3D Art in the playground

[CommodoreFluffy]

Hello!
It's been a while since I have posted, mostly due to the computer class I am taking (Makes me cringe when I go on the interwebs :smalleek:). But now I have found something which interests me, Tridimensional Design, or as it is more commonly known, 3D Design. A free, and apparently adequate 3d modeling program, known as Blender, which has an internal renderer, game engine, and animation process, is a relatively easy way to make enjoyable three dimensional art. I am still a novice, and would like some tips from some of you guys, and we can show off our modest (or insanely good) work for others to criticize (constructively).

Here is my first peice.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee63/CommodoreFluffy/Image.jpg
*EDIT*//It is a funny looking block

I have yet to model anything real, and would like suggestions for an easy first project.


Thanks, The Commodore

[Haruki-kun]

Wow, that's pretty cool! I'd love to give that a try.... Ah, well, I'll try it out eventually, maybe.

[CommodoreFluffy]

:UPDATE:
Link to Free Download of Blender:
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

[Echowinds]

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/035/e/4/Excalibur_by_Echowinds.jpg

This is probably the best out of the few 3D things I did. It's suppose to be modeled after this (http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6103/weapons6la6.jpg).

[Bryn]

To everyone who hasn't (oviously not the OP, who has), I highly reccomend taking a look at Blender (http://www.blender.org), fully open source 3D software with a lot of tools for all aspects of 3D graphics. In many older topics I have spoken at length of its virtues, and it could easily (albeit arguably) said to come near to mainstream commercial software such as Maya in capabilities (http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/features/).

Most of my Blender work is pretty terrible, but some of my stuff rises to the 'average' level :smallamused: Here are a few examples of my better stuff. Almost all have had at least a little post-processing applied. Also note that they are all much lower resolution than the copies that I used in whichever projects I made them for.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5596/headerki7.png
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8278/finalrenderiaph5.png
I am in the process of animating this here ship, which is a Mars class Battlecruiser from Warhammer 40000.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4245/coverlogosmallao1.png
This one was created for a Design Technology project, being the cover of a board game.
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/7425/dadcard2008smallag8.png
This is a father's day card for my dad. It was reasonably simple to do, since I did it at the last minute, with most of the look coming from the post-processing in the GIMP.
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/7632/spacesunrisefz5.png
This is a scene from the above mentioned animation of that there ship.

[hr]On what's been posted so far:
To the OP, I have written better comments here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4580554&postcount=8). Sorry for not doing so in the first place!

To Echowinds, that looks like a nice low-poly sword. The hilt and the blade look fine, and the textures are applied well. When I first saw the guard, I thought it didn't really live up to the rest of the sword, but looking at the reference I can't really see how it could be changed, so all in all good work! I do suggest increasing the curved shape of the hilt.

[Palin11]

Well Commodore, it looks like your thread got hijacked. LoL.

I would have to say your first piece is not bad at all, it looks like you had some fun with the textures and rendering and the end product is definitely well displayed. As my 3d graphics teacher constantly harped, "you can have the best model in the world but unless you know how to display it nobody gives a crap." So, I give you full marks on presentation.

I do have one suggestion, this may sound silly and before blender fanbois eat me alive I'll give my reasoning. Start with Anim8or, GameSpace Lite or Wings3d, my only problem with Blender is that it takes a while to learn, face it, it's like learning to sculpt with a full set of carpenter's tools and no one there to show you which is the putty knife and which is the awl. So, pick up something simple first, something you can learn to use in an afternoon and then learn to model. Once you can really model you can master any program.

Learn the basics then expand into the complex, you'll be a much better artist for it in the end.

[St.Sinner]

Now that you know how to make blocks of different shapes, I think a good progression would be making something a bit more complex but still very block-like, like a table perhaps. Later on something less block-like but simple, like a spoon or a fork. Household items and furniture make useful starting models, especially because you can stare at them from every which way to get a real feel of how they should look. Exprerimenting with surface textures sounds like a good idea too.

I found one I did a couple of years ago. I was trying to make a screensaver type of thing with some fishes just swimming about in the weeds, and well, it turned out like this.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e30/StSinner08/Art/underwater3ab2.jpg

[Bryn]

To the OP: sorry, I rather unfairly hijacked your thread with a massive dump of my 3D work, addressing your request to see others' work far more than your request for critique. I've added spoiler tags to counteract this problem, so hopefully this apology is acceptable... :smallamused:

OK, from what you have, you know how to extrude faces, how to manipulate geometry in general, how to add geometric primitives such as that plane, and how to move the light source around. You're already off to a good start.

Before I carry on, I reccomend the Blender Artists Forums (http://blenderartists.org/forum/) (formerly Elysiun, now much bigger). There is a big community there, although I don't find it as friendly as it was formerly, but they will be more than willing to give critique to your work when you show it and there are lots of people there to answer any questions you have.

The absolute best way to learn Blender is to follow tutorials; it's how I learned, and even reading them and not following the steps is extremely useful. Here is the tutorials section (http://www.blender.org/education-help/tutorials/) on the site, but that's fairly out of date; even so it has some good stuff in it. Much more up to date is the Blender Wiki (http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page).

One good way to start is the Blender: Noob to Pro (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro) guide. It has more tutorials than you can stake a stick at.

Then there's the wiki's tutorial section (http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Tutorials). I haven't looked here recently but there is sure to be something useful.

We also have a big page of links here (http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Tutorials/Links).

I have seen it suggested to start with another modelling program apart from Blender, but the documentation I've posted is only the start and Blender allows a great many things to be done which could not in other programs. When you have learned the interface (and believe me it takes a while!) you can probably also adapt tutorials written for 3DS Max, Maya, SoftImage, or whatever other program you can think of.

I started with Blender five years ago, and I learned entirely from the internet; it is possible, and there are lots of great people writing tutorials to help you.

[CommodoreFluffy]

Thanks guys.
All of you works dwarfs mine (no offence Palin11). It seems that I have a lot of catching up to do. I have actually checked out some of those tutorials and found them quite useful. If anything interesting comes up, keep me posted. I have NOTHING better to do for a couple of days.

*EDIT*
I Made a Table! Check it out. The lighting was nearly impossible, to get the legs to be anything but black blobs, so I put a secondary lantern at .6 power off to the side. Enjoy:
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee63/CommodoreFluffy/Table.jpghttp://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee63/CommodoreFluffy/sphere.jpg

[sheepofoblivion]

whee? Love the art here, I may look into the program some day...

[Flouncy]

The only thing of substance I've accomplished in 3D so far. Sigil unit 004, a greeting Droid. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v680/sin01/robot.jpg

What Id suggest you could model would be a treasure chest. Fun to create and simple in its geometric construction but will help familiarize yourself with all the tools. I found a great tutorial a almost 2 years back for a chest but sadly I can't recall where.

Ahh...here we go I found a render of what resulted from following that tutorial: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v680/sin01/found_objects.jpg

As for myself I've just decided to start a model of a 17 century, 40 gun frigate from a set of plans I have on my hard-drive. Can't wait for the frustration and fun to begin.:smallsmile:

[Totally Guy]

I did some little bits but not proper 3d art. Done with maths software.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Guitar.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Seashell2.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Cloudrotsmall.gif

[CommodoreFluffy]

Hi, I just found out how to make textures and materials, here is the new resulting table
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee63/CommodoreFluffy/TABLEI.jpg

[Bryn]

Well CommodoreFluffy, I have to say you are making fantastic progress.

Since you've found AO judging by that last picture, I reccomend pushing up the samples to get rid of that graininess. I also suggest making the table smooth (using the Set Smooth button in the editing panel) or dropping the subsurf modifier (it looks like there's subsurf there at least). Apart from that, keep going!

[St.Sinner]

You're making good progress! I'll just say that some of your polygon edges on the side of the table are still visible. Smoothing that out would make your table more realistic. And maybe some sort of wooden texture would look good on it.

I'm quite inspired to do some modelling myself now.


The only thing of substance I've accomplished in 3D so far. Sigil unit 004, a greeting Droid.

Flouncy, your droid is really cute. Does it move?

[CommodoreFluffy]

I made some of the suggested changes, and altered the lighting!. Here it is!

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee63/CommodoreFluffy/TABLEII.jpg

[St.Sinner]

Much better! It looks like one of those smooth-surfaced coffee tables now. The right leg seems to be hovering above the ground though. Or it might be the lighting that's giving that effect.

[CommodoreFluffy]

that's the lighting, and thanks

[Palin11]

You might try bringing your ambient light up closer to the table to fix that floating leg. Not sure though... that's kind of quirky....

Anyhow, looking awesome!