Suggestions for new courses

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

I’m sure Wayne Dixon would be happy to work on an updated face rig course. Currently the closest thing we have is this course: https://cgcookie.com/course/demystifying-lip-sync-animation 

[smurfmier1985]

@jgonzalez Wow, this thread just got unpinned? Never thought that would happen…

[smurfmier1985]

I would like to request a course on Art Fundamentals

Topics like:

– Composition

– Color Theory

– Value

– Line

– Form / Shape

– Perspective and Depth

– Contrast

– Lighting 

– Texture

I know a couple of these are already taught in the 2D section, though that’s  mostly in relation to 2D art. Some parts are useful for 3D artist, sure, but I would love to see a more general course that picks apart these topics in a more broad aspect, applicable and relatable to all forms of art. 

I believe these fundamental art concepts, which are a constant and never change with time, are the building blocks that make up a piece of art. And understanding those principles and learning how to apply them can help every artist creating better art!

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

Looks like it, wasn’t me though. Not sure why it’s unpinned. I’m asking the crew to see what’s going on, might just have been unpinned on accident. 

[winston1]

 Great comments! I have similar problems modeling something on my own from scratch. I end up with a thousand loop cuts and Ngons everywhere. I start by thinking: this is the shape I want and these are the tools I learned. By the time I am done adding geometry to create a shape it looks like I have added a subsurf modifier and clicking 50 subdivisions 😉  That’s ok though. I chalk it all up to the learning process. I enjoy it enough to keep plugging away.

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

That would definitely be a good fundamental series. Possibly a series of courses, although some areas can be more in-depth than others. With us primarily focusing on 3d we could probably take a lot of what was already covered in the concept courses and apply them to 3d scenes and themes.

[sheila5]

I followed a really nice course on youtube about machine learning with unity and mlagents. Would be cool if such a course would also be on the cgcookie platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axF_nHHchFQ

[efraim schachter]

i would be interested in a 2d animation course. Not necessarily the technical aspects, (for example the software that may be used) but the fundamentals, concepts and workflows.

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

It’s been brought up before. I’m not sure if I’ll be making a course on machine learning. It’s definitely a more intermediate to advanced topic with plenty of C# scripting involved, and those types of courses don’t tend to fare well here unfortunately.

[sheila5]

too bad, it’s really fun when you see your assets behaving like autonomous beings

[keenan18]

I would also like to see a realistic female modelling course.

[keenan18]

Valerie Winslow in her book Classic Human Anatomy had to deal with the same issue. This is what she said in the preface:

“One of my objectives in writing this book was to present complex material in an “art friendly” format while staying true to the established anatomical system created by the medical profession. I also felt the need to demystify and decode anatomical terms so that they feel less intimidating to those approaching artistic anatomy for the first time. Artists’ objectives for learning human anatomy are vastly different from those of medical professionals, yet the terminology derived largely from Greek and Latin, remains the same in both fields.

If an anatomy course does essentially what she is doing in her book, it would I believe be the perfect Blender human anatomy course. 

I’ve looked at many anatomy books in many libraries and in many bookstores. I’ve found Winslow’s book to be the most helpful anatomy book on the shelves for my artistic training.

[keenan18]

I would like to see this too.

[keenan18]

I’d like to see this course:

How To Make A Graphic Novel With Blender

It should actually give the full workflow on how to go from one page of a comic book script to one inked page. It should include these basic steps:

1. Sculpt characters and design props for scene.

2. Retopology characters.

3. Rig characters.

4. Pose characters and props for each panel.

5. Render each background image for each panel.

6. Ink using grease pencil or possibly as an alternative, use MyPaint, Inkscape or Gimp.

I know some of these course exist separately, but this course should focus on doing things in a way with an inked comic book page as a primary goal.

[keenan18]

I agree that courses should be primarily based on “On-student-demand”, but not always. But if a course is offered that is not demanded by students, it still may attract students.

For example, there is not a Blender course for people who want to make comics or graphic novels and Blender happens to be a powerful tool which could speed up a comic book artists workflow. If a Graphic Novel Course were added, I’m sure it would not be user demanded by the majority of users at this time because most users now don’t use it for that purpose. But, if the course was made it would give the possibility of reaching out to existing comic book artists and aspiring comic book artists to come over to Blender.

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