Books for Learning?
Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I did a general search but came up with too many results after the first few pages.
I wanted to know how to start getting into 3D. I'm not totally new but its still extremely confusing with all the terms people throw around (that go WHOOSH over my head). Is there a book / place / wiki I can sit down and read for weeks to fully understand the concepts of 3D art?
I currently only do 2D, but I'd like to switch mediums for personal reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direct? I'm looking for something more conceptual, than step-by-step tutorial, although the latter is welcome too!
I wanted to know how to start getting into 3D. I'm not totally new but its still extremely confusing with all the terms people throw around (that go WHOOSH over my head). Is there a book / place / wiki I can sit down and read for weeks to fully understand the concepts of 3D art?
I currently only do 2D, but I'd like to switch mediums for personal reasons. Can anyone point me in the right direct? I'm looking for something more conceptual, than step-by-step tutorial, although the latter is welcome too!
Replies
As has already been stated, video's are usually a lot more helpful than instructional books. If you do want to go down the printed route, then pretty much anything by Ballistic Publishing will be well worth the (slightly more than your average book) cost.
Specifically, the D'Artiste, and the Art of Uncharted 2 have a lot of fantastic insight into the workflows of artists at the top of their game. Although this is still likely to be of little use in practical terms until you've got some 3D skills under your belt. Still very pretty to look at though
I'd go with the other suggestions for Eat3D. Head on over and pick up their 3DS Max 101 (not the 2011 New Features) and go through it meticulously. You'll get a good handle on the software and 3D as a subject.
After that, it depends how confident you feel. I personally rate Digital Tutors
So I'd recommend getting a month or so subscription over at Digital Tutors. Go through some of their 'Modeling a ....' kits. They do them on cars, characters, environment stuff, stylised stuff. A lot is Maya rather than Max but you could always check out Maya too, or if you're feeling really confident, just apply the same techniques to Max which is entirely possible for those training kits.
I guarantee that after the 'Intro to...' training, and a couple of the modeling kits, you'll be more than comfortable creating some pretty solid looking stuff. Then it's just matter of getting the workflow down. High-Poly - Low-Poly, unwrapping, baking, texturing etc. And this is where Eat3D comes back in handy. Go through the Old Damaged Pillar kit. Pretty much the one stop shop for understanding a games workflow. You learn a questionable low-poly generation skill but for simplicitys sake it's fine and it doesn't take away from the fact the DVD is awesome.
After that, you should feel comfortable enough to jump into some of the Gnomon stuff, or other Eat3D kits where the DVD's are much more of an 'insight' than a step-by-step. It's surprising how when you're starting out, you'll see some of the Gnomon stuff and be like 'erm.. it's just some guy working at 8x speed and I can't even see what he's doing' but it becomes incredibly useful once you know what's going on.
Also ZBrush. I have a feeling you're gonna be pretty amazing with that given your sense of style, form and proportion in your sketches. The best way I can suggest learning ZBrush is not to concern yourself with the ins and outs of every last tool. I still don't know what a lot of ZBrush does but I see it much more like an artistic canvas than the technical toolbox that is Max / Maya. Just learn the basics using the vids on the Pixologic site, and then get right into it. Spend a bit of time just sculpting out heads / bodys / whatever the hell you want and in no time you'll be fine with it.
I hear there's another sculpting app, Mudbath or something? Don't worry about that, all the cool kids use ZBrush.
DISCLAIMER: I just say that because everything I make with it looks blobby and crap, and it appears only a select ninja few can create great stuff with it. Also the new painting tools blow ZBrush's polypaint away so it's not completely useless. *hides*.
Oh yeah, if you haven't already, you may want to pick up a graphic tablet. Wacom is the way to go, some of the newer Bamboo series are ok for beginners but since you'll end up wanting an Intuos later, it's best to grab one from the outset if it's possible. Or a Cintiq if you've got that sort of cash spare.
Hope that is of some help, as I said, I'm excited to see your work once you've gotten into it.
Good luck!
Also if you're brand new to 3D modeling, especially sculpting, I'd suggest downloading Sculptris as it's free, very intuitive and is light on the technical side.
3D packages can be very intimidating but they're like photoshop, they're built to do everything because they're blanket tools that are used by a lot of industries, but most users won't even use half of what's in them for their job. Most of it is simply a matter of learning to get to the tools you need.
DVDs will teach you how to use tools and make shit but as far as understanding how 3D works (especially for game dev) honestly, the fastest and most memorable way to learn in my opinion is to just throw your work up and get critique. If you're doing something wrong people here WILL point it out and most of the time you'll get a good explanation as to why and often suggestions on how to fix it. Also becoming good friends with tech artists and bouncing a lot of questions off them is great as well, I was lucky enough to be good friends with the 3D coder on the first project I worked on and he taught me a lot. Don't be afraid to ask about anything you don't understand. A lot of people get intimidated when someone throws back an answer with a lot of terminology in it they don't grasp so they're just like "ok thanks" then they walk away having learned nothing when if they'd simply followed their question to the end and asked for clarification, it might have required a lot more explanation but they'd have eventually (probably) understood.