[Improvement Thread] Like the mule with a spinning wheel‏ - a Noobs Journey

Count_Crushmore · Dec 2015

Hello Everybody!

To explain the title (that hopefully has drawn your attention) - I thought the quote of Lyle Lanley sums up my current situation pretty well -

“You know, a Programmer with a 3D Suite is a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it!”

Well, at least I know how I´ve got 3D´s Max, Mudbox and Motion Builder and I am just now starting to learn how to use them.

I am a Programmer in a small gamestudio and I´ve had my first contact with 3D Design while I was a student some years ago (it was Maya, taught by a great instructor). I was facinated and got the Autodesk Entertainment Suite 2012. But I never came along to use it. Sure, I did some halfhearted atempts at Tutorials but I didn´t get that far and one day I more or less forgot about it.

Now and then I used 3DS Max at work but I haven´t done anything more exciting then adjusting Pivot Points to get the Rotation of Objects in Unity right or delete faulty frames in Animations that came out of Motion Capturing (OK, that part was a nice experience).

Some Months ago I decided to give it another try, I subscribed at Digital Tutors, did some Tutorials and I think I´ve got a feel of the Basic Foundations of Max, but I still have a whole lot to learn.

Unfortunatly I don´t have much Time to spare, but I plan to dedicate as much of that Time to 3Ds Max as possible (I think I will leave Mudbox and Motion Builder out of the equation for now). I created this thread for three reasons:

1) I hope to get feedback from experienced Artists to improve my workflow and the quality that I am able to produce
2) To keep myself focused on the tasks at hand
3) To bring some structure my learning process

What do I want to achieve?
- I know that I am not going to be an AAA Artist, and that is just fine, it isn´t my intention (If it comes to that by accident I won´t complain, but I have to be realistic

.
- I want to be able to produce "Emergency Art", if we need a simple asset or prototype Art it would be nice to be able to jump in and create an asset, a building or even a character or creature to cover the gap since we don´t have a full time artist in our team. Refined stuff and high quality assets will still have to be done by freelancers but I hope that I will get to a level where I am able to produce some assets that are good enough to be left in the final game or application/simulation.
- I want to be able to take an asset that we have bought or that has been made for us and make some adjustments on the Model, the Texture and tweak existing or create additional animations for a rigged character to fit our needs.

What are my Priorities?
- Learn Modeling in 3Ds Max
- Learn UV Maping in 3Ds Max
- Learn Texturing/Texture Painting in Photoshop

- Learn Animation in 3Ds Max

- Learn to use Mudbox/ZBrush

- Learn to draw
- Learn the Basics of Anatomy

- Learn to use Motion Builder

How do I plan to reach those goals?
- Do the Digital Tutors Tutorials and broaden my skillset

- I plan to participate in every Noob Challenge from now on, try to get as far and as good as I am able to and include any advice in my workflow, get used to the tools and the process and learn how to take a concept to reality within a set deadline (That was my initial plan, but looking back to the November Challenge I have to admit that I´ve underestimated the workload, so I think I´ll still stick with the Noob Challenge Plan but look at the past ones, take some pieces from them and work at them without a ticking clock).

- Do some smaller Assets in this thread to push my skills and get helpfull feedback

- Next Year I´ll have the oppurtunity to get two days of intensive Tutoring by a professional 3D Artist - I am really excited about that!

My Arsenal is pretty well filled but I am not able to use the power of all that applications:
- 3Ds Max 2012
- Mudbox 2012
- Motion Builder 2012
- ZBrush

- Photoshop CS5
- Illustrator CS5
- After Efects CS5

- Filter Forge
- Substance Painter
- Substance Designer
- Bitmap 2 Material

- Corel Painter Essentials 5
- Clip Studio Paint Pro (Manga Studio)

- Wacom Bamboo Fun (there´s a layer of dust on the poor thing - I just can´t figure out how to use it properly)

I plan to add Substance Designer too, once it shows up on a sale. Maybe I won´t be using it right away, but I want to get my hands on it. I don´t plan to go for a more recent version of Max or Photoshop since I think they will suffice.

To Summarise - I want to :
- get confident with the basic functionality of 3Ds Max
- develop a speedy workflow (I am a Programmer first, so I don´t want to spend too long on an asset)
- be able to create solid quality (something that you might give to a fulltime Artist so that he or she is able to work with it and develop it further - so no cluttered UV Maps or messed up Topology)

My progress will be very slow and my results will be far away from the awesome stuff you are showing here every day but thats OK I think - its something to aim for. Aim high, start slow.

Thank you for your patience to read through this wall of text! I hope that you will stay with me and acompany me on my journey!

//I´ll split the next part from the Introduction - I hope that is OK.

//Updated 2017_06_10

Count_Crushmore · Dec 2015

That was a very lengthy introduction - but I thought it might be a good idea to sketch out what I plan to achieve, since the field of 3D art is a very wide one and not everyone has the same goal in mind.

Here are some things that I´ve done so far, that you might see where I stand today:

Ive done some of the basic 3Ds Max Tutorials on Digital Tutors

The Introduction to 3Ds Max 2015 thaught me a lot, but I wasn´t able to follow all the lessons as they were intended because I use 3Ds Max 2012 and it is missing some of the functions and I wasn´t able to open the example scenes. Nontheless I´ve learned a lot about the Basics in 3Ds Max, even if the pace piked up a bit too much for me in the end (Animation).

Nothing special, but I left the finished Tutorial with a simple animation and some new Knowledge.
Then I turned to the Low Poly Character Tutorial, in hindsight I think I´ve taken this step to soon, but creating a Character seemed very tempting. Well, I finished the creating a Low Poly character Tutorial as good as I was able to (there are many mistakes that I´ve made, messed up Edge Flow and the Topology isn´t optimized). I then turned on to the Follow Up Tutorial Texturing a Low Poly Character but soon I realised that Hand Painting Anatomical Details in Photoshop was way too advanced for me. So I settled for some (roughly) painted Details and stopped the Tutorial at this state. There are some Basic Colors on my Character, I´ve learned some things about UV Mapping and I also learned that I have to do some Photoshop Tutorials and learn a lot about Anatomy before I even think about Human Characters again.

Then I turned to the Introduction to rigging Tutorial and skinned and rigged the Character. That was the point where I was able to see that the Edge Flow and the Topology was way off. But at least I finished the Tutorial and the Babarian is able to move his limbs (even if he moves in a very weird way).

To improve my modelling Skills I´ve done some of the more specific Modelling Tutorials

Very basic, but I learned some things about Box Modeling on the way and it turned out well I think. I´ll do textures one day, they weren´t part of the Tutorial and I try to focus on the Modeling Part for now, if Texturing and Mapping isn´t part of the Tutorial.

Very Plain and I learned that even though I was able to finish the Tutorial that Nurbs Modeling is hard and something that won´t be that important for me (I think, but maybe I am wrong)

I Like that Piece - a nice cartoony look and I learned a lot about deformers and Modifiers in this Tutorial.

I like how the car turned out - there is a follow up Tutorial on making it game ready by baking maps and all that - I´ll do that too one day once I have the basics covered.

I´ve participated in the October Noob Challenge

(http://polycount.com/discussion/158279/monthly-community-noob-challenge-october-2015-34/p5) and recieved tons of helpful and friendly advice - thanks again you all! There are lots of issues, especialy the textures aren´t that great (either stretched or boring or stretched and boring), the proportions are not like those in the artwork and so on. But I am pretty satisfied that I came that far in my limited Time and produced something at least similar to the concept.

I also enlisted in the November Noob Challenge (http://polycount.com/discussion/160373/monthly-community-noob-challenge-november-2015-35/p1) but I didn´t get far.

But at least I played around a bit with Mudbox and learned some of the Basics, but as I said in the Introduction, Mudbox will take the Backseat until I am more comfortable in Max.

At the Moment I am trying to put some of the things I´ve learned to use - my "Victim" is Robot Santa from Futurama. There are four good reasons I picked him:
- It´s the season
- The simple shapes and solid colors made him look like a good practise piece
- I like the character
- The 3D Instructor that I´ve mentioned in my introduction used Bender from Futurama to impress us raw students by building him up in the first few minutes of class. I was impressed and still am.

First rough take on this jolly mechanical Maniac.
Additionally I am doing the Introduction to modeling Part 2 Tutorial to learn some things about Polygonal Modeling.

Thanks again for your Patience! I appreciate any tips and hints that you may give me. I consider the pieces above Santa to be done, since they are as finished as they were in the Tutorials but I would be very grateful for any suggestions how I can aquire a good and speedy workflow, avoid pitfalls and find shortcuts.

//Updated 2017_06_10
Banished the results of the tutorials into a spoiler

Beard3D Bandit · Dec 2015

Hay guys! Keeping it short, just do it every day (or night if you work all day) and have fun!

I'm currently self teaching myself as I've only really been modelling for like 3 months. Gnomon Workshop and Digital Tutors subscription is worth it.
I started with modelling Books, small props and eventually I will make that one environment that will get me through the door.

I wish you all the luck!

Peace,
Beardy.

Count_Crushmore · Dec 2015

Hi BEARD3D BANDIT!

Thank you for your Kind words! I´ve taken a look at Gnomon but it seemed far too advanced for me - maybe later. But my main problem is that there isn´t as much Time to dedicate as I would like, so it would be wastefull to have two subscriptions at the same time. DT seems to cater my noobish needs very well and I think it will take some time until I might say that I´ve outgrown the tutorials.

I hope that you´ll succeed with your plan, you deserve it - your assets look very good (I love Fallout)! I´ll visit your Threads very soon.

As you say, practise is everything and so I try to get a balance between doing Tutorials to aquire some basic skills and doing some smaller side projects to bring those skills to use without the guidance of the Tutorials.

I´ve "finished" Robot Santa Today and I am pretty happy how he turned out:

Sure, there is much room for improvement, but I think that I achieved what I wanted - bring my noobish skills to use, try the techniques that I´ve learned so far and produce something that looks like it should, so I consider him "finished" for now and now its again Time for Tutorials and soon for another side project to test those skills in a real life envoironment (maybe some weapons I think -but I haven´t decided yet).

Happy Holydays!

Count_Crushmore · Aug 2016

Well, it has been a very long time since I last posted anything here (it´s a sure sign that it has been too long if the calendar says it´s August and the last post is Santa ;D) - but I had a very good reason:

--------------------------------- Warning: Wall of Text incoming ;D --------------------------------

Early this year I was taking the course that I´ve mentioned earlier, but instead of a 2 day crash course as initialy planned it was stretched over 5 weeks with a guided session of a few hours each week and an assignment that I had to work on for the following week. I almost felt like being a student again (and that´s a good thing

).

It was a great way to go through all the steps of the pipeline, I am pretty sure that we wouldn´t have been able to cover so much in just two days - and I am very sure that I wouldn´t have been able to remember half of the things that I´ve learned. The combination of guided learning and assignment worked out really well and I am glad that we went this way, not the crash course approach.

The goal of the course was to enable me to go through the complete workflow of modeling, Texturing, rigging and animating a character. The emphasis wasn´t on quality, since I didn´t (and still don´t) have enough experience to create a realistic character, so the result still has many flaws, the anatomy is off, the face doesn´t look all that great, the rig could use some additional work, the animations aren´t well rounded and so on.

But I knew from the start that I wouldn´t be a full character Artist after those five short sessions, so the Intention was to aim high and go from zero to a completed character, not to spend all that time on details like modelling a nice face and refining the animations but I digress. As I said the course was workflow and technique orientated. The first Lesson consisted of the preparation, the things I will have to consider when approaching Character Modeling, like breaking down the Model in managable parts, making the decision what has to be modeled out, what should go into the texture - old news for you I guess, and even if I heard all of this before, having
them explained in depth and face to face was a very valuable lesson.

After that (still in the first lesson) we came to the topic of edge flow, looking at my previous models I´ve paid no attention at all to the edgflow, always modeling for the shape alone. I still have some problems, but by now I have a far better understanding in this area and I am able to spot most of my mistakes and recognize them for what they are. That was followed by some modeling practise, the explanation of some useful modifiers and then I was off to build a character - I succeeded in more or less ignoring every single point of what I´ve learned when I did it, he looked horrible and the edgeflow was as bad as it could be.

The Second session was reserved for UVing and Texturing using Mudbox. And it brought me enlightenment - UVing is hard, but if you let a plugin handle it - who cares if it is hard? So with the help of Umwrella unwrapping was done in seconds. Sure, those maps would be hard to use in Photoshop, but I liked the Texturing Process in Mudbox (didn´t know that it was able to do that before that day - always thought it was used to generate ) much better. Additionally, we went through the topic of edge flow again, I learned about the use of XView and how to spot and prevent some of the mistakes I´ve made.

The assignment was to redo the character, because there were so many flaws in him that prevented Texturing in Mudbox and to create a Texture set for him. The third week covered the Skinning and Rigging Process, as well as a primer in Animation. My Assignment was to add bones to the character and some simple animations to test the deformations. The fourth Lesson dealt with the Curve Editor to smooth the animations out, modify them as well as an intro to Morphs/Blendshapes for Facial Animation. The assignment was to clean up the animations and create some facial animations just to get a feeling for the process.

I am very satisfied with the result. I´ve learned a lot, I am now able to put a rough prototype character with some basic animations and a simple texture set in a relatively short time, which is all I had initially intended. I am very happy that I had the chance to take this course. If someone is there to explain every step, point out mistakes and to answer questions is way more effective than following online Tutorials.

Since then I´ve had the opportunity to pick up ZBrush for a good price and naturally I went for it ;D - it seemed like pure Magic and it still seems that way (One of the reasons that I wanted to pick up ZBrush was that I am very interested in 3D Printing and ZBrush seems to be the way to go for that. I have backed two cheap 3D Printers and hope to feed them some of my own creations
when they arrive).

I tried some basic Tutorials on Digital Tutors to gain a basic Understanding and produced some results - my first steps brought that little Mole to life - nothing to write home about, but still I was impressed what a Non-Artist like me can do with ZBrush in that short time and I had fun along the way.

Another Tutorial, this time ZBrush in Conjunction with 3D´s Max - I still haven´t a clue how I might export the Details properly to bring them to Max and ultimately to Unity, but at least I know how I can import a Base Mesh into ZBrush, work with it in ZBrush export the Texture and Maps, but the more complicated Matters like baking, producing an optimized new Low Poly Mesh to take those Details are still a Mystery for me, but a Mystery I am determined to solve.

My last fiddling with ZBrush resulted in this Superfrog - I really like the Frog himself (I don´t like his cape) and learned a great deal more along the way, working with Masks, Posing the Character, Layers, Polypainting and the like - I think by now I think by now I know at least enough of the basics in ZBrush to find my way around.

Another recent Additions to my CG Software arsenal was the Substance Pack, they had a nice sale going and I couldn´t resist - I had bought and used the first Substance Painter and liked it a lot, and I´ve seen what Substance Designer was able to do in the hands of skilled Artists. Again I tried to get used to the Tools with the help of Tutorials and there even was one that made use of Max, ZBrush and Substance Painter -

And last but not least I made some basic Substances in Substance Designer - I liked the results and was impressed how small the Substance Archives are compared to the Textures that would be necessary to produce a similar result (Just basic primitives in Unity, no UVing at all).

I haven´t looked at Bitmap2Material, it looks nice, but for now I think I will ignore it and come back to it one fine day.

--------------------------------- End of Textwall ---------------------------------

I am not really looking for feedback on the Images above, I just wanted to show them, to give you an impression where I am at the Moment. I am planning to participate in the next Noob Challenge (Art Challenge) so I thought it might be helpful to point out where I come from, where I am right now, and where I want to go.

- I am a Game Programmer, not an Artist and I don´t intend to become a real Artist but I want to be able to produce something better than the typical "Programmer Art".
- I think I can say that I know the Basics of 3Ds Max and that I know a little bit of ZBrush and enough Substance Painter to get some results
- 3D Graphics is a Hobby for me, I do it to have fun, but if I am one day able to produce something usable it would be awesome, but there is no pressure to get there. I just hope that one day I will get there

.

So where will I go from here? I guess that I have reached my initial goal to be able to produce "usable" prototype art and animations, they will still be ugly, not very efficient, the animations will be rough but still give us a better idea than cubes and spheres. I think it might be time to aim for "solid" or "good", not only usable. Low Poly Models, nothing fancy, but clean Textures, good topology and nice animations.

To reach that goal I will concentrate on the following Tools:

- 3Ds Max (or the Base Models, the Low Poly and the Baking
- ZBrush to add the details and maybe sculpting Characters from ZSpheres
- Substance Painter for the Textures, but maybe Polypainting will be enough in some cases

Those are the three Tools that I will invest the most of my Time and effort into to improve my knowledge and my skill.

I am aware that I will have to work on some additional skills and knowledge to gain the most of them, so I will try to find some time to learn at least a little bit about anatomy and painting, and I guess a deeper understanding of Photoshop won´t hurt me, even if I intend to do most of my Texturing either in ZBrush or Substance Painter.

I will try to post my progress here (I promise, there will be real Projects very soon, not only modified Tutorials) and for those Posts I hope that you can help me by pointing out my mistakes that I am bound to make, tell me something about shortcuts or secrets or Tutorials worth watching - that would be awesome and I would be very grateful.

I think I am facing two problems right now
- I can´t find enough time to do something 3D related regularly, so I lack practise and experience
- I am a bit lost where to go and what to do, there are so many Tutorials and Projects out there, it is sometimes hard to decide which of them would be the right for me

I will have to find a way to deal with the first problem, somehow I have to find some time to improve my 3D Skills but I hope that you might help me with the second point, that´s the main reason for this thread.

I wanted to show you my current skills and hope that when I am stuck that I might call out for help. Right now there are no pressing matters, as I said I am planning to participate in the next Art Challenge so I will look for feedback and suggestions there, but I am sure that once I try my hand on personal projects I will have a problem or question sooner or later.

Thank you very much for your patience, that was an very large wall of text but I wished to explain my background, experience and goals to lay the foundation for this Thread.

Count_Crushmore · Jun 2017

Hi Everybody - I´ve been silent far too long, but now it is time to break the silence.

One of the reasons that I´ve been so silent is the fact that I´ve been far too lazy those last months, I don´t have much to show - but I intend to change that.

Some short words about me (the long and boring edition can be found in the first post and in the post above this):
- I am a game programmer, not an 3D Artist, I don´t intend to change fields but 3D Art is a very nice hobby and more than once it was convenient that I know at least some basics
- I have a (growing) collection of 3D licenses, but I am most interested in 3Ds Max (I own the 2012 version), ZBrush and Substance Painter. I hope to find a nice workflow to put those three to good use
- The final destination for my "creations" is Unity, my engine of choice

Please don´t get your hopes up too high, you won´t see anything spectacular here, there is much room for improvement and I guess that many moons will pass before said improvement will be visible. What you are about to see is nothing compared to those marvels that appear on Polycount every day.

But enough of those apologies - if you are still here - Thank you very much!

My latest project is a part of a long term endeavour. I intend to create a Turn Based Strategy Game - complete with homemade assets.

I am aware that this might be a little bit too megalomaniacal, but it gives me a goal, something on the horizon. I still will be doing Tutorials to improve my knowledge and hone (or more fiting aquire) some skills - but I won´t be posting the Results any more (it´s boring for you and there isn´t much to say about something that was made by following a step by step tutorial - sorry that I´ve done it before).

Some short words about my plans:
- Science Fiction Setting, 4 to 5 different Factions, the Soldiers are Robots
- Modular aproach, the Weapons of the Robots and Vehicles are interchangable
- Low Poly

My first attempt is this little guy here - a Roman Legionary Inspired Robot (about 1000 Polygons):

As I´ve said, there is much room for improvement

- I am not quite happy with the head (this one here is the fourth version, the others are even more horrible)
- I know that I haven´t used ZBrush to it´s full potential. and I feel a little bit
- Somehow I think I´ve made a mistake while exporting the Textures out of Substance Painter - they look strange (and stretched) when applied to the model in Unity.
- I guess I´ve messed up the light and texture settings in Unity (most of the time I get the Assets all set up and ready to go, and all I have to do is to tweak some settings, so this is something that I should learn as soon as possible)

Well, that came across very negative - but all in all I am more or less happy how he turned out - I´ve finished him (even if he isn´t much more than a prototype).

And viewed from a Distance and in larger numbers (the way he will be seen once I´ve made some progress with the game) - he doesn´t look all too bad (at least for programmer art ;D).

My workflow in a nutshell:
- Base Model and UV-Mapping in 3Ds Max

- A little bit of sculpting in ZBrush (the Lorica Segmentata [Armour])
- Baking the High Poly from ZBrush to the base mesh inside of Substance Painter
- Painting the textures in Substance Painter

Again, thank you very much for your patience - you could have spend that time looking on some of the stunning works that are presented in the other threads, but you´ve stayed with me - thank you!

Now, if you have the time - maybe you can help me on my way with some suggestions (other than "give it up" ;D, I won´t do that) - I´ll be grateful. Is there something very important that I am missing, something that I should change in my workflow?

I intend to try my hand on this kind of robot again and intend to share my progress with you.

Have a nice weekend!

[Improvement Thread] Like the mule with a spinning wheel‏ - a Noobs Journey

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