Learning to do anything as a hobbyist.

hexedrevii

Hello!
This is the second time I use a forum so excuse my inexperience

I started learning modelling again after a huge pause, I found out that following those "donut" tutorials really burns me out badly, so, I wanted to ask, how do you learn things?
I made like two or three renders, but I do not know how to expand them, I want to learn how to use those sculpting brushes to make the tree look more "natural" or learning what "extruding" is to make branches, or how to make "materials" for the tree to be more.. tree like.. 
I know some donut tutorials show all of that, but I don't know, it just burns me out so bad, are there any other type of learning materials? If so, how can I find/use them?



I also feel like I'm missing something.
I remember the material page being something "node-like"

Celosia

I learn by doing, not following tutorials.

I don't want to do a donut, I want to do [something] and I feel strong aversion to watch unnecessarily long videos with music, silly jokes and FX narrated by tiny heads. That doesn't mean tutorials are terrible, they're just not my cup of tea. They might not be yours either.

So I find something in specific that I want to create then read the software tooltips, the manual, or do a web search when I need to learn a tool or approach to execute that project. I click on buttons, change settings and see what happens. I do look up tutorials if they cover what I need to know and I couldn't find anything else, but I rarely watch them in full. I prefer written material whenever possible because it's easier to skim and find what you need.

sacboi

I'm another hobbyist, documentation/manual like in 'real world' stuff would be essential so no less for DCC software as well, it's only a tool although you'd need to know at least the basics before diving in on how it works and what it'll actually offer. IMHO whatever resource material either books or online...etc one chooses to further apply learning's is irrelevant, as long as you reach your end goal what matters plus bit of fun along the way, never hurts.      

okidoki

sacboi said: as long as you reach your end goal what matters plus bit of fun along the way, never hurts.      

Well said.. also beeing hobbyist myself: Even if i now mainly using blender i had the opportunity to have some looks in to other DCC's (even if this was some time ago..) and maybe that's one reason why i say: It's the do-not tutorial.. so do not..   (Even if i watched some Andrew Price tutorials and they are somekind of informative.)

Also: do not think (in general) that there is just one way to do it or only one tool to use.. if humankind would have thought only so then there would have not be any invention.. ( fire ? who needs fire ?? if humans are supposted to have fire then they would have fire breath like dragons..) 

For any modelling it's sometimes interesting to know a little about how this is made in real live.. but you do not have to make it like so ( for example no need for any ingredients for.. let's say a donut   ).

hexedrevii

Thanks for all the replies guys its helpful, im trying to do things and just google tutorials as I need to now.

varkatope

In my experience (and this may only apply to my own experience), once I have some basic knowledge of what to do, I set a project of reasonable scope and as my end goal. Something small, but interesting to me. This is critical. Then, I figure out what I need to learn to accomplish that as I go through each step.

Making anything is a series of problems to solve. You take one problem at a time, solve it, then move onto the next one. Tutorials are great, but you may not need a lot of the stuff they're trying to show you (yet), and it can be boring as hell to work on something other than what you're (hopefully) passionate about. And, if you find it boring, you're more likely to abandon it.

So, once I figure out what I need to do to solve the current problem, THEN, and only then, do I go searching for information on how to do that one particular task, and only that task. That can be a tutorial, documentation, books, searching forums, asking a question in forums. However, always try to solve the problem yourself before asking others. If you struggle a bit, you're more likely to remember the process later, but if you rely on others to solve all your problems, you'll never actually learn how to solve them yourself. I see people fall into this trap all the time. Your question here isn't that, though.

But yeah, once you've solved enough problems, you'll be done with your small project and you'll have some knowledge to apply to your next project, which can be a bit larger in scope. Then the next project, and the one after that...

Good luck!

p.s. look at the tabs at the top of the window. The tab you're looking for is called Shading.

poopipe

solid advice there. 

you can ask on here as well of course.  eg. if you want to make the tree look like a tree, pop a post up here saying 'here's my tree, i want it to look like this tree (add a picture) but i dont know how to make that' and someone will help. 

It's much easier for the other users to help with specific questions than with more general 'how do i do a modelling?' type questions (tbf you asked in the best way possible here) because there are far fewer right answers to more specific questions. 

aumramaram

You learn by doing, not by watching youtube videos. That's entertainment.

Your brain is more powerful than all the world's super-computers combined. It is an extremely advanced learning machine. It's your psychology which struggles to learn. In your head you make many nonsense problems which disrupt the learning process. Focus reduces this disruption and allows the brain to pool its resources, making it far more effective.

Please know that *you* never solve problems or come up with ideas. Your brain does. All you do is change your focus from one item to another, and change the quality of that focus. This makes learning extremely easy because you never have to worry about memorizing or understanding anything at all. All you have to do it generate positive focus. When you can tap into this your mental performance becomes virtually super-human.

Strangely few people invest in their ability to learn, so here's a great chance to get ahead.

Sempoo

Learn by doing, after 1000 hours net [not gross!] you will improve a lot.

stop619

Fellow hobbyist here. Agree with the notion of doing vice being. I do find value in tutorials but not in the traditional sense of following along step-by-step but by treating it as a class lecture, making notes and looking for new tricks and techniques along the way. Modeling time lapse videos are great for this.