What would be the best program?

[Vanguard]

Hey there, I've been browsing these forums for quite a while with a nag to create a ship of my own in the back of my mind, that nag has finally took an effect and I'm wondering what would be a good program for a newbie modeler like me to use?

All feedback appreciated

[blaXXer]

Blender. Or, if you know how to help you to it, 3dsmax.

[limey BSc.]

Milkshape is probably the best for beginners, or maybe GMax. Both have their limitations though.

[Armondikov]

Does GMax and Milkshape exist anymore? I thought they'd been discontinued. But anyway, if you can find it, Milkshape is very good to start with, it'll teach you the basics and then you can move on.

[Vanguard]

Well i've decided to go with 3DS MAX9 as i have a copy of it which i use for creating images with existing meshes

For some reason milkshape seems more complicated to me... ( i downloaded the trial version ) it just was... well i'll say different.

Anyway here's the second build of some form of starship ( the first i discarded because i thought it wasn't up to much =P ) Although it's not much yet, just a saucer and some nacelles



It was better than the first build at least =P

[blaXXer]

Why is the ship angled so strangely? That will prove difficult to manipulate later on.
also, try to work at the loweest possible level first (read: vertices) before you move to higher poly stuff. work your way up gradually from simple shapes like tubes (watch the segment-count) or boxes.

[Vanguard]

I was tinkering around and couldn't get a perspective on the entire mesh, however now i can't change it back which is proving difficult, is there a reset views button anywhere that you know of?

And i am taking it step by step, i created a basic ship ( basically a saucer, a box and two tubes XD ) which was the first mesh, now i am taking the time to do things step by step ( As you can see, the nacelles are what I've spent the most time on )

Is there a way to fill in the centre of the tubes? As mine at the moment are hollow

[RCgothic]

They will be hollow. It doesn't matter, because you are viewing the model from the outside what's on the inside isn't visible anyway.

You need to concentrate on making the mesh with no gaps so that the inside is invisible.

[Armondikov]

If you're working with polygons then there's no real space or "hollow" or "solid", just surfaces, which can be double or single sided.

If you're working with BSP, then you have solid, space and semi-solids. But that's mostly for game engines, mainly FPS and games mostly set indoors or with limited environments (Doom, Unreal etc.).

[Nighthawk]

I'd suggest gmax or ac3d for beginners, until you figure how to work with planes, solids and vertices.
sadly, ac3d is having some troubles in its package. I haven't been able to install it from two versions ago.

blender is a good choice too, mainly 'cuz it's free, but you will be a bit lost if you ever move completely to Max from there. the interface is a bit complicated in blender.

if that Max came with tutorials or such, open them and start doing random stuff. nothing specific, move faces, fuse vertices, or try changing the textures, so you can start speaking the same language.
it also allows you to draw over a blueprint, so you can make a basic drawing of what you want, load it there and try to follow it with lines or faces.
draw in ortographic view (front, side, and top) and view in the perspective view. you can pan and rotate the view with ctrl+mouse, or alt+mouse. you even have the manual control in the bottom-right corner. over there, above the taskbar clock

[executioner_de]

Does max still have this starfighter boxmodeling tut? that helped me alot when i begun.

[blaXXer]

erm max 9 doesnt have it, iirc

[Vanguard]

Does anybody know a good site for some basic, build your skills tutorials?

As knowing me, i would probably find something ridiculously complex XD

[Armondikov]

Just use google for "3DS Max 9 tutorials" and look around the various sites that pop up. I can't say I use an individual site over others. It's best to look up the basics for how to control the interface and generate what you want and use the tools, then just mess around and find out what's the best way for you to work.

SFM has some tutorials in the forum section and others lying around.
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/#3d-education

[Vanguard]

Thanks for that forum/advice =D

A bit of progress on this, decided to scrap the second build and restarted again

I actually know how to work the vertices/faces now ( XD ) so i've begun to shape the vessel that i now call the Riordan class:

[USSGalileo]

I have blender, since its free, are there any tutorials out there for it?

[rengers]

I have blender, since its free, are there any tutorials out there for it?

I suggest to take a look on these:

   http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro
   http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Tutorial_Links_List

there are also some not that bad tutorials on the developer site.

If you have questions about blender, you can also pm me, and I will try to help

[Villain]

Thanks for that forum/advice =D

A bit of progress on this, decided to scrap the second build and restarted again

I actually know how to work the vertices/faces now ( XD ) so i've begun to shape the vessel that i now call the Riordan class:

Looks like an interesting design to me! I found that doing a model, then scrapping it and re-doing it gives you a better idea of how you want it to look, or at least at this stage. Every time I've scrapped and redone something, it seems to look loads better each time.

Milkshape isn't so much difficult as it is alien. The set up of the buttons and such confused the hell out of me, but it is still handy, not to mention the .NIF importer/exporter.

I look forward to seeing this ship progress!

[USSGalileo]

Is there any way to get the models from bc in to blender and vice a versa?

[blaXXer]

there should be an ex-/ importer. Just check the blender website.