My biggest Blender tip for people new to modelling is much simpler: stop using the subsurf modifier. It's a very powerful tool once you understand the basics of topology and poly modeling, but in my experience Blender tutorials aimed at total beginners are horrible for teaching them to be over-reliant on it, and as a result a lot of people never develop some really fundamental skills. A good rule of thumb is that if your mesh doesn't already look pretty good (think "could pass for a last-gen video game asset"), it's probably too early to go slapping a subsurf on it. Obviously more experienced modelers will have a better sense of when to use it and when not to, but if you're brand new to modeling then practice making your models look decent without it first.
personally I disagree, subd modelling is fundamental to any game/film workflow, and I feel that the fundamentals (edge flow, quads, edge loops, etc.) can only really be taught in a practical way through subd modelling. I feel that not enough beginners are taught proper subd modelling, and end up creating meshes with awful edge flow and tons of ngons that are unsuitable for the next steps in the asset creation process. It is quite rare that one would be poly modelling outside of creating contiguous meshes to bake normal map information, and having that as one's only modelling method leaves much to be desired (things such as soft/hard edges, curves, etc.)
Sub D modeling and any other non destructive work flow will always be a superior method so I disagree. The more procedural we can make something the better. If you have bad topology from sub D modeling that’s what quad remeshers and retopo is for
The lighting tip was just what i needed! I spent hours trying to get world lighting to look good with countless hdris, tweaking settings etc, only for my renders to look almost exactly the same. So, thank you!
Same here. 'was working on a personal project. I knew the problem was lighting but never thought it could be the world lighting. Hearing this now has helped pinpoint the world lighting as my problem.
Almost 20 years of "Blending" as a hobby. I pretty much have done all the above. As far as the lighting, it is the same setup I used for decades when I did film photography in a studio.
Thanks! Been using blender for 8 years and didn't know about the blender launcher, looking forward to 3.3 LTS this month and will want to stay on top of bug free builds for very long term projects with the 20+ addons I have that also need frequent updating. I'd add to this list to use PowerSave and PowerBackup, best two organizing life savers ever for a blender user with large messy projects that can go south quickly!
🔥 Let me know if this helped you out!🔥 💭Want to learn more in depth Blender practices for free? 💭 👇Check out my classes on Skillshare, using a free month with the link below 👇 🎨skl.sh/3xVnC0o 🎨
Not cluttering your scene - well, that was a somewhat cluttered explanation for simply saying: Keep your project organized. =) Because yes, you should. For some things you might wanna do, you need many objects. But when keeping them organized in particular folders, you won't get driven nuts. Organization is key for bigger projects.
Why would I stop using a sky texture for world lighting when I only ever render outdoor scenes? I've also always rendered with motion blur, since my first ever render. I didn't know people didn't. Also, an alternative to Blender Launcher is to use the Steam version of Blender, so it automatically stays up-to-date.
Can’t agree with your first point. There’s absolutely a place for lighting through the world shader. HDRIs are great for getting a good dynamic range in outdoor scenes for example
Yes of course! This is more so for new users to blender. I agree 100%, I was just highlighting the need to not rely on it for each scene and to experiment with diff lighting setups 🔥
sometimes i want to return to my old project files and one or two of them usually like to corrupt, so I switched to only using LTS releases. is that an overkill level of safety if I'm not working in a team, or is it a reasonable practice to do?
Agree with all except the last . As cool as procedural materials are they are hugely time-consuming. When on deadline I can go to my collection of textures and Ctrl Shift T and in 30 seconds get a terrific result or I can spend an hour and a half making node spaghetti and get something that looks almost as good.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 There are a lot of work arounds and tricks that still take 1/10th of the time of a building a procedural. These days I'm using Blender to send to Unreal more and more and procedurals won't work unless you go to all the hassle to bake them into image textures and then you're back to images anyway.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 Oh, you're so right. How stupid of me! Your YT comment has completely changed my mind and my workflow. I'll start twiddling parameters right away!
Are there any benefits to using the Blender Launcher over just using the Steam version of Blender? I mean, both can launch blender and get regular updates, so what's the benefit of the Blender Launcher?
Motion blur significantly slows down rendering, just like volumetric lighting or depth of field. That is, I know they look good, but my computer is not fast enough.
Whenever I see tutorials, sometimes I'll simply follow it and then decide whether I like it or not, at some point it's bad and some its impressive, in simple terms having six or more million faces is a huge issue cut it do and achieve almost the same result would be much more efficient and also "give it a little bit of time" 🤟 thankyou all and have a great day
I have a better idea. If you like having hair on your head, don't use Blender. I've plunked around on Blender, and my hair is now Gone Baby Gone. Which was probably shot with Blender.....
Click default cube press x delete, shift + a then create new cube.
Perfect!!
My biggest Blender tip for people new to modelling is much simpler: stop using the subsurf modifier. It's a very powerful tool once you understand the basics of topology and poly modeling, but in my experience Blender tutorials aimed at total beginners are horrible for teaching them to be over-reliant on it, and as a result a lot of people never develop some really fundamental skills. A good rule of thumb is that if your mesh doesn't already look pretty good (think "could pass for a last-gen video game asset"), it's probably too early to go slapping a subsurf on it. Obviously more experienced modelers will have a better sense of when to use it and when not to, but if you're brand new to modeling then practice making your models look decent without it first.
personally I disagree, subd modelling is fundamental to any game/film workflow, and I feel that the fundamentals (edge flow, quads, edge loops, etc.) can only really be taught in a practical way through subd modelling. I feel that not enough beginners are taught proper subd modelling, and end up creating meshes with awful edge flow and tons of ngons that are unsuitable for the next steps in the asset creation process. It is quite rare that one would be poly modelling outside of creating contiguous meshes to bake normal map information, and having that as one's only modelling method leaves much to be desired (things such as soft/hard edges, curves, etc.)
also subd modelling allows for a much less destructive workflow and unlimited resolution
Sub D modeling and any other non destructive work flow will always be a superior method so I disagree. The more procedural we can make something the better. If you have bad topology from sub D modeling that’s what quad remeshers and retopo is for
It depends.. It's good for non destructive smoothing. It's also good for setting up a base model for sculpting.
The lighting tip was just what i needed! I spent hours trying to get world lighting to look good with countless hdris, tweaking settings etc, only for my renders to look almost exactly the same. So, thank you!
Great to hear! 🔥
Same here. 'was working on a personal project. I knew the problem was lighting but never thought it could be the world lighting. Hearing this now has helped pinpoint the world lighting as my problem.
Almost 20 years of "Blending" as a hobby. I pretty much have done all the above.
As far as the lighting, it is the same setup I used for decades when I did film photography in a studio.
Thanks! Been using blender for 8 years and didn't know about the blender launcher, looking forward to 3.3 LTS this month and will want to stay on top of bug free builds for very long term projects with the 20+ addons I have that also need frequent updating. I'd add to this list to use PowerSave and PowerBackup, best two organizing life savers ever for a blender user with large messy projects that can go south quickly!
Thanks for the tips! I am already 7 years in CG, and thinking of switching to blender.
Thank you! Yes you should definitely give blender a try!
Game dev here. I'm still gonna ignore motion blur cause everyone just turns it off anyway
awesome tips! im starting with blender
Congrats!
🔥 Let me know if this helped you out!🔥
💭Want to learn more in depth Blender practices for free? 💭
👇Check out my classes on Skillshare, using a free month with the link below 👇
🎨skl.sh/3xVnC0o 🎨
Absolutely. I neglect motion blurr
THANK YOU. All I hear people do is rag on motion blur without understanding its use.
I always say your name in a very high-voiced tone and pulling the E extra long, thanks for all the great tutorials :)
Not cluttering your scene - well, that was a somewhat cluttered explanation for simply saying: Keep your project organized. =)
Because yes, you should. For some things you might wanna do, you need many objects. But when keeping them organized in particular folders, you won't get driven nuts. Organization is key for bigger projects.
Why would I stop using a sky texture for world lighting when I only ever render outdoor scenes?
I've also always rendered with motion blur, since my first ever render. I didn't know people didn't.
Also, an alternative to Blender Launcher is to use the Steam version of Blender, so it automatically stays up-to-date.
he wasnt talking about the Sky texture, he meant the default-selected World monocolor lighting. Sky texture is amazing and should be used when viable!
On using updated blender builds: for the gamers here, Blender is also available in Steam.
I am using emission plane as my light source in the background
That’s a great technique as well!
Helpful as always, thank u so much 🌺
Thank you so much, this is interesting.
Blender is also available on Steam, super useful for updates.
Can’t agree with your first point. There’s absolutely a place for lighting through the world shader. HDRIs are great for getting a good dynamic range in outdoor scenes for example
Yes of course! This is more so for new users to blender. I agree 100%, I was just highlighting the need to not rely on it for each scene and to experiment with diff lighting setups 🔥
@@Smeaf yeah can’t argue with that! Must also say that manually lighting is frickin hard. I appreciate anyone who tries their hand at it
You will know this after you get some experience kid :)
@@lazyartist6985 cant really say i am a novice any more! Still learning every day but I have a few years under my belt now ;)
Awesome! :)))
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Great stuff
Thank you!
i hope to one day make a 6 sided cube in blender , but i dont want to run before i can walk.
Baby steps!
The thumbnail is borderline offensive, but the tips are great
I just use Steam for the updates, it's really cool and you keep track of roughly how much time you've spent
Bruh there is a glitch on blender 3.4
I go to avee then its black on rendered
And i go to cycle its ok
But its kinda laggy i think
I like my lights in their own collection because then I can easily switch them all off and just view with an HDRI. It's all personal preference man.
Super helpful! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks!
sometimes i want to return to my old project files and one or two of them usually like to corrupt, so I switched to only using LTS releases. is that an overkill level of safety if I'm not working in a team, or is it a reasonable practice to do?
Agree with all except the last . As cool as procedural materials are they are hugely time-consuming. When on deadline I can go to my collection of textures and Ctrl Shift T and in 30 seconds get a terrific result or I can spend an hour and a half making node spaghetti and get something that looks almost as good.
Images will repeat, though. Procedurals won’t.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 There are a lot of work arounds and tricks that still take 1/10th of the time of a building a procedural. These days I'm using Blender to send to Unreal more and more and procedurals won't work unless you go to all the hassle to bake them into image textures and then you're back to images anyway.
And you can get a million different variations from a common node group, just by twiddling a few parameters.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 Oh, you're so right. How stupid of me! Your YT comment has completely changed my mind and my workflow. I'll start twiddling parameters right away!
@@seanposkea Work smarter, not harder.
Well, thanks! The bit about the clutter and the collections was a small epiphany for me.
😂 Can't believe there's peeps sticking with outdated versions...
Are there any benefits to using the Blender Launcher over just using the Steam version of Blender? I mean, both can launch blender and get regular updates, so what's the benefit of the Blender Launcher?
Motion blur significantly slows down rendering, just like volumetric lighting or depth of field. That is, I know they look good, but my computer is not fast enough.
Whenever I see tutorials, sometimes I'll simply follow it and then decide whether I like it or not, at some point it's bad and some its impressive, in simple terms having six or more million faces is a huge issue cut it do and achieve almost the same result would be much more efficient and also "give it a little bit of time" 🤟 thankyou all and have a great day
"stop using outdated builds"
I was on Blender 2.91 when you said this.
Turns out that the latest build is Blender 3.3. Oops.
Literally the same situation here lol :D
You can also use Steam, surprisingly.
People need to see these videos so good
People should really start using the Steam release of Blender. It updates automatically with no issues.
As a programmer, I would say “give OSL a try”.
The thing about motion blur is you have to get it just right to look real
Steam always keeps Blender up to date so if you have that, no need for a launcher.
Okay, what should we do?
There is a world lighting… 🥴
I have a better idea. If you like having hair on your head, don't use Blender. I've plunked around on Blender, and my hair is now Gone Baby Gone. Which was probably shot with Blender.....