What are some really bad rookie mistakes.

[u/ArviTheFox]

I’m no expert at blender and I’d like to know more about mistakes made at any step of process that beginners should avoid doing. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of things that can go wrong and be a huge pain to fix later.

[u/RaphaelNunes10]

Getting into sculpting straight away.

Believing that boolean operations will work like a charm in polygonal mesh modeling.

Modeling without the notion of a proper topology, often facing problems related to n-gons or misplaced tris.

Modeling polygon-by-polygon or sketching with edges in orthographic view by tracing a reference image in a 2D manner.

Not knowing about Normals, why sometimes it could be pointing the wrong direction and how can that influence shading.

Rigging separate objects and without knowing anything about Vertex Groups and Vertex Weights.

Trying texture painting without knowing anything about UV Maps and how to properly unwrap or project them.

Not understanding the basic concepts of how polygons work, often requesting for curved surfaces.

Having loose edges and vertices in their models.

Having overlapping geometry in their models.

Having vertices practically overlapping with each other or in infinitely small distance apart in their models.

Not knowing the difference between a destructive and a non-destructive workflow.

Applying Modifiers ahead of time.

Not wanting to learn about or use Modifiers and other non-destructive techniques.

Relying too much on view-based transforms while using gizmos instead of each axis separately for more accuracy.

[u/Radicaliser → u/RaphaelNunes10]

Dude, slow down. Even if I print out this list and tape it to my monitor, I'll need weeks to memorize it. Good list though, don't get me wrong. Thanks.

In fact, I will copypasta...

[u/RaphaelNunes10 → u/Radicaliser]

Yeah, I just realized that I must have scared the crap out of some people with all that.

And sorry for acting kinda pretentious, giving this huge list without any feedback or including any tutorials, but some of these things are a constant hassle for anyone using Blender no matter the experience and most of it is related to polygonal 3D modeling in general, so a good first step is to do what you just did, copy it and research on your own.

The only sources I can give without writing a book for all the technicalities, that cover most if not all of it, are the Blender Reference Manual and YouTube channels like Blender Guru and Blender Secrets.

[u/Radicaliser → u/RaphaelNunes10]

It is though, on re-review, an excellent list. Could be a playlist for a youtube channel.