Grrr....does this ever happen to you?
polycounter lvl 18
i mean, today, i was working on a mole bartender model, i LOVED the way it looked. then, something went comepletely wrong, and the model was completely screwed up, and i couldn't do jack shit to fix it, and i just got this feeling that i couldn't do it right, so i gave up, soooo....for now, no more 3d from me for a while, just sprites and such.......eeek. Going to take me a while to get milkshape down to pat again, because the interface suddenly seems hard to remember.
Replies
2. learn how to not make mistakes
3. use better software (not milkshape)
4. see #1
5. undo button
yesterday I was hours into some modeling, but hadn't saved in a while. then I made a mistake, caused my app to crash, and lost 30 mins of good work. That was my motivation to enable autosave (but I still save often), and learn to not let the mistake happen again.
it sucks when it happen and lol i know it sucks when people tell you "why didnt you save?" but.. thats just the way it is
Edit, ooh , i find saving each major point of progress in a new file really helps , esspecially when you look at it and are happy. so if you mess up , you can just reload your happy file
spare a thought for me though, i'm currently working with 90mb max files, so Autosave is debilitating ... but you quickly learn to save, backup, save, backup.
I don't agree with ElysiumGX about Milkshape: Milkshape is fine when you want to make low poly game characters and it supports many different file formats. Other more advanced modeling programs are useally less newby friendly. When you already have difficulty understanding Milkshape's interface you would have a very hard time figuring out how Blender or MayaPLE works. When you're a more experienced modeller you can always switch to a more professionel program.
tweak it until it looks best. oh, and milkshape is the only modeling system i can really afford, though i know blender is free, i'm going to get better at milkshape first. also, i make low poly models because to me they have this certain level of "charm" that makes me like them alot, cause game developers right now, just focus on how smooth it looks.......and overload the models with polygons....i kinda miss the low poly days...ah well.
www.wings3d.com
If you need to get your models in game Wings will also export file formats that MilkShape can read.
Although I agree you can get a better work flow with other softwares......but it'll drive you crazy trying to figure it out.
MilkShape will help you learn the principles, in a more clear and precise fashion.
Anything that the 1st Paul Steed modeling book shows, can be done in MilkShape.
Personally, I prefer Maya over Wings software.
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/maya_ple/index.shtml
Once you get use to MilkShape, play with the PLE version. I think I took to it faster because the work flow menus seemed similiar to MilkShape, which is blasphemy, but that's how I feeeeeeel.
( I know it sorta had one last time I looked but it was so clunky as to be almost unuseable.)
You can select vertices in 3D mode, but you still have to model orthogonally......you still model orthogonally in Lightwave, don't you?....I'm asking.
I'm not having a go at Milkshape honestly, it's what I started with as well but the lack of 3d selection used to do my nut right in. I seem to remember a plugin that sorta worked but it still meant having to jump between the plugin screen and the main app which wasn't ideal.
If I was starting all over again I'd use Wings or one of the freebie editions of the big apps and save myself a lot of pain.
Noserider - I used edit mesh all the way up, until about 7 months ago :P. Max 3 might have been edit-mesh only, but it's tools and workflow still allowed you to work 20x faster than Milkshape can/will ever be.
If you're only doing character modeling, Jimmies, I'd take Nose's suggestion and try out Maya. It's quite good for organic modeling. If you're doing architecture or level building, I'd avoid Maya at all costs, and go with 3dsmax. Max just feels at home when it comes to building inanimate objects.
Work flow in MilkShape seems similiar to Maya or Max to me.
Personally I'm working in a hybrid style between edge extrusion and box modeling. Try doing that in MS3d at a decent speed. When game models went from 1.5k to 3k I thought there was no way I could keep up. At the same time I switched to Blender and now I do 3k faster than 1.5k in Milkshape, I'm sure going to Wings would speed that up even more (well, if I migrated to complete box modeling, Wings doesn't seem to work well when you have manifold models somewhere in your work process.
Additionally, Blender does backup saves (number adjustable, defaults to one) and autosaves (separate directory) per default so it's usually on when you need it.
Wings3D is similar to modelling in Max's editable poly toolset today.
Maya seems _slightly_ behind Max on the polymodelling toolset (I use both Max and Maya on a regular basis), but it catches up with most of Max's default tools once you add a couple of free custom MEL scripts. It also has a couple of things Max lacks, but they're not really what I'd call "integral" poly modelling tools.
If you're still building models vertex by vertex or creating faces by clicking on vertices, you're living in the past. If you're extruding edges, dividing edge loops and cutting new detail in, you're probably fairly up to speed.
Hell, my teacher doesn't even know how to UV map.
Newb is a relative term.
modo's fun, but it's taking a while to understand, i'm guessing that's it lightwave history coming through, i never really understood that either
But anyway. Wings is definately a cool app to try. For free, you can't lose. The autosave has helped me many times.
Using Wings at home and XSI at college got confusing so I kinda migrated to XSI full time for now, Wings still rocks though.
I *think* that what you need to do is :
having a clear idea of what you wokflow is (preferably edge-division oriented since wings does not allow gaps in meshes) > look for the few tools you need > customize these tools keybindings to your liking.
This one last step is piece of cake since you can do that on the fly by pressing 'insert' when the command is highlighted if I remember well.
You will love the 'tweak' tool!
It is the most useful vert tool every.