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
As far as your final project. Make something. I dunno what, make something that interests you.
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.
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
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
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.
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.