Blender is a vast program, and I am often amazed, perplexed or both by its possibilities. Learning to use it is an enigma in itself.
I like books, so I started out by learning from some beginner’s textbooks. I also found this relatively boring.
Tutorials are also nice, maybe too nice. An old wisdom is ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. But tutorials won’t teach you to fish all by yourself. Pros of tutorials are that these show you possibilities, and, because you can select which to do, these easily feed your motivation. But most tutorials only teach you what is needed in specific case X. Furthermore, most tutorials don’t excel at pointing you to further information. Finally, most tutorials do not help you develop problem solving capabilities.
But you need tutorials to get the most out of Blender. Blender’s documentation is quite good for reference, but it not a good teaching aide. Tasks often require you to set numerous options in various parts of the program, but although the documentation discusses most of these options, it does not do so with concrete tasks in mind. Textbooks tend to do a better job at discussing how to use Blender than tutorials, but there are not many, and Blender’s capabilities grow fast. Tutorials on new capabilities, however, often appear well before the new version is published in which these capabilities first appear.
My current thinking about getting into Blender is not set in stone, and goes along the following lines
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If you are a beginner, go through http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html and get a reference book, something like The complete guide to Blender Graphics by Blain will do (get the latest edition). If you do not read/speak English very well, start at http://b3d101.org. All this is not very inspiring and can cost some money, but it will give you sufficient basis to start to understand what happens in easy tutorials, and you can start on small projects of your own (highly recommended). Finally, it gives you something to refer back to, which has saved me time.
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Although I did muddle through some very extensive tutorials, I find short crisp tutorials much easier, and nicer, to deal with. I also find that the more proficient I become, the easier it is to do more extensive tutorials. Try to limit more advanced tutorials to those in the same, or maybe the previous, version of Blender you use. Figuring out where option X has disappeared to in the interface can be nasty. For the same reason, always check which render engine is used in a tutorial, I usually regret it if I don’t.
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On versions of Blender, I tend to use the latest version. Differences between versions are usually not very large, but these do add up over time. Although it can be confusing, I find that using the latest version rarely causes unsolvable problems. However, the new 2.8 version, on which development has started, will change this, it will look and feel very different from the 2.50–2.7x versions.
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I like to keep my projects small, or at least manageable. Large projects usually require much more knowledge to pull off. And I will eventually dislike spending weeks and weeks on what looked like simple project (or tutorial).
In your own projects you will learn and apply problem solving skills, but you will probably not be able to solve all problems. I always try to find a workaround, but I may need to simplify a project. -
Tutorials and textbooks are great in teaching what is possible, but these won’t make you an artist. To develop your sensibilities, you need very different inputs, especially constructive criticism. There are online platforms where you can publish your work and ask for comments. You can also try to find drawing/painting/sculpting/photographing opportunities/lessons close to where you live. What I learned there, amongst other things, is to approach artwork positively, to see the good bits that you can build on.
Of course, you also need other inputs. A very different piece of advice that crops up a lot is to read good books (as in novels). But studying good visual artwork and sculpture is also well worth the time. And the list goes on.
Family is usually not a great source of constructive criticism, especially most moms tend to praise efforts more than to actually comment on the artwork.
But maybe your interest is only partly in the artistry, and what you really love is programming visual stuff, like writing scripts or add-ons and, maybe eventually, become a Blender developer. Much of the functionality in Blender and can be scripted and a lot of the underlying data can be changed through scripts, too. But expect a steep learning curve, Blender’s libraries are large. -
I find most things interesting, which is a bane in disguise. So for me, it is hard to figure out what I really want to do. In the case of Blender that means I am currently casting a wide net, so I am fooling around with most of the capabilities of the program. Hopefully, this will help me to shortlist what I want to do with the program, eventually.
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Do try to finish something. But you may have to settle for a lower quality than you intended. After all, for now you are learning, and not creating awe inspiring masterpieces. If the original idea is good enough, you can always return back to it later. When you finish a project is up to you, I don’t always have to render something out to feel satisfied with a project.
Protect your motivation, don’t overask yourself, and ignore those that demand what you cannot pull off yet. Regularly look back to see your progress. Try to find (local) like minded people, preferably including some Blender users.