3D Modeling — Blender to Godot, the Map

Blender → low-poly game assets → glTF into Godot. This shelf holds the path and, later, the documentation from actual 3D modeling projects. Orientation first; the ordered course list lives in the asset path, the export/import reference in the pipeline doc.

Version guidance (this trips everyone)#

Learn on Blender 4.5 LTS — that's what the official Fundamentals course targets. The newest manual is for 5.2; at beginner level the differences are minor, but when a tutorial's UI doesn't match yours, check its Blender version before doubting yourself. (The same old-tutorial trap exists here as in Godot land.)

Honest triage of the famous resources#

Blender Fundamentals 4.5 LTS (official, free) — no longer a YouTube playlist: it's now a structured course on Blender Studio with per-section assignments. The correct day one.
The Blender Guru donut (current 5.0 edition) — beloved, well-taught, and the wrong path for game assets: it teaches the render-art pipeline (sculpting, procedural materials, Cycles photorealism), almost none of which survives export to a game engine. Do it for fun if you like; don't mistake it for the curriculum.
Polygon Runway — gorgeous stylized illustration courses; the deliverable is a rendered image, not an engine asset. Inspiration shelf only.
The actual game-asset teachers: Grant Abbitt and Imphenzia — both in the asset path.

Why low-poly#

It's the 3D analog of pixel art: hard constraints (few polygons, one palette texture, flat shading) that trade realism for style, speed, and finishability — which is why it sits naturally alongside the pixel-art work elsewhere on this site. A weekend of low-poly practice produces usable game props; a weekend of sculpting produces a nostril.

When to start this#

Not while another project's core loop is unfinished. Picking up a new medium is the most enjoyable way to stall a game that was nearly playable — the work feels like progress because it is progress, just not on the thing that needed it. The path below will still be here.