Reply To: how many people have gone from Noob to Pro with CG cookie
I joined CGCookie to learn Blender and to strengthen my skills as an artist. I’m a 3D CAD designer by trade so I knew about working in 3D but doing this in Blender brought things to an entirely new level. I had no idea what I was doing and it definitely showed in my work, as I followed along in these tutorials. What I liked about CG Cookie compared to other tutorials, is they gave you the tools to trouble shoot and problem solve rather than just providing the step by step process to make something. I was able to take those problem solving skills to my personal work. I was taking on projects that I had no idea how to do but I was confident that I would be able to figure it out.
A cool side effect to all this training was it was forcing me to think in new and exciting ways to accomplish tasks at work. I was getting jobs done faster and more efficiently and it wasn’t long before my boss took notice. I was getting elected to take on more and more complex and interesting work not because I had experience doing it but because I knew how to problem solve my way to a solution. I’m a top performer among my peers all because I took a year of my own time to learn Blender through CGCookie.
Quick case study:
Our company uses anatomical models to simulate conditions of the human body and test our products. As a quick lesson in CAD and Solidworks; it HATES high triangle counts! Anything over 15k and it bogs down and quits. These CT scans easily pass the 2million tri count. Problem is we didn’t have any software that could reduce the triangle count and still keep the detail required to run the tests. The answer? Blender! With knowledge of retopology from CG cookie and a bit of trial and error I was able to provide a low poly version that preserved the detail we needed and was able to import into Solidworks.
Raw CT scan >2million tris
Retopo ready for export <15k tris
This is the majority of my noob to pro story. I regret, I don’t exactly have a gallery of my old works and a lot I can’t share due to NDA. But hit up my profile and see what I’ve got posted. I’m currently pursuing a career as a character animator. With the help of CG Cookie and other training, I’m hoping one day I can share a new noob to pro story for you guys in the next few years.