GETTING STARTED WITH 3D MODELING AND WHAT TOOLS TO CHOOSE

GETTING STARTED WITH 3D MODELING AND WHAT TOOLS TO CHOOSE

GETTING STARTED WITH 3D MODELING AND WHAT TOOLS TO CHOOSE

Well there’s lots of programs out there but it really doesn’t matter what you choose, it’s the tools that are available to you and it’s the tools that you’re comfortable learning that’s the most important. It is worth noting that maya seems to be the most popular among industry so if you want to go into the big industries and, you want to not have to learn a new piece of software when you go in then may is the one for you.

Substance painter also seems to be the really common one for texturing. So both those two are very important to the industry and therefore you might want to just start on those on the first rung .if you did to go into the industry as a freelancer you would have to pay for a license and they’re very expensive. also you can get a student license but obviously you have to show that you’re a student, and that of course will only last you whilst you’re a student so if you want to continue your work afterwards you have to pay for a license.

However there’s great advantages to other programs particularly blender, that’s the one I use.

Lots of people argue  this one’s better of, this one’s not as good but the only program that I really think is that much better is Zbrush,  it seems to be the industry standard for sculpting whereas a program like blender seems to have a bit of a way to go there.

Zbrush

Although I have seen some amazing pieces created in blender it just takes that with more effort to get there than it does with something like Zbrush. substance painter is another one if you’re texturing within blender it’s just a bit more quirky and a bit more awkward to get to that final stage but the results can be the same. in terms of where to go for tutorials for modeling, I’ve got a long list;

  1. Darrin Lile: I learned a lot from him. He was fantastic and he goes at a nice pace although. I think he’s moved a lot of his tutorials but still on his channel there’s some great stuff.
  2. Blender guru is another one, although I wouldn’t start out with the more complex stuff. he does a lot of very complicated tutorials which are fantastic but start with the basics. you’re better off starting at a nice basic beginning point.
  3. born CG is a really good one for quick tips. I used to do one a day of those just to get some quick tips. a lot of those tips I had already known but it was still really handy to get an overview of how someone else was doing it and sometimes you pick up some real gems.
  4. Yen scopes is another good one for sculptors, one of the only people were really doing that sort of thing and he’s got quite a fun quirky style. It’s another one for some good short tips and I think those are really useful. Having one a day is a really great way of learning and you can just repeat it even if you’re only watching it whilst doing something else.
  5. CG geek is another really good one he does some excellent tutorials.

Dezignext  is the biggest place out there to get started even with no prior knowledge. They got great knowledge and good delivery courses for 3D modeling. I got to know of some quick tips, lots of things that I didn’t realize. I Learnt a lot from them. Really its just immersing yourself in it, looking up different techniques all the time.

so where’s the best place to start ?

well I think working on low poly models.  Look at a low poly style and just get the basic shapes,  the basic understanding of the 3d interface even if you’re just using the basic primitives to build up models start with that.

It’s great fun because you quickly progress  and you quickly produce something and it’s nice to actually have something in front of you and say “that’s mine, I’ve done something and I’m proud of that”.

You’ll probably look back at it in about a year’s time and think that was absolutely rubbish but at the time it’ll be the best thing ever, so start with low poly nice and simple simple colors. Mindset is all important.

You have to keep failing and learn from those mistakes especially if you haven’t got a teacher around you’ll get frustrated, but you just keep failing and eventually you get better and better and it’s all about learning from your mistakes.

Am Sume Peters,  a sixth form teacher and I teach games design so mainly 3d modeling and I’m a freelance  3d modeler I take on all sorts of projects my favorites are games design characters and game design landscapes but I also do architectural visualizations and things like that.