This thread is really good. A question. How much time do you guys spend planning before starting to model? Or do you just figure out that "these parts will be different chunks" and do one chunk at a time? Maybe you just jump right into it?
This isnt really an answerable question. It depends heavily on numerous factors. Complexity of mesh, use of mesh(modular, unique, character, etc), style of game, restrictions(polycount, uvs), deadline, etc.
Generally I try to have a good idea what i'm going to do before I start a model. And for me this is just mentally studying it, reading the forms and imaging the geometry a bit. Which can take 5 minutes or an hour or however long depending on just how complicated the mesh/scene is.
A really good thing to do is block out all of your forms, dont worry about optimization, dont wory much about making perfect flow and all of that, because you will come back and rework it when you have all of your porportions pretty much nailed and a better understanding of your forms. And also, never be affraid to entirely redo a section if your geometry just isnt supporting the level of detail, its almost always faster just to redo it with a better idea of what needs to be done, than spend time trying to rework and polish a turd.
I have just finished a Free series which goes through all the inorganic modeling techniques i use every day on projects like my Iron Man and Hadron mech.
Cool little examples, Sathe. Don't you ever use Connect for vertices? It's one click faster than Cut for a lot of the small areas where you're just trying to throw in an edge, and it's fail proof (as I saw a few times in the first video that you were had to go back and weld afterward). Also, why aren't you chamfering on some of those flat edges and using Cut instead?
Hmm, I tend to model the whole object at once and try to refrain from adding in fine detail (always a temptation) as much as poss till the basic form is correct. Then detatch mesh parts and go ahead with bevels, slices, edge cloning and supporting edgeloop/edgering connecting to hold the smoothed shape on the most intricate parts leaving the easy stuff till last.
Edit - Now we all know who Bitmap is lol! What did you say back to him EQ?
edit: Is it just me or do you not have to tighten extra creases in modo as much as you do in max. Example, when you beveled the bottom of the bolt your loops are nice and clear with some distance apart from eachother. But when you smooth it still gives you a nice sharp rounded edge. In max if I want that hard edge I have to bevel like 0.0000005 or whatever (extreme).
hum.
to crease an edge i usually select that edge, or loop of edges and use the extrude tool which adds one new loop on each side of the selected edge. in max you can do that also. just set the height value to 0.
does anyone know if there is a max plugin that does solid chamfering for max 2009?
this kind of chamfer:
very useful for sub-d but also very useful if you just quickly want to normal map soft edges without actually sub-d modeling anything (select all hard edges on your model, solid chamfer them and give the object one smoothing group, render normal map).
hum.
to crease an edge i usually select that edge, or loop of edges and use the extrude tool which adds one new loop on each side of the selected edge. in max you can do that also. just set the height value to 0.
This should usually work for a 'solid chamfer', but it might indeed be nice to have more options for number of segments at those edges or something. I'm not sure if there are any scripts to do that
You can just add 2 edges when chamfering instead of 1, but it will still slightly smooth the middle loop, so you lose a bit of volume compared to solid chamfering, but it's similar enough. Would be a nice addition to the chamfer options though.
Any updates on the Sathe tutorials?
Maybe if anyone has them and wouldn't mind uploading them to a temporary location for a while (if Sathe is cool with it) it would give him a little more time to get things sorted out.
I thought it was in this thread but wasn't there a nifty little jpg tutorial on modeling on curves using a modifier in max? I think it was like a shoulder armor or something.. now i can't find it.
I uploaded the first tutorial that Sathe created on CGChain to my website. Please grab them asap, so I can put up the next tutorial. You will need all rars. I found the FLV plays best in VLC Media Player.
I uploaded the first tutorial that Sathe created on CGChain to my website. Please grab them asap, so I can put up the next tutorial. You will need all rars. I found the FLV plays best in VLC Media Player.
I will leave them up for 2 days, then upload the next tutorial.
These tutorials are awesome and have helped me understand the process much better.
Thanks a lot Lee, I've been anxiously awaiting for him to add them to the Area. By the way, I do believe i share a cube with an associate of yours or your wife named Jeff at Lockheed Martin.
I know this thread is about sub-d modelling, but some shapes might be easier to make in nurbs. And if it´s to be baked to a normalmap, you don't have the pain of stitching and texturing.
I don't suppose someone could do a tutorial on this? I know absolutely nothing about nurbs, I've never touched it. But that looks superbly better than the sub-D solution so long as the normal map looks fine.
http://www.thelebaron.com/files/ I took the liberty of uploading the first vid(waiting on the next 2?). feel free to hotlink/whatever, give my host a good bandwith workout!
http://www.thelebaron.com/files/ I took the liberty of uploading the first vid(waiting on the next 2?). feel free to hotlink/whatever, give my host a good bandwith workout!
Thank you.
I think yousendit will host for you for 7 days if you want to upload the other two there. That first video is pretty basic. Those last two are probably the more complex shapes I'm seeking after.
Can you upload #3 first if you use yousendit? :poly136:
Replies
Why don't you just select the point on the graph at the start and manually type in 1000?
That's what I was doing. No window resizing required.
Also, thanks Bitmap! This thread is filling up with win.
This isnt really an answerable question. It depends heavily on numerous factors. Complexity of mesh, use of mesh(modular, unique, character, etc), style of game, restrictions(polycount, uvs), deadline, etc.
Generally I try to have a good idea what i'm going to do before I start a model. And for me this is just mentally studying it, reading the forms and imaging the geometry a bit. Which can take 5 minutes or an hour or however long depending on just how complicated the mesh/scene is.
A really good thing to do is block out all of your forms, dont worry about optimization, dont wory much about making perfect flow and all of that, because you will come back and rework it when you have all of your porportions pretty much nailed and a better understanding of your forms. And also, never be affraid to entirely redo a section if your geometry just isnt supporting the level of detail, its almost always faster just to redo it with a better idea of what needs to be done, than spend time trying to rework and polish a turd.
I have just finished a Free series which goes through all the inorganic modeling techniques i use every day on projects like my Iron Man and Hadron mech.
Any comments or questions you got for me let me know.
Inorganic Fundamentals 1:
Inorganic Fundamentals 2:
Inorganic Fundamentals 3:
http://www.edgesize.com/files/videos/Bolt/
kekekekek
why?
besides my good looks that is
Nice Pedro i lol'ed...bend dis shit!!!!
http://www.edgesize.com/lulz/EQ.mov
Edit - Now we all know who Bitmap is lol! What did you say back to him EQ?
someday this will come and bite you in the ass
edit: Is it just me or do you not have to tighten extra creases in modo as much as you do in max. Example, when you beveled the bottom of the bolt your loops are nice and clear with some distance apart from eachother. But when you smooth it still gives you a nice sharp rounded edge. In max if I want that hard edge I have to bevel like 0.0000005 or whatever (extreme).
to crease an edge i usually select that edge, or loop of edges and use the extrude tool which adds one new loop on each side of the selected edge. in max you can do that also. just set the height value to 0.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=858899#post858899
Thanks, we know where they are but they are no longer online they give a 404 not found for the actual tuts.
http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=62437
this kind of chamfer:
very useful for sub-d but also very useful if you just quickly want to normal map soft edges without actually sub-d modeling anything (select all hard edges on your model, solid chamfer them and give the object one smoothing group, render normal map).
This should usually work for a 'solid chamfer', but it might indeed be nice to have more options for number of segments at those edges or something. I'm not sure if there are any scripts to do that
Maybe if anyone has them and wouldn't mind uploading them to a temporary location for a while (if Sathe is cool with it) it would give him a little more time to get things sorted out.
Just an idea
http://www.mutantspoon.com/temp/howto01.jpg
I uploaded the first tutorial that Sathe created on CGChain to my website. Please grab them asap, so I can put up the next tutorial. You will need all rars. I found the FLV plays best in VLC Media Player.
http://www.3dwasabi.com/rars/
I will leave them up for 2 days, then upload the next tutorial.
These tutorials are awesome and have helped me understand the process much better.
Nope. Silo doesn't have the tools to do the stuff after 5.
Sadly.
Thanks a lot Lee, I've been anxiously awaiting for him to add them to the Area. By the way, I do believe i share a cube with an associate of yours or your wife named Jeff at Lockheed Martin.
Its very kind of you to upload these and i cant tell you how excited i am to be finally able to watch them
It looks like I missed the first one
Did you take them down? Looks like I missed out.
EDIT:
I don't suppose someone could do a tutorial on this? I know absolutely nothing about nurbs, I've never touched it. But that looks superbly better than the sub-D solution so long as the normal map looks fine.
Thank you.
I think yousendit will host for you for 7 days if you want to upload the other two there. That first video is pretty basic. Those last two are probably the more complex shapes I'm seeking after.
Can you upload #3 first if you use yousendit? :poly136: