New here and looking to step up my modeling
node
A high school friend asked me if I could model the Tardis from Dr. Who - no problem. But when I compare my work to some of the work I see in places like this, I feel like a beginner. What can I do to step up my game? I want to get better at modeling, what should I be focusing on?
I modeled this in the student version of Maya 2018. There is no painting here or UV unwrapping, just a change of color with material change.
I modeled this in the student version of Maya 2018. There is no painting here or UV unwrapping, just a change of color with material change.
Replies
In terms of just pure modeling your model is missing bevels/chamfers. Without them it looks very flat and obviously CGI.
This is a really useful diagram on bevels, why they're important, and how to apply them. Doing it in Maya should be really easy because of Maya's great modeling tools.In terms of textures there are many ways to go about it, since I focus mostly on game models the only texturing I know well is PBR (physically based rendering) which is different than shaders used in render systems. Either way works, just really depends on what you like more. I would suggest using a blinn material for your model which will really catch the highlights of the bevels and fillets when you put them in.
This is the sign with no color applied but it's in sub-division surfaces
Again, any advice would be helpful
Check out this chair I made;
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lXWbO
When modeling the support planks which intersect with other planks, I didn't just model two planks of wood and put them together. I actually made holes for the planks to be placed into.
However, you should narrow down what you want to learn first, do you want to learn hardsurface modeling, animating or focus on rendering?
There are also a lot of good tutorials about learning the basics of the program which are always a good first step.
If you want the best tutorials, and not some random half-assed tutorial on youtube (there are good tutorials on youtube but theyre rare), its best to throw some money at Pluralsight (used to be called digital tutors) or 3Dmotive. There are of course other sites for paid tutorials, and a lot of artists upload their own tutorials on gumroad.
Just pick a tutorial that seems well made and is using the same version of the program that you are (tutorials get outdated very quickly)
Good luck
In creating holes - like the real world equivalent - how do you keep the mesh from distorting especially when dropping it into sub-division surfaces? I can get the mesh to look great until I hit 3 on the keyboard then everything goes haywire.
To understand deforming, do the following (if you don't understand how to do something I say, just google it and there should be Maya documentation on how to do it);
1) Create two cylinders. Leave them the same size, and with the same number of edges (I guess just use the default hahaha)
2) On one cylinder, delete the faces at one end of the cylinder. Now, select the edges around the hole you just made, and extrude. You should now have something which resembles a hole. To get your mesh to look right you'll have to use the 'reverse polygon normal' tool on the entire mesh. I'm now going to refer to this cylinder as the hole mesh.
3) Take the remaining cylinder (the mesh we haven't touched yet), and insert this into the hole. To be accurate, you can snap the pivot of the cylinder to the middle vertex on the end of the cylinder, and then snap the cylinder to the middle vertex in the hole in the 'hole mesh'. Fits snuggly, right?
4) Now, when you deform both, they don't look that great, right? Try selecting edges around the ends of the cylinder and the rings around the hole, plus the ring at the bottom of the hole. Now, shift+right click (I think it's shift right click...) and go to bevel. Add 2 divisions and play around with the factor. Now, when you press 3 and deform these objects, they don't deform very much, but keep a nice bevel on the edges!
On PluralSight, there is a really good series called Professional Tips for Modeling Complex Shapes. That series helped me so much with proper topology, and figuring out how to model cool things. If you're looking for something for free, search YouTube for a tutorial on modeling a rolex in Maya. It's a long series, but you'll end up modeling something which is product-advertisement level quality.
This is before-
This is a new setting for me, .25
This is my normal setting at .15
This is .45
This is a quick render at .5
If what I read in the beveling chart is correct, I have been too tight with my bevels at .15 so I have adjusted to .45
Having too tight edges makes it unrealistic as well, so you should be leaving just a little bit of a gap in them!
Also, when light bounces on an model,it does not look good if it has a hard edge (hard edges are angles that have a rather extreme change in direction, like 90 degrees or more)