How much time to learn

[prigekhas]

Hey, i'm thinking about starting to learn Blender. I wanna try create realistic body models. So i wanted to ask how much time it needs to learn Blender to able to start with character models and how much time it needs to create one model for a person with decent skills? Really appreciate your comments https://tutuapp.uno/ !

[Worker11811]

It depends on how much time a person is willing to put into it. You know the saying, "Ten thousand hours..."
Okay, I don't think you actually have to put in three years worth or 8-hour days but, still, you're going to need to pay your dues.

I've been making Blender projects in my spare time for a little over ten years. I feel like I'm just getting to the point where I want to be. But, when I started, I had little experience with 3-D. I had to figure out most of it, myself. Add to that, Blender is a harder program to learn than others. It was designed for completing its task efficiently rather than being easy to use. It wasn't quite an explicit choice by the creators but more of a theme. They wanted to make a program that worked to get the job done rather than holding the user's hand. That makes Blender harder to use but, once learned, it gets easier. What the heck? Blender is totally free. You've gotta' give Blender credit for that!

When you first start using Blender from scratch, you're bound to experience frustration. The first few times I used it, I messed around for fifteen minutes or so then got frustrated and quit. A few days later, I'd try again. I'm sure you'll experience that feeling, too, but stick with it. After a while, you'll feel more productive. You've gotta' put your ten thousand hours! Remember?

Give yourself a few weeks to a few months to get the hang. After you start learning more, the process will speed up. You'll hit your "bump in the learning curve" for sure. Once you're past that, it'll get better.

Factors to consider... How much do you already know about computer graphics? The more you know, the better off you'll be. If you know other programs, you'll be able to draw on that knowledge, too. Do you know Photoshop or GIMP? What about Illustrator or Inkscape? Not only will that knowledge help you, GIMP and Inkscape will become companions in your process of making graphics projects with Blender. (Many people post-process their Blender images with GIMP, for example.)

How driven are you to learn? The more you WANT to learn, the better you WILL learn. Do you have some projects in mind for using Blender? Having goals is important.

Bottom line: Give yourself a few weeks to get used to using Blender. It'll take a few months to become productive and a year or so, assuming you put in those ten thousand hours, to be able to make things the way you really want them to be. YMMV, based on how willing you are to work at it.

If you want to work with human models, try this one: https://www.blendswap.com/blend/29900
This is a model that I made. It's free to use for any personal project. My only requirement is that, if you want to use it or anything derived from it for commercial purposes, you need to contact me for permission, first. Beyond that, I don't much care. Just don't try to make money off other peoples' backs.

Anyhow... Download the mode. Play with it. Use it and try to make something from it. If you do, how about posting your results so that everybody can benefit?

[tomcat]

If you do, how about posting your results so that everybody can benefit?

It's a spammer. You shouldn't have wasted your time on him. His whole post is for the sake of the advertising link at the end.

[Worker11811]

I figured as much but, sometimes, you post answers to questions like this for the benefit of others who might come along and read later.

Spam links expire faster than most forum pages.

[tomcat]

Spam links expire faster than most forum pages.

This is true when it comes to sites with working moderation, when there is relatively little spam. But here, literally everything is full of spam. It's very frustrating for me.

[Worker11811]

Blendswap is even worse. I don't know how many times i've reported spam in my reply stream but it's never even looked at.

[drownintention]

If you do, how about posting your results so that everybody can benefit?doodle baseball

It's a spammer. You shouldn't have wasted your time on him. His whole post is for the sake of the advertising link at the end.

Yes. The purpose is for advertising only. We don't need to spend too much time on them.

[Worker11811]

Yeah, I understand all this. Yes, it's a spammer. I know. I knew from the beginning.

I gave a cogent answer to the original question without regard whether the post contained a spam link. The reason is as I said: To give subsequent visitors information if they want to read it. My response was a rather pat answer, to be honest.

The spam link will likely expire and go dead in the near future. This website will probably continue for a time longer than the spam link. In the end, we'll be left with a valid question and a thoughtful answer but the span can be safely ignored. People who come along later will, at least, get some information that will, hopefully, be useful.

It'll end up being like Quora or Reddit. They both have a lot of spam but it's still possible to read through it to find a half-decent answer if you need one.

Probably the best way to deal with spam is to just continue on as you were and skip over it. That's what I did. I'm sorry if people misunderstood me.

[Ricardo2020]

It is a sad world when you are forced to wade through a sea of stinky crap to find a tiny nugget of shiny gold.

We expect this with smart gadgets since anything smart is ad driven and marketers are scum in general. This is why smart gadgets make dumb people and are best avoided if you care about the future well being of humanity. However, it would seem that folks are so stuck on stupid and lazy that they simply do not give a hoot and will do just as you said: skip over the crap to get to the gold. It is all about convenience and trend chasing.

That being stated, we as artists should not have to do this for one valid reason. Skipping the crap takes time. Time is money and you cannot get it back once wasted. Unfortunately, the web has become totally enshittified by all the spam and those who profit from it at our expense. Facebook much? Tick Tock much? Fondle your spyware encrusted smart slab much because you are bored and need that next dopamine rush when you could be doing something productive that does not suck you in every time it blabs for your engagement?

As long as folks are OK with the slurp and annoyance, do not look for spam to be controlled or reduced. It is only going to get worse. Already, search engines more often than not give you and ad rather than an answer. Many of these turds in the road cannot be stepped over. Many ads are full of bad and dangerous scripts. This is why folks who actually care about a safe and informative internet run ad blockers in non chrome browsers. But on a forum such as this one, it is impossible to do anything about the crap. Eventually, folks tire and go elsewhere as the forum slowly dies.

I get the point of posting legitimate answers for future readers and agree with the point being made, but the spam will run those folks off long before they learn anything useful. It never hurts to be optimistic and try to help people learn, even if they must get their hands dirty to grab knowledge. It really sux balls for most people, though.

[Worker11811]

This is why smart gadgets make dumb people and are best avoided if you care about the future well being of humanity.

So true! It's one reason I don't have an iPhone. I don't care to care to schlep a $1,000+ piece of junk around with me all day. I don't care to pay $100+ per month just for the privilege of using it. As you say, most of what you see is little more than tripe.

I don't use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. There just isn't much on any of those sites that interests me in the least. I think they are inane.

I have my computer. It's fifteen years old and it's still better than most people's. I have an iPad and it can do anything an iPhone can do except take phone calls but I have a regular cell phone for that. One thing that I can do that iPhones can't is to use the phone and look things up on the internet while I'm talking. Using an iPhone, you either have to stop talking to look something up or you have to use the speaker phone. What if I want to have a private conversation? Using ear buds doesn't cut it, either. Now you have to juggle three things just to talk to somebody.

More gadgetry means a more complex life that makes you a slave to technology instead of the other way around. I am the master of technology! Not the other way around!

When it comes to technology, I'm all for it. I love computers and machines. Call me a techno-geek if you will but, when it come to using technology, I draw my line in the sand. I use MY technology the way that suits ME, not the other way around.

Sometimes, I can be a real bastard about it.