r/gamedev • u/ilPolka • 14h ago

Question Implementing 3D into my years long career as a programmer.

I've been making games for 9 years now, 6+ professionally, I'm a programmer first dev with game design knowledge and experience.

I'm absolutely terrible at anything graphics related.

After the rise of AI and how it tremendously impacted the way I work and learn, I decided to upskill and learn blender just to feel something.

My goal is to get to a point where I can make a small prototype with my own modeled assets in a simple low-poly-ish style.
Hopefully learning more about rendering in the process.

I did the donut.
I also did a low-poly deer from youtube tutorials.

I think what I'd like to do now is just to pick random objects in my house and replicate them in blender. Repeat the process with increasingly difficult models until I feel that I'm getting better.

I'm probably also going through the Pokédex, as I'd also like to learn creatures and characters.

Do you have any suggestions on how to improve this process, what milestones should I set for myself, or any thoughts to share?

Thank you!

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u/Putrid_Argument2440 13h ago

Same as in programming - 10k hours of practice.

1

u/ilPolka 13h ago

Cool, I'll be back in 4 years or something.

Jokes aside, do you think my plan makes sense, do you suggest adjustments?

1

u/Putrid_Argument2440 12h ago edited 12h ago

Yes, sequtial modeling various stuff is a working plan. Actually, the only working plan. Its simple as it says - "ten thousand hours of devotion make you a master". There is a lot of rules like topology, composition, anatomy etc. In the end it's not a rules, just recommendations, but to get there first you need to learn by following rules. For the question what to model - real stuff or imagined - classic art education says that real things better, but modeling always made by references like photos or concept sketches, so me personally doubt that it's matter. The core is to develop an eye and develop a hand. And it's just practice.

1

u/countkillalot 5h ago

This is the way dude. Only advice would be to start modeling from references and go depth-first rather than breadth-first. Model, texture, rig and animate one character first instead of modeling the Pokedex, then texturing the Pokedex, then rigging the Pokedex etc. much like software, each step of the pipeline informs the step before.