Modeling Resources Thread

[Sel]

Seems like a lot of people here are saying things along the lines like, I wish I could model, etc etc, so here this is for you all to get you started on the right foot. There's stuff for non beginners too in here though, so keep going if you're a veteran modeler.

These are mostly for max, since that's what I use, hopefully some experienced users of other packages can post tutorials relevant to what they use too.

Students should read this (Free Autodesk software)

http://students.autodesk.com/

Modeling (ordered by experience) :
(EXCELLENT TUTORIAL)
http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/beretta-9...o-tutorial

http://www.moddb.com/downloads/creating-...rce-part-3

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/240/holesinmeshtut.jpg

(EXCELLENT TUTORIAL)
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotli...ation.html

http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodes...oly-model/

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt312...petut1.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt312..._dents.jpg

Rendering

I put this together, if you don't know any good methods of doing this, you should read this if only to stop me from yelling at you to make a better render.

Spoiler below!

So you have modeling down, and you want to show off your work.

Well there's all sorts of ways to render, but some people have inquired into how I do mine.



You need Photoshop and 3ds for this.

First off, if you're going to have it from different directions it's best to have 3 cameras since you need to render from each position twice.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3332789/misc/Tut...ameras.jpg

Once you've done this press F10 to bring up the render dialogue. In advanced lighting ensure light tracer is enabled, with the default settings. In the Renderer tab check Enable SSEm and Enable Global (Under Global SuperSampling), use max 2.5 star. Continue scrolling down and disable the apply checkboxes in Object Motion Blu, and Image Motion Blur.

Go to the Common tab and set your output size.

Now goto your first camera view and add a skylight to your scene. Begin rendering.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3332789/misc/Tut...y%20Ex.png

Remove the skylight, and replace it with an omni light, or two (depending on the size of your model, and how much is neccesary to get it mostly lit on the side you're looking at)

Alter their positions to light up a reasonable amount of the model.

Render again from the same camera, since they both need to be exactly the same when you put them in photoshop.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3332789/misc/Tut...i%20Ex.png

I usually save as PNG when it comes out of max, just so I can have the transparency in ps, makes my life easier, and you can always change it to jpg afterwards.

Open both of the images in photoshop. Select the omni image's layer, and drag it onto the skylight picture, holding shift as you do, so that they align properly. Save this as a new PSD.

Set the omni layer's blending mode to Overlay

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3332789/misc/Tut...ttings.jpg

Boom, finished. Additionally here is the psd file, in case you have some need to look at it : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3332789/misc/Tut...ing/GE.psd

There's a lot more you can do with this in photoshop, but this is my favourite, feel free to experiment though.

I also only really use this for final renders, since it's a lot more time consuming than what I would otherwise do (for the record, 2 omnis and a skylight with light tracer)

Anyway hope this helps.

Amnesia relevant

The exporter
http://www.opencollada.org/

(This tutorial is pretty terrible but touches on the basics, I might rewrite it when I have a decent understanding of the game engine)
http://wiki.frictionalgames.com/hpl2/tut...loutsource

Other

Naturally, polycount and gameartist are excellent resources too, everyone who has any interest in game art should be checking both out regularly.

Feel free to post more.

Additionally, if you have questions pertaining to modeling, I like to think I'm pretty well versed in it, so feel free to pm me if you're having trouble with/unsure about something

[DIGI Byte]

http://students.autodesk.com/

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[Sel]

So it's down at the moment, don't look at me.

[Sel]

The Education Community site is currently undergoing system improvements, please come back after January 9 6:00 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST).

[DIGI Byte]

Good thread, would like to see this stickied for the community