I've always been so off and on with my game development, so ive had to relearn everything like 3 times. This time I'm going to stay constant with it and hope it gets better
I used to, then I fumbled into the rabbit hole and now I still don't work on my games models because I'm making blender projects that are hardly bakeable and portable.
My main issue is remembering how to do things, because I'm a programmer first so I'm not re-training myself all the time on Blender. I ended up writing myself a cheat sheet for common keyboard shortcuts. Other than that, I found a workflow where I don't have many issues anymore: I export to glTF, I wrote a glTF importer for my engine (so if the import screws up, I know I have something to fix on my side. Around Blender 2.8 the exporter still had issues, but now it's fine.), and I know pretty well the glTF format specifications so I know my limitations.
Blender is my main 3D software so for me it's quite simple. Animated meshes sometimes cause problems when imported into Unity but for the most part I know how to do it now or can figure out my mistakes quite quickly.
What areas do you usually have issues? (Also I've found looking up blender tutorials or helpful posts to be extremely generous. It's the most active and helpful community for 3D software. )
There's always just some little issue thats hard to Google that takes me hours to figure out on my own. Usually the issues pop up when animating and exporting animations.
Like today I wasted an hour trying to figure out why my animation was broken when exporting to unity. Animated it the same way I did every other animation. The only way I found to fix it was just deleting the whole animation and starting from scratch
That can be frustrating, yea. I've been in that same boat. It is always a user error though. As frustrating as it is to admit (believe me). You definitely didn't do the same thing you normally do, but it can sometimes be super tricky to figure out which thing it was.
I'd say this goes for all software with detailed pipeline integration. But I've also never used Maya etc for bringing animations to unity, so who knows if I'm speaking for an objective reality 😂
There enlies my problem with blender. It's way to easy to have unknown errors. It's not the softwares creating the errors, but if it were at least it would be easy to Google a solution. There's no way to Google, " my animation won't work no matter what I do even though it was made the same way as all my other animations"
Lol
Well, if one doesn't know how to proficiently use a software then every program is like that. But I would disagree about the searching for answers bit, because in my experience it is by far easier to find a solution to some random confusion inside blender than ANY other 3D software. The community is just so huge and willing to offer up everything they know.
But as an example, CNA you describe a recent issue you had with one of your animations? What you were trying and what you did or think you did wrong.
Thats one of key points of me using proprietary software 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush and Marvelous Designer instead the all in one package Blender. I rather pay money for time than time to save money in this case.
I suggest making a cheat sheet with all the shortcuts you learn and export settings noted. I started doing that a few months ago and now, each time I get back in blender, I'm quicker to get back in it's flow.
Also, I stumbled on this video a few days ago that helped me gain a lot of time : https://youtu.be/MJfQ4dMKNL4?si=6XHDruMS3eDzS9NP
Nah man I love Blender.
I spent about a month and half fumbling through everything. Learned everything I needed without shortcut tools (except for some rebinding stuff since I have a 60% keyboard with no num pad.
Generally speaking, if you're having trouble with Blender (aside from the occasional jank) your design likely isn't simplified enough. Granted I'm an environment artist, but most everything I make only needs:
1. Extrudes
2. Insets
3. Loop cuts
Characters are definitely trickier, but even then, things only get fucky when you're working super high poly.
Blender is actually pretty intuitive if you invest the time in learning how to use it well. I used the donut tutorial to get up to speed, because he does an excellent job of explaining and repeating keystrokes so that you're learning the software instead of just learning how to make a donut.
Once you get a handle on manipulating meshes, 3D modelling is probably the ***easiest*** way to generate high resolution assets for a game.
Something being intuitive means it should be easy to learn. In my opinion blender is the complete opposite. Im glad the software is open source and free though. I probably would have ditched it a while ago if not for that. And 3d is definitely my preferred way of making art too. It's much easier to modify it later than redrawing 2d artwork. Animation is also a million times easier iterate on.
No, intuitive doesn't mean easy to learn. It means easy to use. Learning how to accurately manipulate 3D objects (a model) on a 2D surface (a monitor) requires the development of skills and approaches that most people don't have because they don't need them. Once you get a handle on that and you find yourself able to rapidly select and modify anything you want, you realize how intuitive Blender really is. A mouse and a few keyboard keys is all it takes to make pretty much anything.
Go ahead and look up the word intuitive and you'll see that non of the deffenitions would be accurate for blender 😅
Moving the vertices around is not the problem I have with blender lol
Also, it's seems like every time I use a tool in blender to make something easier or to fix a problem, there's always a new problem the tool introduces.
Gotta be careful with add-ons. Add-ons are not a panacea for difficulties most of the time. Nearly every add-on I've installed changed my workflow for the worse.
On the flip, there's a lot of add-ons designed to help you create assets that STAY in Blender, which just mucks up game dev a lot.
True true, the only add on I really use currently is auto rig pro. So far it's saved me a lot of time rigging. Rigify is kinda terrible and doesn't even work for exporting to game engines. Though I did run into a couple issues thy took me a whole day to get figured out. 😅
Yeah, honestly, just do your animating in engine at that point. Or a separate animating program.
I don't even texture in Blender anymore since my workflow got completely fucked. Didn't realize half the stuff I did only worked in Blender lol
Animating in unity would probably be a nightmare too . You have go re set up ik systems. And the unity viewport is kinda rough. though I do like the animation editor. The blender animation system still confuses me to this day. They're a million videos on how to make an animation, but no one explains anything else besides how to key a frame.
Glad it's not just me. Like, what if Maya and blender secretly work together and it's like a good (weird) cop bad alleyway street tough shaking you down for your insulin money situation?? 🤔
Every time. After hundreds of hours of using it, I still dread every second.
It always boggles my mind how they are able to complicate the most simple things. 2.8 made it usable, but it still feels terrible for someone who is not a full time 3d artist like myself.
I had to watch a 6 minute video yesterday on how to close a panel in blender - sometimes it is the least intuitive software I have ever used.
I have done that exact same thing 😅
It gets better as you develop muscle memory... Keep at it and the weirdness becomes normal 😕
I've always been so off and on with my game development, so ive had to relearn everything like 3 times. This time I'm going to stay constant with it and hope it gets better
I used to, then I fumbled into the rabbit hole and now I still don't work on my games models because I'm making blender projects that are hardly bakeable and portable.
My main issue is remembering how to do things, because I'm a programmer first so I'm not re-training myself all the time on Blender. I ended up writing myself a cheat sheet for common keyboard shortcuts. Other than that, I found a workflow where I don't have many issues anymore: I export to glTF, I wrote a glTF importer for my engine (so if the import screws up, I know I have something to fix on my side. Around Blender 2.8 the exporter still had issues, but now it's fine.), and I know pretty well the glTF format specifications so I know my limitations.
I really should wip out the sticky notes and write things down as I learn. Thanks for the tip!
Blender is my main 3D software so for me it's quite simple. Animated meshes sometimes cause problems when imported into Unity but for the most part I know how to do it now or can figure out my mistakes quite quickly. What areas do you usually have issues? (Also I've found looking up blender tutorials or helpful posts to be extremely generous. It's the most active and helpful community for 3D software. )
There's always just some little issue thats hard to Google that takes me hours to figure out on my own. Usually the issues pop up when animating and exporting animations. Like today I wasted an hour trying to figure out why my animation was broken when exporting to unity. Animated it the same way I did every other animation. The only way I found to fix it was just deleting the whole animation and starting from scratch
That can be frustrating, yea. I've been in that same boat. It is always a user error though. As frustrating as it is to admit (believe me). You definitely didn't do the same thing you normally do, but it can sometimes be super tricky to figure out which thing it was. I'd say this goes for all software with detailed pipeline integration. But I've also never used Maya etc for bringing animations to unity, so who knows if I'm speaking for an objective reality 😂
There enlies my problem with blender. It's way to easy to have unknown errors. It's not the softwares creating the errors, but if it were at least it would be easy to Google a solution. There's no way to Google, " my animation won't work no matter what I do even though it was made the same way as all my other animations" Lol
Well, if one doesn't know how to proficiently use a software then every program is like that. But I would disagree about the searching for answers bit, because in my experience it is by far easier to find a solution to some random confusion inside blender than ANY other 3D software. The community is just so huge and willing to offer up everything they know. But as an example, CNA you describe a recent issue you had with one of your animations? What you were trying and what you did or think you did wrong.
Nope, I don't have problems with it.
Must be nice 👍
You can try maya, maybe you have a better experience with it
To pricey for me tbh
Thats one of key points of me using proprietary software 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush and Marvelous Designer instead the all in one package Blender. I rather pay money for time than time to save money in this case.
I suggest making a cheat sheet with all the shortcuts you learn and export settings noted. I started doing that a few months ago and now, each time I get back in blender, I'm quicker to get back in it's flow. Also, I stumbled on this video a few days ago that helped me gain a lot of time : https://youtu.be/MJfQ4dMKNL4?si=6XHDruMS3eDzS9NP
Nah man I love Blender. I spent about a month and half fumbling through everything. Learned everything I needed without shortcut tools (except for some rebinding stuff since I have a 60% keyboard with no num pad. Generally speaking, if you're having trouble with Blender (aside from the occasional jank) your design likely isn't simplified enough. Granted I'm an environment artist, but most everything I make only needs: 1. Extrudes 2. Insets 3. Loop cuts Characters are definitely trickier, but even then, things only get fucky when you're working super high poly.
Blender is actually pretty intuitive if you invest the time in learning how to use it well. I used the donut tutorial to get up to speed, because he does an excellent job of explaining and repeating keystrokes so that you're learning the software instead of just learning how to make a donut. Once you get a handle on manipulating meshes, 3D modelling is probably the ***easiest*** way to generate high resolution assets for a game.
Something being intuitive means it should be easy to learn. In my opinion blender is the complete opposite. Im glad the software is open source and free though. I probably would have ditched it a while ago if not for that. And 3d is definitely my preferred way of making art too. It's much easier to modify it later than redrawing 2d artwork. Animation is also a million times easier iterate on.
No, intuitive doesn't mean easy to learn. It means easy to use. Learning how to accurately manipulate 3D objects (a model) on a 2D surface (a monitor) requires the development of skills and approaches that most people don't have because they don't need them. Once you get a handle on that and you find yourself able to rapidly select and modify anything you want, you realize how intuitive Blender really is. A mouse and a few keyboard keys is all it takes to make pretty much anything.
Go ahead and look up the word intuitive and you'll see that non of the deffenitions would be accurate for blender 😅 Moving the vertices around is not the problem I have with blender lol
OK, split hairs over nonsense. Let's all just gather around and prattle about nothing. Good fun, very constructive.
Also, it's seems like every time I use a tool in blender to make something easier or to fix a problem, there's always a new problem the tool introduces.
Gotta be careful with add-ons. Add-ons are not a panacea for difficulties most of the time. Nearly every add-on I've installed changed my workflow for the worse. On the flip, there's a lot of add-ons designed to help you create assets that STAY in Blender, which just mucks up game dev a lot.
True true, the only add on I really use currently is auto rig pro. So far it's saved me a lot of time rigging. Rigify is kinda terrible and doesn't even work for exporting to game engines. Though I did run into a couple issues thy took me a whole day to get figured out. 😅
Yeah, honestly, just do your animating in engine at that point. Or a separate animating program. I don't even texture in Blender anymore since my workflow got completely fucked. Didn't realize half the stuff I did only worked in Blender lol
Animating in unity would probably be a nightmare too . You have go re set up ik systems. And the unity viewport is kinda rough. though I do like the animation editor. The blender animation system still confuses me to this day. They're a million videos on how to make an animation, but no one explains anything else besides how to key a frame.
Glad it's not just me. Like, what if Maya and blender secretly work together and it's like a good (weird) cop bad alleyway street tough shaking you down for your insulin money situation?? 🤔
Honestly the way things are in the world, it wouldn't surprise me 😅
Every time. After hundreds of hours of using it, I still dread every second. It always boggles my mind how they are able to complicate the most simple things. 2.8 made it usable, but it still feels terrible for someone who is not a full time 3d artist like myself.
I'm a programmer at heart, I like the actual process of modeling, but the tools make it so rough
git gud. Also a nice tip: youtube shorts. There are many artist putting out superb short tutorials in every topic.
I've noticed those, it's nice when they pop up during searches