Wouldn't it be an idea to open a pinned thread in which users could suggest things/ topics they would like to learn more about? There propably would be a huge variety of ideas and a course takes some time but it might be helpful for instructors to see if a large amount of users want to learn more about a specific topic. I for example would love to learn more about creating game assets (similar to the weapon course) or how to build an atual scene full of assets. Also a course on how to create an interior visualization and use textures and lighting to make it look as photorealistic as possible (similar to the architectual visualization course) would be awesome.
Just an idea on how the website could be improved.
I would love to see an updated face rig course.
There are a lot of amazing modelling and animating courses. I would love to learn how to better rig my models so I can animate them.
I've been following the classic you posted on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waFkCM0yaD4
The ball rig is now a free resource on CG Cookie, and it’s been updated for use with Blender 2.8 😊
https://cgcookie.com/resource/multiball-rig
Happy animating!
It's something to consider for smaller projects for sure. We do tend to skip steps in courses due to the nature of keeping the length down. Otherwise we'd end up with 30 hour courses. With simpler projects it would make more sense to include all steps to ensure someone who is just getting started or who is new to that topic will see the entire workflow and not have to worry about filling in the gaps themselves. Definitely lots of "low hanging fruit" content wise we can create.
I'm sure Wayne Dixon would be happy to work on an updated face rig course. Currently the closest thing we have is this course: https://cgcookie.com/course/demystifying-lip-sync-animation
jgonzalez Wow, this thread just got unpinned? Never thought that would happen...
I would like to request a course on Art Fundamentals
Topics like:
- Composition
- Color Theory
- Value
- Line
- Form / Shape
- Perspective and Depth
- Contrast
- Lighting
- Texture
I know a couple of these are already taught in the 2D section, though that’s mostly in relation to 2D art. Some parts are useful for 3D artist, sure, but I would love to see a more general course that picks apart these topics in a more broad aspect, applicable and relatable to all forms of art.
I believe these fundamental art concepts, which are a constant and never change with time, are the building blocks that make up a piece of art. And understanding those principles and learning how to apply them can help every artist creating better art!
Looks like it, wasn't me though. Not sure why it's unpinned. I'm asking the crew to see what's going on, might just have been unpinned on accident.
Great comments! I have similar problems modeling something on my own from scratch. I end up with a thousand loop cuts and Ngons everywhere. I start by thinking: this is the shape I want and these are the tools I learned. By the time I am done adding geometry to create a shape it looks like I have added a subsurf modifier and clicking 50 subdivisions ;) That's ok though. I chalk it all up to the learning process. I enjoy it enough to keep plugging away.
That would definitely be a good fundamental series. Possibly a series of courses, although some areas can be more in-depth than others. With us primarily focusing on 3d we could probably take a lot of what was already covered in the concept courses and apply them to 3d scenes and themes.
I followed a really nice course on youtube about machine learning with unity and mlagents. Would be cool if such a course would also be on the cgcookie platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axF_nHHchFQ
i would be interested in a 2d animation course. Not necessarily the technical aspects, (for example the software that may be used) but the fundamentals, concepts and workflows.
It's been brought up before. I'm not sure if I'll be making a course on machine learning. It's definitely a more intermediate to advanced topic with plenty of C# scripting involved, and those types of courses don't tend to fare well here unfortunately.
Valerie Winslow in her book Classic Human Anatomy had to deal with the same issue. This is what she said in the preface:
"One of my objectives in writing this book was to present complex material in an "art friendly" format while staying true to the established anatomical system created by the medical profession. I also felt the need to demystify and decode anatomical terms so that they feel less intimidating to those approaching artistic anatomy for the first time. Artists' objectives for learning human anatomy are vastly different from those of medical professionals, yet the terminology derived largely from Greek and Latin, remains the same in both fields.
If an anatomy course does essentially what she is doing in her book, it would I believe be the perfect Blender human anatomy course.
I've looked at many anatomy books in many libraries and in many bookstores. I've found Winslow's book to be the most helpful anatomy book on the shelves for my artistic training.
I'd like to see this course:
How To Make A Graphic Novel With Blender
It should actually give the full workflow on how to go from one page of a comic book script to one inked page. It should include these basic steps:
1. Sculpt characters and design props for scene.
2. Retopology characters.
3. Rig characters.
4. Pose characters and props for each panel.
5. Render each background image for each panel.
6. Ink using grease pencil or possibly as an alternative, use MyPaint, Inkscape or Gimp.
I know some of these course exist separately, but this course should focus on doing things in a way with an inked comic book page as a primary goal.
I agree that courses should be primarily based on "On-student-demand", but not always. But if a course is offered that is not demanded by students, it still may attract students.
For example, there is not a Blender course for people who want to make comics or graphic novels and Blender happens to be a powerful tool which could speed up a comic book artists workflow. If a Graphic Novel Course were added, I'm sure it would not be user demanded by the majority of users at this time because most users now don't use it for that purpose. But, if the course was made it would give the possibility of reaching out to existing comic book artists and aspiring comic book artists to come over to Blender.
That would be an interesting topic. I know Blender could definitely be used to create the visuals of a graphic novel. Although I'd probably approach it without going from the ground up. Modeling characters and props wouldn't be much different than traditional modeling. Since these would be used as images you could probably also skip retopology unless needed. Rigging could also probably be skipped soon enough due to this: https://twitter.com/pablodp606/status/1160961114273910785
You could render each scene very quickly and even add in unique animated panels by rendering out a simple animation. You could create the inked look with a shader in Blender. Here is an example of a shader created in Blender that could work: https://cgcookie.com/lesson/clip-art