New to 3D modeling - Need some help.

[D3nied]

Hey. First forum post ^^, ~

 

So.. I just picked up 3D modeling and I don't really know how to use it in a good way and/or how to implement it in Skyrim.

I just downloaded Blender and started learning the basics and it isn't going too well.

 

My questions are;

Any good tutorials on how to use Blender

How do I implement my work into Skyrim

 

Bare in mind, I'm a real beginner when it comes to modding~

Thanks in advance.

[ResolveThatChord]

Well I recommend Johnathon Willamon, an excellent tutor from Blendercookie.com.

The Blender skills you will need for modding will be:

Box modelling

Baking normal maps

Vertex weighting (for clothing/armour)

Import/export.

 

Once you've got all that under your belt, you may also want to look at animation. Keep in mind that you'll never need to use most of Blender's functions- but it can be fun to do so! I personally enjoyed playing around with phisics simulations, and found them very helpful when creating clothes.

 

There's also this tutorial which gives an overview of every stage required for getting a thing out of your head and into Skyrim.

 

I hope this helps. Remember that it can get frustrating at times. It helps a lot to follow tutorials as you watch them; you learn more, and it gets easier every time. Good luck!

[AlphaWoIF]

I just wanted to say just keep @ it and it will eventually come , there is no way your going to start using it and suddenly become a good overnight , it s taken me a couple of months to learn about 3dsmax and the best way is to tackle one problem at as it comes , youtube is a great help because you can actually see things being done live, which can be a lot more helpful than reading a tut sometimes.

start small with single meshes first

[Matth85]

As said, keep at it. I have been doing 3d for 2.5 years now, and still got tons of things to learn. What I would recommend, beside learning you 3d package:

 

- Learn to draw. Knowing about depth and lightning is invaluable. It's also very neat to be able to draw your own concept.

- Always use reference. I you model a house, get tons of pictures from google. If you can draw, make your own concept to work from.

- Start making things that exists in our world. Don't tackle fancy fantasy/Sci-fi stuff before you can do stuff that's real.

- Learn to texture good. Texturing is a skill people seem to drop out on. Texture > sculpting.

- In the end, learn to sculpt. Just so you can get that quality nailed.

- Start out slow. Learn about what a mesh is, what is a texture, how does the UI works, etc.

- Think about silhouette before topology in the start. Only after you get some controll of what you do, start to think clean models and as low poly as possible.

 

Basically, don't do 3d just as a "for lulz" hobby. You won't get far. It takes years to become any decent at it. You will also sit and spend quite some time on the computer, not noticing the houres fly away.

That said, it is an awesome thing. However, I had to trade gaming for 3d. Just becasue 24 houres a day is not enough for both, + everything else in life.

 

That said, check out:

 

3dtotal.com --> Some amazing "making of" to get into the mindset of a 3d artist, and quite some tutorials. I believe there are some for Blender.

Youtube.com --> Do I need to say more?

 

Cheers,

Matth

[D3nied]

Thanks a lot guys. I'll make sure to try to remember all of it and check out the links (:

 

Blender already made me ragequit a couple of times and I'm sure there will be more to come. But it's as you said; "just keep at it", and I intend to do so. Thanks for the positive feedback and the "pep-talk".

Appreciate it (:

 

I coul'd use someone as a reference person, someone to ask when I'm stuck. If intrested throw me an email at [email protected].

 

Thanks once again

D3nied out~

Edited February 5, 2012 by D3nied

[ResolveThatChord]

If you have questions, and you're finding google to be obtuse (it knows everything, but sometimes doesn't tell you), then send me a PM and I'll see if I can help you out.