Very First Model - WIP

[AshuraDX]

@@Cerez check this out :

it's downloadable aswell

 

EDIT :

and just for the lulz

https://sketchfab.com/models/249fec35674b4a339afbcb3ca4145740

[Cerez]

@@Cerez check this out

 

Wow, that was fast! Yep, you've done a few things there that I have no idea how to do yet...

 

My mew's head shape doesn't look too bad in comparison, though -- now that I've included the quarter view reference in the design. So I guess that's a good sign, then.   Thanks for the help, @@AshuraDX.

 

and just for the lulz

https://sketchfab.com/models/249fec35674b4a339afbcb3ca4145740

 

Hahaha, imagine doing that poly by poly!   A little like one of those 5-year-long Lego projects. 

[AshuraDX]

Wow, that was fast! Yep, you've done a few things there that I have no idea how to do yet...

 

My mew's head shape doesn't look too bad in comparison, though -- now that I've included the quarter view reference in the design. So I guess that's a good sign, then.   Thanks for the help, @@AshuraDX.

well what is it that you don't know how to do ?

I began with a single poly and modeled the entire thing from that single polygon by dragging out/extruding edges

starting with creating the loop around 1 eye, then enabling symmetry

 

lemme see how far you've come by now

 

here, check this out to learn how to avoid tris and ngons as I do :

 

you can skip to 3:10 if you are only interested in getting a clean quad topology - but I recommend watching the entire thing

[Cerez]

Well, I've moved into Blender territory, and soon I will attempt to animate this little guy, and possibly get him into Unity and have him run (or float) around, which should be interesting to see.

 

Let me just say that Blender rocks! I have always suspected there was something behind that complicated visual user interface and all those seemingly confusing keyboard shortcuts, but I had no idea just how cool Blender is in making modelling so much quicker and easier the moment you learn how it works, and just how much it can really do! It's an amazing piece of software! I'm delighted (and thoroughly excited) to have overcome my initial apprehension, and have dived into learning it wholeheartedly.

 

It's a grand testament to communal dev. power. Open source FTW!

 

(In other news, I have also switched from Fedora 21 to Debian 8. Fedora is a nice look for an operating system, but no use for work. Software stability is horrendous in Fedora. Debian, on the other hand, has entirely replaced my long-time Mac working station now. Debian 8 is what most Linux distros should be like, IMHO -- modern, well tested, stable, flexible, reliable.)

[Boothand]

Blender is lovely, especially if you're fond of shortcuts. I think one of its strengths is that it doesn't rely on a 'Tool' for each transformation or even operations such as extruding etc. It's all in one 'form'.

 

If you need help with Unity, feel free to tag me in a post!

[Cerez]

The thing is, once you get routinely used to the shortcuts, you don't even need to think about them, and you every action is at your fingertips, allowing you to fully concentrate on the model you're making, or animating. It feels like holding the physical modelling tools in your hands. It's priceless.

 

I've loved Silo's uncluttered and simple visual user interface, but doing things with only the mouse just takes more time in the long run. And, sure you can assign keyboard shortcuts to Silo as well, but they don't work in the practical way Blender has them -- the result of a design compromise between its many developers and users.

 

But in order to adjust to working in Blender, you pretty much need to forget about what you've learned about professional 3D modelling software UIs, and start learning fresh, because if you're still looking for every action in a mouse clickable button, you're gonna have a hell of a time finding your way around >.<' -- it's just not designed with that kind of use in mind.

 

Not to mention that the visual UI itself has a completely new approach as well, where every pane, every view in the layout is fully customisable to the user. The first thing I had to do was watch a tutorial on Blender's UI, and re-organise the visual UI to my liking (to make it look more like 3DS Max and Silo, which I'm used to ). But the advantage of this fully customisable user interface, once again, is that you can have many different visual working spaces within one software, each suited to a different task in the modelling/rigging/animating/etc. workflow, and still one, universal way to access all the functions you need at your fingertips.

 

I can highly recommend Blender now to anyone. You can start learning to model with something simpler, like Silo, but it's worth to transition as soon as you feel ready and confident enough to tackle a better tool and user experience.

 

There, I said it. (Sorry, Silo.)

 

Out of curiosity, has anyone here worked with both Maya and Blender? How does Blender compare to the capabilities and user experience of Maya?

[Boothand]

We used Maya in our first year at school. If me or my classmates say 'this program is almost as bad as Maya', it means it's quite horrible to use. It has become a joke, but we had many shocking 'episodes' using Maya, basically boiling down to bugs, crashes, cluttered interfaces, menus, very tedious approaches, more bugs and downright accepting that this program is broken. I wish I had the details, but I have supressed it all. I'm sure someone who has only used Maya would prove me wrong, but as a Blender fan, Maya is a piece of opposite.

 

Anyway, Maya is notorious for good animation tools. If you're familiar with them, I'm sure it's excellent, but I would rather use freeware (Blender) with really good animation tools, though probably lacking some of Maya's strengths, given the (in my opinion) superior modeling tools!

Oh, and if you have to pay for it, I'd deem you mad to use any Autodesk products when Blender is free, though I won't deny some love for 3DS Max.