I want to get serious with Blender and develop my skills further. I’m looking to pay money for a pack of tutorials that will strengthen my skills in Blender and allow me to build the necessary skills to create amazing scenes. My goal right now is not to create photo-realistic scenes but to create CGI scenes.
Here’s an example of fans creating a CGI from their favorite game Starcraft.
This is something I want to make. I can make it but it won’t look as good. That is why I want to spend money on tutorials. Where each day I’ll teach myself a small lesson.
if you’d like to throw money around, sure go ahead! but fact is, you don’t need to. there are lots of top quality free tutorials scattered across the web. and if you need anything specific, just ask google or here in the forums. there are thousands of good samaritans that are ready, willing and able to help you out in the blink of an eye.
what i like about your approach is that you have a goal in mind. just jump into it and make the best starcraft models that you can make. if you hit any brick wall, try a few ideas… if none works, ask for help from google, youtube or BA.
as time goes on, revisit the models and improve them… paint better textures, make better rigs, etc.
in the end, it’s those struggles and those eureka moments that make the journey worthwhile. the things you discover at the moment of need are more likely to stay in your memory forever than those you discover while watching a tutorial on your couch.
If you want tuts from professional artists from whom you can feel assured that you’re learning best practices, then yes, paying is worth it.
CGCookie is excellent for character training. CmiVFX also has some nice Blender stuff floating around. We don’t yet have anything on par with Gnomon or Eat3D in terms of super high quality Blender training from Hollywood professionals, but I feel like it’s only a matter of time before someone fills that void.
The best for-money tutorial series I ever saw was Nathan Vegdahl’s Humane Rigging. Of course, you’re likely not ready to dive into that pool yet.
Most other tutorials, IMHO, have various weaknesses in varying degrees, such as:
too much opinion wherein the presenter uses the tutorial as a soapbox,
no voice-over, just text which means you have to watch several times to both read the text and watch what’s being done on-screen,
lead you down false trails where the presenter goes, “Oops!” and backtracks, then goes off in the ‘correct’ direction leaving such a confusing line of thought that it can take hours to understand what the actual, correct procedure is,
too much or too little detail leaving the view either bored or confused because something got skipped, and/or
they cover a version of Blender that’s out-of-date, the procedure has changed and you have to wait for someone to update it or (shudder) you have to wade through the docs.
This isn’t to say that all Blender tutorials and documentation are crap and if you don’t mind separating wheat from chaff as you learn, just go on YouTube and type, “Blender tutorial.”
Some of it is very useful and informative. But the only way to find out which are which is to grab and watch everything you can and follow along. We can tell you which ones are currently applicable, but they may not still be applicable (depending on the particular subject) by the time you’re ready to learn that subject.
Blender’s docs and tutorials are, like Blender itself, a moving target. Best to just pick a tutorial, find the version of Blender covered in the tutorial, and learn the outlined procedure. Then check to see if any part of that procedure has changed in subsequent versions by browsing Plasma Solutions’ Sneak Peeks videos. Then go back to the latest version of Blender and run through the procedure again, just to be sure that a) you understand it, and b) it really hasn’t changed.
EDIT:
And for a really good general overview of Blender, although it’s now a bit out-of-date, check out Jonathan Williamson’s Blender: Inside Out. If you’re new to 3D, it may be a bit over your head, but if you’ve used other 3D apps, it’ll give you a lot of insight. Either way, it’s the best overview of Blender I’ve seen.
Oh boy. You guys have no idea how many animations I have created and later threw in the recycling bin.
I haven’t even created a youtube channel because I have not been satisfied with any of my creations.
Well, thanks for the replies I’ll just go surf the web. Now, I wonder if A.Price has any tutorials on rigging… hmm…
If you want to learn how to rig, get Norman Vegdahl’s Humane Rigging. If you want to learn how to animate, I’d recommend Blender Animation Toolkit. If you want to learn how to model, most of the tutorials produced by Blender Cookie are good.
If you have even attempted to rig a mesh for animation, you are ready for Humane Rigging. The Animation Toolkit provides rigged models, it’s entire focus is on animating them. As a bonus, you get the Cookie Flex Rig, so you can easily create a whole family of cartoon characters to animate, if you choose to.
While rontarrant is absolutely correct about the amateurish quality of most Blender (You Tube) tutorials, The Blender Foundation and Blender Cookie do exercise some quality control over the products you get from them, so they are generally head and shoulders above the myriad of mediocre, semi-coherent and occaisionally useful tutorials that Joe TeachUBlender puts on line.
