A complete guide for 3d
Well, I have quite experience in this field because I am also a 3D artist. So I can give you the write roadmap through my experience.
1. Where should I start?
There is a lot of buzzword in 3d. You've got Animation, 3d gaming, 3d printing, VR, Visual effects, and many more. So if you are confused I don't blame you. Well regardless of what field you want to specialize in a basic understanding of 3d is necessary for all of these. And you learn in one field can be often be transferred to another. Like, let's say you make a character in 3D. Well, that character could be rigged and animated to create an animated short. Or could be export to a game engine and used as a playable character. It could be 3d printed to make a little chess piece, it could be injected into the VR world or it could be simply rendered as a still image. So getting started in any of these areas requires this basic understanding of 3d. What are the basics? Well, they could be summed up as follows:-
- 1. Modelling:- Modelling an object by creating a cage and moving it about till it forms the shape of your object.
- 2. Texturing:- Textures or materials to make the surface loo real when it's rendered.
- Lighting:_ To create a pleasing final image when it's rendered.
So that's where you should start, learning the fundamentals.
Now the next question that follows is a big one.
Which software should I use?
This has made all the more daunting by the number of software choices. Now some people say that you should use whatever the large studios and industries using. But there's not really an industry standard. Studious today typically use a range of different software for different things and some studious like Pixar use their own in-house software that isn't even available to the public. But the good news is that if a studio likes your work. It doesn't matter what software you use. Art is their first priority. If you've got a great portfolio you are in. Provided they're not a tight deadline most studious will train you if you don't already use the software that they do. Case in point you are Sam who uses Blender. When he got a job at animal logic on the Lego movie they used XSI. So his first two weeks on the job is to learn it and since he already knows the fundamentals of animation and the theory in Blender that is easily transferred to XSI and once he learned it. He was quickly up to speed with the rest of the studio. So trust me a lot of beginners get hung up on using what studios use. But it's not that important in my opinion, your priorities for choosing a software should be:-
- Inexpensive
- Functional
- Easy to learn
Where to learn?
Now when you're just starting out this is really important because you don't yet know if you'll even like 3D yet. I'm just being realistic because I know people who assumed that the only way to learn 3D was to enroll at a college spend upwards of $100,000 in student loans pay for expensive software licenses and then after two years they have the sudden realization that the 3D wasn't that they expected. Now if they had started learning Blender at home and followed some youtube tutorials. They would have spent $0 and honestly, they probably would have enjoyed it more. Well, I also learn 3D from youtube tutorials, and trust me they are best to learn 3D. You don't need to pay anything you can learn beginner to advance for free with high-quality content.
Is Blender good?
So Blender free but the next natural thought then is Blender as good as the expensive alternatives? After all, what's all that money go to if it's not to make better. Well, just like how Wikipedia crusts and carter money doesn't always equal better. Blender is developed by its volunteers around the world which has its own pros and cons. But one of the advantages is that you often get features that users truly want whereas a public company often needs to do a cost-benefit analysis to justify development time to their shareholders. But the real secret sauce of Blender and this is the thing that really separates it from other open-source softwares is the Open Movies. Ton Roosendaal who is the creator and founder of Blender realize that without a real project to test the blender on that they never know what features were necessary to make Blender production-ready. So in 2005, he came up with the idea of open movies. Short films that were made in Blender so they could learn the crucial features that artists need. They came up with Elephants dream in 2005 which led them to develop the composter. Then Big Buck Bunny which helped them to develop for rendering, Sintel help them to develop smoke simulation, Tears of Steel for camera tracking and visual effects, and Cosmos Laundromat for improved painting and performance among other things. There are even more open movies I haven't mentioned yet. But if you want to binge-watch some great short films while also seeing what Blender can do I will recommend watching Sintel, Cosmos Laundromat, Caminandes, and Spring. These open movies have helped blender to go from being a low-key hobbyist tool to something that's truly production-ready. With Blender, you could render photorealistic images, model and sculpt character, create realistic environments, Architecture, fire, smoke, fluid, object simulation, camera tracking, compositing, and much more. Tony Derose from Pixar said, "Blender can do almost everything that Pixar's in-house software can do and that a bunch of guys who use Blender in their garage will be the next Pixar." So that's what Blender can do. Before I finish I'll mention the final reason that I think beginners should start with Blender and that's the community. In terms of search volume, Blender dominates Youtube with several Youtuber like Blender Guru, CG Geek, Ducky 3D, and many more making regularly free tutorials on character, environment, cars, or virtually anything you want to make. I've heard users from other packages that this is one of Blender's very strong points. The community seems to want to give back and as a result, you'll find people online that are constantly going out of their way to offer help. There is an active Blender subreddit, a dedicated Blender stack exchange, a Blender new site, and a Blender artform.
So if you're looking to get started in a 3D blender is a very solid choice.
So if you want to learn Blender you can check these out:-
Blender Full course for beginner from Blender official acoount
The most famous Blender Guru Blender donut series for beginners
Stay tuned with our channel also we will very soon upload a full course for beginners:- I am Animator
Youtube:- I am Animator
Instagram:- @moksh.singh.dangi007
Thank you.
