3D Modelling Thread

[Cube]

I can't remember if I posted these (I can't see them in this thread) but I did these a few months ago....I should really get around to finishing them.

 

Anyway I did this ages and ages ago:

 

 

So I decided to give it another go:

 

 

I need to get round to re-doing/fixing the golf ball. Too many indents (which makes it look as big as a football)

 

And I need to get round to making a scene for this:

 

[Llama Juice]

Cool stuff !! but when i last saw the NES controller the buttons were round ^.-

 

 

Haha yea, I thought it'd be fine at the time I made it... I'm gunna redo the buttons though...

 

Well, my project there... it's going to end up being a small thing to honor the NES.

 

In Halo you'll start out in this museum looking room... in the museum there'll be some hallways that lead to gigantic cartridges.... when you jump through the label of the cartridge it'll take you into a 3D version of a 2D world from that game.

 

My friend is working on Mario right now... I'm gunna be working on Excite Bike soon

[Colin]

Been quite a while since I've posted in here, so I apoligise. Good to see people posting up anything they're working on though.

 

Jamba - Sorry I didn't get back to you about the road texturing a few pages back. How did it go, as I'm guessing it's been and gone now with that piece of work. Wouldn't mind knowing how you tackled it anyway?

 

 

I'm currently working on an end of year project, which we're making a mod for Crysis. It's purely a simple single-player driven level, but the point of it being so that we can just cut a game trailer from it and present it. If time all works out though hopefully we'll be able to release it playable for people.

 

Anyway, it's called Scream Park. Simple zombie sort of infestation within a circus/fairground sort of place. I've created a few things so far, while I'm also working with two other people on it. I created the object below so thought I'd show it here seeing as it's probably the best bit of work I've done for it so far.

 

Got so much to be getting on with before the deadline in under a month..........all quite worrying.

 

 

(lack of AA really harms that image, oh well)

 

Also a portaloo.

 

And the flats for it, which need tidying up a bit.

(generic spiderweb needs changing)

[Jamba]

Is that all photo ref'd Colin? Also good to see you posting again mate. I've got some animations to put up soon.

[Colin]

Yeh of course. Although nowadays all texture painting is done using a photo as the base texture. Really depends on what you're doing though.

 

For example the scummy area of the toilet (right side of texture) is a few grunge textures blended and then also some areas painted in by myself. The actual main blue areas needed tidying up from the photo I used with bolts having to be moved and things like that.

 

We had our Beta today, which ended up going really well. There's 5 projects in our yr group, and ours was definitely one of the better ones out of those.

 

If anyone wants to see some screens that were released today then just ask here. As I made 4 promo shots this evening.

 

And Jamba, looking forward to it mate. I'm not really the animation type, but I remember your last animation stuff you posted up and it was really quite good. Animation scares me!

 

This may be of great interest to you. This is the showreel of the Animation Lead on Condemned 2. Some awesome animation work in there, and it makes me want to play Condemned 2 as well.

 

http://www.foofinu.com/Lico_AnimationReel_2008.mov

[Wesley]

What's your course title again, Colin?

 

Also, post the promo shots!

 

Can someone give me advice for a newbie to 3D Studio Max? I've been doing the tutorials that come with it... but, it doesn't seem to give me the skills to model some simple stuff I used to be able to model in Blender... I quite literally look at the screen not knowing what to start with for some models.

[Jamba]

Wes you just need to do stuff on your own. I only find the tutorials helpful for finding out what tools are available and how they work (and sometimes not even that).

 

Work flow is something that you constantly need to think about and can be quite a challenge. But the more experience you have, the faster you will be. Seriously just get down and do some stuff.

[Wesley]

Cheers for the advice, that's what I'm going to do now, even if I spend a few hours making something and doing it the wrong way. Screw it! I used to do that all the time!

 

Any advice? http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?p=728658#post728658

 

Okay, so, problem.

 

Firstly, picture:

 

 

The top image is a spline of a model I want to create. Whenever I then use the surface modifier it will cover it all, creating a face between the four vertices's that covers the two "cut outs". The bottom picture is how I want it to look. It was imported from Blender. But, as you can see, looks shite in 3DSM.

 

Anyway, suggestions?

 

EDIT:

 

 

This picture shows it with the surface modifier.

 

I could just use an edit mesh modifier after and delete the offending faces. But that gets pretty messy. I would also then have to create more splines to support faces that link directly to the cut-aways.

[darkcloud]

Using splines to model stuff can get pretty messy as it is........ After using them it's really quite common to go in afterwards to tidy things up as it hardly ever creates the optimal mesh....

 

Why don't you just try modelling it in a more traditional style? It's not the most difficult shape so it wouldn't take too long. :-/

 

 

 

An example I came up with in like 5 mins from memory. I did it the same way I'd go about making a face only faster.. Create a plane and extrude edges out from that. I'm pretty sure you would have less hassle doing it that way. :-/

[Wesley]

Thanks for the hep and advice. I managed to work it out though. Quite new to splines - used to model using simple mesh tools in Blender.

 

[darkcloud]

Ah, I should have looked at the splines image closer originally. I didn't realise you hadn't connected the inner and outer segments. lol

 

What's the resulting mesh like on that? Can you show a wireframe?

[Wesley]

I've just used a surface modifier. So the mesh's wire frame is just the spline.

 

I think that's what you were asking for.[/n00b]

[darkcloud]

If I remember correctly, it uses the splines to calculate the mesh it uses for the model. Convert it to editable poly if you haven't already and look.

[Wesley]

 

The one on the bottom is the splines converted to a mesh. The top one is how the original (made in Blender) was. The new one looks messier but has less vertices's.

[Jamba]

Bloody hell! You could easily shave like half of the polys of that and it would hardly look any different.

 

Go and look up what Shading Groups are, it helps a lot with that kind of stuff.

[darkcloud]

 

The one on the bottom is the splines converted to a mesh. The top one is how the original (made in Blender) was. The new one looks messier but has less vertices's.

 

That image is the very reason I don't use splines much. lol Getting a model which doesn't need a lot of work is very hard. I didn't save the one I made but it had a fraction of the poly's in your image and didn't have what looks like 10-15 edges connected to a single vert.

 

You should really look into edge loops to get a better understanding of how 3d models should preferably be created.

[Wesley]

Bloody hell! You could easily shave like half of the polys of that and it would hardly look any different.

 

Go and look up what Shading Groups are, it helps a lot with that kind of stuff.

 

Do you mean the top or bottom (I bet you'll say, "Both!")?

 

That image is the very reason I don't use splines much. lol Getting a model which doesn't need a lot of work is very hard. I didn't save the one I made but it had a fraction of the poly's in your image and didn't have what looks like 10-15 edges connected to a single vert.

 

You should really look into edge loops to get a better understanding of how 3d models should preferably be created.

 

I've heard of edge loops in reference to modelling faces. It really did start out as a very simple spline, but then with the problem (that I mentioned earlier) it had to get very messy.

[Jamba]

I do say both. FFS have you even pressed 7 to see what the Tri count is? I bet you've got around 1000 polys going on in both of those.

[darkcloud]

I do say both. FFS have you even pressed 7 to see what the Tri count is? I bet you've got around 1000 polys going on in both of those.

 

No need to be rude with the FFS. lol

 

 

 

Edge loops is something you should think of while modelling anything. Lots of things use vertex data and if it's not organised properly strange results will occur. Also if you want to use mesh/turbosmooth it's something you should pay attention to a lot.This is why it's mentioned so much with face modelling and body modelling along with how it effects animation.

 

Certain lighting is uses vertex data so that should also be in your mind. Same with shadows. Imagine you were using one of these systems on this. The uneven spread would mean there would be insufficient information to have it work properly.

 

Also, it's not so much the fact that your spline was messy, it's more that splines in general are annoying. It's the same with booleans. lol Because it's automated, ultimately it sucks in most situations. lol

[Wesley]

No need to be rude with the FFS. lol

 

 

 

Edge loops is something you should think of while modelling anything. Lots of things use vertex data and if it's not organised properly strange results will occur. Also if you want to use mesh/turbosmooth it's something you should pay attention to a lot.This is why it's mentioned so much with face modelling and body modelling along with how it effects animation.

 

Certain lighting is uses vertex data so that should also be in your mind. Same with shadows. Imagine you were using one of these systems on this. The uneven spread would mean there would be insufficient information to have it work properly.

 

Also, it's not so much the fact that your spline was messy, it's more that splines in general are annoying. It's the same with booleans. lol Because it's automated, ultimately it sucks in most situations. lol

 

Ah, I see... I'm really quite new to 3D animation, I'm just giving it a go by myself before I go to Uni to study my degree.

 

I didn't mean my last comment in a nasty way, Jambalama, not sure if you took it that way with your arsey comment.

[Jamba]

Sorry, the FFS was a bit OTT. But on a serious note, making models with a low poly count makes up a very large part of the reason you do anything as a modeller. Many of the techniques used in any kind are often derived for this reason and to fully understand them, you will need to bear that in mind.

 

A poly limit is something that can quickly get out of control and I think DarkCloud may have said this already but everything end ups getting converted into triangles when it gets rendered. You need to be able to control that.

[Colin]

What's your course title again, Colin?

I study 3D Games Art at Hertfordshire. Just finishing up on my 2nd year now, and fuck, still got so much to learn before I finish. Need to pull my finger out next yr or I risk not being able to walk into a job. That's the most worrying thing about this discipline.......that if you aren't prepared to put the work in, then you're unlikely to be able to get that dream job. But if you enjoy it then automatically you'll be putting the work in anyway!

 

Also, post the promo shots!

 

Those were the screens we released last week. Characters (probably the strongest point on the project) are done by a fellow team member. Hopefully it'll all come together in the end. Only another few more weeks on this now. Hope you all like them.

 

Can someone give me advice for a newbie to 3D Studio Max?

There's a nice link here which has some introduction tutorial videos for max, and then moves onto some more advanced stuff. Once you understand how the viewports work and how to manage the 'stack' then I recommend you have a look through some of the tutorials on 3dtotal.com as well. And once you feel ready for some character stuff then search out the 'Joan of Arc' body modelling tutorial.

 

 

It seems like Jamba and darkcloud have given you some useful things to think about when tackling your current model, so take all that info on-board.

 

I tend to never use 'edit mesh'........maybe I've just never modelled that way, but my typical workflow is to just start out with a cube, then convert to 'edit poly' and start extruding cutting away from there.

 

Just remember that if you have any polygons that aren't affecting the shape of the mesh, then there's really no need to have them there at all. I've modelled cars in the past, and the best thing to do is to always keep your mesh as controllable as you can, then later on when you want to add the details it won't be so messy. Hope that makes sense there.

[darkcloud]

 

There's a nice link here which has some introduction tutorial videos for max, and then moves onto some more advanced stuff. Once you understand how the viewports work and how to manage the 'stack' then I recommend you have a look through some of the tutorials on 3dtotal.com as well. And once you feel ready for some character stuff then search out the 'Joan of Arc' body modelling tutorial.

 

 

It seems like Jamba and darkcloud have given you some useful things to think about when tackling your current model, so take all that info on-board.

 

I tend to never use 'edit mesh'........maybe I've just never modelled that way, but my typical workflow is to just start out with a cube, then convert to 'edit poly' and start extruding cutting away from there.

 

Just remember that if you have any polygons that aren't affecting the shape of the mesh, then there's really no need to have them there at all. I've modelled cars in the past, and the best thing to do is to always keep your mesh as controllable as you can, then later on when you want to add the details it won't be so messy. Hope that makes sense there.

 

Joan of Arc is a really good tutorial, leaves out a bit of information I would have liked when I first started out though. Certain areas seem to get glossed over so be careful. That said, it's still probably the best character modelling tutorial available.. Not counting stuff from dvd's.

 

Edit mesh is something I hardly use as well. I always converted to editable poly or put on the editable poly modifyer..... I think there have been instances when I was forced to use it for something though. :-/

 

In general what you said about polys is true, however there are instances where it's best to have extra idle poly's....... Having a really big poly can cause problems when rendering or if you are using shaders which use vertex data...... I think it's mainly something to keep in mind when making game assets though.

[Wesley]

So I decided to crack on with something today. This is my first creation in 3d Studio Max. Not a final render or anything like that, but something show-able.

 

 

 

 

It's Cooker from Wallace and Gromit. I'm going to have a backdrop for it, the moon, and also try out some animation (once I've done the animation parts of the tutorials).

 

I kind of want to just leave it because I've got a few things in my head I wanna do quite badly.

 

I'm going to leave it for tonight. I should say that when I get time to work on it again, Tuesday, I'll spot a hundred and one things that I want to change.

[Maiky-NiSuTe]

cool really cool stuff! great work.