[ART] Learning How To Model!

[JenniferOrange]

[I ADDED A POLL FOR YOU GUYS TO PLAY WITH!]
I have quite a few ideas in mind for models, but the problem is simple: I don't know how to model. I own Blender, but looking at all of the different options seem as though they're in a foreign language. I want to add more 'modern' furniture models to Amnesia, for modern-day custom stories. And people, we could always use people. I am also happy to say I have a pretty decent skill of copying pictures, especially if there's a grid involved, then I can get it almost exact. But I have a few questions..

• Do you prefer Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, or another program? Which is easiest to learn from? (And won't blow up my laptop?)
• Where did you learn how to model? Any tutorial links or articles/books would be helpful. (I am a visual learner and learn best from videos, by the way.)
• Any tips and tricks you have to be successful?
• What do you do when you get frustrated and can't think of any ideas? Do you start a new project or push through?
• How long did it take you to get your first model 'just right'?

Thank you for checking out this thread, and hopefully I can be apart of the modelling community too! I'd love to give back to all of you hard-workers who spend months creating custom stories. :]

[Mine Turtle]

first of all, .dae files from blender are buggy. they wont work in the editor. my advice to you it to get a student version of autodesk maya, which allows you to use the program free of charge (but you CANNOT sell any models or products what so ever, or you owe the autodesk corporation the cost of the program (a quite enormous amount of money)).

to answer your questions:

1. i prefer autodesk maya; so does HPL (though 3ds max works absolutely fine also)

2. i learnt from people on this forum who were willing to teach me the basics, and show me the ropes. my suggestions would be to try out the program first, get acustomed to using the different basic tools like moving, rotating, scaling etc, and then go through a few modeling articles on this forum.

3. be inspired when modeling, its hard to work on something when youre not inspired, and it will most likely make you sick of the topic for weeks on end. there are a million buttons in maya which you dont need to make models, so just take that into consideration.

4. like i said, its hard to work on something if youre not inspired anymore. if youre stuck on something, wait a few days, do a few things you love doing, and then judge by your gutfeeling whenever you feel like youre ready to continue. (this idea differs from person to person. some like to push through, some dont.)

5. first of all, you should really just play around with the program before actually setting out to begin modeling. make a few basic shapes, play around with the editing tools etc. my first model took about 2 weeks to get just right, if it helps ya, so you should take your time when performing modeling in the beginning. after a few months with the program you'll be able to know how to make what you want, to know what will be needed to make your object, etc.


hopefully this helped ^^

[DRedshot]

nI also would go with maya, It's the most forgiving of them all if you know nothing about modelling, and is a lot easier to use in my opinion. A lot of the most useful options are visualised with little pictures, which are pretty self-explanitory with what the option does, so you don't need to know what 'extruding' is, or 'bridging' or 'subdividing' or what any of the basic commands are.
It's actually quite quick to get stuck in with it, just place a box and click on polygon mode. Then start dragging around the faces/vertices and using commands, figuring out how it works.

You might get a bit stuck with UV mapping (applying textures), but again - I found it a LOT easier than blenders UV mapping. A lot of people think that Blender's is better, but I couldn't use it at all. There are a few help threads about this, so have a look at those, and if your still stuck send me a pm and I'll try to point you in the right direction.

Oh, quick note:
Maya 2012 does not have openCollada support, make sure you get 2011 instead!!

Edit: I never mentioned 3ds, so here's what I think about it, I used it for a short while, but I was getting some visual artefacts because of my not-so-great Graphics card:
What I realised was that all the tools are in one huge dropdown list, which is great if you know what your looking for - you can just search, and your there! But not so good if you don't.
If you wanted to say - link two edges of a shape together to make a square, you'd have to know the name of the function, otherwise you'll be there for a while checking through every tool in the list until you find it. It's still an amazing program, and is worth considering, it's just I think it would be easier to start with Maya, and maybe move on to other stuff when you get better!

[asghdrew]

I would go for 3ds max Because Iv'e used it for 3 years now
And It kinda became my best friend in programs list .
The easiest would be propably Blender. (dont know why but it was about 2 tryies and on third one I got Pyramid Head)

I learned by reading wiki of 3ds max manual or blender manual...
Videos didnt help much as for what i was looking for I never found out except "how to create a barrel"
and "how to make human face"

Well I could make 3d models of rappers for san andreas because I listened to their music and was inspired by it....As for Pyramid Head....(He Was simply my favourite villain)

Well I just CTRL+Z and Do It AGAIN

It took me 3 days to make Pyramid Head the way I wanted it to be.
But for starters it would take a bit longer to get used to program , options , shortcuts etc....

3ds Max Needs a Open Collada Plugin
And it costs money....but Isohunt.com is my favourite website to go to.

[JenniferOrange]

Thank you all for the wonderful tips and suggestions! :] It means a lot.
I might begin with 3DS Max or Maya, because they seem to be popular with you guys. I'll also look into tutorials and start with easy shapes, like a chair. I'm always one to skip the beginner stuff and go into expert mode. I'll learn though!

[Statyk]

I'm always one to skip the beginner stuff and go into expert mode. I'll learn though!

I love how your signature says otherwise. haha

And I use Maya, And have watched a fellow member use 3DS Max and they seem pretty similar in what they are capable of/what they do, but are slightly different in layout and abilities. I'm comfortable with Maya as that's what I have started out with but expanding my knowledge would be fun and I hope to give 3DS Max a shot sometime.

[JetlinerX]

+1 for creating this topic, I too am really wanting to learn to model.

[FragdaddyXXL]

There's a lot to learn. I would tackle these things roughly in order:
Basic Modeling (to basically feel comfortable with the software)
Basic Texturing (Modeling is only half of it)
I'd get very familiar with the Edit Poly modifier (In Max, not sure about Maya).
Get a good grasp on UVW Mapping.
And the rest you'll come across along the way.
Google is the best way to find sites completely devoted to user-submitted tutorials.

I'm reluctant to try to make models for Amnesia because of past troubles with getting models into the Source Engine and Gary's Mod xD. What a nightmare.

[Acies]

If there was a bunch of people interested I could start doing live tutorials on modeling (Maya). You would have the option to ask me questions and I could change/do content which you would want to learn. That is, if there were some people who were interested in this.

[Your Computer]

If there was a bunch of people interested I could start doing live tutorials on modeling (Maya). You would have the option to ask me questions and I could change/do content which you would want to learn. That is, if there were some people who were interested in this.

All i'd be interested in are solutions to issues encountered when exporting rigged and animated models.