My Blender Progress Workbook

12/14/2021:  So I guess this would be a good place to make a running scrapbook for all of my future Blender Challenges, exorcises and general attempts. I suppose I could start off by posting a render from my "Modeling a Low Poly Rocket Course" I had a lot of fun with that one. 

Also, this isn't so much Blender related but I thought yall might like to see a composite that was made of a Silent Hill inspired Zbrush sculpt I did awhile back. Been focusing purely on Blender since then, however.

Now onto what I started this forum for initially, the "Learning fundamentals of 3d modeling" course as I'm going through the "fundamentals of Blender" learning flow. I managed to get the first exorcise of using ONLY the primitive initializer panel to get a few basic shapes. I got them right, though getting them rotated properly only with the initializer menu was a bit of a pain.

And afterwards, I got to the "modeling only with primitives" section. I didn't go for anything bombastic, but rather just made a small scene of a floor-table-tv remote and tv stand and...well...what was supposed to be a tv. For whatever reason, the torus I initialized to be the tv frame refused to only scale on the x or z axis for me, so I couldn't get it into a modern HDTV shape, but I felt like it sufficed for primitive work. I haven't made it into the material course in the workflow yet so my knowledge of materials is limited, but I added some basic colors for effect. 

So anyway, this is only the beginning and I should be uploading more to this topic for future submissions, exorcises and challenged. Hope yall enjoy!


12/15/2021:  So a day later and I've gotten the Sci-Fi-Crate made. This was an enjoyable project, but the most difficult aspect was trying to add something...unique...to it. I'm not much of a designer or crate expert so I didn't know what to do but after messing around a bit, I decided on just making an extra simple design and adding a simple locking hook for the crate latch. 

As far as the colors go, well I'm not exactly a fashion artist so I just pick out some usually dark purple and brighter yellows that scream "sci-fi" to me for some reason. Heres a couple more renders.

Also, since I'm new to this forum, I'm not sure if I'm updating this log book properly. Should I continue editing the initial post like I am now, or should I be adding each update as maybe a reply to the post? Thanks for the help guys and gals. Until next time. 

  • naiad replied

    Also, since I'm new to this forum, I'm not sure if I'm updating this log book properly. Should I continue editing the initial post like I am now, or should I be adding each update as maybe a reply to the post?

    Hello, welcome! I am also new to CGCookie. 

    Based on my own experience, I never have patience and time to read a thread with more than 10 replies, unless that thread is written and started by myself. I also find that writing a log book actually takes so much time from me, and I'd rather spend that time to study new knowledge. Therefore, I do not and will never write any log book about my own progress.  

    Well, this is just my thought. Everybody has different plans and opinions. Hope it helps.

  • adrian replied

    Hi hheyitsmejbt ,

    Its great your here Jacob, welcome to the awesome CG Cookie community.

    I would suggest adding each update as a reply, this will make it easier for the rest of the community to critique and offer tips and tricks on the individual pieces.

    Your off to a great start on your Blender journey with CG Cookie.

    In response to  nnaiad 's comment,

    Following tutorials, especially the amazing courses here at CG Cookie, will teach you all the skills you need to use Blender and help you create great work.

    However, the best way to improve as an artist is to share your work with the community to receive critiques and tips and tricks.

    It can also be extremely rewarding to see how much you have improved over time, and be very motivational.

    The majority of viewers of your progress workbook will jump to the latest post, and follow your progress regularly.

    You will need to have lots of time and patience to learn Blender and improve as a 3D artist, this can be said for learning any new skill.

    My own Blender journey started sometime ago, I never shared any of my progress, not even on social media.

    This was my biggest mistake early on,

    When I started to  share my work, I started to improve.

    Remember being in school,

    you listen to the tutor in class,

    you do your homework,

    ....

    if you stop there you have no idea if its right or wrong, how good or bad.

    which is why you hand in your homework to be graded,

    and have the opportunity improve.


    Another great way to build on the skills you learn from the courses,

    is to take a look at the Challenges,

    You can try out any of the previous challenges, 

    the idea is to challenge yourself, not to be in competition with anyone.

    I am looking forward to seeing more of your progress here.

    The community here at CG Cookie really is awesome,

    you will learn so much more by sharing your work, and being apart of this community.

  • Jacob Taylor(heyitsmejbt) replied

     Thank you so much for the reply. That makes absolute sense. I will update by replying from now on so its a bit easier to follow rather than having to continuously scroll down a mile to see the latest. Lol. And yes, posting my updates does seem to make it easier to stay motivated, which I know like anything else, can get drained from time to time.