Announcement #5: This class has officially come to a close. Please check out the closing post and thank you for joining!
Announcement #4: Week 2 is officially complete! Thank you for submitting your homework on time. Let the grading commence.
Announcement #3: Week 1 is officially complete! I'll be grading 55 homework submissions by my count. Thank you for submitting on time. I'll be busy today :)
Announcement #2: First week's live stream recording is available and I've started filling out the homework roster. Feel free to keep an eye on the Report Card throughout the month if you'd like.
Announcement #1: Class is in session! We're all going to learn a lot and have fun the next 3 weeks. I wrote a kickoff post on page 3. See you tomorrow for the first stream!
Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Get Started Building Stuff with Blender 2.8! If you're interested in computer graphics, 3D modeling, and you're new to Blender or just new to 2.8, this class is where you need to be. Ushering in the modern era of Blender, we will familiarize ourselves with what's new as well as get up to speed with how to build STUFF in 3D.
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 JULY 29th - AUGUST 20th.
This time the class curriculum is project-based. You will have the opportunity to choose between 3 assets to create throughout the month: A wooden sign, a barrel, a sword or a treasure chest. I chose these assets because they're fun to create but also conducive for teaching fundamental skills.
The goal week 1 is to get familiar with Blender 2.8 and model your chosen asset. If you're brand new to Blender it's very important that you spend time each day of this week getting comfortable with Blender's interface. Once you're comfortable, you will have a more enjoyable experience learning and practicing modeling.
Courses to watch:
Homework:
Plain gray models can be boring. So we paint them with colors! This is where "textures" work their magic. But before we can paint on our 3D models, we have to layout UVs. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry. After you watch the texturing course and the live event for this week, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
Course to watch: Treasure Chest Course (Chapter 2)
Homework: Layout UVs and paint textures for your sign, barrel, sword, or treasure chest.
Texturing introduces color to your models but materials make your model appear to be plastic, or wood, or metal, etc. If you're asking yourself "What's the difference", fear not! I will make sure you know the difference by the end of this week.
We will also be exploring the Eevee engine and how it works together with texturing and shading for a realtime workflow.
Pre-recorded courses to watch: Treasure Chest Course (Chapter 3)
Homework: Create materials and establish appealing lighting for your sign, barrel, sword, or treasure chest.
This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Get Started Building Stuff with Blender 2.8" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask me and fellow participants questions pertaining to the class. As the instructor of the class, I will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of August.
Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication and participation is reserved for Citizens.
I scanned through the video and it's playing normal for me. Can you point me to a specific part of the video that you experience the issue?
@theluthier as a feedback from another user, I watch through the video on Thursday and it was playing normal in whole length
@theluthier I would also like to say I watched the recorded livestream and the sound was fine for me, as well.
I watched it again, and it worked this time. I have no idea what caused it.
I am trying to texture paint for the first time, yes behind for this week. The colors look different depending on the lighting, what lighting set up is best to paint in? Thanks for the help.
ttanya53 You could try changing your viewport shading to Flat for the "true" colors. But, it will change once you start applying shaders and lighting, since one is dependent on the other, so maybe you could try finding some colors with lighting first that you like and then color things in. Either way, up to you.
silentheart00 Thanks for the assist on this, Silent. Also recently I learned that the URL on the date of each post links directly to the post! #protip
ttanya53 No problem!
@theluthier Oh, yeah, something is starting to come back to me lol. Web dev was quite a while ago for me.
silentheart00 Ahhh sorry I meant "date" not data. The link here is the link to each respective post:
That weird one must be the monkey.
dostovel Omar after a week I can still laugh on this :D
@theluthier
Sorry to bring this back Kent, but I thought of a little idea to consider for a future course and I might as well leave it here, perhaps for when you're feeling a bit more ambitious.
The end of every homework results in lots of models done by people, why not put those to good use and kinda crowdsource a 15 second simple Eevee short with all the assets we accumulate? a small production two month long course class maybe?
The end result doesn't have to be a Blur cinematic, it's just a quick idea, we could pre-approve a concept, say a pirate cave. Week one, students get to model different types of treasure chests, each thing we do turn out different anyways so we have variation right there... other week we can texture, then another week students get to model a variety of rocks, other week plants, etc, etc. whatever assets the theme needs... like you did in the Melvin surfer island. You built your assets and arranged a scene around them.
So is like a regular class course, it's not much different than what we do now, the difference is that is based on a theme and we would be working towards a bigger end goal. Again, it doesn't have to be next-gen level graphics, it would turn out as good as the models we produce so maybe it is an incentive for everyone to go the extra mile.
Each student has a responsibility in order to accomplish the short video and their homework can be part of a whole instead of an individual achievement.
After that I don't know if it's mission accomplish or maybe it doesn't have to end there, we can go more ambitious... the assets can be put on a folder in Google Drive so they can be downloaded and it's homework's phase 2.... it can be layout training.
You can teach how to link files, that way we have lots of models we can use to arrange our own scene, do our own layout, lighting, composition, etc. But this way the end result wouldn't be a single one CG Cookie short, it would be different ones from different people. Maybe all are around the same concept but results range in difference as everyone would do their own homework and that always comes with variations.
Here's something with a quick concept, Lucas the Spider. Short, snappy, cute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieIeBWulAiQ
Well the idea is out there, maybe one day it would be doable.
The one thing that I love about this live stream-class-session is that @theluthier will stop (when appropriate) and take time to go down a rabbit hole on a unique question. I have learned a lot on the side tangents that I don't learn from the standard tutorial learning flows. Like compositing, and blurring a shader for example (week 3 live stream).
blanchsb I'm glad to hear this blanch. Funny enough when we post our streams to youtube we often get criticized for getting "distracted" by such rabbit holes. As long as members like you appreciate it, it will be a priority of streams :)
dostovel I really think you've struck gold with your idea, Omar. We could definitely do something like this. I could imagine it as a year of classes funneling toward the goal of a short collaborative film. Something like this:
That'd be an action-packed year with something really fun to show for it. Lucas the Spider is a great example. Coincidentally I'm doing a project in my free time that's also been inspired by ol' Lucas.
The earliest I could plan a year of classes like this would be 2021 honestly. It would be incredible if it was planned well and completed with a competent micro short film. But if it wasn't planned well, it could crash and burn. So I will want to plan it accordingly. And after this current class is over I'm going to be starting on a mega course, bigger than anything CGC has produced before. That will take the better part of a year. So that's why I say 2021.
Anyway, I love the idea. Great suggestion, Omar!
@theluthier and dostovel I really like that idea. I wonder if more community members are interested. I know I am. Plus hopefully my skills increase by the time something like that comes out.
@theluthier in regards to the "distractions" I feel like live streams should have some of that. I could see it going overboard too so I guess there is a balance. But I really like how this was whole course/homework has been presented: There is a whole treasure chest course that is released to watch at will with not much live input and then there is a live-stream teaching the same content (but on a different model) after users watched and took a stab at it and now have questions or sometimes even unrelated questions. This makes it feel more like a community, rather than just another posted YouTube video. I think you do a great job at prioritizing when the questions get answered, like "yeah that is a good question let's take a look at that blurring once we finish this part I am presenting because it will make more sense once this part is complete" or "yeah we can show you that right now"
I also love that the live stream teaches the concept on a different model than the pre-recorded video treasure chest. Different model aspect helps me learn "how do I apply this concept in another project?" question that I often have. Home run!
I also am appreciative of the fact that simple questions also get answered quickly like "can you explain how to edge slide a vertex?" and it is shown quickly and then we move on. Great work.
Dear Kent, I'm sorry about my behavior the last time, I was not in a good mindset; I have my ups and downs, but I really appreciate you responding in a kind way. I'll try to be reasonable and responsible moving forward, thanks again.
-Sincerely, Amit
blanchsb Your positive feedback means a lot. Thanks for sharing it :)
concrescence Thank you, Amit. You and me are good 👌
