So today I was over at fanfilms and saw that a lot of people are now doing top notch 3D models and animations. Stuff that I don't know how to really get into. So I want to forget everything I know and start all over. My modelling skills have been collected by pieces of tutorials on the web that I have some how retained. They are neither complete or competent. I want this to change. A modelling school is not possible at this time, but its my career choice in the future.

I want to first of all, find a suitable program. What am I going for? I want to be able to model anything. From buildings to characters to vehicles. But not just model, also animate properly and fully. I don't know where to start. There are soo many different suggestions on the internet. Maybe Maya? Lightwave? I could get these with a student discount or even for free.

But the real challenge comes to the learning. I need to start small. I can easily go through the small things with no problem. What I probably need is a competent course where I can start from square one all over again. I don't know a lot of stuff that I should. And I'm tired of improvising or doing extra work when some one who has studied this trade can easily make what I do far faster, more effective and better.

Where should I start?

Wood. Ax or knife. Cheaper and you end up with something real.

Can you draw? I know from my own failed attempts at computer art and my brother's success that it's really not about software but being able to see things as an artist sees them.

Like if your models look like *** 10 to 1 it's a your art skills that are lacking and not your computer software skills. So you might want to devote a long period of time to the study of regular drawing.

Download blender and play. They've got a big enough community and powerful enough tools to get you going as far as you can. If you find yourself good at it, buy 3DSMax or Cinema4D. Some people find Z-Brushes highly intuitive, so you may want to demo that. Watch youtube videos of other people modeling in real time and high quality, and you will learn a great deal.

I vote Blender or Cinema 4d. Cinema is 'cheap' relative to other things, but I think its still like $800

Milkshape is best for learning quickly, 3dsmax is crap for building quickly, but has lots of cool features (apparently)

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

I used Blender for a few years - great program, great community. (And free!)

I personally learnt to model using Maya and find it excellent. Has a lot of potential with scripting/shading too.

It's hard to go wrong in terms of quality with it anyway, only problem is, you are wading in at the deep end with it.

This is a good point. 3D Modeling definitely takes an artists eye.

Sure you can get by with blueprinting everything but still it's the small details.

Start with a free program like was suggested here, Hit up a local book store or big box book store (like Chapters, indigo) or order online books on modeling.

try downloading a student edition or free edition of Maya 8 or other free versions of leading animation programs and look for their books (learning Maya, intro to Maya) are a few that I have in my library.

also look at general animation/modeling books, they often have great tips, not only show you how to animate something, but how to build the character and props that i'll use and then animate it properly.

Alot of animation programs use similar names for modeling, Spline, UV boolean, it's a standard thing so while using a Maya book to learn how to model in Blender might not be the best option, it's still a good way to look at HOW you can use the tools in the program you have and replicate it.

From there, just branch out and just model away.

I'm in the same boat, I went to school though finished, but I've not been doing that in a long time so I KNOW my skills are antiquated and I need to get modeling again and make some stuff.

I'm going to start by procuring my the latest copy of Maya or a learning edition since my student edition no longer works... and alot has changed since Maya merged with Autodesk so I need to re-affialte myself with the interface, but from what I've heard the options are grouped together in a more logical way now.

But yeah, find tutorials online as well, I'm sure there are even books out there for Blender or other free programs, just look, read and do and put effort into.

Rhino's NURBS modeling is the most intuitive to me. There is just something satisfying about having actual splines and surfaces behind your model.

This. Also chicks dig that stuff more than this nerdy crap everyone else advised.

I have touched blender in the past, and I know how to do somethings with it. But I have no idea how a lot of the texturing works. The animations will sometimes go crazy. As far as organics go, I really can't do em at all. I suck at organics, 100%. There is a lot of stuff in blender which I don't know what they do.

For instance I have a building in blender that a made a few days back. I don't know how to light the inside of it properly. The out side is fine with a basic sun light. But the inside is pitch black. If I put a lamp inside the bulding it affects the exterior, and the building glows whiteish.

This is probably the wrong place to post blender problems, but its just so frustrating. You'd think that after playing around with it for a couple years, I would know something more than just putting vertices together to form faces and slapping on horrible materials.

But I don't, and I can't seem to find the source of knowledge that I seek.



I live in a country where a carpenter is considered an ignorant person, because most carpenters only know their trade and nothing else.
Being something more is a nice attraction.

ahahhahahahahahahah

i dont do any 3d modeling, but you probably used a solid rectangular prism, slapped on a building texture on the surface, and tried putting a light source inside of it. i wouldnt put it past you.

Maya's menus are confusing, sometimes I find myself looking in three menus briefly before finding the correct one.

Well, take this work for instance. I need orientation. My current project is almost done. I just finished the first floor of a school, based from the blue prints. The school wants a 3D rendered animation of their institution. I am done with the the first floor, as far as geometry goes, however it still remains untextured.

The 2nd and third floors are exactly the same, and have just one or two differences from the first floor, so they will be easy.

There are very few windows on the first floor because I was told not to put those in, so no need pointing that out right this minute.

There are no doors yet, I'm gonna a suitable one soon. There are also no desks / chairs / tables / computers / etc. I think I might make most of these, but I'll just download a computer model for the computer room.

It's so easy to model the things you're looking for! Give it a shot yourself instead of downloading one. It's only like a couple of cubes with some minor editing if you go for a simple approach. And at least you can say it's yours.

True, but this is due monday. And I have yet to render a walk through of the facility. Which why I am concerned theres not enough time to render it.

There's a free program called Truespace which might be worth looking at. Used to be semi-expensive, then Microsoft bought the company and released it for free to help people make content for their Virtual Earth software.

How did this go from

"Hey I'm interested in learning 3d Modelling again"

to

"Oh ya I have this thing where the deadline is Monday"

Besides who will trust you when all you did before was steal other peoples work. I don't even know why the let you on this site.

This actually did not go to hell as fast as I thought it would.

Well I think you should structure your work better. Modelling shouldn't be in progress the day before the dead line.

More likely he promised something that he can't deliver.

this is a parody thread of zully's thread, ban gold

hes planning a shooting!

Why even come here to ask after all that has happened, can't you just sign up somewhere that has knowledge on this subject and a clean slate?

I actually kind of like this. Is the hole in the wall a glass wall (bottom left corner room in your first image)?

Dont encourage it

Needs a roof. People would get wet in that building!

At least he's attempting to do something... unlike the guys who wanted to do an XNA Game cough cough

He has like, half a day left to finish it, texture it, and animate a walkthrough.
SF_Gold is like Macbeth with technology.

hey I was ready, I still am but nobody ever contacted me

If you want to do it you should just do it (are you a programmer?). Like seriously, don't wait for people, just do it yourself. When you start to have success other people will want to join up.

Thats kind of my point. Gold is at least trying to get this 3d model done. Sure his time contraints are terrible, but at least hes trying

It's not about trying, it's about doing!

well yea that too

Yeah but I wouldn't put it past him to download models from turbosquid and render, and say he made them.

Don't you need to learn something before you relearn it?