Is sculpting a basic skill for modeling or a complete different thing to master?

[avgn]

Hello everybody,

I am now following the Learnflow of ‘the complete Blender workflow’ and I am halfway the sculpting chapter. While I find it very interesting, I feel that it’s so difficult that it’s a complete different category and not something I will learn in a few lessons. I am not an artist, so I am bad at drawing and reallife sculpting was something I did when I was a child. 

Is sculpting something you can ignore or is it essential for mesh modeling? Or do I need some part of sculpting for my models?  Should I spend time learning sculpting or is it better to learn mesh modeling first? 

Please share your experience. 

[spikeyxxx]

Sculpting is a form of modelling. You can theoretically model (almost) anything without sculpting, but there are things that are just a lot easier to sculpt than to model otherwise….organic shapes are generally easier to sculpt, while hard surface (think for instance sci-fi spaceships) is much simpler with “classical” modelling (but they can be done with sculpting as well)…You can sculpt cloth, use a cloth simulation or use ‘edge by edge’ modelling and it’s partly a preference and partly depending on the situation which method is best…

I avoided sculpting for a long time, because I felt that I couldn’t do it. But then you come into a situation, where it is clear that even: first learning to sculpt this and then sculpting it will be faster and better than any other method…

What I am trying to say is: if you feel uncomfortable sculpting, don’t worry and start leaning other modelling methods…But, if you want to make dragons, learn sculpting 😉

It’s all a bit vague, but there are some ‘guidelines’, but no strict rules…you are free to do what you like and how you like it…

[avgn]

Thanks for your advise! I know that sculpting is necessary  for many projects. And I hope I can learn that in the future. It’s just I think it will take a long time to master it enough to make something decent. I see it like drawing, not too hard to draw something, but it will take a long time before you can draw something good. With mesh modelling I can make something decent without knowing how to draw or sculpt. I admire the people that can sculpt because it’s so hard to master. 

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