Feedback and critique for someone new to 3d modeling.

Mr_Lumpkins

Hello all, my name is Jacob and i am very new to 3d modeling. I used to be a level designer, but one day a couple of weeks ago i came across some tutorials on modeling in 3ds Max. Now i never considered myself much of an artist but gave these tutorials a shot because i was interested. I was hooked, and after going through all of the tutorials in my free time, i used that information to create my first model in 3ds max.



I would love some feedback and advice from those who have been doing this for a while on how i can become a better artist.

Thanks,
Jacob

MikeSeguin

The knife looks good, but unfortunately it's not much to go on for critiques. Maybe post the wireframes?

Popol

Gotta agree, there is not much to comment. Post wireframes and your reference.

All I can tell you is that the edges of the handle are way to sharp, they won't bake correctly. And on the opposite, the edges of the blade are to soft. I looks like it's made out of plastic and would bend if you ever tried to stab anyone with it!

Bek

Now that you've got a basic understanding of modeling you should briefly plan out your next few projects. You don't specify what your goals are in the OP but I'm going to assume you want to make props for real-time rendering (game engines).

Current gen workflows generally involve the following: making a high-polygon mesh (that will be used for baking), making a low polygon mesh (that will be used in-engine), Unwrapping the lowpoly (so 2d textures can be applied), baking information from high to low (typically a tangent-space normal map, possibly also Ambient Occlusion, diffuse info), and texturing (making the diffuse, specular, gloss, depending on your target engine). Of course you can also rig/animate things but I know nothing of that so I can't speak about it much.

Since you're still in the early steps you'll want to focus on simpler and manageable things—no point starting some huge awesome project only to stumble at the first few steps and get bummed out about it. But try to make it something you can get excited about.

I'd recommend working through the following tutorial by a fellow polycounter, Joe Harford, as it covers all the above steps; so it is a good demonstration of what is involved.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK0b2SUjhtU&html5=1"]Tracker Knife Part 1: NextGen asset production series - YouTube[/ame]

Another excellent tutorial along similar lines is this one, also by a polycounter, Millenia.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL925958D31D8D30C7

Mr_Lumpkins

Thanks this is just the kind of tutorial i have been looking for! ive seen a lot of tutorials take on certain aspects of the process, but its nice to see one tackle everything from start to finish in one project.