realise that I dislike my improvements on my existing progress and learning, I move on. Not learning anything and not watching my stuff grow in large enough chunks is enough of a punishment already. And this is for programming, not graphical stuff at all! Trying to learn Blender now, I'm doing really good! Improved the cup and plate a bit with my messing around after watching your beginner tutorials. So.. yeah. Enjoy whatever this comment is, I guess..
That's a really interesting method to avoid those 'gumption traps' (Robert M. Persig) you talk of - getting stuck not making progress and losing energy. Identifying when it is happening is the hardest part. Diarising progress is a good way of identifying when it's happening. I'm also a coder and I can relate entirely to the feeling of 'this thing was better yesterday, I'm going backwards not forwards.' I really enjoy debugging though, so, I try to stick it out and fix it (probably not always healthy).
somsoc Yeah. And I always work everyday on one project - with one exception. If I get frustrated because something refuses to work, I leave it and work on something else for the time being. I sometimes put it off for too long, I'll admit, but at some point later I do force myself to come back to it. Going back fresh allows me to mess around with it and most of the time I go back to a project I had to delay, if I don't fix it in that one day, I end up dreaming the solution and fixing it in the next day. That's awesome.
Wait a minute...... . . . I am a curious teenager, was looking for some tutorials on 3d modeling and I saw this video. I clicked for no reason. and I heard his first advice. I stopped watching the video. And took note of what he said that we need to have a goal before learning something. A clear goal. So that we can choose "what to ignore". It was such an important mindset that I think it will stay forever in my mind and definitely would save me hundreds of hours in my life. I am writing this comment while watching the video. I am gonna resume it from 5:16 now.
As usual wonderful wonderful advice. I wonder how you could read minds of people like me ;). I have been following you for years now, and your posts are interesting every time. Thanks for identifying what's really needed and helpful as I am kind of a person who start something full of eager and then drop it soon and concentrate on something else ;). Also thanks for your time. You are my real graphics guru (Blender Guru). Keep up your wonderful work my friend.
I find myself in the exact same situation as first described by yourself in this video. I stumbled upon 3D artistry after looking into 3D printing. While it is said in this video that one often skips an important step in learning I think what is important to realize is that getting one's feet wet is probably necessary. All that time you spend looking up various tutorials helped to expand your understanding of the field and would eventually lead into setting up well-defined goals and learning. Previously I had no knowledge of what people actually did as a 3D artist. So, what do I do? I start randomly looking into whatever looks interesting. I see a few time-lapse videos. I see sort of stumble through very specific things I needed to solve. As this goes on I got a better understanding of some initials concepts of rigging, animation, sculpting, textures, materials, etc. Just briefly touching upon various topics to see all what is out there. Now that I have done this for a time I believe I have a better way to plan what I want to do. Say I want to be able to produce my own models for printing out on a 3D printer. With all that I have seen I think I need to go into learning more about box modeling and sculpting techniques. I need to learn more of the basics and workflow that can be used in generating humanoid shapes. Rigging seems important in order to be able to shape models into various poses I want to use. Material creation and texturing is nothing I believe I need to learn. However, some other topics such as very basic game design and animations would be rather cool. All in all, I believe I have a goal to work towards and can generate some structure to it. However, it was all based off the initial exploration into something completely new. Besides as I discover more about stuff I did not know I might find myself wanting to focus on something different since I never new it existed.
Great advice. I just want to add something to the last Tip that you mentioned. #7: Give yourself a Consequence. I want to change or update that one. I actually follow, Give yourself a reward for completing and a consequence for not completing. For example: After you complete the project you treat yourself for that ice cream that you really wanted or watch that movie in theaters that you really want to see. If you don't complete it you cannot watch that movie or have the ice cream, and must try again on the next project. The consequences are good for getting yourself moving quickly, but, it's not a great mentality for continuing forward and you teach your subconsciousness to move away from fear rather than towards desires. This can have negative consequences in the long run. Instead of running from what you don't want, reward yourself to achieve what you do want. When you learn this, you'll discover there is nothing to to fear but only to move closer to what you love. It's a part of self-discipline. I learned it from the book Self-Discipline in 10 Days by by Theodore Bryant, and from a variety of educational videos from Teal Swan on TH-cam. I hope this helps.
heh most of the books i write are full of "the best parts" with November being "National Novel Writing Month" or "NANOWRIMO" the premises of which is to hammer out a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of the month of November, it is great fun... go to nanowrimo.org for more info. --Rick
my short novels generally run between 60-88,000 words and i knock them out in around 30 days, you can tell a pretty good story in that amount of space without it seeming like trying to get through the first 100 pages of 'Lord of the rings' for me is is a fun hobby to keep me occupied. i generally do not do a lot of prep work, i may interview the main characters to get a feel for them you would be amazed what you will discover when talking to your main character (as you would a friend over coffee) you should try it! --Rick
rickcoona completely agree with the 50k novella story length. It's certainly a sweet spot for introductory books and YA. I'll definitely try the thought experiment on interviewing my characters to help flesh out their mannerisms and motives. I can get some depth to my predefined main characters, but they still seem a bit flat (not George Lucas flat, but flat) in my text (I do try to be overly critical of my manuscripts in editing)
You are so right about planning, I usually spend at leat an hour or 2 now gathering reference images, observing what I am modeling(if its a gun or something like that) and set myself a poly budget as well, I found that this has helped me tremendously. When I first started modeling I didn't plan at all and none of my models at first ever turned out how I wanted them to. With planning I have finally started getting the results I want.
A daily routine is definitely necessary. If you don't practice, you don't learn or improve...it's really that simple. So you have to decide if you are willing to sacrifice something, to gain the skills that you want. There is no getting around this, it takes a ton of dedication.
Totally agree on perfection. Perfectionism is a bad habit and hard one to break. As an accomplished 'real world' sculptor and painter and also a sound designer you have to know when to stop. Unwiring the part of the brain that tells you imperfections in your work are 'bugging you' is difficult but you have to retrain your mind that other people will never see your work the way you do. Being a perfectionist is a bad habit not a high standard.
My Goal Is To Achive A Realistic Character.Which Is Very Hard But I Will Do It.Blender Guru Helped Me Very Much In Realism."While You Render" A Good Intro.
Hey Blender Guru, I really like your videos, yet I kind of suck at Blender. My scenes are always dark, and my colors never look as bright as I want them to be. I sometimes end up with a horrible image and I don't know what I did wrong. Can you help me? Also, you forgot to add an (i) with the links you said.
You should do some tutorials first.. The master himself made a tutorial for lighting search for it also for color and other stuff.. did you finished the beginner series from blender guru?
max3Ds user but this should help out regardless 'My scenes are always dark' Learn about lightning 'my colors never look as bright as I want them to be' I'm not sure what you mean with colors so this could be various things -lighting, lightning does affect everything -learn about post processing your renders in either Blender, GIMP, Photo Affinity or if you can afford it Photoshop. 'I sometimes end up with a horrible image and I don't know what I did wrong' yeah ok so this is far to wide of a request but I can try some pointers. -if you have grainy renders , look up tutorials on rendering -If you're talking about color, composition and overall mood then you might want to look into basic art fundamentals or basic photography fundamentals. -if you're taking about things looking bad because the materials look bad then obvious go study materials. -once again, lightning can ruin everything so as I mentioned before; study lightning, study the tegnical side but also study lighting in art fundamentals (callback to Study Photography fundies) We can only give you so much advice without being able to see your stuff, join the Blender forum, post your work and request feedback. I still hope this was at least a bit helpful tho.
i use blender for multiple years. 1 tip i would give is read the manuel. i have ignored it for years and recently i desided to read it. and wow there where alot of things i dint know u could do. handy short cuts many tools. wich i probably never would have discoverd if I dint read the manuel.
I can 100% agree with point 5-6 and point 1 was even completely new to me. I've been drawing for around nine years now but I started to feel unhappier and unhappier with my art, not knowing whether I should become like a Blizzard artist or like an anime artist or something that combines both elements. I withdrew from all social media where I present myself as a creator but now I don't find any motivation at all anymore. However I could remember as a kid, as a beginner artist I had a specific style in mind that I love/d and adore/d and I always asked myself "Why doesn't any other artist draw like this? Why can't they satisfy my thirst for this specific style?" Now I try to tackle exactly THAT, even though it is extremely painful since the style I imagine requires a very high understanding of colour theory and rendering skills. I won't draw finished artworks until I have graduated from school (june 2019) but I want to play around, get a better grasp of how the style that would satisfy me is gonna look like and try to do art studies as daily as possible. Thanks for encouraging me! 😄👍🏻
I don't; though I would guess just record your screen with OBS, then edit it to only the glory kills in iMovie, PowerDirector, or some other video editing application.
I am a 16 years 3D and 2D artists and i have teach both for 7 years in college in the video game capital Montreal and i am seriously recommending to anyone who want to become a 3d artist to stay the hell out of this nightmare! If you are willing to have no social life(including girlfriend), if you are not interested in money and ready to accept being exploited by big or small studios with long hours without overtime being paid then you might like being a 3d artist. Working as a freelancer is also a nightmare since you will have to work for peanuts because of India cutting price since they use pirated version of software. Also as a freelancer you will have to work 7 days a week and up to 12 to 15 hours daily to meet your deadline. If i could go back in time in my life i would make sure i would have never touch a 3d software and i am deadly serious.
The industry work with 3ds max and Maya mostly and India,Russia and China have a long history of pirating these software and make money out of it.50% of the models you see on most big 3d models website are done with illegal software.
thanks a lot for all your videos and efforts trying to help us. Indeed you helped me a lot. Not only with Blender, also about topics like efficiency, general learning, English (its not my mother tongue), solving problems and so on. I think it was you who said: "Don't focus on the problem focus on the solutions!" It's so great. I wish you all the best and great success with all of your future and going on projects
I have no intention of being an artist in any capacity, but this advice is very good general advice for learning. I will apply it to learning a language!
17:32 Give yourself a consequence?… Really?. Well I do know how effective it is... But, I don't like that idea. Personally, Just because I know the consequences on my side on it. Yes it's effective. But don't do it too much, Especially If you don't get motivation from yourself, And if you don't have (something I learnt) called achievement system?. I know this is personal opinion, We are all different. ^^ But this subject hit very hard on me, I know it makes sense on a business Side. But Just because you want to bet on the guy who's going to Have a consequence, If he loses. But don't say the other guy, Is not going to do his best. Just because he hasn't a consequence. Some of us has sadly, Aggressive brain That will make us suffer if we don't do our best. And for me it's so bad I can't even have a job, (Without something bad happening) Anyway That's my personal opinion.. But just be careful. ^^ it will work, But don't do it too often
Yeah this one didn't chime with me either. I find that system pretty demotivating, and I try to be positive, so forcing myself to do something just because *something really bad* might happen if I don't is not healthy to me. I understand why that can be a strong motivator and good system for people who like extrinsic goals. But not for those of us who are all intrinsic. The only reason I make art is because I'm self-motivated, for whatever reason. It's purely internal, there's nothing external that can motivate me to make art, really (even if I'm cooperating on a project, if I don't want to work on it for my own reasons, what's the point?).
I can agree with you to a point. The negative consequence approach will not work for everyone. You need to know what type of person you are to figure that out for yourself. However, IMO, it will work for almost everyone, so I'd advise that you give it a try, and then decide if it really didn't work for you, or if there were more negative consequences (emotionally/mentally) than were initially estimated.
@General Sotheny I think that it can work if you are very motivated at the start of the project. The consequence should help you through the moments when things are getting hard and you are thinking about giving up. If you never had much motivation anyway then you should first figure out why you want to reach the goal that you had in mind.
If you don't work hard in life, you know that the punishment for that is becoming poor, having nothing to eat nor nowhere to live, from the moment we are born we are given consequences and pretty hard ones, so there's no harm in giving yourself one more consequence to keep you on track of your objectives.
Andrew, I have been following you for years, and I have to say that your professionalism is next to none. You make very valid points, and they're applicable to every day life. Videos like this are very inspiring. But even your video on color was very well researched, presented, and informative. Well done sir.
Rex Art I think he mentioned before that it was the classic gingerbread man, but if you mean like the first render without following a tutorial, then it might be another thing
I'm just starting to learn Blender and my biggest point I've taken away from a previous video which is reiterated in this one is to fit in small chunks where you can. Especially at the start when you're expecting to find a big chunk of time to sit down and go through various tutorials, you're better off just stealing a few minutes here and there. After you've got into the 'just a minute' mindset you find it so much easier to fit in another session. I also fully agree with the distractions point. When you can see what Blender does, you just want to jump in and do it yourself even if it has nothing to do with your area of interest. How exactly am I going to shoehorn this wrecking ball into my interior scene? I will say that each time you go through a tutorial, even if not entirely relevant, you get more fluent with the core controls and concepts. Loving the 'While you render' series. I'm going to make time to watch them in the future.
This helped me a lot. My first goal was to build a car because all of my friends build cars in Blender and export them into ROBLOX. I got ahead of myself and kept quitting and not taking the right approach. But now I'm learning one thing at a time and not rushing anything. The future looks promising.
So now, (5 month after watching that video the first time) I think I can say that a lot of the advice actually helped me! Thank you very much for that.
I just discover this channel a week ago (because I only started learning Blender now), and I feel like you're a really good talker, it's interesting to ear you!
Oh my goal is so important! You are so right! I almost quit blender and all this stuff when I learn lots and finished with *nothing* i returned lastly with something like goal and it's much much easier!
the fact that u started learning blender cause of a guy made a car and u saw him as an inspiration and now u're one of the pro blender users over the world , it's blowing the mind
Amazing. Thank you so much. I’ve just started on the path to become a 3D designer, or something in this field. I’m very conscious of where to go, where to aim. You’re a great guy to listen to. I really appreciate you videos. Plus, I love a good quote!
As a Videographer I would suggest that you take the camera you are using off auto focus and set the focus manually . Also when the volume of light coming into it is to low the focus can have trouble locking on to a subject. Be sure you save the settings so that the camera settings won't change when you turn the camera off and on.
hey there, sir, I'm Joseph and I'm 12 years old. I started to learn blender a few months ago and then I was doing the same thing you were doing when you got started. The thing which is to difficult for me to understand was rigging and animation. I used to take on projects too difficult that I just left them unfinished. but thanks to your advice I started to first learn the thing I hate-rigging and animation and I have improved a lot!thanks!
I would just like to share my little view on getting into blender (and how I got into it). We all know that blender has a quite steep initial learning curve since a-lot of the functions are solely bound to keyboard commands (even tho it's better now than back in 2.49 when I got into it). This steep learning curve however turns into a very efficient workflow for shaping a mesh compared to other programs like 3ds-max. ANYWAY, i couldn't model for s** for ages and just like you I wanted to make cars. I tried several programs: 3ds, milkshape, zmodeler etc but then a friend recommended Blender. Now I think the steep learning curve acts as a kind of "shell" which you need to crack. You gotta learn the essential commands and pretty much build them into your muscle memory which is why I think a vital part (at least for me) is to have someone to talk to and to ask questions. Essentially you need that little boost where you can just unload questions on a "mentor" to get over the initial incline, and once you're there at the point where you can make lego bricks and coffee cups, that's when the artistic aspect kicks in. Finally i think anyone who knows blender by this method including myself should return the favor and teach blender to people who wants to learn.
I touched on 3D at university when I studied multimedia technology but stupidly didn't pursue it, now it's many years on i've landed myself in pharmacy instead of design and feel like I've forgotten my creative skills. I recently downloaded blender and point one was very useful and made me realise I want to do character modeling/animation
I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to say thanks for the knowledge, wisdom, & guidance. Love the content and tutorials on this channel. Good karma to you, your family, and all the artists out there on their journey.
Ever read Johny Bunko? It sounds like your cup of tea. With regards to the tips, I've been doing a few, but I learned how to plan after getting counselling for problematic procrastination behaviour in college, so there's some previous experience there. Specific goals, had that for a while... one thing to remark, though, on the consequence thing: if you're a hobbyist artist, and can't afford to dedicate as much attention to it, staying motivated becomes kind of tricky. Besides that, Blender is not the only program to make art with. Some people (myself included) are learning several different things at a time. Actually, that might be a good question to answer for next time: *how do you juggle different learning curves in the same project?* Like, for example, a writer is working on a novel, but he wants to make his own cover art, too. So he wants to make art of his characters, to make sure he's got the visuals down when telling the story. He wants to use Inkscape to draw the basic forms and use Blender to make full-fledged characters. In the meantime, he's also still writing that novel. So for this one project, he's going to have to learn storytelling, vector drawing, and 3D modelling. Each one has its own curve. How do you handle that? Doesn't even need to go outside of Blender, actually. What if you're into character modelling, but you suck at materials and textures? You can't put a material or texture on something that doesn't exist yet. So how do you develop that skill, specifically? 'Coz I'm in that situation right now, and my best guess is to finish the model and rig first, and then make a dozen or so different colour schemes. It's an animal model, so basically using the Hasbro method of character creation there ^^
These are some very helpful tips, one I might also add is that it's important to have a ritual (although this fits into having a routine) My ritual is to do a self portrait every night before I go to bed, and so far I've not missed a single night over a month. Maybe that's a bit excessive (I'm sick of my face)
I kind of did a consequence thing, but instead, I did a reward for completing a goal. I've been highly anticipating the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild for years, and when I found out when it would be released, (along with the Nintendo Switch) I decided I was going to make that my reward for accomplishing my goal. My goal was to complete phase 1 of a game that a buddy and I started to work on. We needed to have something playable and testable so we could gather feedback and know what parts we should set in stone, and determine what needed to be changed. My buddy and I had 5 weeks to come up with the rough but playable product, it wasn't going to pretty, but it at least had to work and give the idea for the game. In these 5 weeks I prototyped the level designs, blocked things out, very rough models, basic colours, and set things up for how the game will work. My buddy is the programmer, so I'm mostly doing all the designing. Well, I was a couple days late for my side of the project, but I got to a point I thought was good, and wanted to call it done for phase 1, and move on to phase 2. My programming buddy is still a bit a ways off, so we haven't released the rough demo yet, but my side was done for now, so I got my reward of opening the Switch and playing Zelda after all that time. I gave the Switch and the game to my brother at his house to keep in his closet so I wouldn't be tempted to open it and make excuses, I had him to keep me accountable. And my wife, she does that well. Thought you'd appreciate an experience that goes along with punishing yourself for failing a goal. I love the concept, it definitely help you to run, and I got past the hardest part of the pipeline, the imagining, planning, thinking everything up, getting SOMETHING out. Now all I have to do is refine, learning how to texture well, etc, etc. This are going well! Thanks for the video, I LOVE your tips on motivation, staying on track, and being an effective learner and artist. Many, many thanks!
Andrew, first of all thanks for making this kind of videos they help a lot for any artist on diverse fields, I am trying to improve as a game developer but lately I have developed some sort of passion for 3D art and how it is created (using blender mainly), as I want to be an overall good developer on the artistic level too I would love to know how to properly create 2D art as well, for what I have seen on your presentation you improved a looot!!! in 2D art in a short amount of time, and as you make a reference to that in this video I wanted to ask you: >What were the main resources you used to improve? >Do you recommend any channel, guide or book? >And did you make the sketches on paper or using a tablet (such as wacom's)? (I know this questions are not related to blender so just by getting an answer on this comment I would be more than pleased) Sorry for the long comment, and possible grammatical errors, best of lucks with your projects and thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Andrew, helped a lot! I started learning Blender about 3 weeks ago. I watched the Absolute Beginner Tutorial by Jacob Lewis first and then went through your tutorial, where I found some new stuff to learn, like some shortcuts and working with particles. Printed your Keyboard Shortcuts PDF, too! Two days ago, I set my goal - making a robot for my friend's game (that's the reason I started learning Blender) within 2 months. The consequence is a month without youtube - for me, a 14 year old, that's true hell! :D Anyway, I've managed to set a schedule and I learn every afternoon. This video helped me realize some of the mistakes I do while learning - I'll fix those and hopefully I'll get better and complete my task!! :))
This is an old video but new people always float in for knowledge with blender. I agree with Guru 100% but want to recommend adding to his last suggestion. He is dead on when he says humans try and avoid pain and can motivate. 2 quick things to make it more effective imo. 1. If blender is a pain in the a*s you need to make sure the consequence you set up is worse/more painful with your psychology. Simply put...if you find paying out a grand is easier then the time and effort for your goal then that isn’t much motivation is it? He pretty much gave that in a roundabout way but it is worth reiterating. Number two and the reason I posted for. 2. In order to reinforce the first rule it can increase your motivation and commitment. That being the positive consequence(beyond the satisfaction of completing your goal) So when you finish what you started there should also be the pat on the back so to speak. Taking from the above and if you are okay financially, I would suggest still giving that $$ away to a charity you have emotion and believe in. Whether that’s to an animal shelter or a homeless shelter or anything in between. So not only are you high about completing the goal but also you get to help others because your hard work and dedication made it so. These two consequences can be drastically different than above. The important thing is one gives as much pain as possible and the latter as much pleasure. ( Be responsible, no hurting yourself or anything crazy like that) And lastly....GOOD LUCK! 🤗
I have a similar quote regarding time... "Work expands with time allotted." Give yourself an hour, it will take an hour. Give yourself two hours, it will take two hours.
Alright. 1. My long term goal is to make a short animated movie in a little fantasy world. 2-3 Minutes, some landscapes and 2 characters that fight a little bit with magic in a friendly duel. (y, kinda classic) 2. Alright, in general: - Get better in the basics so i dont need to think about every step for a couple seconds - Learn about Nature and hard surfaces. - learn about anatomy and different fighting styles. - learn basic modelling for characters - learn how to do special effects such as water bending, fire bending, psychic abilities or whatever i will decide on once im there. - Read the books the people i admire told me to read for inspiration and learning purposes. - find out more about people who did animated videos like that, how did the people from dreamworks for example learn? - Finish the project, get cookies and be proud. 3. Thats goin to be hard since im not home every day but i will make it a "every day im home routine". 4. Will be tough to not be a perfectionist (cause im rly good at being exactly that) but moving on will probably be better. 5. That will suck but it needs to be done. 6. Sure, i love my hopes and dreams getting crushed. Best way to improve tho. 7. Selling my stuff chosen by someone different. Good luck to the rest (i know im late)
Really great video. I have wanted to make all sorts of art since I was little, but a lack of schedule and clearly defined goal led to procrastination. I'm now 30 and only now I'm taking 2D and 3D art seriously, while still an absolute beginner it's amazing how focused attention and allocated timeslots for actual work make you improve in short amounts of time.
I love the reason you started and the idea you had bro. "I'm gonna learn this software until I can make that car" And this video also explains you donut series
Even though I have yet to start Blender and currently just doing 2D art, you still motivate me greatly, even whenever I don't feel like drawing at all. Yer awesome, man. Thanks a lot.
One challenge I'm doing now isn't "How do I do X?" but getting better by figuring out "How do I do X faster?" Learning ways to take advantage of fast selection, using tools that take care of multiple steps at once, and replication or copy-paste type work. (I have most of that down.) It's trickier when adapting your workflow to take care of most repetitive elements early, as it speeds things up by a lot. (So UV mapping one component before you duplicate it in a model, rather than dealing with a dozen later on.) Trying to think ahead like that is mostly specific to modeling, but given the stuff in Blender it may apply to other areas too.
This video applies to so many things, not just Blender. Great job Andrew with this video! It made me think about my previous work in Photoshop and map-making for Counter-Strike:Source. It is really the same thing and the way you described this made motivated to get some REAL work done. There's a Photoshop WIP that i've been postponing for the longest time and i gonna take your advice and set some goals and consequences if i don't succeed.
This was so helpful, I'm a very lazy person so the 'give yourself a deadline' thing really stuck out to me. It's all super helpful tbh, thank you so much! 💛
I've done 2D animation for a while now and have recently started trying Blender, and this is all very good (and applicable) advice. I'm glad you mention that it's not specifically for Blender because I recognize a lot of it from my own 2D learning curve. (Thanks for all these videos btw!)
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi Andrew, I'm turning 70 and I am still trying to learn Blender. I just want to tell you that I listen very carefully to your sound advice. In fact, my children do not care at all about Blender, but I am still forwarding your advices to them, because they apply to anything... Thanks a lot, really!
How are you progressing?
@@ianohlinger1330 He might be dead
@@makskocemba2608 bruh
@@makskocemba2608 my man...calm.
He is 75 now.
tl;dw:
*#1 Set a clearly defined goal* (Set a goal and some restrictions, be focused and don't jump around tutorials forever)
*#2 Deconstruct* that goal and figure out how you are going to get there
*#3 Set a practice routine* (Do this a little every day)
*#4 Set a release schedule* and stick to it. Don't be perfectionist, move on
*#5 Find and attack your weaknesses*
*#6 Get critiques* especially from people in the industry
*#7 Give yourself a consequence* if you don't reach your goal.
"wekness" weakness
Suppenfischeintopf Thank youu! Weakness* btw :P
mind if i copy your notes? xD
Not really
Suppenfischeintopf thanks
11:25 - _"Art is never finished, only abandoned."_ - Da Vinci
Andrew must pin this
Okay if I don't release my game on steam by 2018 I'll cut one of my fingers off, Thank you.
Edit: I didn't release my game nor did I successfully cut my fingers off, although I am still programming because I love it.
umm well that would be motivating but... maybe you have gone too far.
Rodshakker vids: render times are ouch!
So how is your game going for you? (:
(For real... I really wanna know!).
I'm learning to makes games me self and I'm interested in your game (:
Good i guess. I'm currently working on a item/inventory system. how ever i don't have a lot of time too work on it.
Mike Mortensen I taught my self how to make games, since i was 13 I'm now nearly 18 so yeah though it should be noted it was only when i found unity i became quite good.
Clicked on the video while rendering. The name is spot on!
Mhm.. i should upgrade my pc so i can do it too...
EarthEaterEE But you PC shouldn't be too fast lol
do I have to know art to be a good animator ???
Shimul Hp Do you only want to animate characters? Or do you also want to model a complete scene?
.vex[E] I am a complete beginner, can you please give me suggestions which one will good for me?
Thank you! very helpful and motivating. For anyone who wants to re-cap or look back on a concept.
3:02 #1 Set a clearly defined goal
“ The easiest way to avoid being overwhelmed is to create positive constraints: put up walls that dramatically restrict whatever it is that you’re trying to do.” Tim Ferriss, the 4-hour chef
5:14 #2 Deconstruct…. the process that you are follow to get towards your goal.
7:05 #3 Set a practice routine
9:30 #4 Set a release schedule
13:23 #5 Find and attack your weaknesses
15:30 #6 Get Critiques
17:38 #7 Give yourself a consequence
I'm 17 now and started learning when I was 15. I learned most of the stuff I know now from you, Andrew and I can see my improvement from when I started. I think my biggest flaw/weakness is that I want to learn everything quickly and I lose motivation on the process. I'm working on it and I know I'll get there eventually
After 3 year of this video inspired me a lot."Thank you"
I am so happy to find your channel in TH-cam, and now I watch your all videos one by one.
I have been working for *quite a few years* on attacking my main weakness:
Spending too much time trying to solve a single thing.
the way you say "walking like a child", that moment the words connects to me.
You are really a good teacher. Best of luck buddy
I'd really love it if you would upload more of your personal work, maybe a timelapse of a project of yours.
It would also be interesting to see a video where YOU try something new and show us how you tackle new problems on the go,
even if the vids are longer, i doubt anyone would mind :)
I know this is older now... but man... what a great and approachable communicator and teacher. Yer a natural and your enthusiasm is really key to your success online.
When you talk about the ''perfectionnist time'' vs the practical time, there's actually something called the Pareto Principle, which (basically) states that 20% of the work (or 20% of the time) is responsible for 80% of the results, and inversly, 80% of the work/time spent translates to 20% of the results. This is a good principle to keep in mind.
There is so much to learn on Blender its insane. I want to learn all the functions, but I have been learning for a week and just realized there is so much more to learn.
i am not interested anything about blender but this is motivating me so much
Just Do It!!!
Blender is really fun.
so far, i can't set my goals properly. Sometimes lost and wonder around
Welp! Andrew just said the daily idea isn't good. However, I'd like to say I'm doing that for practice. I didn't go into blindly. I had a plan set that will last only 7 days. Day 1: Practice microdisplacement. Day 2: Practice different lighting schemes. Day 3: Practice volumetric lighting. Day 4: Practice texturing. Day 5: Post-processing... you get the idea. I can say that it has helped A LOT. I'm discovering my strong points, my weaknesses, what I spend too much time on, what I can do to make things quicker while still maintaining good quality...
Basically what I'm trying to say is that I think if you go into any sort of schedule for yourself, also have a plan and purpose set for it.
Andrew I love this style video! I don't even use Blender but these talking videos have been so helpful for me and I think could be helpful for anyone doing anything creative! More, I say! :D
Rather than go out spending money in the pub, I'm not saving loads and enjoying my time spent using blender and learning. Good advice, wish I'd discovered blender when I was younger. Onwards and upwards. Thanks for your vids and taking the time out to do them, I really appreciate it, always helpful.
The next video should be called "Note for the post apocalyptic environment guy."
You were 3 years early
Obviously this particular comment did not age well
Lol
This is so true and surprisingly, I don’t see anyone else talking about this problem of not being focused on one thing. Thanks for the video.
Dude, I love Blender Guru.
"While You Render"
What a great name.
I started learning blender in 2020 when I was 12 years old. It was so overwhelming to look at those buttons, but I kept going and watched blender guru, cg geek and cg fast track tutorials. And here I am, learning to create a minecraft scene.
"While You Render"
Nice one! That intro though :p
When he said that title, I looked down and blender was rendering. I was like oh crap how did he know
DH Shawon I've been a huge fan of yours since I was 12 fam
Hey Andrew, what if I want to learn everything in blender. I don't have anything specific that I love the most but one thing I know is that I want to make animated shorts so I have to make everything in them like interior, exterior, characters, cars etc. So can I learn everything?
@@shvenanaij i have the same question lol and im gonna do it
You are the best!!!I am 33 years old and I started to learn Blender just now! Never haven't experience with staff like this, but i believe in my self can doeth!! Sorry for my bad English;)
well my goal was to know everything. it took 12 years but i did it
okay and are you now earning money with it? or was it just for fun?
Cool. So, are you working in the industry, or just a hobbist?
i tried to get into the industry long ago and i realized there's too much competition and it's too much work for mediocre pay. that's the truth of it. don't mean to crush your dreams. i make a little money off of selling a couple of models on turbosquid. but not much. there's too many models there as well.
so really it never was more than a hobby, but i used those skills to make some game models for mods and indie games and that was fun i got paid as comish/freelance. that's what i have the most experience with in the end. it is also what pushes me to the edge the most as well. trying to represent a complex thing like a tree with realistic materials into a low tris model is very challenging.
but it's not like it won't benefit me greatly. i have since moved onto indie game devving and let me tell you - most indie devs are terrible at art and 3d (they are terrible even at programming) and they don't have the cash to make it happen. so it's good if you are good with it and can make those for free with just spending your time.
my advice is this - if you are set on learning 3d then try and make something that has a theme to it that you can profit from. for instance you could make a little movie or something. working for other people is the same that i experienced when i studied design in college and what other designers complain of. if you work for someone they will have 0 respect for you and they will want you to redesign stuff for them after you are done, for free. most people who hire you have no idea of design/3d design and they think they are paying you to make exactly what is on their mind. but if that's what you agree to then you will work 3x for 1x pay.
if you still want to work for other people, then go to arch vis industry. your client will give you floorplans in autocad format and there's not much guesswork involved. you have to build the thing they designed, light it realistically and decorate inside, it's the least messy of the cgi work you can get IMO.
game art is pretty rewarding as well if you want to work with a dev team. especially if you have a dedicated concept artist that the lead designer has already whipped in order to make his vision come to the page.
i have also made animations for people, make their product in 3d, i worked for a big bottle manufacturer and i modeled their machines in 3d, animated their bottles inflating from little plastic tubes. that's also an ok, job to have it's more work but it pays a little better as well, but even those clients are anal. i remember making a realistic corkscrew design for their plastic bottles that you put the cap on, i did it with pathtrace on a spiral spline and modelled from there, but they wanted 2 and a half turns and the spiral going the other way. even though in the actual video you couldn't even tell. yea seriously. that's what's ahead of you. i have been close to strangling some people.
also keep in mind that i started doing 3d when i was 12 in the year 1998. by the time i was 21 i could make anything but i still had to learn about physically based materials and that's when my renders became realistic, i purchased a course from zapp anderson who works at mental images he taught me how to make production quality stuff. by the time i was 24 i had pretty much completed my learning but i am 30 now and i'm working in a different field as i told you.
still - i don't regret it. and i am sure you can learn faster, i struggled with some stupid stuff because there was nobody to teach us the proper ways sometimes back then. i spent countless hours and days tweaking materials that were never going to look good in the first place. i realized that when i learned from zap andersson "master zapp" and his course "production rendering techniques for mental ray", but it's the same information that blenderguru gives you in his 'PBR materials' and 'secret ingredient to photorealism' videos pretty much
This is very good advice basteagui and thank you for sharing your experiences. I feel the same as you do about earning cash at this. I think it is possible, but definitely is not easy. I hope others read your post. I myself use like it as an artistic outlet, something I would not be good at with contemporary mediums like paint, clay, paper, etc. :)
thanks for the comment Liana. i wish you good luck in your endeavors.
i think even blenderguru knows about what i talked about which is why i suspect he got the idea to make these tutorials, and sells his rock essentials packs. he realized working as an employee is a raw deal.
as for me i haven't given up on learning art. right now i am trying to become professional level at drawing and 2d art. my current mentor is youtube user istebrak. she's a great artist and teacher.
at the end of the day that kind of 2d work and concept art has less competition and pays better but it's a craft that is like thousands of years old and you walk in the footsteps of artists who made the masterpieces in the museum. you just have to go and study hard.
OM MY GOT THIS IS SO RELATABLE, i just started learning blender about 8 months. and i just jumping from some tutorial to another toturial without finishing a single one. even tho everytime, i almost finish it. and now i just feel saturated, because there's nothing i finish, completely, in blender.
so thank you so much for this video, i think will make target to finish one project this week. and i'll make sure to focus on what i'm doing right now.
These advice tutorials with tips and tricks they always inspire me, that I want to learn more
when i heard from you, i thought wow so much same we are in a way how we perceive and understand "learning process" and other thing. I saw 7 habits of artists that are effective and i smiled because i have the same ideology and i could to say few things about you with watching only two vids that people can take you for granted around you but you know you can do that when you are really serious and that can happen anytime because you know how to do it. happens to me too.
I actually have another learning procedure: I start work on something, work every second I find, then at the end of each day I write down what I learned and take a look at the older version of my work again. If I realise that I dislike my improvements on my existing progress and learning, I move on. Not learning anything and not watching my stuff grow in large enough chunks is enough of a punishment already. And this is for programming, not graphical stuff at all! Trying to learn Blender now, I'm doing really good! Improved the cup and plate a bit with my messing around after watching your beginner tutorials.
So.. yeah. Enjoy whatever this comment is, I guess..
I actually took a mug from my kitchen for reference.
That's a really interesting method to avoid those 'gumption traps' (Robert M. Persig) you talk of - getting stuck not making progress and losing energy. Identifying when it is happening is the hardest part. Diarising progress is a good way of identifying when it's happening.
I'm also a coder and I can relate entirely to the feeling of 'this thing was better yesterday, I'm going backwards not forwards.' I really enjoy debugging though, so, I try to stick it out and fix it (probably not always healthy).
somsoc Yeah. And I always work everyday on one project - with one exception. If I get frustrated because something refuses to work, I leave it and work on something else for the time being. I sometimes put it off for too long, I'll admit, but at some point later I do force myself to come back to it. Going back fresh allows me to mess around with it and most of the time I go back to a project I had to delay, if I don't fix it in that one day, I end up dreaming the solution and fixing it in the next day. That's awesome.
somsoc Of course, I keep track of the time I had as well, to keep things proportional.
Wait a minute......
.
.
.
I am a curious teenager, was looking for some tutorials on 3d modeling and I saw this video. I clicked for no reason. and I heard his first advice. I stopped watching the video. And took note of what he said that we need to have a goal before learning something. A clear goal. So that we can choose "what to ignore". It was such an important mindset that I think it will stay forever in my mind and definitely would save me hundreds of hours in my life. I am writing this comment while watching the video. I am gonna resume it from 5:16 now.
As usual wonderful wonderful advice. I wonder how you could read minds of people like me ;). I have been following you for years now, and your posts are interesting every time. Thanks for identifying what's really needed and helpful as I am kind of a person who start something full of eager and then drop it soon and concentrate on something else ;). Also thanks for your time. You are my real graphics guru (Blender Guru). Keep up your wonderful work my friend.
I find myself in the exact same situation as first described by yourself in this video. I stumbled upon 3D artistry after looking into 3D printing. While it is said in this video that one often skips an important step in learning I think what is important to realize is that getting one's feet wet is probably necessary. All that time you spend looking up various tutorials helped to expand your understanding of the field and would eventually lead into setting up well-defined goals and learning.
Previously I had no knowledge of what people actually did as a 3D artist. So, what do I do? I start randomly looking into whatever looks interesting. I see a few time-lapse videos. I see sort of stumble through very specific things I needed to solve. As this goes on I got a better understanding of some initials concepts of rigging, animation, sculpting, textures, materials, etc. Just briefly touching upon various topics to see all what is out there. Now that I have done this for a time I believe I have a better way to plan what I want to do.
Say I want to be able to produce my own models for printing out on a 3D printer. With all that I have seen I think I need to go into learning more about box modeling and sculpting techniques. I need to learn more of the basics and workflow that can be used in generating humanoid shapes. Rigging seems important in order to be able to shape models into various poses I want to use. Material creation and texturing is nothing I believe I need to learn. However, some other topics such as very basic game design and animations would be rather cool.
All in all, I believe I have a goal to work towards and can generate some structure to it. However, it was all based off the initial exploration into something completely new. Besides as I discover more about stuff I did not know I might find myself wanting to focus on something different since I never new it existed.
"give yourself a consequence"
Rock lee already taught me this 8)
@RealTimeX Rock Lee is a simp
Andrew summed up my learning habits for the past 4 years in 4 minutes... I always tend to have to relearn the basics.... legend
Me : Rendering, checks youtube
Blender Guru : *WHILE YOU RENDER* segment
Great advice. I just want to add something to the last Tip that you mentioned. #7: Give yourself a Consequence. I want to change or update that one. I actually follow, Give yourself a reward for completing and a consequence for not completing.
For example: After you complete the project you treat yourself for that ice cream that you really wanted or watch that movie in theaters that you really want to see. If you don't complete it you cannot watch that movie or have the ice cream, and must try again on the next project. The consequences are good for getting yourself moving quickly, but, it's not a great mentality for continuing forward and you teach your subconsciousness to move away from fear rather than towards desires. This can have negative consequences in the long run. Instead of running from what you don't want, reward yourself to achieve what you do want. When you learn this, you'll discover there is nothing to to fear but only to move closer to what you love. It's a part of self-discipline. I learned it from the book Self-Discipline in 10 Days by by Theodore Bryant, and from a variety of educational videos from Teal Swan on TH-cam.
I hope this helps.
like writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days...
easy when you write 1,667 words a day.
set a goal, and knock it out.
--Rick
And if you want to write a good book, you probably have to write 10000 words and keep the best parts.
heh most of the books i write are full of "the best parts" with November being "National Novel Writing Month" or "NANOWRIMO" the premises of which is to hammer out a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of the month of November, it is great fun... go to nanowrimo.org for more info.
--Rick
10,000 or 100,000? :D
my short novels generally run between 60-88,000 words and i knock them out in around 30 days, you can tell a pretty good story in that amount of space without it seeming like trying to get through the first 100 pages of 'Lord of the rings' for me is is a fun hobby to keep me occupied.
i generally do not do a lot of prep work, i may interview the main characters to get a feel for them you would be amazed what you will discover when talking to your main character (as you would a friend over coffee) you should try it!
--Rick
rickcoona completely agree with the 50k novella story length. It's certainly a sweet spot for introductory books and YA.
I'll definitely try the thought experiment on interviewing my characters to help flesh out their mannerisms and motives. I can get some depth to my predefined main characters, but they still seem a bit flat (not George Lucas flat, but flat) in my text (I do try to be overly critical of my manuscripts in editing)
"while you render"
*punches the air*
got it in one!
You are so right about planning, I usually spend at leat an hour or 2 now gathering reference images, observing what I am modeling(if its a gun or something like that) and set myself a poly budget as well, I found that this has helped me tremendously. When I first started modeling I didn't plan at all and none of my models at first ever turned out how I wanted them to. With planning I have finally started getting the results I want.
My question is : When you want to reproduce the spirit of a film in a 3D render, how do you do ?
A daily routine is definitely necessary. If you don't practice, you don't learn or improve...it's really that simple. So you have to decide if you are willing to sacrifice something, to gain the skills that you want. There is no getting around this, it takes a ton of dedication.
Thank you for motivational boost!😊
sujanith tottempudi hello mate...do u have any idea about making fps cutsenses?(like in doom 4 glory kills)
Totally agree on perfection. Perfectionism is a bad habit and hard one to break. As an accomplished 'real world' sculptor and painter and also a sound designer you have to know when to stop. Unwiring the part of the brain that tells you imperfections in your work are 'bugging you' is difficult but you have to retrain your mind that other people will never see your work the way you do. Being a perfectionist is a bad habit not a high standard.
¨go play overwatch for the next 5 hours¨, lol right in the eye
I am just now starting to learn Blender, 1 week in. Glad to have such good advice available
I really like the way your mouth slants
Shahzaib Khan m8 r u srs? wtf
he's entitled to his opinion bro
Shahzaib Khan Great. Your project is to model his head ;)
Yeah, it’s pretty cute
Shahzaib Khan This is the creepiest, gayest, weirdest, yet still complementary comment I’ve ever read.
My Goal Is To Achive A Realistic Character.Which Is Very Hard But I Will Do It.Blender Guru Helped Me Very Much In Realism."While You Render" A Good Intro.
Hey Blender Guru, I really like your videos, yet I kind of suck at Blender. My scenes are always dark, and my colors never look as bright as I want them to be. I sometimes end up with a horrible image and I don't know what I did wrong. Can you help me?
Also, you forgot to add an (i) with the links you said.
have you seen this: The Secret Ingredient to Photorealism?
You should do some tutorials first.. The master himself made a tutorial for lighting search for it also for color and other stuff.. did you finished the beginner series from blender guru?
Pentox you should use the filmic blender color space. watch the secret of photorealism
Pentox you should use the filmic blender color space. watch the secret of photorealism
max3Ds user but this should help out regardless
'My scenes are always dark'
Learn about lightning
'my colors never look as bright as I want them to be'
I'm not sure what you mean with colors so this could be various things
-lighting, lightning does affect everything
-learn about post processing your renders in either Blender, GIMP, Photo Affinity or if you can afford it Photoshop.
'I sometimes end up with a horrible image and I don't know what I did wrong'
yeah ok so this is far to wide of a request but I can try some pointers.
-if you have grainy renders , look up tutorials on rendering
-If you're talking about color, composition and overall mood then you might want to look into basic art fundamentals or basic photography fundamentals.
-if you're taking about things looking bad because the materials look bad then obvious go study materials.
-once again, lightning can ruin everything so as I mentioned before; study lightning, study the tegnical side but also study lighting in art fundamentals (callback to Study Photography fundies)
We can only give you so much advice without being able to see your stuff, join the Blender forum, post your work and request feedback. I still hope this was at least a bit helpful tho.
i use blender for multiple years.
1 tip i would give is read the manuel.
i have ignored it for years and recently i desided to read it. and wow there where alot of things i dint know u could do. handy short cuts many tools. wich i probably never would have discoverd if I dint read the manuel.
Holy shit. Blender is almost 22 ½ years old! It existed before Toy Story was released!
I can 100% agree with point 5-6 and point 1 was even completely new to me.
I've been drawing for around nine years now but I started to feel unhappier and unhappier with my art, not knowing whether I should become like a Blizzard artist or like an anime artist or something that combines both elements. I withdrew from all social media where I present myself as a creator but now I don't find any motivation at all anymore.
However I could remember as a kid, as a beginner artist I had a specific style in mind that I love/d and adore/d and I always asked myself "Why doesn't any other artist draw like this? Why can't they satisfy my thirst for this specific style?"
Now I try to tackle exactly THAT, even though it is extremely painful since the style I imagine requires a very high understanding of colour theory and rendering skills.
I won't draw finished artworks until I have graduated from school (june 2019) but I want to play around, get a better grasp of how the style that would satisfy me is gonna look like and try to do art studies as daily as possible.
Thanks for encouraging me! 😄👍🏻
What would be a CPU or graphics card that would be good specifically for Blender?
Flimsy Fox hello mate...do u have any idea about making fps cutsenses?(like in doom 4 glory kills)
I don't; though I would guess just record your screen with OBS, then edit it to only the glory kills in iMovie, PowerDirector, or some other video editing application.
These are life goals...not just for learning blender. Thank you so much for this practical advice
I am a 16 years 3D and 2D artists and i have teach both for 7 years in college in the video game capital Montreal and i am seriously recommending to anyone who want to become a 3d artist to stay the hell out of this nightmare! If you are willing to have no social life(including girlfriend), if you are not interested in money and ready to accept being exploited by big or small studios with long hours without overtime being paid then you might like being a 3d artist. Working as a freelancer is also a nightmare since you will have to work for peanuts because of India cutting price since they use pirated version of software. Also as a freelancer you will have to work 7 days a week and up to 12 to 15 hours daily to meet your deadline. If i could go back in time in my life i would make sure i would have never touch a 3d software and i am deadly serious.
I doubt indians use a pirated version of blender..
The industry work with 3ds max and Maya mostly and India,Russia and China have a long history of pirating these software and make money out of it.50% of the models you see on most big 3d models website are done with illegal software.
That’s kinda... gross
thanks a lot for all your videos and efforts trying to help us. Indeed you helped me a lot. Not only with Blender, also about topics like efficiency, general learning, English (its not my mother tongue), solving problems and so on. I think it was you who said: "Don't focus on the problem focus on the solutions!" It's so great. I wish you all the best and great success with all of your future and going on projects
in conclusion, Andrew plays Overwatch
Andrew, this video is really helpful. It is simple, but unless someone is already doing these things it is really valuable. Thanks!
I want to know everything about NodeEditor
Youll never know everything but that's a good attitude :)
I love the node editer so much.... look up gleb alexandrov he does some great tutorials in the node editor
I have no intention of being an artist in any capacity, but this advice is very good general advice for learning. I will apply it to learning a language!
17:32 Give yourself a consequence?… Really?. Well I do know how effective it is... But, I don't like that idea. Personally, Just because I know the consequences on my side on it. Yes it's effective. But don't do it too much, Especially If you don't get motivation from yourself, And if you don't have (something I learnt) called achievement system?.
I know this is personal opinion, We are all different. ^^ But this subject hit very hard on me, I know it makes sense on a business Side.
But Just because you want to bet on the guy who's going to Have a consequence, If he loses. But don't say the other guy, Is not going to do his best. Just because he hasn't a consequence. Some of us has sadly, Aggressive brain That will make us suffer if we don't do our best.
And for me it's so bad I can't even have a job, (Without something bad happening) Anyway
That's my personal opinion.. But just be careful. ^^ it will work, But don't do it too often
Yeah this one didn't chime with me either. I find that system pretty demotivating, and I try to be positive, so forcing myself to do something just because *something really bad* might happen if I don't is not healthy to me. I understand why that can be a strong motivator and good system for people who like extrinsic goals. But not for those of us who are all intrinsic.
The only reason I make art is because I'm self-motivated, for whatever reason. It's purely internal, there's nothing external that can motivate me to make art, really (even if I'm cooperating on a project, if I don't want to work on it for my own reasons, what's the point?).
I can agree with you to a point. The negative consequence approach will not work for everyone. You need to know what type of person you are to figure that out for yourself. However, IMO, it will work for almost everyone, so I'd advise that you give it a try, and then decide if it really didn't work for you, or if there were more negative consequences (emotionally/mentally) than were initially estimated.
@General Sotheny I think that it can work if you are very motivated at the start of the project. The consequence should help you through the moments when things are getting hard and you are thinking about giving up. If you never had much motivation anyway then you should first figure out why you want to reach the goal that you had in mind.
If you don't work hard in life, you know that the punishment for that is becoming poor, having nothing to eat nor nowhere to live, from the moment we are born we are given consequences and pretty hard ones, so there's no harm in giving yourself one more consequence to keep you on track of your objectives.
Andrew, I have been following you for years, and I have to say that your professionalism is next to none. You make very valid points, and they're applicable to every day life. Videos like this are very inspiring. But even your video on color was very well researched, presented, and informative. Well done sir.
What was your very first Blender render?
Rex Art I think he mentioned before that it was the classic gingerbread man, but if you mean like the first render without following a tutorial, then it might be another thing
I'm just starting to learn Blender and my biggest point I've taken away from a previous video which is reiterated in this one is to fit in small chunks where you can. Especially at the start when you're expecting to find a big chunk of time to sit down and go through various tutorials, you're better off just stealing a few minutes here and there. After you've got into the 'just a minute' mindset you find it so much easier to fit in another session.
I also fully agree with the distractions point. When you can see what Blender does, you just want to jump in and do it yourself even if it has nothing to do with your area of interest. How exactly am I going to shoehorn this wrecking ball into my interior scene? I will say that each time you go through a tutorial, even if not entirely relevant, you get more fluent with the core controls and concepts.
Loving the 'While you render' series. I'm going to make time to watch them in the future.
This helped me a lot. My first goal was to build a car because all of my friends build cars in Blender and export them into ROBLOX. I got ahead of myself and kept quitting and not taking the right approach. But now I'm learning one thing at a time and not rushing anything. The future looks promising.
So now, (5 month after watching that video the first time) I think I can say that a lot of the advice actually helped me! Thank you very much for that.
I just discover this channel a week ago (because I only started learning Blender now), and I feel like you're a really good talker, it's interesting to ear you!
Oh my goal is so important! You are so right! I almost quit blender and all this stuff when I learn lots and finished with *nothing* i returned lastly with something like goal and it's much much easier!
So happy you chose my question Andrew, much appreciated!
the fact that u started learning blender cause of a guy made a car and u saw him as an inspiration and now u're one of the pro blender users over the world , it's blowing the mind
usually I don't take advices seriously but this is actually a good one and I will keep this in mind
Amazing. Thank you so much.
I’ve just started on the path to become a 3D designer, or something in this field. I’m very conscious of where to go, where to aim.
You’re a great guy to listen to. I really appreciate you videos.
Plus, I love a good quote!
As a Videographer I would suggest that you take the camera you are using off auto focus and set the focus manually . Also when the volume of light coming into it is to low the focus can have trouble locking on to a subject. Be sure you save the settings so that the camera settings won't change when you turn the camera off and on.
hey there, sir, I'm Joseph and I'm 12 years old. I started to learn blender a few months ago and then I was doing the same thing you were doing when you got started. The thing which is to difficult for me to understand was rigging and animation. I used to take on projects too difficult that I just left them unfinished. but thanks to your advice I started to first learn the thing I hate-rigging and animation and I have improved a lot!thanks!
I would just like to share my little view on getting into blender (and how I got into it).
We all know that blender has a quite steep initial learning curve since a-lot of the functions are solely bound to keyboard commands (even tho it's better now than back in 2.49 when I got into it). This steep learning curve however turns into a very efficient workflow for shaping a mesh compared to other programs like 3ds-max.
ANYWAY, i couldn't model for s** for ages and just like you I wanted to make cars. I tried several programs: 3ds, milkshape, zmodeler etc but then a friend recommended Blender. Now I think the steep learning curve acts as a kind of "shell" which you need to crack. You gotta learn the essential commands and pretty much build them into your muscle memory which is why I think a vital part (at least for me) is to have someone to talk to and to ask questions. Essentially you need that little boost where you can just unload questions on a "mentor" to get over the initial incline, and once you're there at the point where you can make lego bricks and coffee cups, that's when the artistic aspect kicks in.
Finally i think anyone who knows blender by this method including myself should return the favor and teach blender to people who wants to learn.
One piece advice that worked for me, above all what he said: Learn "Just in Time" instead of "Just in Case" - (from Kathy Sierra)
Wow what great advice. The best part is it applies to more then learning Blender, but rather learning anything. Keep up the great videos.
I touched on 3D at university when I studied multimedia technology but stupidly didn't pursue it, now it's many years on i've landed myself in pharmacy instead of design and feel like I've forgotten my creative skills. I recently downloaded blender and point one was very useful and made me realise I want to do character modeling/animation
Thanks, excellent! I've been stuck in the jumping around stage for way too long (too much fun). You have nailed it.
I know this is an old post, but I just wanted to say thanks for the knowledge, wisdom, & guidance. Love the content and tutorials on this channel. Good karma to you, your family, and all the artists out there on their journey.
Ever read Johny Bunko? It sounds like your cup of tea.
With regards to the tips, I've been doing a few, but I learned how to plan after getting counselling for problematic procrastination behaviour in college, so there's some previous experience there.
Specific goals, had that for a while... one thing to remark, though, on the consequence thing: if you're a hobbyist artist, and can't afford to dedicate as much attention to it, staying motivated becomes kind of tricky. Besides that, Blender is not the only program to make art with. Some people (myself included) are learning several different things at a time.
Actually, that might be a good question to answer for next time: *how do you juggle different learning curves in the same project?* Like, for example, a writer is working on a novel, but he wants to make his own cover art, too. So he wants to make art of his characters, to make sure he's got the visuals down when telling the story. He wants to use Inkscape to draw the basic forms and use Blender to make full-fledged characters. In the meantime, he's also still writing that novel. So for this one project, he's going to have to learn storytelling, vector drawing, and 3D modelling. Each one has its own curve. How do you handle that?
Doesn't even need to go outside of Blender, actually. What if you're into character modelling, but you suck at materials and textures? You can't put a material or texture on something that doesn't exist yet. So how do you develop that skill, specifically? 'Coz I'm in that situation right now, and my best guess is to finish the model and rig first, and then make a dozen or so different colour schemes. It's an animal model, so basically using the Hasbro method of character creation there ^^
These are some very helpful tips, one I might also add is that it's important to have a ritual (although this fits into having a routine) My ritual is to do a self portrait every night before I go to bed, and so far I've not missed a single night over a month. Maybe that's a bit excessive (I'm sick of my face)
I kind of did a consequence thing, but instead, I did a reward for completing a goal.
I've been highly anticipating the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild for years, and when I found out when it would be released, (along with the Nintendo Switch) I decided I was going to make that my reward for accomplishing my goal.
My goal was to complete phase 1 of a game that a buddy and I started to work on. We needed to have something playable and testable so we could gather feedback and know what parts we should set in stone, and determine what needed to be changed.
My buddy and I had 5 weeks to come up with the rough but playable product, it wasn't going to pretty, but it at least had to work and give the idea for the game. In these 5 weeks I prototyped the level designs, blocked things out, very rough models, basic colours, and set things up for how the game will work. My buddy is the programmer, so I'm mostly doing all the designing.
Well, I was a couple days late for my side of the project, but I got to a point I thought was good, and wanted to call it done for phase 1, and move on to phase 2. My programming buddy is still a bit a ways off, so we haven't released the rough demo yet, but my side was done for now, so I got my reward of opening the Switch and playing Zelda after all that time. I gave the Switch and the game to my brother at his house to keep in his closet so I wouldn't be tempted to open it and make excuses, I had him to keep me accountable. And my wife, she does that well.
Thought you'd appreciate an experience that goes along with punishing yourself for failing a goal. I love the concept, it definitely help you to run, and I got past the hardest part of the pipeline, the imagining, planning, thinking everything up, getting SOMETHING out. Now all I have to do is refine, learning how to texture well, etc, etc. This are going well!
Thanks for the video, I LOVE your tips on motivation, staying on track, and being an effective learner and artist. Many, many thanks!
Andrew, first of all thanks for making this kind of videos they help a lot for any artist on diverse fields, I am trying to improve as a game developer but lately I have developed some sort of passion for 3D art and how it is created (using blender mainly), as I want to be an overall good developer on the artistic level too I would love to know how to properly create 2D art as well, for what I have seen on your presentation you improved a looot!!! in 2D art in a short amount of time, and as you make a reference to that in this video I wanted to ask you:
>What were the main resources you used to improve?
>Do you recommend any channel, guide or book?
>And did you make the sketches on paper or using a tablet (such as wacom's)?
(I know this questions are not related to blender so just by getting an answer on this comment I would be more than pleased)
Sorry for the long comment, and possible grammatical errors, best of lucks with your projects and thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Andrew, helped a lot!
I started learning Blender about 3 weeks ago. I watched the Absolute Beginner Tutorial by Jacob Lewis first and then went through your tutorial, where I found some new stuff to learn, like some shortcuts and working with particles. Printed your Keyboard Shortcuts PDF, too! Two days ago, I set my goal - making a robot for my friend's game (that's the reason I started learning Blender) within 2 months. The consequence is a month without youtube - for me, a 14 year old, that's true hell! :D Anyway, I've managed to set a schedule and I learn every afternoon. This video helped me realize some of the mistakes I do while learning - I'll fix those and hopefully I'll get better and complete my task!! :))
This is an old video but new people always float in for knowledge with blender.
I agree with Guru 100% but want to recommend adding to his last suggestion.
He is dead on when he says humans try and avoid pain and can motivate.
2 quick things to make it more effective imo.
1. If blender is a pain in the a*s you need to make sure the consequence you set up is worse/more painful with your psychology. Simply put...if you find paying out a grand is easier then the time and effort for your goal then that isn’t much motivation is it?
He pretty much gave that in a roundabout way but it is worth reiterating.
Number two and the reason I posted for.
2. In order to reinforce the first rule it can increase your motivation and commitment.
That being the positive consequence(beyond the satisfaction of completing your goal)
So when you finish what you started there should also be the pat on the back so to speak.
Taking from the above and if you are okay financially, I would suggest still giving that $$ away to a charity you have emotion and believe in. Whether that’s to an animal shelter or a homeless shelter or anything in between.
So not only are you high about completing the goal but also you get to help others because your hard work and dedication made it so.
These two consequences can be drastically different than above.
The important thing is one gives as much pain as possible and the latter as much pleasure.
( Be responsible, no hurting yourself or anything crazy like that)
And lastly....GOOD LUCK! 🤗
I have a similar quote regarding time...
"Work expands with time allotted." Give yourself an hour, it will take an hour. Give yourself two hours, it will take two hours.
with al honesty,i appreciate this videos because it seems like i am the person you were refferring to.....thumbs up
Alright.
1. My long term goal is to make a short animated movie in a little fantasy world. 2-3 Minutes, some landscapes and 2 characters that fight a little bit with magic in a friendly duel. (y, kinda classic)
2. Alright, in general:
- Get better in the basics so i dont need to think about every step for a couple seconds
- Learn about Nature and hard surfaces.
- learn about anatomy and different fighting styles.
- learn basic modelling for characters
- learn how to do special effects such as water bending, fire bending, psychic abilities or whatever i will decide on once im there.
- Read the books the people i admire told me to read for inspiration and learning purposes.
- find out more about people who did animated videos like that, how did the people from dreamworks for example learn?
- Finish the project, get cookies and be proud.
3. Thats goin to be hard since im not home every day but i will make it a "every day im home routine".
4. Will be tough to not be a perfectionist (cause im rly good at being exactly that) but moving on will probably be better.
5. That will suck but it needs to be done.
6. Sure, i love my hopes and dreams getting crushed. Best way to improve tho.
7. Selling my stuff chosen by someone different.
Good luck to the rest (i know im late)
Really great video. I have wanted to make all sorts of art since I was little, but a lack of schedule and clearly defined goal led to procrastination. I'm now 30 and only now I'm taking 2D and 3D art seriously, while still an absolute beginner it's amazing how focused attention and allocated timeslots for actual work make you improve in short amounts of time.
Let us know how did it go for you bro ?
How's it going?
I love the reason you started and the idea you had bro. "I'm gonna learn this software until I can make that car"
And this video also explains you donut series
Even though I have yet to start Blender and currently just doing 2D art, you still motivate me greatly, even whenever I don't feel like drawing at all.
Yer awesome, man. Thanks a lot.
One challenge I'm doing now isn't "How do I do X?" but getting better by figuring out "How do I do X faster?" Learning ways to take advantage of fast selection, using tools that take care of multiple steps at once, and replication or copy-paste type work. (I have most of that down.) It's trickier when adapting your workflow to take care of most repetitive elements early, as it speeds things up by a lot. (So UV mapping one component before you duplicate it in a model, rather than dealing with a dozen later on.) Trying to think ahead like that is mostly specific to modeling, but given the stuff in Blender it may apply to other areas too.
Exactly that is my Story!!! i am 15 and you showed me your images and i thought: if he can do it, i can do it
U really speak the heart touching truth...motivating in real sense...
I hope that blender gets more attention from companies in a future.
This video applies to so many things, not just Blender. Great job Andrew with this video! It made me think about my previous work in Photoshop and map-making for Counter-Strike:Source. It is really the same thing and the way you described this made motivated to get some REAL work done. There's a Photoshop WIP that i've been postponing for the longest time and i gonna take your advice and set some goals and consequences if i don't succeed.
This was so helpful, I'm a very lazy person so the 'give yourself a deadline' thing really stuck out to me. It's all super helpful tbh, thank you so much! 💛
If you're having problems in blender, you should definitely join the blender discord. The community there is very helpful if you're having issues.
I've done 2D animation for a while now and have recently started trying Blender, and this is all very good (and applicable) advice. I'm glad you mention that it's not specifically for Blender because I recognize a lot of it from my own 2D learning curve. (Thanks for all these videos btw!)
Wow, Andrew. Those advices are going to change my life. Thaks a lot. Every video of yours I watch makes me admire you more. God bless you.