How To ACTUALLY Learn Blender (The 1% Strategy)

'1% Gems' are the secret sauce for succeeding in just about anything - even Blender. However, most people don't focus on these hidden gems and miss out on a LOT of useful information.

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[Mattfication]

To add to this, it really helps when you are trying to create something yourself. Once you start watching those tutorials, you know what your roadblocks are on your model / scene, so when something useful pops up, it really goes into your head and clicks.

[craigernstzen]

Could not agree more Josh. I literally watch 100s of tutorials. I don't finish every one but I pick up one thing here, one thing there and I absorb that for the next project.

[rexrip]

There is one more important thing for the people just starting out: Give yourself a deadline and just make what seems cool, it will stop you from redoing your artwork and wasting time in stead of just practicing as much as possible... Once you see the area you want to work in (level design, character art, lighting artist or what ever) stick to it and master it, then move to another. Once you have practiced enough, you will learn how to formulate questions for your problems (and there will always be some, especially for the blende + unreal combo) and will be much faster at finding solutions. It is hardest when starting out, once you know Blender in general, you will be able to just google what you need. Good Luck!

[thevirtualworldofgaming]

I have been doing this for a year now without even realising it and its when i started to grow more on my art and capabilities, 100% fact thank you for sharing this outlook josh.

[minzy]

I few days ago gave up on Blender despite i know the basics to some extent. After watching this vid its made sense and given hope in that learn the small things, take your time and have a play around etc. Thank you for the words of wisdom

[Argyll]

When learning 3D or CAD the top off the learning hump, statistically, is usually reached around the 3 months mark. This is the point where things really start dropping into place and you begin to wonder how you ever thought this was so difficult; from the top of the hum it's freewheeling downhill all the way. To get over the hump it's a case of practice, practice, practice both those things that become easy and those that are a bit more difficult to grasp and understand. With the videos on YouTube at your fingertips, learning 3D modeling has never been easier or more informative.

[Fotenks]

This video applies to me so hard. I used to have a problem with tutorials where I had to follow along the tutorial as closely as possible, and whenever I ran into a roadblock and couldn’t figure out the solution I would get so frustrated, get all the negative thoughts and feelings, and sometimes not touch blender for weeks. I have learned, atleast for these contained tutorials, to just improvise more and just keep going through the video even with roadblocks. As time has gone on, all the cumulative knowledge makes tutorials easier and easier and it has definitely translated to more progress in my personal projects. Thank you for the vid.

[WyMustIGo]

How to learn ANYTHING: Do it! The only way to learn anything is by doing! Watching videos and reading alone will get you nowhere, you actually have to do the work (gasp). Wisdom cannot be learned by reading and watching, you must do the work. You will not always get it right the first time, but you will learn from your mistakes. Also, set reasonable goals and then work towards achieving them. It's common sense (or at least it will be once you are older).

[drivebye]

I just walk away... put it on the back burner and work on project "B". I also have a project that I just do "experiments" on. This keeps me learning and as I learn I find answers.

Great video, dude.
Great energy.

[quinndepatten]

Your first tip about mindset feels so refreshing to hear. Thank you for this. I need to be careful not to be so hard on myself.

[razern]

Thanks for the two tips josh, ive have started blender a week ago and tried the donut tutorial and advanced into mclaren modelling, following tutorial of course, i found it hard when it comes to those complex shapes that needs some kind of dedication for it, because maybe i lack of imagination, sometimes the vertex multiplied for no reason and slow down my progress just to fix somethings so it will looks like the one in the tutorial, This video change the way i think, maybe i need to start small and learning the basic of modelling in blender since im not really familiar with the program because im used to sketchup which has some kind of constraint, I feel like blender is something very versatile to work with . I wish you all the best and again thank you for you for the tips

[kiddclofilm]

I agree with you 10000% when it comes to having that mindset. That's how I learned with APP. It looked extremely intimidating at first but after awhile, the hard part became the warm up. You make it easy for those who afraid to grasp. Great video.

[lilychiamaka]

A mindset cleanse is something most tech newbies really need to grow faster.

Thanks Josh

[yosso]

cheers mate I needed that 'pick me up' was feeling down about my process getting back to it now, cheers

[Mr_SteveD]

Your so right, I am past that now simply by modeling my techniques after your style. After 16 months those things are all worked out now being patient when big blocks come and they still do 😅

[IridiumZero]

How to ACTUALLY learn Blender: stop trying to find "hacks" and addons and learn actual fundamentals like proper topology (vital), material creation, lighting, UV, animation, color spaces, etc.

Otherwise you will end up like these people - only able to make various forms of shiny grey boxes.

[SamuelBusovsky]

Interesting Josh, also wanted to add; as someone getting more into blender recently I started using chatgpt to resolve issues that I do not know how to approach and cant find solutions online. Some examples where I used chatgpt was to resolve shading issues or create materials procedurally that I couldnt find tutorials for. Of course chatgpt isnt 100% accurate, but its good enough of a base to use and then through experimentation you can dial in exactly what you need.

Hope it helps!

[CrossProductions]

One of these hidden gems for me was literally Booleans in their entirety… I used to hand model everything, every single detail, and it would leave my stuff looking very flat and with almost no design because it took so long to do that I didn’t enjoy it

Thanks for this video and advice in it. I was really frustrated when stuck with some parts of my model from time to time.

[FaceTwitter]

Damn I needed that. Been trying to work on just making a Sun. For the past week and haven’t event gotten main star down, before making it look realistic. Basically only feel like I’ve done about 5% of the work in 20 hours of research/work 🤣🤣🤣🤣 almost punched my computer.