is it too late to learn 3D Modeling and Animation?

A guy on Blender’s subreddit was asking:

Does anyone think 30 is too old to learn 3D Modeling and Animation?

I just lost my job a few weeks ago and it looks like I am not going to be getting a job any time soon. By any time soon I mean, my girl is perfectly ok with me being Mr. Mom. I’m not sure if I am but, the money we are saving on daycare and gas is more than makes up for me being out of work. Anyway, it doesn’t take me long to get done with the morning chores and get the kids off to school. So I go hiking for about an hour then have a good 6-8 hours of doing nothing. I’d like to put those 6 – 8 hours to good work.

I did a little modeling with Maya 4 or 5, years back. Not enough to learn it well but enough to know I liked it. I have been wanting to try my hand at it for some time. I was just wondering, how rough is Blender when it comes to learning to model. I like to spend something like 2-4 hours a day for the next month learning and then if I am still into it, spend more time learning it.

I like to learn 3D Modeling and Animation,

What is the best way to not waste my time trying to?

So this guy is concerned about his age and his ability to learn 3D Modeling and Animation, which is a valid concern because a lot of people at this age find it difficult to learn new skills let alone master them. Not because they can’t but because they have limiting beliefs that prevent them from doing so.

So,, from his post we know that this guy is 30 years old, he lost his jobs a couple of weeks ago, but his girl is playing the provider role and he is doing the chores and taking kids to school which leaves a considerable amount of free time for him doing nothing.

I would say that this a fantastic situation to learn anything valuable because usually adult men spend half of their waking hours at work, the rest is spent with their family, friends and leisure activities to get rid of the stress that comes from doing work, by the way, 70% of the population despise their job so they try so hard to take their mind off of it so they spend so much of their free time doing an unproductive thing to recover.

This guy already has the solution for most of these time-consuming activities figured out. 6 to 8 hours of free time is fantastic, you can be an amazing 3d modeling artist in 2 to 5 years of practice.

Most people will think to themselves, oh my god 5 years to be very good at it, there is no way I am going to do that!

My response to people who think like that is: the 5 years are going to pass anyway, the question is what are you going to do about it?  You are going to play video games, hang out with your bodies doing useless stuff. I guarantee you, you will wish you started five years ago because for a moment deep inside you will feel pathetic, weak, and useless, but then you will start rationalizing why you wasted all that time to brush it off because guilt will tear you apart if you don’t do so, especially if it is really something you want to do from your heart, and you are passionate about.

By the way, people who think that 30 years old is too late are probably comparing themselves to the 20-year-old guys that are creating amazingly high-quality art, some of them work at the best video game and VFX studios, which is a normal thing because there are some young people that have figured that out at a very young age and they went to art school to hone their skills, some of them learn on their own, which is also a valid option.

Age has nothing to do with art and I know that with proof from the stats from my YouTube channel when I was creating tutorials only, almost 40% of the people watching were between 25 to 34 years old, and 20% over 34 some of them are even over 65.

If you are going to take anything from this, it is the fact that age does not really matter in itself and the earlier you start the better because you don’t know when you are going to put those skills to use, for example working on your own projects or doing some freelance work for other people that can use your skills in exchange for monetary return, which is a fantastic thing, you do something you love that you are doing for free anyway, in addition, you can get paid for it!

https://www.blender.org/features/

I would say that the downside that comes with age is having more responsibilities especially if you are in a serious relationship or when you are married, especially if you have kids, it is going to be more difficult compared to someone who is not in that kind of situation, but to be honest, it is entirely possible and other people had done it before you during much worse situations, like the Russian author Leo Tolstoy who wrote one of the best novels of all time that has 1200 pages and around half a million words while he had to take care of 14 children, this is what I like to call commitment and being resourceful instead of complaining and trying to come up with reasons for why it is not possible.

Usually, the problematic relationship between responsibility and learning art is not the fact that you have more to do because you can eliminate other less important things from your life to start learning 3d modeling. But I would say it is the mental and emotional pressure that comes with that kind of thing that usually affects you long after you are done with them and prevent you from focusing on learning new skills.

But overall if you push yourself to learn 3D Modeling and Animation and to become Better at it, it is eventually going to become easier and you will enjoy it even more.

Also, this guy who asked the question has already tried to learn 3D Modeling and Animation packages before. He said he used Maya years back, he did not do that for a very long period of time but he did it long enough to know he liked it which is fantastic because when you have a seed you can grow it to become a giant tree if you water it with more love and take care of it with a good amount effort every day.

This guy knows that he likes this stuff, also he knows he can do it but he needs people to validate his actions and choices, which is a very normal thing because a lot of people do that consciously and unconsciously.

So, what is the best way to learn 3D Modeling and Animation in Blender or any other 3d package?

Well, it is very simple but takes commitment and a few hours of free time every day or at least 3 or four days a week.

One way of doing it is, First you need to make sure to keep things simple, if you want free stuff you can watch tutorials on YouTube. Spend a couple of hours of research and you will find some interesting ones, just make sure to stick to one that you like especially if they have created playlists of related tutorials. If you want something more coherent and organized you can buy introductory courses that hopefully be a step-by-step guide that let you put your foot in the door so you can start making 3d models on your own.

And I personally recommend that you find a balance between theory and practice I mean it’s better to apply what you learn and apply it to your own projects. If you don’t use the new skills on personal projects there is a very high chance you will not remember them in the next couple of weeks. I would say 25% of the time watching tutorials and 75% of the time practicing is a good balance if you want to keep what you learn because knowledge without application is pretty much useless most of the time.

I trying to emphasize this point about applying what you learn because it is very easy to be lost in a sea of endless tutorials and courses. The danger of this stretching oneself too thin trying to learn so many things about different aspects of the 3d production pipeline. You might start by trying to learn to model, then you get interested in rigging and animation and later you discover that creating visual effects is fun and much cooler so start learning that too.

Unfortunately, it is very hard for a human being to absorb too much information at once, let alone remember everything and be good at it, especially if you are learning on your own.

If you join art school you will study different topics but the thing that gives better chances at learning different aspects of 3d is the fact that the process of learning is reinforced by experienced professors that will tell you what to do and when to do it and they give you assignments to complete so there is a structure that strikes a balance between theory and practice which again gives you better chances at staying focused on the right things to learn unstaid of veering off the right path and losing your way in a sea of endless information.

And this is actually one of the main differences between learning on your own and going to school but of course, there are other downsides to going to school that we will talk about in another episode.

And finally here are these amazing pieces of training if you want to become a better artist:

https://www.yiihuu.cc/c/8276_3970_943

https://www.yiihuu.cc/c/8289_3970_944