Advice for the noob

Discussion in 'Art' started by spellman23, Jun 23, 2009.

  1. spellman23

    spellman23 Member

    Messages:
    861
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Hey guys. I'd like to try my hand at modeling. Of course, being the utter noob I am, I doubt I'll produce anything usable for a while.

    That being said, what tools should I locate (free is preferable) to start. I do have some mapping experience, but I am in no way and expert.
     
  2. theotherjms

    theotherjms Developer

    Messages:
    894
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Source SDK, obviously. Bookmark this and go there first every time you have a problem. Install a modeling program. Here are a few:
    3ds Max: expensive unless pirated, very powerful, hard to learn. Tons of tutorials, both general and Source-specific ones.
    Maya: same advantages and disadvantages as above, but very different interface from Max. Seems to have less tutorials.
    Softimage Mod Tool: Free and supported by Valve. My personal recommendation, others on this forum disagree. Learning curve was easier for me because the interface is closer to CAD engineering programs, not sure how others see this. Less tutorials than Max, but still a lot, some are even by a professional company that has a contract with Valve.
    Blender: Free and Open Source. I have never tried it, a lot of people seem to think it sucks. Apparently plugins which you need to export to Source are hard to come by or don't work.
    Modo: Can't tell you anything about it, but PwnedYoAss loves it and he's like the only community member who actually does anything useful modeling-wise. You can edit textures in the program directly, in other programs you need to make the texture in another program (Photoshop, Gimp, etc.) and import it.

    Things you need to look for: the program must have a function/plugin that allows you to export into .SMD format. Then you can use a MDL compiler (search the Valve Wiki) to compile the model and integrate it into the official Valve model format.

    Useful links:
    http://wiki.empiresmod.com/index.php?title=Modeling Modeling page, from Empires wiki
    http://forums.empiresmod.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37 Empires art forum, obviously.
    http://www.cgtextures.com/
    http://www.freetextures.org/
    http://mayang.com/textures/ Free texture download sites.
    http://www.iwannamap.com/ Should this ever come back online, community with tutorials and whatnot. Forums still work.
    http://www.fpsbanana.com/ See what other people are doing, also tutorials. Kinda hard to navigate. Not sure if the forums are any good.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2009
  3. Mr. Weedy

    Mr. Weedy I will report bugs on the bug tracker

    Messages:
    2,291
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Yeah, the softimage mod tool goes also under name XSI mod tool.

    I have tried it and I have tried Blender too and in my opinion Blender is harder one to learn.
     
  4. PwnedYoAss

    PwnedYoAss Member

    Messages:
    1,088
    Likes Received:
    39
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Softimage XSI, now known as Autodesk Softimage is your best bet, and you can try Modo, (Which is now at version 401 YAY!) the issue with it is it's over-simplified, and you will miss out on whole load of tools that XSI has but Modo lacks, but at the same time it is simple enough for any moron to use, and is extremely intuitive in most applications. The problem is it doesn't have an exporter for source. So, 3DSMax or Autodesk Softimage is your best bet man.

    You can ask me if you need any help with XSI, or now Softimage though I like the original name better. Just give me a PM on the forums or find me on Steam.
     
  5. Nickierv

    Nickierv Member

    Messages:
    510
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    There was a program that is very similar to 3ds Max but is free. I used that when I started modeling, and found it easy to use, only problem is that I don't remember the name and I think it had some issues with saving to a lot of file types.
    XSI: the setup is different from what I am used to working with. Otherwise its not that hard to use once you learn where everything is.
    Blender: I have tried it, but you need shortcut keys for everything.
     
  6. theotherjms

    theotherjms Developer

    Messages:
    894
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Gmax maybe? That's a free version of 3ds Max, but it can only save to its own proprietary format, and a few supported games (e.g. MS FlightSim), and was discontinued in 2005.
     
  7. Trickster

    Trickster Retired Developer

    Messages:
    16,576
    Likes Received:
    46
    Trophy Points:
    0
    XSI is like CAD? I might even be able to do this shit, I do CAD stuff for school.
     
  8. PwnedYoAss

    PwnedYoAss Member

    Messages:
    1,088
    Likes Received:
    39
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Well, XSI (Autodesk Softimage) is actually very easy to use and understand compared to most programs, but I find there are many errors, and well let's just put it like this. When you start using that program, you will find the impossible starts happening at an alarming rate. ALARMING. RATE.
     
  9. theotherjms

    theotherjms Developer

    Messages:
    894
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    It's my theory anyway. It's nothing I can quite put my finger on, maybe I'm just wrong altogether. Maybe it's just that the interface is generally more intuitive.
     
  10. SirSnipes

    SirSnipes Member

    Messages:
    862
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    remember Gmox and cinema 4dis a very powerful piece of kit, and simple to learn
     
  11. LordDz

    LordDz Capitan Rainbow Flowers

    Messages:
    5,221
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Except you can't export the models from there.
     
  12. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

    Messages:
    9,482
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    XSI is a pile of crap, use anything but XSI.

    Max is best, but expensive, unless you're like me and your university has a copy.
     
  13. mr_quackums

    mr_quackums Member

    Messages:
    2,358
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    or you find a copy that "fell of the back of a truck"
     
  14. PwnedYoAss

    PwnedYoAss Member

    Messages:
    1,088
    Likes Received:
    39
    Trophy Points:
    0
    What? Are you kidding me. Max handles like a mule with wheels, even though it does have limited sculpting tools, that handle worse than the above statement.
     
  15. spellman23

    spellman23 Member

    Messages:
    861
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Kinda like when you start programming in C++ eh?

    Well, I have a copy of Mod Tools (i.e. XIS/AutoDesk) and will start fiddling. Wheee!
     

Share This Page