I am a programmer since 5 years now and I already tried some 3d modeling. If I want to create a game I will probably have to do this mainly on my own. (small project with few models)
I have access to maya and 3ds max (university) and I already tried them both. I watched several tutorials 2 years ago.
Now do you even think it is possible to create good looking assets as somebody who has very little time or would this be a waste of time and I just should focus on one thing?
I think I could produce some static objects with references such as weapons that could look pretty decent, I am just curious how long I would need to create one of those. (I am not talking about characters here, I have very little knowledge about human anatomy)
What tutorials would you recommend me to get a fast start? (Something like digitaltutors?)
Will I need additional software, like zbrush? (Even the acedemic license is very expensive)
My universal rule is, if you can’t do it right, don’t do it. People will accept a blue cube before they’ll accept a low-quality model.
It takes years of professional training and experience to make good models and textures. If you’re a solid programmer, keep focusing on that; fill in areas that you’re weak in.
If you absolutely need assets, pay someone or buy them from sites like TurboSquid. Otherwise, if you can get polished gameplay, using placeholders (vector/primitives) then it won’t be too difficult to find an artist willing to create the assets to get the game done.
I would never create something that doesn’t look completely polished. I would be happy to create only the weapons in my game, so I can start to showcase my game in the future. I am talking here about highly polished weapons.
I am just asking if this is possible to achieve if I can’t spend too much time on learning. Max 4-8h a weak.
I already spent over 300h in maya, I just didn’t touch it for 2 years. I will give it a shot.
Edit:
I forgot to ask on thing. Is there a difference between normal modeling and game modeling? Because the game object obviously needs less polygons or is it possible to convert a high poly object to a lower one?
Regardless you should start modelling low and build up. To create a highpoly character and then go down is backwards, unless you work with zbrush and then retopo your character afterwards using that detail for a normal map or a base for texturing.
Well, you should be modelling low to create your basemesh, then take that into z-brush, then go high as you like then back down to a ‘realtime’ subdivision and bake your maps between that and your highest level. However you can start high in zbrush and it’s a common process to do so then retopologise with topogun or similar, its not that painful a process.
Ive been a 3D artist a long time, although not really a modeller, i find it hard to explain how i approach 3D and one thing i can vouch for is the above mention of existing high quality assets - they’re a good idea. However if you have a bunch of time and motivation, digitaltutors is a treasure rove of extremely good video training on most aspects of all this you can imagine. I think with enough practice then a programmer can become fine with 3d modelling, and vice versa, and i believe its very valuable for someone making games to have such a strong insight into aspects of the process.
Yes what you mention is a certainly a good process but not for a beginner I’d say. You should learn to walk before you run. Throwing yourself into learning maya and zbrush, retopo, baking normal maps etc might be abit overwhelming for a beginner. I’ve also been working as a 3D artist for many years doing both game art and prerendered stuff and although I find zbrush an invaluable tool you don’t need it for everything. Often a solid lowpolymesh and a quality texture is all you need (its all depended on what style you are going for ofc) and as a beginner I firmly believe you should start off with a very restricted polycount and learn to master that before anything else. Way to often I see beginner going nuts with polys, smoothing everything to hell, forgetting edgeloops compeletly, have randomly different density. Learn to lay out your polys carefully, think about edgeloops to get a nice flow and a sense of the form. When you’ve got that down you can start going into more advanced techniques. Thats my two cents anyway
edit: I saw highdetalied weapons was mentioned, For that I would stay away from Zbrush actually. although you can do hardsurface modelling in Zbrush my expereince is that you have better control in Maya and you don’t risk the “lumpiness” that you easily can get in zbrush.
I actually completely agree wirh what you said, especially regarding not using zbrush for everything (Or many things for that matter). If youe doing hard surface, for starting out go absolutely nowhere near zbrush, You can create the object from simple box modelling techniques, as stated concentrate on keeping things as quads and that you can consistently maintain edgeloops and if you’re feeling brave (its also fun too) you can start looking at the joys of normal maps, in max use the subdivision in your poly edit panel (Im not sure what the maya process is) on a copy of the model and add loops to ‘harden out’ the subdivided version. xNormal will bake out a nice map between the low poly and subdivided version and it can be surprising what a difference it makes… and you went nowhere near zbrush
Yes, lots. There’s obviously the poly budget issue (though not quite as daunting as some may lead you to believe). You’ll want to be sure that animated assets will be able to move properly; without sharp, pointy joints, or rogue polys flying off into space when your character moves (not an issue if you’re just doing weapons), you need to consider the origin/pivot points of your assets, you need to consider the scale and how the engine imports assets (Unity is a bit odd in this department). Lot’s of things that need to be optimized and refined when creating assets for a game.
There are some add-ons and features in various modeling programs that can change the LOD of a model, though, from what I’ve heard, they aren’t perfect, and its a bit more complicated than just clicking the button.
Nice another Max artist! Love it If I do hardsurface modelling I have a base mesh, add a edit poly layer in the stack on which I do the edgebevelling. That way I don’t risk ruining the basemesh if the bevelling goes whack. On top of that I add a polysmoothlayer. To be honest I haven’t used Max much the last years so there might be better ways now
With Unity , i’d say rather then waste years trying to be a good artist, buy a model off the asset store and move on . With the Mecamm its very easy to take animations from one model and assign it to a different one .
Otherwise your trying to be a jack of all trades and master of none .
Have you used max since they added the graphite poly tools? To my understanding max was sorely behind maya in this regard until their addition, but they make things all kinds of easier. I think there’s probably a modifier-based way that stops me having to duplicate my basemesh but generally from the initial poly edit i add a couple of levels of subdivision in side the editable poly rollout, go to edge mode so i can see the original cage and use the swiftloop tool to create loops where i want harder edges and the subdivided version obviously hardens up to reflect the addition of the detail, its actually a really fun process getting a high poly model that looks really nice based off quite an ‘ugly’ faceted bace mesh and then the normal map is absolutely lovely (At least when done with xNormal, xNormals ‘keep high poly tangents’ avoids seams). And then technically you could paint in any extra fine detail right into the normal map using a 3D painting application
With enough time you can cover as many bases as you like, imo, and with all due respect to off the shelf game assets like those in the asset store etcetera, i think they might be ok as placeholder items but i would feel ashamed to be using products like that for a finished game of my creation. There are things like everyday props, vehicles and suchlike that work well being bought ‘off the shelf’ but for character models and especially central feature models, i wouldnt dream of using asset store packs
I don’t want to build characters in the near future. It is really hard to create a high polished character. I just want to focus on things like walls , boxes , weapons. I think with the help of digitaltutors I would be able to do this just fine.
Off the shelf model > model made by someone who doesn’t know what their doing .
If it gets really serious hire a model to make you some custom ones .
At least if you buy an off the shelf model is going to look halfway decent . Plus if your a one man team you need to focus on what you can , like I know i’m not 3D artist, and while I could spend 6 months messing around in blender the end result is still going to be trash .
Unless your actually running a company, and doing this professionally , I don’t see the problem with using off the self assets .
I’m a nobody, but i’d say focus on making the best game you can with free or asset store assets . Then when you have something really nice find an artist to work with you , swap out the placeholders and you have a game !
Its hard enough learning to code , don’t add more work for yourself .
You should better not start on 3d art just with the argument of wanted to make model for your game, I don’t think this will get you very far and in that case as already said you may be better using someone else model even as place holder.
I did 3d stuff , not much now as I am more busy into programming and I find trying to do both a bit hard to keep focus…but when I start on model that was really for modelling purpose and wanted to learn and practice it.
if you want learn it you better do it on the side , just for learning exercises, and slowly build your skill up , for low poly model any 3d app is fine , you do not need a lot of feature…you will have more hard time eventually with texturing which i feel the most challenging part, in other term a not very good model can look eventually good with a kick ass texture work , but the opposite is not going to be true.
texture work can be the most frustrating when you start…just try out to texture a simple cube to make it look cool…maybe not that easy ^^.
at the end if you feel you are motivate enough and is willing dedicate time to learn modelling…just go for it, if you can do both code and some art , just good enough for your need there is nothing wrong with that…game cover so many aspect, you do not need to limit yourself at only one of them as long you enjoy doing them.
