Workflow musings

Question

As a relative newcomer, I'm working on getting a grip on the basics, and it is starting to make some sense. However, although I have a general idea of what the program can do, I haven't come across any mention of a 'core workflow'.

Maybe that isn't the right term; what I mean is, some kind of structure that you would follow regardless of whether you were creating a simple object or a larger and more complex one. I understand that each object will have its own detailed aspects, but is there a sequence of core actions that need to be followed in every case?

Answer 1

I'm certainly no expert, but this same question bothered me for some time. Ulitimately, workflow is entirely dependent on what you are trying to achieve.

In a studio, many of the steps are divided amongst the workforce, e.g Modellers, Texture Artists, Riggers, Animators, Lighting, Direction. Some steps may be performed in parallel while others cannot be performed (or rather must be reworked ) if a specific step changes. Consider a mesh, if you change the mesh, then the texture mapping will change and the textures themselves may need to be reworked.

It is more helpful to think in terms of assets, i.e props, characters, scenes etc. It may be better to focus on a specific asset and break it down e.g Model -> Sculpt -> Remesh -> Unwrap -> Texture.

Blender does a lot of things, there is no start -> finish playbook, only the advice not to attempt too much in a single blend file, look at link/append functionality and understand that you have the ability to pull assets in from other files.

Answer 2

If we are talking about modeling, you'd differentiate organic object to 'hard surface' one. For the first you'd start with a sculpt and for the second you'd model with subdivisions. That being said there is tons of ways to do each things, and every artist has his favourites. So follow tutorials and you'll start understanding what's best for you depending on what you want to achieve.