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3ds max final project advice

Well i am in my very first 3dsMax class. Ive never touched this software before, but i am very used to working in 3d space (catia, inventor, CAD, etc) and well, to say it nicely, the other students in the class are completely ignorant and hold class up to the point that we have been working on the HANDLE of the sword of the Joan of Arc model tutorial on 3dtotal.com for THREE WEEKS thats 12 hours of class burnt just creating a cylinder and modifying polys. I spoke with the professor about my concerns and he told me that myself and one other student are the only ones taking the class seriously. He then went on to tell me that he no longer expects the two of us to follow along in class and told us to choose our own tutorial on 3dtotal.com as our final projects and to use our class time as we see fit. so now i have 7 class periods left (4 hours each) to ask him questions and such and to complete my project. I also have 3dsMax on this home computer. so my question to you guys, as a guy who has NEVER used this program before and has only VERY basic skills with it, which "complete project" tutorial should I go with as my final project. thanks so much for reading this long post and helping me. No doubt I will be posting up asking "how do I do this... " " why did the model do that...." etc. but for starters, i need to know which tutorial to go with . thanks again


-TiKi



P.S. by first class I mean its the first time ive had a 3dsmax class, not the first class of the semester

Replies

  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    Alright, this is what you need to do. You need to talk to your teacher and tell him/her that you will not tolerate his/hers refusal to teach you anything when you are paying good money to be taught. If he refuses to continue the class at a normal pace, then you go to the dean. There is no reason why a class should be slowed down to that extent because some students dont take it seriously. Those students should fail. Youre paying for classes. Dont stand for this shit.

    As far as your final project. Make something. I dunno what, make something that interests you.
  • tiki240
    We didnt have a heated debate or anything like that. and it is his first time teaching. He told me that the class is technically right where it should be. but i fail to see how thats true considering the goal is to complete the joan of arc model by the final class. Im assuming the curriculum for the course assumes people are idiots whom have never worked in 3d space before.
  • Mark Dygert
    When the guys curiculum is a free tutorial found on 3dtotal.com and then he says pick any other tutorial you like and teach yourself. You have to wonder exactly what is it that you're paying for you couldn't get for free on your own.

    The way I see it you have two options:
    - Have a talk with someone higher up the food chain, ask your tuition back and use that money to float you along while you learn at home.

    - Or keep going with the tutorial he's picked and finish it on time. I would stick to the same thing everyone else is making so they can't claim you picked something easier.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    I had the same experience except instead of telling me that the rest of the class were slackers he told the class they were slackers and if they don't shape up he was going to fail them all. He was an awesome teacher but he left after two semesters because the student body pissed him off with their lazy attitude.

    I wish I could remember his name, I know he played drums for a band called something like "mumbo jumbo" and his demo reel had a really good CG james brown head superimposed over an actor dancing around like James Brown
  • Michael Knubben
    This reminds me painfully much of my own education. The guy ended up showing me some pretty advanced Illustrator techniques though, and I got to muck around with photoshop in class. No tablet though, ofcourse.
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
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    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    I'd definitely ask for your money back if you are just doing free tutorials from 3dtotal. If you'd like to 'finish' one up finish the full joan of arc tutorial then.


    BTW, what school is this??

    You can always ask questions here or even in irc. They helped me get up to speed with 3dsmax pretty quickly
  • tiki240
    school is ITT- norfolk
  • pliang
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    pliang polycounter lvl 17
    ITT - Hmm...

    At this point it might be advisable to do what Brome did...the old fashioned basement training....

    Likewise when you do start in the industry...no one will likely be able to teach you or have the time other than explaining the pipeline.

    Take the money and buy what you need...

    I had a decent share of those people when I was in school as well...but it wasn't as bad.
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    That is terrible. I used to teach max for Mesmer, and by the time students finished my class, they had a cartoony head animated via morphs, a little cabin or airplane, an animated train, and a arm that was skin bound and animated via IK. And that was in a 24 hour course.

    Not that any of these little pieces would be any fine works of art, and really raw students would completely massacre at least one or two of them, but damn... One sword hilt? That is terrible.

    My goal was to get people at least one to four little objects that they could be happy with. Slower students' object would look pretty rudimentary but at least recognizable. For faster students, I'd let them keep pushing any of these mini-projects to make something a bit more in-depth. Since the objects were fairly simple and there were several to choose from, students could pick which ones appealed to them to pursue farther.

    If students really liked certain mini-projects, I'd point them to similar tutorials in the books or in online sites if they wanted to continue along that tract on their own time.

    Having you guys do online tutorials is not cool. That's just poor preparation on the instructors part. He should have a lesson plan of his own.
  • fritz
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    fritz polycounter lvl 18
    wow. sounds like one of the art institute stories.
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