I have the sudden urge to try my hand at 3D art.

I’ll make something 3D and post it here hehe.

OOOH I could make us some crusty emotes!

Is blender hard?

  • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    I have a theory that nothing outside of extremely specialized fields like quantum physics is actually hard to learn. What is hard is the self discipline to keep at it and be consistent.

  • alexandra_kollontai [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    I found it really hard to learn. I get the basic concepts of 3D models but I don’t know how to make them happen in the UI. Thank god for infinite youtube tutorials on literally any precise topic you can think of

  • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    The worst thing about learning it is accidentally clicking something before you know how to un-click it. Fucking up a viewport and derailing a fun tutorial sucks ass.

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    So I had zero expirence in art 2 years ago and I now I spend more time in blender daily now than I sleep. I love blender and will not go back to other cad tools. Because it does everything. Make a mech and bam I can render it in same tool and manifold it for 3d print.

    If just trying to 3d model for art and if like me have 0 talent then 3 things I recommend:

    1. watch a tutorial video on making a human model. It’s not important you know everything as much as seeing all the methods available and tricks. Took me 2 days following it before I moved on to my own stuff.

    2. watch a 15 min video on booleans. Learning to use that was a game changer for me. I use them all the time now in everything I make.

    3. now this is the hardest and longest to learn for me; lighting and color. This is the money maker for art. Mastering Shader nodes is currently beyond me but it makes a difference. Don’t forget HDRI and textured materials can go a long way. Blender has a bunch of free ones to play with.

    It took about 6 months to get gud. After 2 years, im now going back to projects that I couldn’t handle before and it’s sooo satisfying. Don’t give up! It’s like souls game you just get better.

  • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    It’s a little tricky but people learn it all the time. The Blender Guru “donut tutorial” is a good starting point.t

      • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 day ago

        It turns out that you can be good at explaining how to use Blender and still be bad enough at everything else to think that NFTs are a good idea.

  • Aradina [She/They]@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Blender has a reputation for being difficult to learn, but the UI has actually improved a lot these last few years and its much more user friendly.

    It’s very fun and rewarding

  • TheBroodian [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    As others have said, learning 3d modeling is kind of a pain in the ass in general, but Blender is so incredibly well documented, and there are so many tutorials out there for it, that I would say that it’s incredibly accessible.

  • shath [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    blenders ui sucks ass but it’s super powerful and good

    once you’re over the initial “how do i interact with this” it’s easier

  • loathsome dongeaterA
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    2 days ago

    I casually began looking into 3d sculpting a while ago and ended up listening something a pro artist said on this topic. This was him comparing zbrush and blender, mind you, so he wasn’t talking about the medium in general. But he said that while there are some areas where zbrush might be better, blender is at the least perfectly adequate. Biggest advantage of blender is that by virtue of it being free it has the most community resources (tutorials, documentation, forums, etc.). Moreover, the fundamentals of sculpting translate between different software. So he highly recommended blender for newcomers between the two.

    It also seemed like you really need something like a graphic tablet if you wanna do it somewhat seriously.

  • GnastyGnuts [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    I think it depends on what / how much you want to do with it.

    For me, I consider myself to have no particular artistic talent, but I can still entertain myself by making interesting shapes just with box-modeling and the subdivision-surface modifier. Hell, election night I was trashed and making plaid patterns all night in the procedural texture thing they have. That shit was great.

    If you wanted to do something like a fully animated 3d character or something, that will obviously be harder, with 3d sculpting and animation being their own whole skill-sets. Also “re-topology” is a thing (if you make a 3d sculpt it’s a wad of triangles that you can’t really use, so you have to re-create the shape on top of the existing shape, but with good topology), and that shit looks miserable to do.

    There are loads of blender tutorials on youtube as well, including short and sweet tutorials on how to achieve specific effects / techniques. Keep in mind some of it is tied to annoying “hustle grindset” kinds of content, so it may stink up the algo a little.

  • oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    It’s really not that bad, it used to be worse. There’s plenty of tutorials, and while Blender is a bit complicated, you don’t need to learn all of it to get good at it.

  • NewAcctWhoDis [any]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    Make sure whatever tutorial you use is for a recent version (I think 4+) because it changes a lot

    I did the donut and it was a lot easier than I expected.

    • The_Grinch [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      I took a 3d modeling class using blender in highschool ten years ago (holy shit) and yeah I’m totally lost in blender today. It’s definitely very different.