[tomgupper]

Hey everyone, Just a question for all you 3d artists out there, when creating your latest image, what do you use? For me it depends on what I'm working on - but I'm a bryce and lightwave person myself...you?

[[Shizo]]

Im making a cyberr dude in 3dmax4 right now. Making it poly by poly.. so far 3000 polys =]
But it's a good solid prog

[tomgupper]

Yeah, I've always had troubles using 3dsmax. I've never fully been able to grasp the concept of the program. and NURBS just confuzzles me. Mind you though, has anyone hear heard of GMAX? Its extremely similiar to 3dSmax, and it has game ... portals... ? Theres prolly someone out there who can explain it a little better than I can. Its also free to download.

I'm sure if I'm going to make it big in the 3d world, I'm going to have to figure out how to use 3dSmax. heh, I'm really a 2d veteran I guess. Flash for example used to be my forte - started studying actionscript too.

How did you learn how to use 3dSmax? teach yourself?

[[Shizo]]

Yeh taught myself, by trying things out, reading tutorials, and also having a guy on my icq list who already knew max better than i so i asked him whatever i didnt know

I suggest you dont touch NURBS at all, you would probably learn things in this order:

- Polygon modeling (EditMesh) with MeshSmooth
- UVW mapping to apply textures
- Splines with applied Surface / Patches
- Bones,IK, and different animation types (if you want to animate, but dont go there before you learn to model)
- NURBS (but i never looked in it myself, cause the tools panel SCARES me)

Try to model something very simple at first and learn as you go - see what things do, try things shown in the tutorials.

PS:
GMAX is a simplified version of 3dmax4. It's very good for learning i think because most of advanced functions have been cut from it and it's also free. It contains some good tutorials, plus any tutorials for max3/4 that are on the net are good for gmax also.

[ November 28, 2001: Message edited by: [Shizo] ]

[tomgupper]

sounds excellent thanks.

Just one more question : where would you find the best 3dSmax Tutorials on the web?

And reccommendations?

[edraket]

I use max.
Never saw why it has to be so hard. But maybe I am just born for max or something.
A good book that combines the theories of 3d graphics with some solid max knowledge will get you furter then tutorials.
You need to understand the concepts behind max. Once you do that it is really easy and you can get all the info you want from the help.
Tutorials don't really do that. They just teach you a trick. But if you don't understand the package you will never be able to figure things out yourself. And thus be very limited in what you can do.

[tomgupper]

Ja - understandable.

I'm actually prolly going to take a Max Course during the hols. They offer a few over here.

Just a question...Can you Render in Gmax???? I've looked and looked...and I cant find it...either you cant do it..or I'm an idoit!

Prolly the latter

heheh

Its good to be finnally learning something new though, this board has been really helpful so far - thanks

[[Shizo]]

oh crap i dont think yo ucan render, unless that button on far right works.. but if not my icq is 9294581

I myself learned from tutorials and when i bought a book i realized i knew more than half of what the book is talking about. It doesnt mean they're not helpful if you learn on your own but not completely helpful. I dunno if a 3dmax course will be good or not cause i never attended one, i just know they're expensive.

For tutorials there are a few good sites but i'll give you a link where i listed all of the ones i had (not all of them good so pick by description)

http://www.insidecg.com/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=20846

[tomgupper]

Thanks a heap

[balistic]

I use Animation:Master at home, a little bit of everything at work.

Here's my latest work-in-progress:



I started doing 3D when I was 13 in the first release of 3DS for DOS. I used Max for a bit right around version 2, but haven't touched it since.

Tools are tools . . . all 3D apps suck in one or more areas . . . its just a matter of finding one that has a workflow you like.

[tomgupper]

wow, thats pretty nice

Yeah, well I'm only now just fully understanding the true benefits of bryce - currently working with glass

my latest image :


working with positive and negative images, was an interesting experiment

[ November 29, 2001: Message edited by: tomgupper ]

[[Shizo]]

balistic, that image is like 3 months as 'in progress' so where is progress! finish it!
Heheh, bryce is.. not very good program
Especially for learning.