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I need to tell you about the worst base mesh I ever created.
It was 2014. I'd been using Blender for maybe three months. I'd watched probably fifty YouTube tutorials, and I was convinced I was ready to make my first complete character.
I wasn't ready.
Not even close.
The Confidence of Ignorance
You know that phase when you're learning something new, and you've gotten past the complete beginner stage, and suddenly you think you understand everything?
That was me.
I'd modeled a few simple objects. I'd made a coffee cup that actually looked like a coffee cup. I'd sculpted a rock that didn't look like a potato. I was on top of the world.
So I decided to model a full humanoid character. No reference, no planning, just pure confidence and Blender.
I opened a new file, added a cube, and started pushing vertices around.
The Plan (Or Lack Thereof)
I didn't start with a proper base mesh topology. I didn't think about edge loops or deformation zones or any of the fundamentals I teach now.
My methodology was simple: make it look like a person.
I extruded the cube into a rough body shape. I subdivided it a bunch of times because more polygons meant better quality, right? I grabbed vertices in clumps and moved them until the silhouette kind of looked humanoid.
For the arms, I selected faces on the side and extruded them out. For the legs, same thing. For the head, I just extruded the top and tried to shape it into something head-like.
It looked... well, it looked like what it was. A cube that someone had beaten with a hammer until it vaguely resembled a person.
But in my beginner's mind, it was going pretty well.
When Reality Arrived
The problem became obvious when I tried to add detail.
I wanted to add fingers. But the hands were just boxes at the end of the arms. I tried to extrude fingers from them, and they came out looking like rectangular sausages attached to bricks.
I wanted to add a face. But the head was this weird angular blob with no real structure. I tried to add eye sockets by pushing in some vertices, and it looked like the character had been punched by a geometry-shaped fist.
I kept thinking, "Okay, I just need to add more geometry. More vertices, more faces, more detail."
So I subdivided. And subdivided again. And selected random edges and subdivided those.
The mesh went from 500 polygons to 50,000 polygons in about twenty minutes.
It still looked terrible.
Worse, actually, because now it was a detailed terrible mess instead of a simple terrible mess.
The Triangles. Oh God, The Triangles.
At some point, I realized the mesh needed to connect in ways my current geometry didn't support.
I needed five edges to meet somewhere, but I had four. Or I needed four, but I had six. I had no idea how to resolve this properly, so I just made triangles.
Lots of triangles.
I think the final mesh was maybe 30 percent quads, 50 percent triangles, and 20 percent n-gons that I didn't even realize were n-gons.
When I tried to apply a subdivision surface modifier—something I'd seen in every tutorial—the mesh exploded into this nightmare of bumps and spikes and weird artifacts.
I turned the modifier off and pretended everything was fine.
The Rigging Disaster
But the worst was yet to come.
I decided to rig the character. I'd watched a rigging tutorial, so I knew I needed to add an armature and weight paint.
I added bones. I tried to parent the mesh to the armature. Blender did its automatic weight painting.
And when I tried to pose the character, I learned what the phrase "broken geometry" really meant.
The shoulder didn't rotate. It warped. The elbow didn't bend. It collapsed. The knee looked like I was breaking the character's leg every time I tried to make it flex.
The fingers—those rectangular sausage fingers—twisted into impossible shapes because the geometry had no structure to support deformation.
I spent probably three days trying to fix the weight painting. I painted and repainted and painted again. I adjusted bones. I added more bones. I tried different settings I didn't understand.
Nothing worked.
Because the problem wasn't the rig. The problem was that the mesh was fundamentally broken.
The Moment of Truth
Finally, I posted my character on a Blender forum, asking for help with the rigging.
The response I got was blunt: "Your mesh topology is wrong. You need to rebuild it."
Rebuild it? I'd spent two weeks on this thing.
But I looked at other people's wireframes. I looked at professional base meshes. I looked at actual topology references.
And I realized: my mesh wasn't just bad. It was completely wrong on a fundamental level.
There was no salvaging it. No tutorial, no tool, no amount of weight painting could fix a mesh that was built incorrectly from the ground up.
I had to start over.
What I Learned the Hard Way
That failed first mesh taught me more than a hundred successful projects could have.
I learned that topology isn't optional. It's not something you think about after modeling. It's the foundation of everything.
I learned that you can't subdivide your way out of bad geometry. More polygons don't fix structural problems.
I learned that reference matters. Real anatomy isn't negotiable. You can stylize it, but you need to understand it first.
I learned that edge loops need to follow natural deformation patterns. Random geometry doesn't magically start working when you rig it.
Most importantly, I learned that making mistakes is fine. Refusing to learn from them is what holds you back.
The Second Attempt
When I rebuilt the character, I did it properly.
I studied topology. I learned about quad-based modeling. I understood why edge loops needed to flow in specific directions.
I used proper reference images. I started with a simple base mesh and added detail gradually. I tested deformation at every stage.
The second mesh took me longer to build than the first one. But when I rigged it, it actually worked.
The shoulders rotated properly. The elbows bent naturally. The knees flexed without collapsing.
It wasn't perfect. It wasn't professional-quality. But it was functional, and that felt like a massive achievement.
Why I'm Telling You This
Because I teach now, and I see students making the same mistakes I made.
And they get discouraged. They think they're not talented enough. They think 3D modeling might not be for them.
But the problem isn't talent. It's knowledge.
I wasn't bad at 3D modeling when I made that terrible first mesh. I just didn't know the fundamentals yet. And once I learned them, everything changed.
Your first base mesh might be terrible. Mine was. Almost everyone's is.
That's not a sign that you should quit. It's a sign that you're learning.
The difference between people who succeed at 3D character modeling and people who give up isn't natural talent. It's willingness to acknowledge mistakes, learn from them, and try again with better knowledge.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
If I could go back and talk to my 2014 self, here's what I'd say:
Study topology before you start modeling. Learn why quads matter. Understand edge loops. It's not exciting, but it's essential.
Use reference. Always. Even for stylized characters. You need to know the rules before you can break them effectively.
Start simple. Don't try to build a fully detailed character on your first attempt. Master the base mesh first. Add details later.
Test early and often. Don't wait until you've spent two weeks on a mesh to discover it doesn't deform. Test as you go.
And most importantly: your first character will probably be bad. That's okay. Your tenth might be bad too. Keep going anyway.
Where I Am Now
These days, I can build a clean base mesh in a few hours. It's not because I'm more talented than I was in 2014. It's because I've made every possible mistake and learned from all of them.
That terrible first mesh is still saved on an old hard drive somewhere. I keep it as a reminder.
A reminder that everyone starts somewhere. A reminder that mistakes are part of learning. A reminder that the gap between where you are and where you want to be is filled with practice and patience.
You're going to make bad meshes. Probably a lot of them.
Make them. Learn from them. Get better.
That's the only way forward.
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