I want to practice modelling but I don't like the subject, what can I do about?

[Rocky]

–This topic has been updated! Read my post below!–

So I need some advice regarding this, it’s been a problem for me for a long time. I joined this community 2 years ago and initially I was excited to learn and I didn’t mind the subject I was working on because I was more focused on the learning part other than creating things I like.

I returned to modelling recently and now after I finished some tutorials I am now looking for things that I would like to create and each time I try to do things myself without guidance I fail and I don’t have anyone tell me what I am doing wrong, when I follow course material if I don’t know how to do something I just copy what instructor is doing very carefully so to make sure it is exactly as what is shown to me and that way I am reassured to continue and if I get stuck, following instructor give me desired results.

So for example I really liked modeling a Dino and a Cat from Grant Abbitt content, and I want to model other animals and in general I want to focus on making characters as this is what I am aiming for as a possible future job.

Can I have some recommendations for educational content that focus on characters but still teaches blender tools, tips, tricks and in general is helpful to practice modeling skills while enjoying what I am making? That would be immensely helpful because then I would not have any excuses to not practice modeling.

I rate my skill somewhat between beginner and intermediate. And to be more specific I finished Cat tutorial in full under this link: Create Any Animal in Blender 3 - Detailed Beginner Tutorial (youtube.com)
and I would like to try modeling different animals within that skill range and style. it can be a bit more advanced and detailed than this but I need the throughout explaination of the process from start to finish, not an overview because I am not that good yet to follow the fast paced video.
I tried also the Low Poly Rabbit, How to Create, Rig & Animate a Low Poly Rabbit (youtube.com) again from Grant’s channel and the pacing is too fast for me to follow.
I need to do a couple more throughout explaining videos to be able to work with the overview videos and most videos I find do the kind of “Speed modeling” without any comments as to what they do and these do not work well for me.

[RayMobula]

Well, you can brainstorm about the topics you like. One easy thing is to look around you - maybe model a bit from your kitchen? Some interesting pots? Stove top, etc. What can you see outside the window? Trees? Your street? Cars? People walking their dog? etc. Some birds flying around? It doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. It’s more the practice as such.

The best way - for me - was to start playing around. More than once, I hit delete all and started over. The struggle helped me to better understand what I wanted to do, how to approach a problem or how to use a tool.

Or in the harsh words of my art teacher “Get out there, make art and learn to fly, (random strong language here)!” - aka do it, you’ll fail, and also grow.

Maybe set yourself a limitation, such as you have to use geometry nodes to get something, it usually would take you three click - but geo nodes will melt your brain. Or it has to be food related, or aviation, or ,… In the end, if you don’t like it and it’s no fun - don’t do it. Or find aspects of it that are still interesting to you.

But that’s me.

If you look for courses, there is always udemy.

[FedPete]

I would say, join the weekly collab.
Or see older collabs for inspriration to see if you can improve a scene with your own ideas.

And if needed, you can ask for hints and tips to improve your work.

2024 Collab: Week 19 “Aeronautics” - VOTE CLOSED

This is the Blender Collaboration 2024, week 19 challenge. Don’t be afraid to join, a lot of us are beginners. This is all to practice, have fun, learn, and get together. This week’s subject is “Aeronautics”. Aeronautics - Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. Subject selected by the previous Week 17, 2024 “Synthwave" winner Joey_Cuevas …

[Rocky]

Hey guys, thank you for your input!

You know I had some thoughts about why I created topic like that and I think this whole topic needs more clarification. So what I meant by this topic was the following fact:
I took quite a number of courses and tutorials for blender in general, from a couple of instructors.
I liked some courses more than the others, depending on what was the subject matter the instructor was making.
The way how I choose my learning material depends on first, what is subject matter, second is the instructor and last is the knowledge and practice from this experience.

I will give you example, when it comes to learning from Grant Abbitt, I mostly like all of his courses, but! I don’t like all the subjects that he creates,(I mean Subject matter, means the thing you create while you get instruction) which is well a subjective factor! and to me very important! one you will learn why while reading further.
Grant is my go to instructor that has lots of experience, has engaging personality and I always have a lot of fun while taking his courses. When learning from him, I am assured that I will have a great time, get challenged and learn a lot! I love his teaching style and I wish I had more Instructors like him to learn from!
But! if you look at my prioritisation you notice that, Subject matter is more important to me than Instructor! and knowledge gained from the whole experience is least important.
The reason for this decision making is that I’d rather spent my time creating something that I love, by instructor I adore! because to me it makes learning so much more fun!
The Knowledge gained that way is so much more efficient, so then I don’t have any objections why not to get to practice and it makes me want to do more! more than anything else I could possibly do!
we talking about intrinsic motivation which is far more effective than doing things for the sake of doing things!
I am also aware of the fact that each artist/instructor have their own thing they like doing and the chance to find an artist you will love everything about is low! that’s why I need variety. I am not supposed to like everything what the instructor offers and makes and you could argue “but you don’t have to copy exactly what the instructor is making” well that would work for more experienced people, but more experienced people wouldn’t need that learning right? and imo to less experienced individuals it’s challenging to do things on their own, not because they can’t but they are not sure if what they done is accurate or if even they like what they did ending up with more questions that they can learn from instruction provided. So what I do, If I am not sure I just copy the thing closer to what is shown.

I think it’s especially important for beginners to have access to variety of subjects to create so they choose their favourite thing.
Learning blender can be quite challenging and there is tons of things to learn! When I was beginner I was straight away intimidated by just the whole interface! I remember about 10 years ago I had my very first experience with blender and I was like, “oh I just try it out because I think I want to become 3d artist in the future”. So I tried, play with it a little bit and when I couldn’t make anything cool I closed the program and gave up, only picking blender again after couple of years! But my experience could be a whole lot better if had good instruction and liked what the instructor was making. And then seeing that I made it I would feel so motivated to do more!
This one session would lead for more exposure to the practice and perhaps I could be professional 3d artist by now, working in some big company! Well, I still count it as a possibility, mind you! But first I am aiming to be a character designer, because I just love working with this subject and I want to specialise in Animal characters, and I want to know everything about it within my area of interests because as much as I love animals I have my favourite species! from which are Canids and anything similar like Felines and Ursidae. (dogs, cats, bears) in short a lot of animals with fur. Which is btw in my opinion not really what beginner should start from unless it’s stylised low poly and super simplified without much details to pay attention to.
Lots of times I see something I like but can’t find a tutorial how to make it.
So this leads to what I should have asked for in this topic to begin with.

Do you have any recommendation for:

Artist like me that is interested in designing animal/anthropomorphic characters?
That match my skill level: Intermediate-beginner?
With instructor that is experienced with 3d modelling and has engaging personality?

It may seem like a lot to ask for but it would really help me and others on the forum who may have similar interest to mine. It also help to promote instructors especially obscure ones that should deserve more recognition for their work, because I am willing to spend my time and money for a good stuff that I will love!
By now, I hope you understand what I meant when creating this topic! and if you like it’s content I would love if you shared this post to your friends, or anyone that may find my findings useful!
I want to provide content that is engaging to read and touches hard subjects!
In exchange I want your recommendations, opinions and just talk about this topic, my approach as well cause I know everyone has their different take on things and so do I!
What matters to me is sharing the knowledge because everyone can benefit from that!

[Rocky]

I like the idea about collabs, and I made some drafts even! however I had some stuff to deal with and I could participate already but I lacked the time to make the project to completion. By drafts I mean I made some sketches and written descriptions what is it about. But I could not made the project in time.

Except of learning blender I am also learning to draw so to have more flexible experience in arts in general, and also I am trying to unlearn bad habits that makes me delay my work and build some discipline in myself.

So it’s quite challenging to participate for me atm including my 4 days 12hr job that is not related to arts that pays my bills, but I am getting better with all 3! and soon I will become more active! and hopefully I will have some job that is more art related.

On top of that I am starting an art college to get some formal education from September. So I am sure to have lots of art related activities pretty soon!
There is an apprentice offer within their program which is very tempting, however this means much less money for me than my current job but that would allow me to learn my skills way more efficiently!
The only question is am I good enough for potential job while studying, I feel like not just yet but I could be wrong!
What’s your take on this?

[Rocky]

I like your approach! it gives me some ideas and yeah I am interested more into courses, tutorials and similar stuff, but it’s hard to find good quality stuff that hits my interests. I updated this topic so I clarified a bit more of what I meant. Maybe you could take a look and share what you can?

[LaniganDev]

Learning all parts of blender is part of growth, of course your not going to like every subject matter. We are humans after all. The thing with doing multiple Subject matters is that you learn different tools and techniques that can then be applied to the things you like i.e animals/characters.

As you are aware character modeling is a lot different than hard surface moddeling, but the techniques you learn from doing props and stuff will be valuable going forward, for when you block out your character before you sculpt it etc. This is why character artists are there own job in the industry because it takes a long time and there is more to it than just learning the tools, you have to uderstand anatomy/proportions and such so its a far more lets say in-depth specialization.

That being said aim for what you want to achieve if thats your passion go for it but personal note i wouldnt just soley focus on characters, even if i dont like the subject but it has something i can learn from i will take that course so I can apply directly to my own project, so I can understand the ins and outs of the thing im trying to achieve.

Just go out there and practice as much as you can, its ok if you think it looks bad, because the more you do something the more better you will get. and set your excpections to what you realistacally can achieve I would rather build out a whole casino scene and make it look awesome than try to build one character and then it turns out bad because I know my skills arnt there yet, .Don’t get me wrong I will still practice characters but I have it set in my head the realistac level of detail I can achieve friom this.

I hope this makes sense, just throwing my two cents in.

[Rocky]

I agree with you on that and I’m telling from experience that something I learned from creating a scene I used to create in different subject matter. So yes the knowledge is transferable and reusable lots of times. And the more techniques I am exposed to, the better in general I get. My skillset expands.
I see the value in that.

So perhaps it’s just me wanting to do cool stuff too soon? Would you agree?
I admit to be a bit impatient, that’s why I resist doing the stuff I do not like especially if it’s instructed by teachers that lack enthusiasm, because it makes my learning experience less fun, and if I am about to learn non character related content, I want at least like a bit what I create and get knowledge delivered how I prefer.

And btw, I don’t mind doing things different than characters. I already done quite a lot modelling behind the scenes that is unpublished and not character related, but every time I try to create a character on my own I struggle with how to. That’s why I created this topic to get some recommendations.

So with that in mind, would you recommend to me any artist or tutorial that you enjoyed learning from?
I am up for challenge, maybe my take on 3d modelling is not ideal and perhaps I could benefit from being open minded or if nothing comes to your mind an example of how course you took helped with your character project would work too!
So I get some inspiration from that!

[BH67]

@Rocky

perhaps I could benefit from being open minded

It’s ok to be a bit impatient, to borrow your own self-declaration. Blender is exciting! It’s just that if you don’t temper that impatience with some foresight and longer-term thinking, it will be unnecessarily difficult for you to find what you’re looking for. So, don’t find it. Make it.

You’ve got the basics down, so now you can start to branch out a bit more. Here’s what I would do in your situation (your mileage may vary; this is my opinion, so feel free to take what you like and leave the rest, but a very similar approach works quite well for me):

• Come up with a project that you are highly motivated to do so that it satisfies your need for an agreeable subject matter. If it’s something of personal significance, even better - it should be something that the fire of will not burn out, even if you feel the need to scrap it and restart multiple times!
• Think carefully about your vision and define it in a lot of detail, with the goal of identifying the specific Blender abilities you will need in order to make it. You probably won’t be able to make this list 100% accurate because of the ever-present “things you don’t realize you don’t know yet,” but the point is to get as detailed a checklist as possible.
• For each checklist item:
  • Research what you don’t know how to do. As you research these items and learn the associated jargon, you will very likely be able to better-define those items on the checklist; don’t hesitate to fix and expand it as you go. “How can I make a Blender model smoother? Shade smooth, yeah… smooth vertices, ok… what’s subdivision surface? Oh! Ok, something else to look up.” Just an example =)
  • When you find a tutorial for something specific to cross off your list, forget entirely about the tutorial’s subject matter and evaluate its worth solely on the instructor’s ability to teach the concepts effectively, with the understanding that you are only interested in the abstract skills featured. If possible, practice it right after with a subject that’s more appealing to you, and don’t be surprised if inspiration strikes you along the way!

Eventually you will cross the entire list off, despite the inevitable scope creep that comes as you refine it, and you will have the knowledge you need to develop the skills you want. It all sounds simple, but this sort of structured approach can help you power through “boring” subjects because it provides you with a light at the end of the tunnel, and a direction to go in. Good luck =)

[Rocky]

Wow I love this answer! And that could be possible solution for my issue.
It’s shame that it’s so hard to find content of this kind that I like but I shouldn’t underestimate the value of learning material if I can focus on the concepts behind any subject matter. So now it’s a matter of lowering my expectations, going through the tutorials, take out what’s needed and put that new knowledge straight to my projects and hopefully everything will work as I always wanted.

I will definitely try out your way, thanks!