I'm a noob again and don't know where to start (read stickies)

cdoublejj

Hi my name is Chris aka cdoublejj it derives from my initials CJJ yeah i know cdoublej instead of cdoublejj blah blah, i heard this forum is where a lot of the pros hang and have seen some threads you guys seem to be pretty helpful and experienced.

I read the noob sticky and i must say that I am a dick and understand why why you may not want to help me. You see once I lead this girl on then decided i wasn't interested, so I'm a dick. The newb sticky clearly mention poly count doesn't like dicks.

I may also post links to or reference a project or site other than poly count so you could if you really wanted to consider that spam.

I am also aware my topic title is probably on the stupid side not so much the "smart" or "smarter" side.

So I have been lurking and going through threads like "what are you working on"
And have seen the stuff you guys use like UDK and 3ds max. i once tried 3ds max 10 some months back, i hadn't a clue what i was looking at. I was able to import my mesh i remember right.

I have seen some of the stuff you guys do, it's as if your drawing with pen and tablet, I can't even draw worth damn in real life. I will touch up on this in just a bit.

So I think around what maybe 03 I got a game endorsed by snap on called Gear Head Garage where you took apart cars and put them back together and make money and repeat.

GHG had a good following and there many new cars you could DL for the game and tuts on how to make your own. Enter Zmodeler. A little later I found a game called Command & Conquer and got in to modding it and well... enter Gmax.
And some time after that Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, enter Zmodeler2.
So I have done some modeling in the past.

Some time in 04 I found a Project called Street Rod 3 and while after this was born...










^It all started with this little guy^



So after hitting some bad luck with the brother of the web master saying are project was dead and pissing off the dev team (another story) I have got things going again. Well I'm not the same kid who made this model all those years ago.

I can still get around Zmod but, my god the POV sucks it's a miracle i could get those screens also it has this fog that cuts stuff off in my 3d view, even worse it has no rendering witch is one reason for starting this thread.

Another thing I made these models save for a few props witch are made by a fella named TSJ, purely from basic shapes and moving all the verticies by hand
all of this was done by hand. When i see thestuff you do and glimpses of how you do it all that comes to mind is "I don't even..."

It would be so cool to do some of the stuff you do like bump maps but, even the textures are recycle from the original witch i didn't do




Uuuuhhh yyeeeaaahhhhh, BIG difference. However I still see thing i can correct liek the wall thickness in the garage opening and lighting textures up and redoing some props but, thats just it that's about all I can do I don't even feel i could start new models as in different places.

Sooo yeah I'm REALLY rusty....w......where do I even start?
Perhaps you guys could suggest some better tools?
And my technique?

Shaffer

Wow man, Street Rod 3, I have totally been to that website before over the years wondering what ever happened to the project.

So you fell off the 3d wagon huh?

I would say keep reading and try to see the big picture, are you trying to learn game art in general? Hard surface modeling/texturing? If you made some of those assets you must at least know some of the basics of 3d art and that's what matters, the software and all that will make sense to you if you have 3d knowledge.

I would suggest trying the latest version of Maya, or 3ds max. Both have new user tutorials and a crapload of tutorials based around them. Other packages being used are Softimage XSI and Modo but I wouldn't really suggest either if you will be learning on your own and pretty much have to learn from the forums and other peoples tutorials.

Those are your big 3d packages that can do a whole bunch of stuff for you and each having it's own set of tools to get the job done.

Mess around with one of those and try to fill in the blanks of you knowledge of 3d art and how these assets are made. Eventually it will all start to make more sense but it's obviously going to take a lot of time and effort.

But if you want to ensure you can make quality game art I would suggest, drawing/painting/sculpting and embracing traditional art as much as possible along the way because that will help you the most once you know how to use the software tools.

cdoublejj

So i did just that got max installed 2010 looks up few youtube videos before hand on a mislabeled 09'. Suffice to say i noticed some thing from gmax and old max screen shots. I leanr about back side cul witch is kind of given default Zmod and the view cube.

Had to re watch bits because my attention deficit hyp... oh sweet that thing is so shiny oh god damn it what was i say again?

So install max and BAM aawwwhh kick ass newb tube videos alright I just finished the 3rd video and OH MY GAWD!!!! SHAME ON YOU PEOPLE! THIS STUFF PRACTICALLY MODELS IT'S SELF.

I say the verticie modifier that scale down the verts to SORTA round out a low poly rectangular box THEN this other tool to ad to boxes on the front face, THEN another one to extrude them inwards THEN a smoother and BAM!! a low poly robo head.:poly115:

ON TOP OF THIS!!! I recognize the UI from Gmax and old max screen shots. I was honestly expecting a an Auto Cad where they change it EVERY version. I heard my brother and a friend of mine complaining about. My bro does like architect work or well he did and my friend was learning it.

I think i'm on the right track. I just grabbed some chip disk music to groove out to my mp3s are getting stale tonight. I'm gonna watch some more of these newb vids and play around.

I have a feeling, I'm still very very far off though, making textures, 2d, rendering, bump maps, making bump maps.

Any good tuts? Aww man the thing i can do now AWHH geeze an auto mirror feature to mirror your work on both sides, i had cut my stuff in forths and copy and rotate and join till i had whole piece AFTER moving all the verts by hand.

EDIT: Holy Crap drag and drop material assignment! :eek:
Oh and i didn't say but, I'm wanting to learn mainly for game object modeling. I'm sure I'll learn for other reasons ans learn other things.
Also i made most of it from scratch i made the radio textures except the one on the speaker with gimp and ms paint and putting a radio on my scanner bed.

Whats convert units for? scale? I know in this particular model, the one above every thing is to certain scale for the game.

renderhjs

Maybe I am one of those with a limited time per day but I thought I drop this here. To increase your chances of more readers / participants of this thread:

• avoid walls of text with not important stuff (i this, i that, intro story,...)
• cut to the chase- what is this really about in a few short sentences

there are people here that can help you with almost any 3d technical question but they tend to get wet feet if they see bloated or cluttered things that are not easy to answer or process. All it needs often is just a simple question and then the discussion can evolve - but if the first post is a wall of text you will scare many people away

cdoublejj

Will convert units mess up the actual scale of said model?

cdoublejj

So I am struggling again i am following the 3rd included tut and for some reason it automatically has this angle finder looking triangle thing.




how come it won't show up for me?

EDIT: aaannnnddd now the view cub is gone, i reboot max and it asked me for dx9 or dx10 i chose dx10 for the hell of it and now the view cube and it's sub menus under "view" are gone

I know how to re enable but, the menu to do so is just small dash mark, i guess i'll reinstall max.

EDIT reinstalling didn't work i'm gonna do it again and scrub it the best i can deleting any thing in my docs and regedit.

Edit that didn't work

Ruz

perhaps any max related issues that are fairly simple you should just read up in the max help file, people will probably be more interested in helping you with specific 3d issues.
But TBH the view cube is shit and not many folks use it
The triangle thingy is just a gizmo so you can move stuff in x,y,z, where is the confusion?
re the dx issue, just go in to customize preferences and choose driver. dx10 doesn't really work, so dx9 is fine
or failing that you could delete the ini file, either 3dsmax.ini or the ini which relates to graphics drivers(forgotten it's name d3d or something)

cdoublejj

Well Ruz thanks for helping! I noticed somthing after watchign the video severalm ore times they are using hots keys witch was one side for me as i'm just grasping the very basics. I had no idea till I notice buttons lighting up with out being clicked on now I all I have to is figure how to activate it.

I found setting to revert back to dx 9 on reboot and sure enough view cube is back.
In Zmod you can move around by left or right clicking or both and dragging the mouse i don't have that in Max so i guess view cube will be my crutch.

I noticed a excerpt of some saying the first thing to do in max is remove the view cub when googling it.

It seems I'm starting to solve some of my own problems. I SWEAR, I'm gonna get the hang of this one way or another!!!

Ruz

yeah the settings for viewcube are in viewport configuration, just right click in the top left of the viewport where the little plus is and then turn off the viewcube

cdoublejj

Still haven't got it carry over my textures? I configure user paths. Other progs see and use the textures just fine.