Reply To: Does anyone else get the feeling that they’re reliant on tutorials for everything? Or just not retaining knowledge in general?

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

This is often a crutch not just in CG but in all aspects of learning. It can be difficult to branch off and start using what you’ve learned in a completely new way. Our goal is to help you learn the techniques and skills to be able to do just that, but it doesn’t always work. 

One of the things I would encourage you to do is to have a project in mind. I find that learning is best done through actually building something, no matter what it is, you’ll learn it far better if you have an actual purpose to it. 

Chances are you are watching tutorials because you had an interest in learning how to build something. Maybe a tutorial was 100% what you wanted, but it’s unlikely. Maybe you had an interest in building a very unique character and you watched a tutorial that covered some of the concepts for building a character. Challenge yourself by learning through the tutorial first, then going through it again but applying some changes. 

Combine techniques learned in a few different tutorials to create something more unique. Instead of a human character, create a zombie character that has realistic clothing. Instead of a shiny car material create a grungy and rusted looking vehicle. 

When I was learning Unity I wanted to learn small game mechanics here and there. First I learned how to create a trigger, then how to play an animation, then I applied those two to create a trigger to play an animation. I kept compounding things until I had a somewhat fun and unique game using various mechanics I learned from a handful of tutorials. 

If you’re a beginner it may be more difficult to “connect the dots” and you feel like you need to follow a tutorial to a “t” but as you get more experienced you’ll start to watch content online and start thinking about how you would approach something in your own projects. Learn to challenge yourself. Use the techniques learned in a variety of different ways.