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Noob modeling/texturing thread


Maximius

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Hey sunshine, its been a while! I'd assumed the authorities had recaptured you...

 

Seriously Max, I think you ask too many questions. Just work things out for yourself, and it'll all become clear. I can see why it's taken you so long to learn LW, and you're still struggling, because any time you run into the slightest hitch, you run off to ask someone what the problem is.

That's not a very efficient way to learn it. The fastest and most comprehensive way to learn, is through your own testing and experimentation.

 

Thats the whole point of this thread though. Literally that is the point of it, stupid questions. If I can get an answer to a question quickly and it costs someone else nothing but two seconds of their typing time, whats the harm? Gets the job done faster, I don't care if its a stupid question.

 

And I disagree, its a highly efficient way to learn. Now in a few paragraphs between spar and orb not only do I have duplicate, but I am starting to understand the difference between edit and object modes a bit better. In essence, I am calling on an expert system, one silly question brings three or four paragraphs of discussion of functions, which often are more "networked" answers than the more "linear" answers I would get out of a tutorial. Which by the way, at least for LW, universally suck in my opinion. Its obvious almost no one who makes those things, bless their labors and all, knows anything about teaching or instruction.

 

Working things out for themselves is an agonizing way to learn, especially when you are entering an entirely new field as I did when I started modeling. I spent the first three or four months in LW thinking I couldn't use any of my projects because they weren't "glued" together. Only much later, in a stupid question post in fact, did I discover that upon exporting the parts of an object stay together regardless. How many nights I wasted trying to glue or weld or whatever and then discarding projects because they would warp when I did so. It seemed self evident to me that they would have to be joined somehow and anyway its impossible for a noob to determine what is a minor error and what might trash a lot of hard work. I never questioned it , while to those who were helping me such a point probably was too minor to even occur to them.

 

And I'll happily admit I've found modeling one of the toughest things I've ever had to learn. I just did not take to it like I have other things, I would sit in frustration for days on end sometimes hating LW and myself because it wasn't flowing fast enough for me.

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Well, you say this is a highly efficient way to learn, but you've been learning it for most of the year now, and still asking what I consider basic and obvious questions.

Now, I know you're an intelligent man, so it must be your learning methods that are at fault, which is why I'm saying this.

I know that I learned lightwave very quickly on my own, because I despise asking for help, so I'd have to say that working things out on your own through experimentation is the best way to do it, because not only to you find the answer to the specific question you have, but you learn about a dozen other related things while you're at it, it's all subliminally sinking in. Simply asking someone 'how do I do X', and them replying 'this is how you do x', only teaches you one thing for one situation.

I could show you my first Lightwave model, a model I made of Garrett, but you probably wouldn't believe it.

So, the next time you think you can't figure something out, make an exra effort to do so, and play around and experiment along the way, before resorting to aksing for a direct answer. This is one area where a meandering path is much better than a straight road.

It's not as if you're on your own, like a caveman who's just been presented with a computer.

You have the documentation, you have Dan Alban's excellent book, and you have all the resources and tutorials that the internet provides.

The best way to use Dan's books is to go through them, start to finish, and complete everything in it. You're constantly learning along the meandering path that it provides. Again, trying to cut a straight path through it, to the exact answer you want, doesn't work very well.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Working with experimentation has it's limitation. Learning a computer application like Blender is very inefficient if you do it with experimenting, because many keyboard shortcuts don't have an immediate visual feedback so you may not even know that something happened.

Using google and looking for tutorials is IMO much more efficient, because waiting for an answer in a forum takes time. Most of the time I already have the answer found on my own, before it is answered.

Gerhard

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Don't forget though, this is a largely artistic enterprise we're talking about here, and therefore, experimenting with your tools to find your perfect working method, is the only way to go.

No one can, or should, tell you how to work, or what methods you should use.

Yes, it's ok to ask and learn at the start, about the basics, but you should be on your own from there.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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For Blender, I recommend:

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/

 

and

 

http://blenderunderground.com/

 

There is a wide range of tutorials in both text and video format, which I have found very educational. It is true that experimentation is very useful, but tutorials are a good way of building up a repertoire of basic techniques which you wouldn't otherwise have discovered on your own (for example, I never knew about vertex weights or curve modifiers in Blender until I followed a couple of tutorials, but by God are they powerful tools).

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Well, you say this is a highly efficient way to learn, but you've been learning it for most of the year now, and still asking what I consider basic and obvious questions.

 

You are correct but let me point out a few things.

 

This is Blender, and I've only really started messing with it about two months ago, and in that time I've started a grad course. All I'll say is "Ooof."

 

So I've actually done a bit of more complex modeling in LW, including finally texturing something and adding a normal map. I was getting better and right when my LW installation went kaput and refused to work even after total reinstalling, I had to jump over to Blender, which is when class started.

 

While I was learning LW, actually only a little bit after it was given to me IIRC, was the holdup, then three months of working in the second or third most violent neighborhood in Philly, then meltdown. I was diagnosed with Post traumatic stress symptoms (I cannot imagine what PTS syndrome is like if these are only symptoms) and told to quit work and to move ASAP. Thats literally what my shrink prescribed for me. I probably should have taken the drugs she offered too but I hate pharmaceutical shit. But I was far from OK after leaving work.

 

Ever have the feeling that someones going to shoot you in the head at any moment? I did, for roughly eight plus months. Even at home, at my computer, in the dark at night on my third floor, I would sometimes look up at my front window and think "If a stray bullet comes from the north side, what are the odds of it passing through my window and hitting me? Really, really small." And then I would move my chair anyway. I would get hyped, feeling better, and rip out a bunch of stuff, write papers, model, la la la, for a few days, then crash, paranoia, rage, dreams of buying a gun and killing those kids who robbed me, the works.

 

I'm not dumping this on you as a guilt trip or anything, maestro, your criticisms are correct prima facie but you must understand the context too. This is not normal Max at all, I assure you.

 

I could show you my first Lightwave model, a model I made of Garrett, but you probably wouldn't believe it.

.....

The best way to use Dan's books is to go through them, start to finish, and complete everything in it. You're constantly learning along the meandering path that it provides. Again, trying to cut a straight path through it, to the exact answer you want, doesn't work very well.

 

I'd like to see that model. And there is a lot of truth to what you say, no question. I will become much more independent in a short bit, you'll see. I was getting well set with LW actually, not only texturing but adding details with normals, like the war pick I made. I managed to finally place some "worked metal" details on the side of the pick literally the last time LW worked on my puter.

 

I would like to dedicate myself to LW and Dan for a bit and really get into it as you describe, but thats not an option at this point. Perhaps once this course is over and I am only busy paying the fucking thing off, but LW doesn't work right now and I've got too much else on my plate at the moment for a OS reinstall which is what I think LW needs to get working again. Blender works so thats my focus at present.

Edited by Maximius
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Working with experimentation has it's limitation. Learning a computer application like Blender is very inefficient if you do it with experimenting, because many keyboard shortcuts don't have an immediate visual feedback so you may not even know that something happened.

Using google and looking for tutorials is IMO much more efficient, because waiting for an answer in a forum takes time. Most of the time I already have the answer found on my own, before it is answered.

 

 

I did search a bit but I was looking for a Clone function instead of Duplicate, which I somehow missed on that keyboard map. I downloaded a Blender tutorial on cloning only to find it was about cloning jpeg images or some crap like that, so since I was already responding to my arch-stupidity of the bottle selection conundrum on the forum I thought that I would piggy back that question. Believe me I've been watching Blender tutorials for a few weeks now. I just now have only caught up on readings to start applying them.

 

But I'm still in favor of a stupid question forum, its friendly for noobs, there are definitely important questions that can be answered well in such a format, and it often generates valuable chatter. When I do get better, I will happily answer dumb questions, as a teacher I know they are the fertilizer that great gardens blossom from! :D

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I was diagnosed with Post traumatic stress symptoms (I cannot imagine what PTS syndrome is like if these are only symptoms) and told to quit work and to move ASAP. Thats literally what my shrink prescribed for me. I probably should have taken the drugs she offered too but I hate pharmaceutical shit. But I was far from OK after leaving work.

Tell me you managed to move, man. Nobody should have to suffer through that sort of shit.

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Tell me you managed to move, man. Nobody should have to suffer through that sort of shit.

 

I'm hoping to hell it starts tomorrow, we are looking at two places and one on Friday. That process is a nightmare of its own but we finally found something affordable for two adult students, only a train stop or two from the city, low crime rate, mostly student and professional neighbors, low key. And then Canada as soon as we can scrape the cash together. She's on board now with that 100%.

 

We just had a girl shot a block and a half away two weeks back, this summer my g-friends bus the 33 had a murder ON it and a murder at one of its stops four blocks east of here. She missed the bus of death by about a half an hour, she passed it on the way home from work and it was pulled over with police tape around it. If she had left work at the regular time she would have been on it. Now she takes a circuitous route that tacks on 20 minutes but who cares.

 

Ironically, the guy who got killed *almost* missed that bus as well. He had to run to get it and the bus driver actually stopped to let him on after he missed the stop. As he ran up the stairs into the bus, bang, killer hops out. The victim was a young dude and apparently a tough ass, he had threatened to kill this older guy for some reason. Old guy headed him off at the pass Philly style, he got on the kids bus route a few stops down and waited for him. He got nailed and it probably rotting away somewhere now.

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Wow! Really! That sounds like something out of a gangster movie. I'm glad that I doesn't have to live in such an environment. On the other hand, a few weeks ago there was the Love Parade in our town. At around 2AM a women went home from there, and our area is quite devoid of poeple because there are living mostly workers, so the street is literally empty at night. She got stabbed from a young man, but she fought him and could get away and survived heavily injured. The police already found the guy, but he claims he was under drugs and didn't know what he did (though I don't really believe it).

This was about 20-30 meters from my house. We only heard of it, because the next morning, when I walked with me dog, we saw a lot of police searching the house where it happened in front, because they hoped to find the knife or other stuff. They passed around a picture that was drawn because of the description of the victim. My son got so upset about this (he is 5) that he is now quite afraid to be alone in the dark, doesn't go into the cellar anymore and it's really quite extreme with him. He also talks a lot about the murder and is afraid that he might come and kill us. :(

 

I mean I never eevn got close to such events, because Vienna is pretty quiet. Of course there are murders, but they are usually of the jealous kind of type. It's extremely rare that somebody gets killed on the street like this. Here in Germany it's pertty much the same. We had a mafia kill only in the next town a few weeks ago, where six men were murdered because they cheated some other mafia guys in Itlay and hid here afterwards. But this kind of thing didn't happen in years I think. Not even robbing on the streets or so. The usall thing is more of the quiet type. Stealing a car when the owner is away, or stealing or frauding a card and trying to cash the money, this kind of thing.

This murder next door to me is somethign I never really expected to happen in my life, being so close to it and I don't really miss this kind of thing. I can really imagine how you must feel, living in such an environment. :(

Gerhard

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Im sorry the hear about your son spar, thats not an easy thing for a kid to deal with let alone an adult. I wish you the best.

 

Don't hesitate to talk to someone with the little guy if you can, I resisted at first but I did find it very helpful. I had a great deal of disdain for therapy, so many people use it as a crutch I thought, and some do but thats not the whole story. I got a great therapist who didn't try to impose some model on me or anything but simply let me talk and express myself. Until the healthcare had decided not to cover the sessions anymore. <_<

 

Well, some good news, it looks as if we are going to get that apartment out of town finally. It will mean a lot of lifestyle changes, such as paying incredibly expensive rail passes each month, but the safety is worth it all. The neighbors are great, the town is quiet and supposedly very popular with grad students and artists and the like, my kind of crowd.

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Im sorry the hear about your son spar, thats not an easy thing for a kid to deal with let alone an adult. I wish you the best.

 

The crazy thing is that he never had any contact or saw anything. I just heard the story about it. I don't want to know what would happen if he would be an actual wittness.

 

Don't hesitate to talk to someone with the little guy if you can, I resisted at first but I did find it very helpful.

 

Well, we talked to him and explained it to him. Also told him that the police already arrested that guy and that all of us there to protect him and also our dog. This helps a bit, but still, he got a hard time because of this. :(

 

I had a great deal of disdain for therapy, so many people use it as a crutch I thought, and some do but thats not the whole story. I got a great therapist who didn't try to impose some model on me or anything but simply let me talk and express myself. Until the healthcare had decided not to cover the sessions anymore. <_<

 

I think talking about it to someone can indeed help. I never was in such an extreme situation, but what I usually do to get something like this off my chest is, to remember (or try to imagine) such a situation in all detail. In the beginning it's quite hard and you my shy away from it pretty soon, but the more often you do this, and the more realistic, the deeper you can go until it's resolved. Actually this is also what therapists often do with victims, to overcome their trauma.

 

Well, some good news, it looks as if we are going to get that apartment out of town finally. It will mean a lot of lifestyle changes, such as paying incredibly expensive rail passes each month, but the safety is worth it all. The neighbors are great, the town is quiet and supposedly very popular with grad students and artists and the like, my kind of crowd.

 

That sounds like a real improvement. :) If you can afford it, nothing should hold you back there, even if it is only half as horrible as you described it.

Gerhard

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We got the place, I'm happy to report. Sigh. I already feel better, the need to pack and stuff is displacing the goblins twixt me ears. I cannot wait to get my fish tanks set up at the new place.

 

So anyway, to bring the thread back to some semblance of the topic, I've made a few simple models now in Blender and I'm going to tackle texturing them next. So give me a bit to read up on texturing and I'll post some stuff ASAP.

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Thanks for your good wishes guys, it means a lot to me, and now even more good news: I got a part time job at my school. Its only 20 hours a week but its a foot in the door, if I can stick around and get full time work its free tuition for me. As in no cost, zilcho, zip. At least a free Masters from the S.O.B.s. I have to find something else to do in my spare time but this is a good start. Finally a fucking break!

 

I'm going to be a coffee-fetcher for the director of fiscal policy at the Genetics Research Lab at UPenn. Its really fascinating work, not mine, what they do, the cutting edge of medical technology and all. Plus, I get to see monkeys! Before they die for the good of humanity that is. Supposedly they lead very happy lives before they are sacrificed. I want one for a pet to be totally honest. They wouldn't miss just one, would they? One little rhesus monkey? (I'd probably take the one being used for hantavirus vector research with my luck.)

 

I think I got the job because when the director and her deputy were interviewing me and mentioned the monkeys, I told them I would have no problems working with or around them and if one got away I had a butterfly net of my own to retrieve them with. I actually waved my arms around like I was pursuing a fucking monkey around her office with a net. The one lady laughed so hard she snorted like a horse.

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I don't think they do genetic modifications there, if they do I'm going to ask for a life size replica of Selma Hyek. With the baby fat like in "Dusk till Dawn."

 

What is certain is that I won't be doing anything of real interest. But my bosses said they like to go to the bar upstairs after work some nights. Now thats my kind of office culture!

Edited by Maximius
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I don't think they do genetic modifications there, if they do I'm going to ask for a life size replica of Selma Hyek. With the baby fat like in "Dusk till Dawn."

 

What is certain is that I won't be doing anything of real interest. But my bosses said they like to go to the bar upstairs after work some nights. Now thats my kind of office culture!

 

 

mmm, Selma in red velvet bikini !!! If you can get a copy of that for me I'll run the coffe for ya:D

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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Hey, cool, glad to hear it.

 

Watch out for the mad scientists. :D

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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  • 1 month later...

I've been puttering around with the textures for my lute model.

 

http://i4.tinypic.com/8e5ues5.jpg

 

http://i12.tinypic.com/8730xp4.jpg

 

It's still wip, I've got even more design work planned for the fretboard and border, but I thought I'd show what I've got so far just for kicks.

I really love this rosette design I found. (I had to manually photoshop out the strings in the source photograph by hand! I should show it without the model's strings getting in the way. Still needs some more tweaking, too...)

This isn't the most current model because I'm making the strings into an alpha texture to save polys (latest model is 451 tri's), so I just used this little older one for now.

 

Edit: Here's a better view of the rosette.

http://i12.tinypic.com/8g8rh9e.jpg

Edited by demagogue

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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