Don't be afraid to try 3D art

I had always envisioned 3D art as this impenetrable wall, a fortress of immense complexity that would take years of practice before grasping even a basic understanding. But I finally convinced myself to try and learn Blender anyway.

I wasn’t wrong about the near-endless scaling of complexity when it comes to 3D programs, and I certainly wouldn’t say that this first dip into blender was a walk in the park, but the fear keeping me from getting started was entirely misplaced.

The key is to start from absolute zero – if you open the program and have absolutely no idea where to begin, you’re in the best shape to learn as much as possible. That’s where I was, staring at this small gray cube at the center of my screen, wondering how the hell I was going to make anything out of this.

After looking up “How to learn Blender,” nearly every source points to the same YouTube tutorial by Blender Guru. The infamous “Donut tutorial” What these recommendations fail to mention is this isn’t just one quick and easy tutorial, but rather a sixteen-part series the majority of which are over 20 minutes long. I guess I knew how I’d be spending my next three days.

Why Blender Guru was unanimously recommended was quickly apparent. For someone who knows this program inside and out, being able to break everything down into slow-paced, simple-to-follow instructions is very impressive and clearly shows a lot of understanding and respect for how confusing and overwhelming 3D programs can be for complete beginners.

At the end of the three days, I had a finished product, a beautiful blue frosted donut with multicolored sprinkles gently falling through the air as the donut magically spins endlessly around in a circle. It’s nothing crazy or never before seen, but it reminded me of back when I used to love to draw and paint, the feeling of starting with a blank canvas and building something entirely yourself. And it was a great feeling that as we get further in our careers as artists, they can sometimes become increasingly rare.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/6f1b1f_3d991ebb1ab24ff5a6f3de5336a69a33/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

It was exhilarating. I had completely forgotten what it felt like to learn to edit photos and videos for the first time.

As creatives, it’s important to remember that we all start somewhere. After years of refining our skills and style in our medium of choice, starting something new all the way from the bottom can be difficult. I’ve noticed how bad it feels to have your creative vision limited by a lack of software knowledge; it’s often easier to avoid learning altogether than be disappointed in your own ability.

Learning a new skill like this is exhilarating; I had completely forgotten what it felt like to learn how to edit photos and videos for the first time.

The fear of getting started with 3D art is more compounded by being afraid of trying and never being able to get the hang of it. It’s so much easier to keep 3D in the fantasy realm of “one day” than try, fail, and hang it up on the “probably never” shelf.

I couldn’t be happier that I took that leap. I know, I say leap like it’s some huge dramatic change in my life when in reality, all I did was download a free program and make it through a few YouTube tutorials. But personally, it is a big deal because it proved that my preconceived notion of this impossible art form only took three days of focus to get an understanding. No need to scale the treacherous castle walls; just needed to knock at the gates.

Getting started with Blender really helped put into perspective how almost nothing is truly impossible to learn; so much is just being able to take that first step and get started. I feel as though there’s been many times earlier in my life when I’ve held back out of fear of difficulty or failure.

Since the donut, I’ve created several more renders, some following similar but now much more face-paced tutorials, others experimenting with making something from scratch. I still have so so so much to learn, and I’m uncertain how much further I’ll try and take this new artistic endeavor, but there’s nothing left to do now but to improve.