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New 3D modeler needing advice!

I just started learning 3D modeling in 3ds Max about a week ago, and I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of the terminology and stuff in the other threads, so I figured I'd make a new thread with some of my questions.

First, if anyone knows of any good educational material for beginners, please let me know! I've already done the trial run of Digital Tutors and watched just about everything they'll let me.

My main focus right now is to be good enough at 3D modeling to be able to design and build my own complete assets for the game Star Citizen by time it releases in late 2015-2016, so if anyone has any tips for me in that area, I'd really appreciate it.

On to real questions now:

How can I make a generally boxy shape have nice smooth curves throughout it's form? I've been trying to use chamfer to do this, but I am not getting good results...

Example of what I'm going for:

MISC-FREELANCER-05.jpg
(the ship I'm currently designing is essentially a much bigger version of this one)

Second, would it be better for me to try to model things all out of one big shape, or should I make each bit out of a bunch of little shapes and then weld them all together when I'm done?

Finally, WINDOWS, with GLASS. How???

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of questions about map baking, but as of right now I still don't fully grasp what that is or how it works, so I'll leave that till after I can make a model.

Thank you all for any help you can offer! I have a dream of founding an indie game studio when I get out of the military. I'm already a writer and a musician, but I want to have experience in every area before I try to run a studio. (Plus I'm getting tired of mod teams saying "we have enough musicians and writers, we need 3D people please.")

Thank you again!

Replies

  • carlobarley
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    carlobarley polycounter lvl 9
    It seems you want to focus on hard-surface modeling and texturing!

    a great resource for self-learning in my experience is 3dmotive and training DVDs from gnomonworkshop. Try to follow exactly what the tutorial does and achieve same quality done by the professional teaching the course.

    the boxy shape that becomes smooth curves is a process called Sub-D modeling
    http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Subdivision_Surface_Modeling
    http://vimeo.com/10941211

    in my opinion, for your highpoly model, it's always better to make it as if it were the real thing, if the piece is separate keep it separate, if it's combined, weld them together a different theory will follow for your low poly model though, but you will learn as you study more.

    there are online schools taught by pros in the industry such as

    Uartsy
    phoenix atelier
    cgworkshops

    hope it helps and goodluck!
  • UnintentionalFan
    Thanks carlobarley!

    What is the difference between hard-surface modeling (and texturing?) as compared to whatever else there is?

    Also, another question I thought of: I've been hearing all over the place that quads are the only thing to use, nothing higher, and no triangles. However, in another thread, I saw people making things only out of triangles. Why is this?
  • Joost
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    Joost polycount sponsor
    There's hard surface modelling and organic modelling/ sculpting.

    The only reason you'd want just quads is if you're constructing a base mesh to import into Zbrush to sculpt on. High poly models can have n-gons or triangles, as long as the final result looks good.

    Meshes in games are triangulated anyway so it doesn't matter if you have triangles. Though if you're not baking a normal map triangles can produce some weird shading in some instances. One benefit of using all or mostly quads is that it's easier to edit and LOD.

    The best way to get smooth curves is with sub-D. Though if you're making something on the scale of a spaceship you can't really bake a normal map so you need to find a workaround. There's a few different methods but you could collapse a turbosmooth modifier and then take out any unnecessary loops. Though I'm not really a fan of that because it's a very destructive workflow.

    What specifically do you want to know about creating windows?

    Also I personally wouldn't model a spaceship until you're very confident about your modelling skills. Start with simpler things like a knife or a pistol.
  • UnintentionalFan
    komaokc wrote: »
    There's a few different methods but you could collapse a turbosmooth modifier and then take out any unnecessary loops.

    Huh??

    As for windows, I just can't figure out how to even make them, so I guess everything?

    I'm also practicing by starting on 2 meter long spaceships (mostly cause I can't figure out how to get a bigger workspace. The grid area in 3ds Max is only like, 5 meters long) and seeing how far I can get before I don't know what to do. Right now that's right about at "I have a general shape" after one to two hours of plane slicing, extruding, and moving vertices around.

    As for the ships in SC which I plan on making mine for, I know the poly count on their biggest ship is around 8 million. Their smallest I believe is around 100-200 thousand. I don't know what they do for texturing (or map baking?) but the game runs in CryEngine3.

    This is just to give everyone an idea of my goals ^-^

    I did just see a wireframe of one of their ships, and it was all triangles. Does that mean I need to model with only triangles for this?
  • Martin_H
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    Martin_H polycounter lvl 6
    komaokc wrote: »
    Though if you're making something on the scale of a spaceship you can't really bake a normal map so you need to find a workaround.

    I don't understand how a spaceship would require a vastly differrent workflow to lets say a rifle or sci-fi corridor wall piece etc.. Isn't the general highpoly/lowpoly/bake workflow the same for all those technical things?
    Or am I maybe misunderstanding what scale of ship we are talking about? I don't mean like the Nostromo in Deadspace, I mean like your ship or enemy ships in any space flight sim.



    I did just see a wireframe of one of their ships, and it was all triangles. Does that mean I need to model with only triangles for this?

    Jesus, no! ^^
    Model your lowpoly with quads (and tris where necessary). Triangulation is done before you export your mesh. Afaik you'll want to keep the quads as long as possible as they are far easier to edit than triangulated meshes. A quad already is like 2 triangles internally in your 3D software. If you fold it to a weird shape you can see the edge between the two.
  • UnintentionalFan
    Martin_H wrote: »
    Jesus, no! ^^
    Model your lowpoly with quads (and tris where necessary). Triangulation is done before you export your mesh. Afaik you'll want to keep the quads as long as possible as they are far easier to edit than triangulated meshes. A quad already is like 2 triangles internally in your 3D software. If you fold it to a weird shape you can see the edge between the two.

    Thank goodness! ^^;
    Will I have to work with converting them at all, or will whatever program do that automatically?
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter
  • Joost
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    Joost polycount sponsor
    Martin_H wrote: »
    I don't understand how a spaceship would require a vastly differrent workflow to lets say a rifle or sci-fi corridor wall piece etc.. Isn't the general highpoly/lowpoly/bake workflow the same for all those technical things?
    Or am I maybe misunderstanding what scale of ship we are talking about? I don't mean like the Nostromo in Deadspace, I mean like your ship or enemy ships in any space flight sim.


    We don't bake the ships in Elite because there's not enough resolution when you get up close. Depending on the ship design it's usually just chamfers with tiling textures. Don't know how SC does it though.
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