Follow Tutorials To the Letter?

Aquas

I have recently signed up on Digital Tutors and am going through the learning path "hard surface modeling in 3ds max". So far things are going well but I feel like I am learning nothing at all? After each project I think "great I learned how to make a sci fi rifle, but what does that have to do with this"



Just so we are clear, im looking to get into Hard Surface Modeling for Games.

Should I.....

1. Follow the tutorials to the letter and take what I can from it.

2. Follow the tutorials but make my own model, not the one they are making.

3.Follow a bunch of tutorials until I have gained enough skill to work on my own projects.

AlecMoody

A good tutorial should involve the artist explaining their decision making process and why they do the things they do. Assuming they are, you should be better prepared to make your own decisions on future projects. Beyond that, they are good for learning the user interface. It sounds like the tutorials you are watching aren't providing that kind of insight.

[Deleted User]

I would pick 2.

On top of it, I would pick the hardest model I could find. Something really crazy. It will kick our ass, but it will make you less afraid of strange shapes and make you more confident that you can solve it, even if you will have to redo some part.

One crazy model can do wonders with how you look at modeling.

You can add one simpler model to it, just to take a break from the harder one if you get stuck.

Aquas

Tidal Blast wrote: »

Where are you at right now with your 3D modeling skills?
What can't you do?

Right now I can model most simple shapes, as long as there is nothing "curvey" about it and It has nothing interesting on the surface, my best model to date.




But after 20+ attempts at the image in the original post, I failed each one after trying for hours to model that nose shape.

Calabi

Yeah tutorials are pretty useless in my opinion. Use them for reference to do particular things, but its not really worth following them to the letter.

To do that plane Just find the nearest primitives to the shapes, then extrude or substract the surfaces, create more geometry, then move the verts one by one if necessary as closely as you can match.

Dont worry about how you do it or whether its perfect you can just iterate towards the goal. Look at all the tools, and the docs, try them see what they do, experiment, if something doesnt work out, just start again. Modelling is like a fun puzzle game where you create the pieces.