new year new resolutions and if one of those resolutions is to learn blender you found the right video in this video I'll go over a three-step method to learn blender or basically any skill you want including some of my favorite blender creators who taught me almost everything I know how to use all that free knowledge out there and how you can speed up your learning process step one consume so before actually investing in learning start consuming blender content okay so hear me out you know that feeling whenever you start developing an interest for something where
consuming almost everything you can find about that topic becomes somewhat compulsive well maybe that's just me but whenever I start learning something new or am invested in a topic I consume basically everything I can find on that subject as an example not so long ago I wanted to upgrade my PC and I spent countless hours reading on which parts to get compatibility CPU and GPU bottlenecks and so on I dove really deep into this thing to get the most complete picture of it and make sure I got the right parts that worked for my goals
anyways we're not talking PC parts now we're talking learning blender and you can do a lot in blender like modeling products characters animation rigging shading environments movies 2D art Motion Graphics and so many more and although they're all equally cool the chances of you learning and being good at all of them will be slim plus by dividing your attention you'll learn slower run into more hurdles and feel less accomplished because of that so before starting strong and running into a wall make sure to do this first watch timelapse videos of amazing projects being made watch
tutorials in a broad range of topics watch new feature releases in new blender updates and check out amazing artworks across the internet I personally like to create a folder in Chrome where I bookmark anything I found interesting to get back to it at a later stage you do this not only to find something that you think is fun to do but also to make sure you actually want want to learn blender before putting in a real effort that is and at the same time you'll already learn a few things here and there and get a
feel for how other people use the software again blender can do practically anything but you either can't or don't want to maybe you're a big fan of abstract Motion Graphics or you love sci-fi space stuff maybe you want to recreate a beautiful landscape you once saw on a holiday or maybe you love your pets so much you want to make a 3D Recreation of them the possibilities are literally L Al endless and there's a lot of content out there readily available for free and sometimes paid that will help you make a choice in what you
enjoy I believe that if you're truly excited about a topic in 3D you can learn it no matter how difficult it is and to help with that there's no better time than today because we're blessed with an insane amount of free learning content on YouTube so here's my top picks for learning certain things in blender ducky 3D an endless library of Motion Graphics animation and lighting tutorials that are also great for learning a lot of the basics of blender Derek Elliott the best product animation rendering and presentation tutorials out there not only does he cover
everything you need for professional results but he also has a wide range of variety in his videos arendel extremely in-depth tutorials on shading and geometry nodes that will often blow your mind but they'll teach you everything you need to know to become a professional node user in blender stash realism cinematography and loads of tips and tricks with a large amount of humor in them too or the uncles and aunts and pet dogs and pet cats I think they're great easygoing videos for a beginner audience Max hay a wizard when it comes to Epic looking concept
style renders that have been taking the Internet by storm for years now very creative and full of tips for optimal results with minimal effort tiny Noki the best looking stylized cute Pixar Disney looking art tutorials and time lapses oh and as a bonus they also share some cool free blender files and assets shofer amazing architectural visualization or archist for short tips and tricks with full free courses on interior renders available as well now I think learning is fun it's something we do from the day we're born till the day we die but if you struggle
to learn something it can become frustrating and even make you hate it so by taking the time to learn what you truly enjoy in blender learning becomes effortlessly who knows you might even start loving it and while we're on the subject of learning and consuming new things skillshare the sponsor of this video is the perfect way to invest in yourself and your goals they have the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry Pros across a wide variety of topics including blender and because skillshare realizes this huge library of content
can be daunting they've just released learning paths which are handpicked classes meant to be taken in order so you don't have to look for the perfect classes to learn a certain topic for example this brand new learning path by my buddy and famous product animator Derek Elliott where you'll learn everything you need to know to create stunning 3D renders and animations it's completely aimed at beginners but still taught me some great animation tips like using simulation and shape keys for amazing looking curtain animations to liven up my project but there's also learning paths for building
and launching your creative business brand promotion and learning how to price and negotiate yourself as a freelancer honestly I wish I knew about skillshare when I first started out because it would have made my own learning EXP experience so much easier and that's why I'm excited to share that skillshare has allowed me to give the first 500 people who use the link in my description down below a one month free trial of skillshare so make sure to sign up now and start working on your New Year's resolution the goal for step one is that you
have an idea of your passions and don't spend time and energy needlessly on things you don't like doing anyways my recommendation is you spend at least a couple of hours at this step leave it be for a bit and get back to it maybe a a few days later and see if you still feel the same if you do you're on the right track and this next step will ensure you'll actually get the skills to create what you want step two apply so now it's time for the real fun and at this point in the
process you should have a decent idea of what things you'd enjoy to do in blender you've also built up a small library of nodes and bookmarks if you did as I said with useful and interesting content around these topics now maybe you think I'd say now go find some tutorial like my own that fit your chosen subject and go do them and you're partially correct however we're going to do things a little differently instead of just doing tutorials I'd like you to come up with a small project that fits your topic of Interest some of
my own interests are sci-fi environments and Motion Graphics so I'm going to start with a seamlessly looping animation of a Sci-Fi donut now I know what I want to make I can go look for tutorials that might help with achieving this since I want to do looping sci-fi stuff I I can watch some specific ducky 3D tutorials like this one and this one and since I wanted to contain a donnut as well I'll also check out blender guru's new 4.0 donut series while watching these tutorials I immediately try to apply what is being taught to
my own little project if I feel uncomfortable and not skilled enough I can first do exactly as the tutorial says and just recreate the result from the video and after that try to apply that knowledge to my own project learning in my own experience and from what I've seen from people I've taught is mostly a back and forth between the information you're trying to absorb and the application of this information repetition is key here and going back and forth between useful tutorials and your own project can help cement the knowledge inside your head if done
correctly and with enough effort and time you'll get what you set out to do which in my case was to create a looping animation of a Sci-Fi donut it might not be perfect it might not look exactly the way you had it in mind or it might not have gotten done as fast as you expected but at least you've completed a project and if done correctly you learned a lot along the way so that's one way of doing things another great way to force yourself to come up with the unique projects and stick to his
schedule is to join in on community challenges obviously there's famous ones like the pwnisher challenge but those are usually filled with Pro artists and they might feel a little bit daunting when you're first starting out so instead I recommend checking out some Discord servers that host regular Community challenges like my own there there pretty low stakes they usually don't last very long so it won't become too big of a project and you'll get feedback from your peers and grow along the way and you get to learn from others there's a lot of pluses the goal
for step two is to take what you've consumed in step one and apply it to something of your own you can paare this with following along with tutorials to learn the basics but remember you don't need to become a pro overnight Instead try to look at this from the kaisen method which is an actual business philosophy improving a little bit every time you work on it is is key and with that you know the two basic steps to take for growing and learning basically any skill and if you keep added you'll become a pro at
this skill eventually but this process can take a long time and if you want to make it go faster step three will help step three invest if you've done step one and two correctly you should be seeing Improvement every time you work in blender however you've also probably come to the realization that getting good enough to get a job for example is going to be a long road from what I've seen and heard from other Professionals in the industry there's only one real way to speed up this process investing in your desired skill and there's
two things everyone in the world can potentially invest into his skill time and money I truly believe this can make the difference between years of practice and months potentially the first way to invest time comes down to how much time you can free up to put into step one and two for learning blender there aren't really shortcuts into learning a skill as far as I know besides maybe having a talent or something so getting good requires time and the more time you can invest in a short time frame the quicker you'll get to your desired
level of skill what I like about this is that paired with the fact that blunder is completely free time is something everyone in this world has and it allows you to level the playing field compared to people who are for example in way wealthier countries the second way to invest is a bit less Fair as it requires you to have the means to do so by using money to gain access to things like courses online learning communities schools or even personal tutoring you can get a more Hands-On approach to learning blender each of these comes
with its own price deck though with courses obviously being the cheapest and personal tutoring probably being the most expensive but that basically comes down to what you're willing to invest however if you are willing to make a smaller investment I personally recommend getting a blender course I'm a big fan of the CG boost ones since they also give access to a learning community where you get feedback from your payers and professional Community managers some of their courses that I would recommend are Master 3D environments robotic Planet blender Launchpad likewise CG cookie has a great variety
of courses as well it can help you learn faster and they also have a large community where you can ask questions I'd recommend you to try and look at these two investment methods as a sort of balancing act the more time you can spend the less money you need and the more money you can invest the less time you need to learn Lether obviously if this is all a hobby to you this doesn't really apply but if you're willing to take this to a professional level investing money and time preferably both but you know the
more you can put into it the more you'll get out of it but even assuming you can invest all the time and money in the world a lot of beginners get stuck on learning blender because they make one major mistake so why don't you check out this video next to learn how to overcome it and learn blender in the fastest way possible [Music] yeah