/sl/ - Second Life

Blender is all about hotkeys.

Get a list, memorize the basics, you'll memorize the most common ones that fit your needs fairly quickly.

Sites like CG Cookie have great tutorials for beginners. (Some free, most require you to pay a reasonable subscription.)

You can also, for the most part, also look up Max/Maya tutorials on Youtube since most functions are similarly named and Blender has a search function. (Spacebar)

Might be wise to figure out what kind of content you want to create. Different techniques are used for hard-surface modeling and organic shapes. (Assuming 3D modeling is what you're even trying to learn.)

>>11274

CGCookie's Blender Basics course for beginners is the best place to start.

CGCookie in general is a good place for tutorials.

Avoid YouTube like the plague (or at the very least, don't go searching specifically for tutorials there), especially tutorials by SL residents. They will lead you astray from the path of true 3D enlightenment [spoilers]in other words, they'll teach you really shitty modeling practices that you should never use under any circumstances[/spoilers].

>>11276

press space and type what you want. easier than memorizing stuff at first.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ward7299

>>11280

>in other words, they'll teach you really shitty modeling practices that you should never use under any circumstances

What do you mean? Examples?

>>13262

I've seen some act like Decimate is a good way to reduce overall poly count, for example. Which isn't true at all. It destroys your edge flow, and even the Un-Subdivide mode doesn't help much because the program doesn't care about which edge loops you need and which you don't (just don't use so many subdivisions in the first place). Many also act like you can just leave copied weights as they are, which is bullshit.

A ton of tutorials go "Ok now we just add a solidify modifier so you don't see any gaps on the inside" which is utterly fucking stupid. Cover your gaps selectively. The inside of a skirt is one thing, but the inside of a muscle shirt can be left just how it is.

I saw one person who made a tutorial on creating a house and left the actual walls as single-sided planes. There's a ton of terrible shit.

Look elsewhere on forums on places like Polycount and CGTalk and often they'll direct you to a specific YouTube video (essentially straight to a good one) then you can look through that specific person's other videos. But searching YouTube and grabbing whatever comes up is a mixed bag at best.

It's also important to pay attention to whether the person works in game modeling or CG/rendering, because there are different practices for each (though most will translate between them).

>>13298

Not the same anon, but I do admit to being guilty of using that decimate thing recently to help me make lower poly variations over SL's, but mostly since it did a better job at retaining the shape.

Got any tips for how to better make LOD's and still be able to keep the UV mostly intact? :v

>>13300

>Got any tips for how to better make LOD's and still be able to keep the UV mostly intact? :v

Do them manually. It's the only good way to do them.

Look at what parts you don't really need for your model, Pay attention to how far away you have to be to have the model drop to that LOD. If it's only a few pixels on screen you can nuke most things.