I listened to a really great episode of the Andrew Price podcast and in this episode (which I will link at the bottom of this article) he was asked if it was possible to learn Blender in 4 weeks and fast track your way into the 3D development industry.
Short answer, yes and no. Every skill requires 10,000 hours of experience time to become a professional, I learned the other day from a completely different podcast (I love learning from podcasts) that old resistance painters were required to first mimic their master's work before they were able to create their own work and sense of style. We live in a very "instant gratification" kind of world and the internet has opened up so much of that to everyone. If you really want to learn a program you just have to put the time into watching YouTube tutorials.
That being said, it is more than just that. I currently invested over $200 in Udemy courses on learning Blender. So the idea of fast-tracking that process seems very impossible to me from my current perspective, in any regard I listened to what he recommended and made notes.
Donut Tutorial
Here is what he says you should do, first watch his Blender Donut Tutorial. After that make something yourself using what you know in the program. You need to fiddle around with it, we learned how to walk as children by taking our first steps.
Lighting Theroy
Next learn the theory of lighting, and play around with the lighting of the scene you just made. As a cinematographer I understand that lighting is a completely separate skill, so if you already feel daunted I just want to let you know that you are not alone.
Now go back to your donut and do 5 variations of the lighting of that scene, exhaust all the ideas you thought were good, keep iterating. Do whatever you want, just keep learning and playing with what you learn to make it permanent.
Learn how materials actually work. He recommends watching his Anvil Tutorial and then create a game-ready asset. Just keep making stuff! Post what you make on Newgrounds to get feedback.
Sculpting
Learn how to sculpt, make your own thing/object that is similar to what you can make in 2 days. Improve that object with 5 variations of lighting and composition.
Pick something achievable, replicate a photo 1-1. Develop attention to detail, learn how to optimizing rendering. Learn and know your system. I am a video editor and part of the art of producing video work is knowing your equipment and computer system. Of course, updates kind of throw wrenches into that every month or so but you have to stay on top of all that. Sometimes life can be rough like that.
Create an Environment
Next learn environments, use photo scanned assets and play around with that. It is common practice in the industry to use photo scanned assets so don't feel like you are cheating (That was a quote from Andrew Price). Learn ground displacements and tiling, just keep iterating (you can start to see a pattern of thought here)
Once you do all the above you should start with crafting a desert environment, since it is the easiest according to Andrew. Research concept artists, I spend a lot of my time on sites like Newgrounds and ArtStation gathering inspiration. Create interesting lighting and composition and integrate everything into your scene.
Import Characters
Go to a site and download a free (or paid if you are crazy like that) character model from a site like Mixamo to get models and download into a scene. Make it interesting,
Learn how to correct and get the materials right, just play around with them like they were toys (not the adult kind you sick-minded brat).
Learn Colours
I consider myself a colorist for video so this is a skill I have already developed over years of playing with video edits and making some interesting stuff. You should gain an understanding of colour in your scene and how it affects the rendering. For example, some colours don't blend together right and mess with the render, so you need to develop an eye and sense for that. Remove colours that are over or too undersaturated, don't make some areas too bright unless you are trying to draw the eye there, things to learn and study as you go. Know colour grading, which is something you need to implement next.
Post-processing
Imperfections can happen in-camera such as barrel distortion and noise. Learn to denoise and renoise your scenes because that goes a long way, look up what I am talking about. Add sharpening, video effects, and details to make renders pop. Don't use "no look", use high contrast to add a basic S-Curve. Be aware of specular highlights and what all these fancy words mean.
Add all the above to your desert scene. With all the above you should be able to create an interesting environment with a character model and lighting to get results fast and then expand from there.
Keep failing and learning, this is what life is all about! I hope reading this helps and inspires you, I wrote it for my own notes so I still have yet to do any of the above but when I have the time to I will post my results in the Art Portal.