The FASTEST way to Learn Blender
What if I told you there's a different way to learn from tutorials that STARTS when you STOP doing them! In this video I'll give you some tips on how to learn more from KZhead's giant amount of free Blender tutorials.
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➕ Addons You Need:
Fractal Machine - bit.ly/bnfractal
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Physical Celestial Objects - bit.ly/PCOkaizen
Physical Starlight Atmosphere - bit.ly/PSAkaizen
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:28 The Problem
02:20 How I try to tackle it
03:31 Solution #1 - Don't do the Tutorial
05:34 Solution #2 - Consume and Compartmentalize
06:30 Outro
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Insta - @Kaizentutorials
Twitter - @kaizentutorials
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Epidemic Sound
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Just to prevent confusion; I love the Donut series and Blenderguru's stuff! I also love tutorials, that's part of why I make them. What I mean by STOP doing tutorials, is stop copying them 1 on 1. This won't help you grow as fast as trying to make it your own. So switch it up, add your own flair and challenge yourself more than the tutorial would and you'll see progress in your Blender skills in no-time!
So probably the best title would be "stop copy other tutorials". Is it necessary to make false and clickbait titles like that?
And you couldn't have conveyed that in a less click bait way with your cover image? Instead of throwing shade on the donut tutorial (which was my first tutorial years ago and also helped propel me to use blender daily for the last 3 years) maybe a more thoughtful approach to a cover image would be better next time? Regardless good video with good points thanks!
Thanks and yeah maybe! I atleast notice from the comments that the donut series is as popular as ever haha.
@@KaizenTutorials hell yeah been checking out your videos they are very informative
I remember at the end of the Donut tutorial Andrew does explicitly say you should go on to do your own similar thing using what you just learned, like a muffin, cookie or cinnamon roll. He says to do that with every one of his tutorials in his podcast
This is one of the reasons I've become fond of the Blender Short Tutorials (and photoshop ones too). They show how to do something without context so you gain the knowledge and can apply it to your own work.
Yeah I like those too! However if you don't apply them immediately there's a good chance you've forgotten it a day later!
Does it work if you are brand new and can’t even make anything, even a worm
@@mrakisotnelar.8009 Learn things as a newbie with no context or knowledge? Hardly.
@@mrakisotnelar.8009 kinda..
I often start a project without knowing anything and using tutorials only to get thing to work. Like I wanted to do an animation with flying bats that follow the camera and found the "MOTHS" tutorial, altered some things and now I know about boids or what they are called lol
I was trying to explain to my coworker why I'm taking so long to do a simple Blender course. It took me around 12-15 hours to do 1.5h of a course. I was explaining that I'm not doing a course to create a object that the course was about, but to learn how to do it and learning concepts. I don't care about the object in question, I care to learn as much as I can from doing it.
Haha well show ‘m this video! 😜
Exactly, I'm currently doing a 74 hour Udemy tutorial and it's taken me like, half a year. Every time I learn a new method from the tutorial I go and try to use those skills from scratch in other projects, write down guides on the smaller details I might forget and generally spend a lot of time digesting what I learned rather than speeding through it. If all the tutorials teach you is that pressing these buttons in this order leads to so and so model then you've learned basically nothing. Partially this is a difference in motives, some people only do tutorials because they think doing enough tutorials will make them an expert while other people already have a specific goal in mind and need all these tutorials to achieve the goal.
Same. It took me like 6 hours to complete 15 minutes (!) tutorial. I'm trying to understand everything he does and not just copy him and move on
Which course?
cool username bro
I started with a blender donut, I finished and I was proud, but what was missing is I still had no idea how I did it (Like you said), after taking it back and now understanding the base fundamentals. These days I teach myself by setting off to create something (anything I can come up with) and use tutorials when I meet something I don’t know how to do yet. Ever since I started learning this way it feels like tutorials are unlocking skills rather than holding my hand through everything and forgetting it all after. I enjoy watching tutorials that allow me to use the skill for my own purpose, it feels more productive and also allows me to take learning at my own pace :)
Well said! Thanks for sharing.
Do it on your own and what you don't know check the tutorial. It walso works nice that way. do each video in 2 part. I watch a video in 1.25X or 1.5x then try on my own, and what i don't remember i go back
Same, I typically only rlly do material tutorials until I want to do something new like say make an organic monster or model a costume. And I watch non tutorials that make realize uses for the tool I didn't think of or learn about a new tool.
Same here! Many of us did the same very famous Donut series by Blender Guru but we cannot make that same donut. Your method is better.
The point of the donut is to learn how everything works and how to use them. It doesn’t teach you everything obviously but it’s still super helpful to learn every hot key and all the little systems
This is actually exactly how I learn how to do things in every program, not just blender. I'm so glad I'm not the only one because it seems like everyone else I talk to or who asks me how I learn things so fast thinks it's absurd and entirely a weird process. Thank you for making me feel like i'm not the weird one!
Haha yeah no problem. I agree this applies to almost anything you’re trying to learn, not just Blender. Tutorials are a great way to help you along the way, but doing your own thing will definitely help!
Starting with small adjustments, and combining 2-3 tutorials knowledge into a one big project, was extremely helpful to me. Also, I sometimes treat tutorials as a library of referances. "What was the shortcut key for this one?" "Edit mode is for this one, but pose mode for the other one. Or was it reverse?" Collecting tutorials focusing on these specific and sometimes annoying details, was a lot more helpful to me than following 10 tutorials to make 10 objects and calling it a day. Also, after you get the basics, you can try adding/removing stuff, or just try having fun with it. "What happens if I scale this one?" "Oh, what does this shiny button do?" "What happens if I connect this to that place instead?" Sometimes trying to do the exact same thing in video helps, but you need to continue after the video ends. Maybe that is the most important part.
Well said. Thanks for the in-depth comment. I completely agree!
I've been working with Blender for a week now, and my goal is to watch an entire tutorial, and then apply what I've learned from it. If I encounter any difficulties, I revisit the video to identify any mistakes or missed steps. This method helps me better understand the process and ensures a smoother learning experience.
Thanks for sharing your workflow and goal! Good luck 🙏🏻
This is very relatable. Back when I first learned how to draw (mostly anime), I watched a lot of tutorials from KZheadrs, so many that I spent most of my time just watching tutorials every day, until when I drew myself, I got bored quickly and ended up not drawing at all. Learning from my mistakes, now im watching blender tutorials less and focusing on doing practice and experimenting with things around me. It's very fun and can always motivate me to do more without being pressured by expectations:)
Yeah tutorial jail is a real thing! Thanks for sharing your story 🙏🏻
I’ma try this Especially I’m learning Sonic art so I’ll try this
This advice is largely correct. The key point is that by following this advice, you are more likely to actually learn. I've been doing 3D animation for 29 years - almost exclusively Lightwave 3D. There were magazine articles back then, online forums, usenet groups, and just banging away on the program. Banging away is what makes stuff actually stick. Tutorials are great for many things, including introducing you to better/more efficient ways to do something you can already do. But it is important to cement in some a strong understanding of the fundamentals. Once you have that, you can take info from tutorial and run with it. But you need that core first. And the core is the hardest bit. What I did in the past was to simply invent a project - usually of a type that I imagined a potential client would want. After all, we were starting a business, and not just doing this for fun. That's the motivation part. If you aren't motivated, you'll have a tough time learning. BTW, I don't know Blender, but am planning on diving in. Learning a new paradigm when you are already pretty fluent in and old one is probably going to be frustrating. But I'm pretty sure doing it like I did 29 years ago is still the way to go. If I get stuck somewhere, how wonderful that there are so many tutorials out there to mine for insight.
Thanks for the comment! And yes you're right. The basis, core, is very important. Eventually everyone will reach a point where they're comfortable creating stuff WITHOUT tutorials. In the beginning you'll need them constantly to learn small things, look up how to do specifics or give you inspiration to create stuff. As long as you're making progress it's fine ofcourse, but I think applying knowledge, instead of copying it will help do it faster!
I started to work in blender for my videos, where I create procedural objects like atoms (atomic number gives that particular atom or visualizing solid angle and so on). I learned blender because at first I used to use houdini, but houdini is not free, so the necessity of creating my own models made me learn blender for my projects. And I did so many projects that I eventually learnt the core fundamentals of blender and some intermediate level on geometry nodes.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah your own projects are the perfect way to learn. You can just use all the tutorials to help you with them! 🔥
I learned that it isn't so much "Stop doing Tutorials" it is "Stop blindly following the Tutorials" Which, in all honesty, is great! I've found that if I try to follow a tutorial too closely it ends up stressing me out due to it just not being 1 for 1 like the tutorial's end product, then it clicked. Not only is it okay that my product from the tutorial is not 1 for 1, but I learned a lot more by making mistakes that I had to double back on the tutorial and figure out what I had done wrong, thus redoing things outside the scope of the tutorial. I think there are 5 tutorials that I watched but didn't learn anything from, but that is, as you have put it because I didn't apply what I had learned in something that wasn't the tutorial.
Perfect comment! You understand the concept perfectly. 🙏🏻
For me, if it feels like I'm just following the tutorials blindly and forget it a day later, I can just go back and replay the video and try to make an object or scenario without listening to the tutorials next time.
I have recently been doing the Blender 3 To UE5 Dungeon Kitbash tutorial from 3D Tudor, and there have been several times where I've stopped mid-video in anticipation of the next step of the modeling process and worked it out in my own way, then watched to see how close I was to the video. One example was when modeling a curved staircase (that rose to the right), a reversed version (that rose to the left) needed to be made. While the tutorial accomplished this with the Mirror modifier, I used Shift-D, and then scaled along the X-axis by -1. 😄
Nice! Yeah doing it and then seeing how someone else does it is an amazing way of learning! 🙌🏻
6:34 This is the method I now use. I WAS trying to follow along in real-time, the first time, and a 15min tutorial turned in to a frustrating 2-3hrs because I hadn't fully had an idea where things were going until I came across it. So if I missed something (or even worse THINK that I missed something) I would have to scan back through to see if I had done something wrong, only to realize that my issue would be resolved later on in the tutorial. WATCH THE WHOLE THING FIRST!!!
Thanks for sharing your experience! It sounds similar to mine and probably many others when starting out.
"the end"
in addition if you still can't get it then it might be worth moving on, it might be a skill issue but bad tutorials exist too
Really good advice. One of my issues is choosing things to work on my own that aren't too far beyond my current skill level. That's one of the things that sucks about self learning: not having someone tell you what would be a good thing to make given what you already know. I realize that blindly following tutorials isn't really going to teach me much, but the projects that I try on my own end up taking me *way* longer than intended. I think I'm in the stage where I still don't know what it is that I don't know. So when I think, hey it would probably not be too difficult to modify X to make Y, I end up taking two weeks on Y because there are tons of things I didnt realize I'd need to know before trying Y lol. But it's all been fun. My main job is mathematics research/teaching, which I've been studying for over a decade at this point. Learning something new like this is reminding me what it's like to be a complete noob at something, which is good for me lol.
Thanks! Yeah it’s hard to find something good to work on. That’s why I say do the tutorial but find a similar, but also disimilar object. E.g. not doing the octopus plushy but the stuffed animal you had as a kid (or a simplified version of it). It’s still similar enough for the things shown in the video to apply, but it’s different enough where it enables you to test and try things out and learn more!
I’ve been really exited to get into blender, amassing tips and tricks to help me get started. Thank You So Much! ❤ this is an extremely helpful tip and I will definitely keep this video and your channel in mind
Glad to hear it! Good luck on your journey and happy Blending 🖤
I was having trouble putting myself in a mind space for learning Blender but I think you've just helped me find it. Thanks Kaizen, I never thought about trying to learn by applying rather than mirroring. I intend to try and learn with this method. Thank you.
Glad I could help! Good luck and happy blending.
Great video! I've only recently started Blender but I like to take notes when I'm working through a tutorial that I then type up into a Notion page. Writing everything down helps me remember it better, and it also means I build up an written archive of stuff I've learnt from the different videos I've followed that I can reference if I need to. Sure it also means that an hour long tutorial might take me 3 hours to get through but I think it's worth it to make sure I remember what I've learnt haha
Good tip!
WOW. I'd have never imagined so much in-depth analysis of Blender tutorials. You are actually right and that's exactly what I do. I post "shorts" tutorials while intentionally making mistakes so that the viewer can understand the meaning of an operation instead of blindly following the tutorials. You can take a look and leave a feedback in case if you are curious. Your Points definitely right and your dedication to blender community is just fantastic. keep it up man. 😀
Glad it was helpful and nice job on your own sutff! Keep it up!
Thanks Brother, You Gave me the Best Insight in how to Learn Blender. I had checked multiple videos to learn blender but yours is truly the best one i have come across by far.
Awesome, glad to hear it!
I never ask what I need to make next. I know what to make next. Another Space Ship: kzhead.info/sun/osh8nqtvlousfYk/bejne.html
Well everyone knows you can never have too many spaceships! 🙌
@@KaizenTutorials I have one basically done, I just need to finish test fitting the parts and adjust them. I have 2 that I am working on, and several planned.
I think i'm going to save this video and watch it a couple of times later. I'm a newbie who started to learn Blender like a 2 weeks ago (with a huge 3-4 days gaps of doing nothing). I knew how to basically operate Blender before thanks for my attempts of doing mods for different games, but i didn't knew how to create something from scratch. And so, after i got really motivated because of Shonzo's videos (He makes 3D models for V-tubers and VR-chat) i realized that drawing my characters for past 13 years wasn't enough, i need to bring them into 3D reality! That's why i decided that i'm gonna learn how to work in Blender. I decided to start with Donut tutorial, because why not? Aaaand i dropped it after 3rd video because my mind went elsewhere. After 5 days i decided to recreate everything from scratch, and i realized i don't remember a single thing Blender Guru said in these 3 videos. That's when it striked me. When i learned how to draw back in 2010 i didn't had a lot of resources available, every piece of information was worth a gold and i practiced and mastered everything i find helpful to me, and that's exactly why i can draw now without a struggle. While now with 3D modeling and internet giving you any information you need, sometimes with precise step-be-step follow ups, i guess i become lazy, why learn something when you just can google it up, follow the instructions and be done? This is kinda sad when you think about it, isn't it? Because no one will do my characters models for me (well they can, for atleast 1000$ lol) or even, do A Tutorial how to make my characters in 3D. This is something only i can do myself, and this is why i need to snap out of that state of lazyness and start to take things atleast semi-seriously. I'm still gonna do the donut. In fact, i think i'll do it first time following the tutorial, and after that 2-3 times without it or taking a sneak-peeks if facing some troubles (i have problems with memorizing stuff in general). And i thing this is a good approach to any tutorial: 1 time with instructions, repeat 2 times or more until it becomes part of your brain. This is how we were taught english in school (i guess successfully, guessing by this wall of text). I hope one day (preferably in this year) i will be able to finally show of the progress i made, and more importantly reach the goal i made for myself - To have my OC in 3D, fully rigged, and looking exactly as i want. I know this is going to be tough, but i think i'm ready to face any troubles among the way
Thanks for sharing your story! Sounds like you're more than prepared for the journey. Happy Blending!
I'm an animator who only animate, very specialist, but I also want to do personal projects. So I decided to learn other 3D skills so I don't need to depend completely on friends who want to do these projects with me. My method of learning is always be doing small animation projects and learn things I will be using specifically to that projects, but that I can replicate and perfect in future projects. First I learned the basics of shader, lights and rendering so that my animations looked better than my play lasts, applied to 2 little projects, 4 seconds of character animations each, now i will learn hot to paint and apply texture to my next project, all of them I use free rigs and models and making everything oriented to the next project makes the learning process much more organic, fun and efficient. Sometimes I use the same asset as the tutorial guy, or girl, but I always end up using that knowledge in what I actually need to finish my project. It's so rewarding. And I never lose the focus and never get confused about what to learn next.
Hi I need help with creating characters can you help
Blender Guru's donut tutorial was the hand I needed to get off the ground and moving, so you can't throw too much shade! ;) Glad to see you clarify your position on those tutorials. I've gone through and re-watched specific portions of his videos while doing stuff like plotting trees on land instead of sprinkles on a donut, and done this specifically to ensure I understand and can reproduce new concepts like basic Geometry Node logic. His videos are well-indexed and explained to support TOTAL newbies better than anything else I'd come across for ages! It was like a godsend to be able to do SOMETHING with Blender, while also applying it to personal projects.
Definitely not (trying to) throw(ing) shade at Andrew's work. His tutorials are great!
This was very insightful and I completely agree. Great points!
what you're saying has been in the back of my mind for a while, you have stirred up my mind:D really good, helpful video, thanks
Glad to hear it! Thanks 💪
I've never actually done the donut tutorial. The only ones I've ever looked at were Dikko's character modeling and rigging tutorials. I used them to make the characters for my student film. Dikko teaches things like useful topology for animation, modeling tricks to manipulate topology and methods of reusing assets. He always tells his viewers to use reference material. On the other hand, I think cookbook style tutorials are great for when you're in a sort of creative block and you're having trouble just getting those creative juices flowing into anything meaningful.
I loved the way you represent the whole thing struggle just in a couple of minutes. Thank you
Thank you!
I always try to apply the knowledge from the tutorial to whatever I wanted to create at first. Really helps to absorb things!!
Nice, yeah it really does help!
The best suggestion I got about blender was to make the things I made in the tutorial again, but on my own. Trust me this helped me a lot!
Good tip!
For me personally I used tutorials to get me used to the program and to keep me using the program daily. Sure I don't retain all the information from a single tutorial but it starts to build the fundamentals of Blender.
Well said! I agree, repetition is key in remembering. You can also just follow the steps several times to remember. Just using your own stuff is usually a bit more fun and easier to help you remember!
great advice, i started 10 weeks ago, i have absolutely no clue about how i'g go for a donut anymore. But i started sculpting head, each week 1 different character, each time adding 1 stuff i wasn't able to do, eyes, hair, little ornament or jewellery, once i felt good about my head, decided to go for a torso, then arms, then hands, adding 1 thing i didn't know each time helped me progress through trial and error, then going to multiple tutorial, took the helpfull advice on them, and went back to my sculpt and progressed a little more everytime. it might not be the best way for everyone but i learn a lot better this way than blindly following a tutorial from a to z as u said. thanks for comforting me on the way i actually learn stuff XD
No problem! Glad to hear you've found a good process for yourself to learn Blender. As you said, everyone does it in their own way. But I think trying to achieve your own things WITH the help of tutorials will help you learn faster, for sure!
I've only watched a handful of blender tutorials, but I've always watched them because I already had an idea of what I want to do and the tutorial is what I ended up finding when I looked up on how to do a specific thing. This way I've immediately been able to use the information from the tutorial on my own project and I seldom end up watching tutorials on things that are cool but that I don't have any use for.
To simply sum up this 6 minute long video "don't follow tutorials, but follow tutorials"
Yes
😂
İ didnt get it
That dosnt make sense
My favourite thing about blender content content creators is that their web cams always have great lighting
Hahaha it comes with the job I guess?! ;-)
Very good advice!! Thanks for you videos . I really enjoy them
Glad you like them and thanks for the kind words!
Thanks for the tutorials. Helped me loads and am loving learning Blender. I also signed up for the CG Boost course you recommended which I am excited to get into, Your content is top notch, thank you!
Great to hear! Hope you learn loads from it.
I learned this myself pretty early on in trying to learn blender. I decided to do the tutorial and focus on the new information I learned. I would make the model and change colors/ textures / lighting or model something a little different. Then I do a “self project” using what I learned but this time applying it to something I want to make. This has really helped me remember the lessons and learn how to apply them myself for use on my own. I have a brain injury so my memory is not great and this way has helped me remember lessons much better. Now I have lots of projects I am proud of while still learning. Good video and good advice.
Thank you! Sorry to hear about your injury. However happy to hear you;ve found a good way to learn Blender! 🙌
As for me, I started by studying Blender guru's donut and his other videos, but there were parts where I forgot the shortcut keys, so what I did was I printed all the shortcut keys and stuck them on the wall, that's it while I'm watching a tutorial I'll just look at the wall and that way it'll be easier for me to remember quickly
That's a great idea aswell! Having a physical thing to help remember is better than just digital stuff. That's why WRITING something down is better to help you remember it than typing it in your phone or something!
I'm glad you made a video like this! for me it helps a lot the past months. i just look at small ref photos at time to time or videos but yep like you said true true true
Glad it was helpful!
I've been making a sea creature for my first project in blender, and having to adapt tutorials to my specific project has absolutely cemented that knowledge in my brain in a way that 'following tutorials' wouldn't have done. Great advice in this video.
Thanks for confirming with your story!
Without a doubt, my favorite way is to learn the methods, tools, shortcuts and etc. You don't necessarily follow something, which gives you the freedom to follow whatever you want while keeping in mind some basics of how some things can be done. It practices the head to be more explorative of what to do next and pickup on everything :). The basic, basic tutorials still have a room out there though! I think the levels of difficulty all have their own "guides" since one never stop learning, whether it be for the sake of doing something better or more effectively. It's been a decade since I touched 3D, but thanks to VR, I'm starting back from where my brain last left off to do what I want to do :). It's crazy because there's things I picked up that not even my professors back then seemed to have used!
Thanks for the indepth comment! I agree that the knowledge is a tool to help you become more expressive in your creations. To get you the skills you need to create the things you ACTUALLY want to make!
Another tip is to change the category of the things you are modelled every now and then. I started with a donut and moved on to making an entire kitchen, house, SCI fi industrial place to hard surface modeling and so on. You have to give yourself new challenges to actually achieve bigger results in the long run. Mastering one category is fine and I do it from time to time (am working right now on mastering geometry nodes) You can become the donut master or the master of modeling food but can you design a simple hair dryer? probably not, that's why you should be always setting new goals in diffrent spaces and spektrums, not only in modeling, but in shading, lighting and so on. Sorry long text haha.
Yeah and this also helps you discover new things you might like and are good at!
@@KaizenTutorials exactly!
This is super advice and I couldn't agree more. Most of my learning has come from making my own stuff and getting stuck then finding the solutions.
Thanks!
I skipped most "how to" tutorials, I could never fully do the damn donut. I decided, I wanted to make some specific things, goofed with blender on my own, looked up something when I didnt know hot to do it and follow tutorials that got me through some steps I didn't understand. Works better, still learning.
Exactly! I'm a music teacher and i tell my students to learn basics first and then later you're able to make your own Music piece, this is how it works.
Well said!
@@KaizenTutorials Thank you Kaizen!
This is exactly how I learned to program. Well, the other "tip" I have is that when the teacher says what they plan to teach, I go ahead and try to do it myself. Then when I watch the way they overcome the challenges I had, or the more skilful way they did it, it sticks. Then I make something similar.
That's a great workflow! Thanks for sharing it.
That’s quite smart
@@KaizenTutorials Thanks :)
@@joys_ads I hope it helps.
You've made very informative video. As i am following these steps i learnt a lot.
Glad to hear that
Beautiful notion. This is advisable for learning any technique actually. 👏
Thanks! Yeah true!
As an artist I've learned in Blender two things a week ago, watching videos for weight paint and also how to deal with imported models that face plant themselves in Unity. Fun Stuff. - Making backside devastators move better and be more bouncy - Telling my model to stop planking. In Weight paint as an artist I've learned that if I have a lot of red then things move and are active in response of said movement. And just like a painting, like a field of grass, if I don't have a happy disputation of both red to green to blue and the hues of that, everything looks like garbled butt sacks. Because the same weight of dark and light colors and shadows of a painting ACTUALLY make sense to me when it comes to weight painting. Weight painting to me as a painter and illustrator is actually really fun. Next up is Blender and a fun trick I learned from someone on a discord. Sometime when you import a model from Unity, it's .fbx file, just because you did it doesn't mean Blender works like Unity. So importing the .fbx I had to take "every single mesh part" of the model and add a modifier to tell blender "yo this has bones" and now Blender understands that after I edited my model that infact now in Unity Blender says IT HAS BONES NO FACE PLANT. In a rather comical and yet canvas painting type of way I am learning a 3d program and it's software mechanics. I've gone mad and I love it.
Haha nice, thanks for sharing!
"automatic weight from bones" option: 👍
This is the reason why I didn’t learn as much as I wanted to when I was studying 3d modeling and texturing in college. All of my classes were basically just long KZhead videos my professor linked to us and we were forced to learn on our own, which really hurt all of us. It’s like learning how to study traditionally with books and notes and then you’re thrown a random video and you’re told to “learn this” without knowing how to study from videos.
Ah damn that's a shame. You could've done that on your own... the best part about school is to be able to discuss things with your peers, learn from people with experience and get into good work ethic for the industry. But it sounds like they did the least amount of effort possible!
@@KaizenTutorials yeah that’s pretty much how it went down. We taught each other what we knew from professionals and have grown our own network of support on discord. That’s probably the best thing I got from going to class
Thanks for sharing this Kaizen, this really helped me to realize the stop following and doing it your own way mentality.
My pleasure!
I've got one big ongoing little personal "brand" project that I always apply tutorials to and it's been such a good way to learn 3D, video & other things. Definitely helped with learning things quicker and also rewarding as there was motivation to create things that I'd actually use
Thanks for sharing! I agree that it can definitely help.
For my 8+ years on yt I finally found someone who understands learning 😮
Haha thanks, good to hear!
Y'all, Start a project-create a marble chessboard, bento box, Minecraft villager-and whenever you can't do something then look up a tutorial. Instead of watching a tutorial to make a chess board you need to make a chess board shape out of your starting square. Don't know how to make the squares then look up how to divide a shape; you will eventually find the slice tool and set the cuts to 7. have an 8x8 board now? Good! let us make it cool, raise the white squares slightly. Want marble? learn how to do the marble material from a few tutorials. I say a few bc 1, the first won't give you the marble you want (probably), and 2, you'll learn how it works with the different peoples angles and will be able to make your own marble afterwards and any color. Apply to squares. Continue and keep adding things. Finished the board? Make it in to a wooden table with the board inset to the tables center... Add drawers for chess pieces (or checkers which would be far easier). Set up the scene and render.
Yep, that's basically it.
You young man make a lot of sense! Great advice !
Haha thanks, glad to hear it!
DUH ! Thank you for your insight , I see your point . Start approaching Blender your way this time
You bet! Thanks
Perfect time, I will be there
Awesome! See you there :-)
My ADHD brain approves this method. I always learned like that (which porobably is why I dropped out of school lol) and while it does take time it is one of the few methods I can remember things at all. It´s weird when you are barely able to live without a calender that reminds you on the most basic things like eating, yet when it comes to Blender, you can create an entire scene from the back of your head, remembering all the steps, hotkeys, little shortcuts and modifier tricks, etc. (references still massively help though)
Thanks for sharing your insight! The brain works in mysterious ways sometimes, haha
Your advice aligns perfectly with the professional life. At work, I spend 14-15 hours a day using Adobe design and motion tools. When I'm stuck and need to follow a tutorial, I apply it directly to the project I'm working on. Instead of creating a "donut", I blend the new info with my work. It's impossible to do otherwise when you have a deadline pressure.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah I used to do Adobe only as well, it's where I picked up the knowledge of how to learn something mostly. But it applies to generally anything I suppose!
I see your point man , still after the donut I’m grateful I decided to do that damn chair with the edge loops/modifiers madness , that was really useful
Fair enough! And in essence there's nothing wrong with this approach. But at some point in the learning process it's time to spread your wings and try your own things! :-D
how I do it: 1. step: Blender Guru Donut 2. step: want to do something really ambicious 3. step: do what I can do with my knowledge 4. step: watch tutorials for stuff I don't know how to do yet 5. step: project turn out shit but less shit than project before 6. step: repeat until projects turn out great
This is the way.
Thank you so much. I think this video will be very useful for beginners. I made the same mistake when I was a biginner so I hope others don't walk the same path as I did after watching this informative video.
No problem! Yeah I think it's a common issue, and understandably so. It's not wrong either, it's just slower if you do it this way and it takes more effort to keep going! 🤗
@@KaizenTutorials Exactly
Was waiting for someone to make a video on this, thanks😃
Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks :-D
excellent advice . thank you
Tutorials are ideal to get you used to the UI and that stuff. I'd follow them if I'm really new to the program. What I like to do now is looking for different workflows, masterclasses and techniques that let me apply them to my owm projects and tasks
Thanks for sharing!
For me, the challenges from cgboost or kitbash are great to force you to build bigger projects. From competing you learn a lot :)
That's indeed a great way of challenging yourself! Funny enough I'm a guest judge for CG Boosts upcoming challenge, so if you're in it I'll judge your work ;-)
@@KaizenTutorials :D Yes, I'm in the Training Arena. I just don't feel like my skill level is ready for the "big leagues" :D
Thank you for this advices!
No problem!
A lot of the time I learn new things blender can do, ways to combine operations, and practice with actually using Blender
Exactly!
I just started with a 🍩 tutorial... 😅
Uh oh! Haha, no worries. Come check out the premiere and you'll see exactly what I mean ;-)
Man i needed this video so much thanks❤
Glad I could help!
I love how you teach and i go and actually do it
Ah, this is interesting! Because it's a concept I've learned with Coding too. I'm a fairly new coder, but I feel like once I learned to stop just writing code, but instead try to understand why it does what it does, I finally began to actually learn!
The core message of your video is spot on but there is definitely value in copying, the key part is that it needs to be at your skill level so the knowledge sticks. Interesting vid!
Thanks! Oh yeah copying ain't wrong by any means. But it is not useful for beginners in a stage where they are still learning the basics!
This is the best way to go about learning most things. This applied very well for me in programming.
True! Glad to hear this worked for you too 🙏🏻
Thanks for the advice!
You're welcome, hope it helps!
This is so true and so helpful, thanks. I was starting to feel discouraged when it came to 3D model
You can do it!
Learning to apply the knowledge you've just received is something an expensive art school taught me. Thank you for saving everyone else thousands of dollars.
Haha no problem! 👌🏻😅
The first 2 minutes were enough to change my perspective of viewing things on KZhead forever.
Wow, thanks!
Just started blender and finished ALL the donut series and haven’t made a donut yet. I thought the lesson was incredible but I agree that doing something you LOVE will make learning easier; working on cubes and loop cuts… not torus rings.
great advice, when i think about it, unless I use what i've learned in tutorial 100 times over in the following months, i'll keep coming back to the tutorial.
Thank you! Yeah that’s also a good way. But it can be cumbersome to some people to have to go back all the time.
I always follow this advice--learn what you are doing, rather than simply duplicate the result--but you've put it in a much more articulate form.
Thank you, appreciate it!
Thanks, I think these are great tips 👍
Thank you!
You're good. This really will help me ❤️
Glad I could help, thanks!
I stop watching tuts in blender after 1 month, I decide to familiarize the function and shortcuts in blender(still not fully familiar around, sometimes i forgot where to find this specific tool tab, etc but atleast i know those function now.) until i stumble in this, this is quite helpful enhance my knowledge more
Thank you, glad I could help! Good luck with your Blender journey
Thank u foe this video.I have a depression and do not want do any project in Blender.But your video helped me to come back to my projects.
No problem, glad I could help. Take care and all the best to yoy!
Heres a good way to go about tutorials. Use them to spark that idea of something, follow the first like minute or two of the setup so youve got your workspace setup. Then stop watching and close the video and create/continue inside the workspace you just setup for yourself. Bascially use the idea, follow one or two steps, then problem solve the rest of the way to finishing it yourself without the tutorial whislt doing it your own way. Instead of how to make a donut, look up "the basic sculpting tools and how they work" or "the basics to texturing" so you can add color to it.
Well said. I think sometimes you'll need more of a tutorial e.g. with Geometry Nodes. It's super hard to get those right without someone guiding you. Yet still you can use the node setups to create something of your own, instead of just exactly what the video shows.
So far I’ve really only watched two blender tutorials( cuz I’m a beginner) and I will follow your advice, but those two tutorials where probably needed for me to follow so I could learn the fundamentals of blender
Yeah that makes sense, you definitely need tutorials to learn, just try and blend in your own stuff and creativity so it sticks better in your mind! Good luck!
@@KaizenTutorials thanks. And I already tried to make a random lantern by myself, kinda sucked, but I did learn some other things 😁
That scorpion was classic. I've never followed a tutorial. I use the info in the tutorial to make my own stuff no matter how basic. I've made a list of tuts where different important info is found and can access it when I need a refresher. It's slow but the knowledge sticks better. I'm really not clever and struggle to learn so this works for me.
Thanks for sharing! Keep at it 💪
So true!! What you're pointing out has been so relevant for me personally, in my journey with Blender!! I've been learning Blender, following tutorials for over a year and a half, frustrating myself enormously. A few months ago I was fascinated by a Blender model of a spherical robot, that one of the guys behind Machin3 Tools made. There was no tutorial for building it, (that I know of), but I found myself taking what I have learned, and seeing if I could come close to reproducing it. I'm actually getting pretty close, but still need to learn 'shading' and mesh structure nuances. When I would hit a knowledge block, (quite a few!), I would then look for a specific tutorial for that aspect of that tool... eg. 'Sharpen', 'Ever-scroll', clamp overlap, etc, etc. I found that I was actually beginning to understand what these tools were, and when & why I would use them. Following many of the tutorials, has been more frustrating than helpful to me because I wasn't actually LEARNING the tools. Mostly backing the video again, and again because the guy forgot to have screencast on, mumbled/ muttered something, or went so fast through a step that (even with screencast) you couldn't see what the hell they just did!! Of course we want to create something of our own design, (me especially), but the reality is we have to be patient & take our time to learn... really learn how the program works.
Thanks for sharing your journey in Blender! Keep at it, you're doing great.
Thank you very much for the advice. I was just about to start with Donut tutorial to learn the basics. Only doing the fixed steps provided in the tutorial kept me in my comfort zone (not just Blender but while learning C++ too in my case). While making a different model with the same tools means I can start experimenting with some subtle differences and variations which will allow me to explore 1-2 new features/tools.
Glad I could help!
I do believe in that a lot, and especially I need just some specific parts of several tutorials to make something completely new. My ARC401 project about modular systems was a submitted last week, and it was an absolute adventure. From Default cube I took how build a brick wall, then from another tutorial random material by island, then another tutorial the application of snow on z facing normals- and the list was very very long. It is all like cooking: mix new ingredients until you get something new that you can proudly call yours and yours only.
Yess, well said! It is indeed like cooking. Nothing wrong with following a recipe, but doing a variation or changing it ip slightly to fit your taste is more fulfilling in my opinion
great video! I've completed only like two or maybe three full tutorials/tutorial series, the donut and two other things. and then i just kind of went wild on my own. my first render was made like a week after I started and it sucked and the process sucked but I was really proud of it. and I think this is why I am still passionate about blender. doing tutorials was boring as hell and I was on the verge of giving it up. but making my own things to reality made it more fun. now i watch longer tutorials just for inspiration and I never really go along with them, just casually watch in bed to see if I can pick up some interesting method or a shortcut to something. and I Google very specific things like oh, how to make shadow caustics or how to make a blood material. forum posts and short videos are a saving grace honestly. i learn the best when i also struggle the most, lol, i will NEVER forget the pain of texturing a chair like ten times till I've finally learned how to uv unwrap instead of just blindly going smart unwrap and going with the results xd
Thanks for sharing your story! Doing your own thing is definitely more fun. 🙏
ahh man this brings back memories. I remember watching donut media and one day they made a video about car renders on instagram, seen kyza's work. Started with a donut like everyone else, 2 years later i can finally sorta kinda make car go wide. Also a very important tip from andrew price, make your models size true to life, unless youre intentionally making miniatures or something. It makes the lighting easier and everything just looks right. Recently ive been putting so much attention to the scale of things and its honestly a game changer, dont just eyeball things.
Scale is a very good thing to take into account! Well said :-)
I really needed this. I have always been struggling with blender but that is because i just followed instructions and never applied it to what I want to make for myself.
Hopefully this can be a turning point in your learning journey! Happy Blending!
Great advice! 👍
Glad you think so, thanks!
OK that kind of makes sense will now watch tutorials all the way through and try to re-create from memory. good tip
Awesome! Hope this will help you grow faster 💪
My experience was exactly as you said in the video.I started learning Blender a year ago, and I started with donuts. I made a donut, but I didn't learn anything from it. This was my routine for the following months, until I eventually stopped using Blender because I started thinking I have no progress. I watched along and copied the tutorials exactly as I saw them. Now,CG Fast attack really helps me as a beginner.And i do this now with every tutorial,I watch the tutorial, and then I do my own.Feels way better,challanging and proud of myself because im not "cheating".
Nice! Thanks for sharing your journey. Keep it up!
You reminded me of the times I was in software development classes and I learnt more by "adapting" homework to my taste rather than following orders blindly. It seems that with 20y.o we are more venturous than when we are adults who want to be strict and precise. The key, as you said, is having fun!
Yep, exactly! Happy Blending 🙌
This is exactly the process I've implemented for learning motion design and editing in after effects. Once I master those I will learn 3d so I can start making some projects I have in mind
Fantastic! Good luck with that.
I do remember seeing the advice for something similar. Something that I do more on the 2d side of things and not as much in blender. The advice was after doing the tutorial project, make another project using the same principles. This helps a bit more because you can be sure that you were able to do what they did and you can consult your prior work to figure out where you are going wrong.
Great tip, and yeah it will definitely help!