How to make big projects.

Hi I’m a newbie for the most part, but after watching tutorials and learning a lot about blender I want to attempt a bigger project. I was just wondering if I could get some advice on how to start a larger project, like is there a format to follow? In programming we follow a I-O-P and step by step process to make a project like what are the inputs outputs and process do I need for this program to function properly. Are there any similar ways of attempting a project in blender? Any advice you could offer on keeping focused and organized are much appreciated, and do you have your own process for making something? Thanks and good luck blending!

I need the same advice! I have been using blender for almost nine months, but I haven’t ever really done anything big. Any input guys?

-Go one stage at a time. Don’t be throwing colors and textures on things as you are modeling. It starts becoming very difficult to see what actually needs fixing, and you end up using covering mistakes in one stage with another, (like throwing on textures to cover lack of modeling detail) rather than making each stage the best it can be. Concept out first so you know what you’re building, then work on the modeling, THEN textures/shaders.

-Keep your assets organized. Have a project file structure planned out, and stick to it. I like to make a scenes folder, a textures folder, a compositing folder, and reference images folder. With subfolders as needed. Try to plan subfolders ahead of time too, if you realize you need to add subfolders later when you can’t find anything in a particular folder, you can end up with file paths getting broken because you moved source files. Nobody likes broken file links.

-In addition to staying organized, break up the project. Don’t try and do everything in one .blend, you end up with a massive blend file that is 100s of MBs and very awkward to find anything in. Shameless self-promotion time: I made a blog post on this here https://jtheninja.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/121/

Have a file for each character or vehicle (if you have any), and for a complicated environment objects. Don’t be afraid to save copies of files at different stages either. Disk space is cheap, mistakes aren’t.

A big project is just a small project with more pieces, so just focus on one piece at time. Don’t get hung up on something you don’t know how to do or are not sure what direction to go in. Focus on what you can do right away, the answer on the rest might occur to you as you work.

Excellent advice!

Check out the Piero course, animation fundamentals, and animation toolkit on Blender Cookie. I believe you still have to buy the tookit training separately.

Thanks very informative.

Or you can go and buy an open movie (or subscribe to the cloud :wink: . There you can see how everything was done a organized.

Use layer manager addon to organize your objects and search addons which will help your tasks. Groups, linked duplicates and those kind of helps. And dont apply modifiers if its not necessary, more freedom to the end.