Announcement #5 (9/4/18): This class if officially over. See page 26 for the closing post and don't forget to fill out the questionnaire!
Announcement #4 (8/27/18): REMINDER that this week's stream is on Wednesday, NOT Tuesday. I'm out of the office Monday (8/27) and Tuesday (8/28) but will be back in full grading force on Wednesday.
Announcement #3 (8/6/18): New way to Submit Homework. Please create a unique forum thread to contain all your homework submissions for the month, rather than everyone submitting in this main thread. More info on page 12.
Announcement #2 (8/7/18): Zsolt has done it again. He's prepared the report card document for this month. Feel free to monitor your grades there throughout the next 4-5 weeks.
Announcement #1 (8/6/18): Class is officially in session!
**Experienced Blender users are Welcome! Clarification about involvement on page 2 of this thread.
Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8! If you're interested in computer graphics, 3D modeling, and you're new to Blender / new to Blender 2.8, this class is where you need to be.
This "Class" format invites all Citizen members to focus together on a particular topic/skill for a month. Participation looks like this:
WHEN? The class will take place from August 6th - September 4th.
Abstract: The goal this week is to simply get familiar with the application. We’ve all been there: Opening Blender (or any 3D package), gazing at all the crazy UI, trying to orbit in the viewport, crying...Ok, maybe you were stronger than me and didn’t cry. But the reality is 3D software is daunting. There’s SO MUCH to digest especially when you’re a beginner.
This first week we’re going to overview Blender 2.8 and 3D from an absolutely beginner perspective. What is Blender for? What can it do? Wait, this isn’t a juicing seminar?
Goal of the Week: Get comfortable with Blender 2.8's UI, viewport navigation, creation and position objects.
Pre-recorded course to watch:
Week 1 Live Event (Remember to RSVP!)
Homework:
Abstract: Enter the world of mesh modeling: The oldest form of building 3D objects with your computer. We’ll discuss the technical art of “pushing and pulling verts” as modelers often call it. Welcome to this wild, geometric world!
Goal of the Week: Practicing editing a polygonal mesh's components to create a custom 3D model.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Week 2 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: Digital sculpting is the more artistically intuitive method of 3D modeling. If pushing and pulling verts felt like the hard way of doing things, sculpting will be a welcomed alternative!
Goal of the Week: Practice digital sculpting.
Pre-recorded courses to watch:
Article to Read: Big Idea: Digital Tablets
Week 3 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
Abstract: At this point, you've been introduced to the key 3D modeling methods. Meaning that you have the tools you need to MODEL STUFF! This is where practice will make perfect. This is where you build stuff.
Goal of the Week: Be inspired to continue modeling and spend the week modeling or sculpting a challenging object.
Pre-recorded courses to watch: Modeling in Blender Learning Flow
Week 4 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)
Homework:
This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Getting Started with 3D Modeling & Blender 2.8" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask Kent and fellow participants questions and to post homework. As the instructor of the class, Kent will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of Auguest to review homework and answer questions.
Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication and participation is reserved for Citizens.
I have been excited about this class since I first saw it anounced, I'm in!
2.8 is a great bonus, very cool
Wow, been a while since I've seen a class thread without more than one thousand posts:)
Isn't it too early to get in touch with 2.8 seriously? Release candidate is only in late October. Although in any case it will be interesting.
nekronavt I think the alpha (or beta?) version is planned this august, and it apparently might be stable enough to cover the basics. I'll be following that class for that purpose, whatever can help transitioning faster :)
tbrbn It's already in alpha :) Your point is good. I agree.
@theluthier you have the Week 1 Live Event link incorrect.
nekronavt Whoops, thanks for the correction! Just fixed it.
You make a good point that this class turned out to land in a weird time. While it's been scheduled for a few months, I did not know 2.8 would be entering final stages. So if I teach 2.79, that info will likely be significantly outdated in a month of two following the class. But if I go with 2.8, will it be too early?
Based on the few hours I've spent using 2.8, I believe it will be stable enough for this class.
All right, so maybe I should take the Getting Started class after all. ^^
I *think* I remember that in some live stream - maybe it was during the sculpt class?, @theluthier very briefly made mention that although he always used left-click select for Blender, he recently saw something that made him realize that the default right-click select is actually very useful in a certain way and he wished he had learned it that way instead, although I don't remember what exactly it was that he had seen. Am I just imagining all of that? If not, I'm wondering if whether I could or should take advantage of the shift to 2.8 to try and switch to right-click select as well.
Here we go agaaaaaaain, need to get these commissions wrapped up before August haha. Looking forward to picking up some tips on this one, that and the possibility of helping out.
baukepost Lets see if we can go for a new record this time, folks. I'll place £30 on 2000+ posts.
@theluthier you still have some inconsistency in url of first and second events. Title says BC1-1808 and url says BC1-1807 :)
nekronavt Heh you're an eagle eye! Yeah way back when I first scheduled I made the mistake of 1807 instead of 1808. So the URL got created with 1807 and I don't have access to change the URL, only the title. Figured our one very busy dev had better things to do than correct my url mistake..but maybe I should ask him to fix it 😅jakeblended I don't think I said that, as I don't remember regretting going LMB select, but seem to remember someone saying that in a stream recently. Maybe Jonathan Williamson or Wayne Dixon 🤔 I do remember discovering Bassam Kurdali uses LMB select and it made me feel infinitely validated in my choice lol
@theluthier thanks - your clarification does sound more familiar!
I'm conflicted about this course. On the one hand I do intend to watch the live streams and maybe hang out in the thread and offer help or encouragement and that sort of thing. But actually doing the exercises, and submitting material to be graded alongside the submissions by very new beginners (presumably) the course is mostly intended for? I'm not so sure, it seems unfair to me, like a kind of sandbagging. One of the class rules is "no flexing" and I kind of feel like that would be flexing, of a sort.
jakeblended I feel conflicted too. I wanna do my best but on the other hand it'll just feel like I'm just being a tryhard in an attempt to belittle newer users. But how do we determine what's just going the extra mile and doing your best from being arrogant and doing it to primarily intimidate beginners to make yourself look good? Obviously intent is the main factor but I don't really think you can determine that from a forum post unless they're being obnoxiously blatant about it.
I felt a bit like this in the last week of the previous class but the difference there is that was a more advanced class to begin with, so we all were roughly within each others skill level. Here the disparity in experience is presumably going to be much larger.
I dunno, to be honest. I wanna try my absolute hardest but without coming across as a jerk, and I don't know how that'd be done in a tolerable manner. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe not. Either way I'm still looking forward to the class, maybe as it approaches we'll gain insight on what will be considered respectable.
I have kind of the same thing. I'm not a beginner, maybe just an advanced user, certainly no pro. But if I do my best, will I be discarded as a show off? I just want an honest critique on how I can improve. There are still things I can learn from the beginners courses, I think.
@theluthier Oh Kent, those expressions in the class images are great! Looking forward to the livestreams and helping everyone! Excited to get digging into 2.8, as well!
silentheart00 He is required to strike each pose at the beginning of that week's livestream.