what do you need to master in Blender to make something product worthy?
Drekkan
Posts: 460
I am slowly learning Blender. I eventually want to have go at making a couple of products to put on the market and yes I know it's not easy and takes time to get good. What would generally be the requirements to make a scene or an outfit etc that could have some potential selling on the Daz3D product market eventually? what would be the difference from a basic product that won't sell which is created from Blender and one that is a quality product that could have some potential created from Blender? what are the main things to focus on in order to get a good level of quality in something in Blender. (or probably in all modelling programs)
I am trying to find out the all round general quality requirements for making something that could be a quality product to sell eventually from using Blender.
If anyone uses Blender to create products do you think I could talk to you one on one? thx.
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Comments
For Daz4. Can it be done with a lot of time and skill and attention to detail? many say you don't need to pay for top notch state of the art graphics programs when some good ones are already avaliable for free.
Yes, Blender is very usable for making content for Studio.
Any 3D modelling program can be used to make Daz scenes, the key is that it exports .obj format. I use Hexagon.
Seriously you create all those amazing models in Hexagon? That's amazing if that little program has that much power!
If you master Blender, the answer is YES.
for serious mesh modelling I would choose Modo701 but is not free.
Blender is a serious modeling program. No need to feel pressured to cough up money to model when you can do it for free.
When it comes to Blender they are right. I believe that there are very few models for sale at DAZ or any other store that could not have been made in Blender (fibermesh hair products being one exception as far as I know). It's a highly sophisticated piece of 3D modelling software. People may object to its user interface, the methods of using some of its more sophisticated features may be obscure and the high-ticket modelling programs may be more efficient in some respects, but it certainly does not lack much capability. Even its sculpting features, an area that is dominated by ZBrush, are suprisingly competitive and you can produce very high quality work with them. Blender is perfectly capable of "serious" modelling.
You pay, one way or another. With Blender you pay in tutorial study and ramp up time learning how to use it. ;)
Search YouTube for Darren lile or David Ward. You can donate if you like but it's not a requirement.
yep, I know Blender is great software, and yep, it can do Serious modelling, I wasn't minorizing over Modo701, nonono!
the only stir is the UI, that's why I said if he/she master Blender then....got it?.
my workflow does not need invest more time learning the UI than learning the modelling tools, learning the tools is a priority for me, not a la inverse.
I adore Blender. What I've found useful is creating a nice clean low res model with subdivision modeling in edit mode, then move to sculpting details with the multi-resolution modifer. There's a couple of different programs I use for UV mapping and texturing, but that's just my preference. Also, Youtube has a bajillion truly great instructional videos by members of a generous online communty. Blender and the Blender community are great.
The key to master Blender is a printout of the keyboard short cuts, using the mouse, and a Bamboo Create or similar device for sculpting and such.
I've attached the keyboard shortcut. By rote is by rote.
You should download the tutorials & save them though as you typical will need to go back a little and review what was taught.
wonderful, Silo (sadly now being abandonware) does it the same only using C and V keys,
you can model cloth in minutes due to that feature!
I've seen several of the big name tutorial makers for Blender stating that they even keep the 'cheat sheets' around...
Many of the objections to the Blender UI, I think, come from people who have learned 3D modelling in other programs, such as 3DS Max, or even Hexagon—not to mention people who haven't used it since version 2.48! If you are completely new to 3D modelling, as I was when I started using Blender, the UI is very much less of an issue, I think. I learned the Blender interface at the same time that I was learning the basic concepts of 3D modelling. I had no preconceptions of how a modelling program "should" work and I just accepted it. I didn't spend an inordinate proportion of my time learning the interface, either. The hotkey system is very efficient once you learn the shortcuts, and shortcuts are worth learning in any piece of software that supports them. I had a kind of opposite reaction when I tried using Hexagon, which I know is very highly regarded here. I couldn't make sense of it at all and gave up after about 3 tries. I think a similar thing happens to many people when they try Blender but you have to break through those barriers—I really don't think it's as hard as many people make out.
Hiro, you are correct, I have used multiple modeling apps and 3DSMax is the best UI for my tastes which is why Blender confuses the heck out of me, LOL. I agree though, if someone is new to modeling, Blender is very capable and a good choice to learn on.
exactly, time is more valued than money if you are doing 3D for a living, thight deadlines of work, the money comes later, in many ways, you just need to find how.
Once you get used to key commands, it vastly improves your work speed. It's much quicker than drilling through menus or finding the correct icon pallette. You get to the point your mouse never leaves your work area cause your off-hand is pressing keys as you manipulate your model with your primary hand/mouse.
Not sure if it works exactly the same in "organic" modelers, but in AutoCAD and SolidWorks I tend to use the same commands constantly so it isn't like you have to memorize the entire chart.
For anyone wanting to learn Blender Udemy is offering courses for 15.00 right now, expires Saturday and if you do a google search for udemy coupons you can usually find some great discounts on courses. I just signed up for a Blender course today and so far it's been good.
As a Unix C programmer that learned programming in a vi editor I still can't get to like fussing about with the UI menus. They aren't time savers but learning avoidance. LOL, that's what DAZ Studio does for us...joking, even DAZ Studio has plenty of keyboard shortcuts, don't use them but with poluygon modeling and such in Blender quickly repeating commands turns a hours long job repeating accessing menu items with a mouse into a minutes long job.
Some people like keyboard commands, some people don't.
Yes, so noobs take note before...
even Zbrush is much easier to learn after 1 hour of YT tutorials or inside the Zbrush website and do a crappy human figure with zspheres than a mere cube on Blender like someone cited before,
and ALL modeler softwares have key shortcuts, but the rest is not so dependable of using like Blender does.
Blender does have a Maya keyboard shortcut mode...it anyone cares to get their feet wet & then subscribe to Maya LT
I don't specialize in architecture, but I do a lot of rigged props, and I invariably use Blender for base meshing, materials, UV, and morphs. Zbrush is nice to have for its remesher and for hirez normal map generation, but it's not mandatory starting out. People in this thread are being pretty negative. What's important in our market is not what tools you use, it is your mastery of them. If you find Blender is something you can't master, the popular choice among my fellow PAs is generally Hexagon or Silo. Only a few use the really expensive apps for base meshing (although I think Daz's in-house artists use a lot of Modo).
Modo is on 902 now!
And tbh there isn't much difference between it's modeling capabilities and Blenders, I've got both and am always torn as to which to dedicate the time to learning.
Modo is slightly more straightforward to use but these days Blender is the more complete package and its Cycles renderer I feel is better than Modos more old fashioned rendering engine.
Thing about memorising the shortcuts, is that getting them into muscle memory is different than normal; I hated 2.49, and could never get comfortable with it. I was like a fish and water with the advent of 2.5.
@OP
Blender is used commercially; great artists (and the less great like me) use whatever tools work for them.
To answer your title question "can you create decent daz scen…"
Yes I could in Blender, but my skills at transfering it would be less than stellar.
I've seen posts from Maya and 3DS max users, who have swapped over, and after some initial difficulties - loved it; and I've seen some revert to (whatever) because they couldn't get used to the interface.
Find (as I've touched on already) what works for you.
People will discuss the merits of software; look at the results the skilled artists can obtain. That is all that matters.
I hope its OK to link this, but it's amazing to see - and to see the workflow.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?385861-Homemade-Bruce-Willis
and specifically a City model posted on Blender Artists.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?392771-Sci-fi-City-II