Looking for good all-round foundational 3D tutorials

#1

As the title says, I’m looking for a specific kind of tutorial with regards to 3D modeling and texturing. Most I’ve found seem to fall into one of two categories:
a) How to model X, where X is a car, a gun, a person, etc. Basically a list of steps that end up with a model identical to the one in the tutorial.
b) How to use feature X in program Y, so things like edge loops, baking normal maps, photoshop brushes, etc.

What I’m looking for is stuff like general workflows, basic concepts that are applicable to any program, etc. I know a lot of the technical side of things, between Blender and Photoshop, (Photoshop less so) but lack the foundational concepts. There’s a workflow tutorial by a guy named Mashru Mishu that was particularly useful, if a bit thin on the ground, and a good example of a 2D tutorial would be anything over on ctrlpaint. I need stuff like that, but for 3D.

Free stuff is preferable, as I’m currently self-employed and pretty much scraping by with this stuff. (Living the life, right?) I sell what I make over on Second Life and while the money is good, it’s not THAT good. I want to reinforce my skills so I can move on to bigger and better things.

As for what I want to make, I’m currently mostly focusing on real-world clothing and accessories, but my real passion is sci-fi stuff, (Any of Aaron Beck’s stuff is a good example) so a mix of hard surface and organic modelling.

#2

I kind of think I know what you are asking, but let me clarify: you want free tutorials that don’t just show step by step button pushing but also talk about the fundamentals of art behind making high quality CG work? Well, for free that’s gonna be pretty difficult in my opinion. You might be able to find some decent stuff on youtube if you dig like crazy. Gnomon workshop dvd’s have the best mix of artistic interpreation with actual practition in my opinion and digital tutors weighs heavily on the practition side over the art (but has improved on that recently). 3d motive and eat3d are also a pretty good balance of the two, but of course all 3 of those cost money. I personally haven’t found much in the totally free arena that has helped me much on the art side of things in CG to be honest. But I’ve always had a little bit of coin to throw around at the higher quality tutorials, so my searching is limited to be honest.

#3

I’m in a slightly better position financially than I was when I made this post, so any and all suggestions are useful, thank you.

#4

A good book I recommend is: Digital Modeling by William Vaughan.He goes into everything you’re saying,and he is legit real pro.

The key to all this is problem solving; you don’t have to learn all this. Just write an idea for a project and the props and things you’ll need to finish that project and then you find the tutorials online that are going to aid you in finishing that project.And don’t be software restricted ,all softwares are almost the same when it comes to modeling so just focus on compiling a library of content for your own private archives.

For example:You write down a scene that has a witch holding a cat, then a wine bottle somewhere and antique furniture with a cooking pot.Then just google and youtube it.

Always do books instead of videos .But if you must do videos,just watch them and take written notes so you can google terminologies later.

Remember 3d is a lot like cooking food,you just need to know the recipe/formula for what it takes to complete your project.

Here are good terms to study,organic modeling ,good topology,poles .