[HD]Free-Hand Modeling and Texturing Video Tutorial (FREE)

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This is one of my techniques on how to quickly model quality “Next-Gen” alike models without professional concept art and references.
Technique uses sculpting to manipulate models instead of accurate modeling with your favorite tools.
Pelt mapping techniques are used to speed up unwrapping complex models in a matter of minutes, as well as texture painting directly on a 3D model by using high quality textures.

Pros:
Super fast quality modeling
Super fast unwrapping
Super fast texturing
Super easy normal map generation
Works perfectly with organic models, because nothing is perfect in the nature.
Easy way to add dirt and damage to your models

Cons:
Inaccurate with artificial objects, i.e. Engineering.
You should not really do planes, tanks or anything that needs precision or is square-ish. You can however use same tools for painting them or normal mapping!

Details:
Quality - HD 720p
Length - 02:40:30
Size total - 916 MB (HD 50% compression)

Videos:

Full Playlist - For those who wants to watch it all, just click this link and enjoy the cinema.

Sketching - [Watch (04:40)] : This is where you should always start. Roughly sketch your idea, you don’t have to be pro to do that, but this will always help you, because while sketching on a “paper”, new ideas will keep flowing non-stop. Try it! Here i am showing how it’s done myself. This tutorial was born right in the middle of creation of this video, no pre-scripting or modeling!

Rough modeling - Watch [Part 1 (14:30)] [Part 2 (14:47)] [Part 3 (05:45)] : Here we are using our favorite modeling software to do a rough sketch of a 3D model. You can do this very inacurate without worrying about consequences later to much, as we are not going to use it for modeling. We only need a base mesh to start from, similar to clay sculpting.

Freehand Sculpting - [Part 1 (14:40)] [Part 2 (14:17)] [Part 3 (03:00)] : This is where the actual modeling happens. We take our base mesh, make it high poly and start sculpting detail on it as well as manipulate the mesh itself. Remember, while you are editing high poly version, low poly is also being edited in the mean time. You can also do this with ZBrush or any other descent sculpting tool out there. I use Mudbox because it’s so damn easy and straight-forward.

Unwrapping UVWs - [Part 1 (13:42)] [Part 2 (14:00)] [Part 3 (12:03)] : This is the biggest nightmare of any modeler out there. However this tutorial will teach you on how to effectively use Max’s Pelt mapping tool to unwrap very complex models in matter of minutes. It also covers detailed information on how Pelt and smoothing tools works. This tutorial will get you unwrapping almost any model whether you are pro or just starting

Painting - [Watch (12:01)] : This is where you are shown on how to import multiple high quality textures and use them to paint your own. Painting directly on a 3D model is very fun and rewarding, it helps you quickly apply color variations on your model without any extra alt-tabbing around. It’s more like WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) technique and is way more powerful than any other. This is inaccurate however, but you will be shown how to export your new texture to PSD and manipulate it with external tools for precision.

Exporting - [Watch (07:23)] : How to do Normal Maps. Some people calls them bump maps, but that is wrong, bump maps are something totally different.

Photoshop - [Watch (14:57)] : Here i am showing how to export to PSD and manually add/tweak your own textures on top of painted layer.

Finishing Touches - [Watch (05:03)] : Got seams? got something wrong? To lazy to go back to Photoshop and figure it out? No problem. Here i am showing on how to hide defects, fix seams and add some neat looking dirt and damage to your model. If you are tired of seeing clean oil barrels in games, here’s how you add some rust to it, that also affects environment, the barrel sits on!

Unity - [Watch (09:42)] : Importing object into unity. This is very poorly covered by me, as it’s already been covered by many others. I uploaded it mainly just to show you difference between very low poly and higher poly counts of our mesh when imported into engine. Did you spot that difference at the end? No? If you did it right, then you shouldn’t!!

Here’s some more images on what you can do with this technique

Did you like this tutorial? Why not share images of your work, using this technique in this thread?
Thank you for reading!

-Ray

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wow… no one commented on this yet? shame on you guys this is good stuff!

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Easy big fellow… Gotta wander into this forum to see whats what. This is a marvelous video set and a terrific contribution to the community.
I"m sure as folks pass through, they will be genuinely grateful for Ray’s hard work.

Awesome stuff Ray!

B.

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hey guys, thanks for kind words, very very appreciated :slight_smile:

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Actually, this is an imprecise, inefficient, incomplete and ugly technique to use. Which is why I haven’t commented on it yet.

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As title states, it’s “Free-Hand” modeling. Anything made with free hand is imprecise, that is correct. Incomplete? yes because it was not found on internet, but born in my mind, not as an artist in mind, but an idea. While zBrush have tools to do Max’s part, Mudbox and other cheaper sculpting tools doesn’t. Ugly? Why? it does what it states - it’s fast for organic and natural objects, not synthetic. Inefficient? NO! It is actually very efficient. First of all for people starting in this area, second of all for sketches and drafts, thirdly for speed. It’s not inefficient, just because you don’t use it, not the way you are doing it!
Take programmer for example, when Unity’s basic primitives are simply not enough to do the job with, let’s say collisions. Instead of waiting for or finding a modeler, he can quickly draft nice looking model in matter of minutes, including mesh, unwrapping and textures, with no artistic side or experience whatsoever.

Here’s something i drafted simple model in 1 hour, just to prove you wrong. All is required here, is your imagination, not experience. Very simple terrain sculpting.
Enjoy:

WEB Player Version here (Mouse Click to move, Wheel to zoom)

P.S. I would appreciate bit more detail on such statements and trolling posts. Thank you
-Ray

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Imprecise because you do it via a sculpting program. I guess if that’s the style you’re after then fair enough. But you’re not using a proper basemesh nor showing any indication that you understand what sculpting apps prefer to use as a mesh.

Inefficient because you’re baking that all down to a unique texture on a really poorly packed UV set. You could do that scene in about 1/8 to 1/4 of the texture resolution with more detailed results by using tiling textures, vertex blending, shared UVs…

Incomplete in that it shows no consideration for the technical side of getting good results, nothing of that is explained. Smoothing/UV seams are ignored, the UV packing is rubbish… You’ve also baked out a world space normal map and are trying to use it as a tangent space normal map - this shows you don’t have a clue what normal maps are or how to use them.

And all that adds up to it being ugly. The end result isn’t very nice to look at, especially compared to what could be achieved in the same time-frame using proper methods.

While it might be a strange way you like using to do some placeholder/programmer art… it’s really an awful way to make actual game assets. It’s not a technique that any artist would use or a method that should be encouraged for people to make game assets with.

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True about normals, messed up there. Only week later i found out that Unity uses Tangent space.
I don’t really know how to work and apply multiple textures in Unity, did know how to do them for UDK, guess it’s a shader or something
Also correct methods are scattered all over the web. While i agree with most what you said, i am not really willing to spend another week of my free time to redo the whole tutorial, i know there are lots of good modelers out there, but those guys just know how to do criticism, ain’t contributing alot. Money speaks.
While it’s far away from being perfect and complete, i still believe it’s quite a good start for many people here.

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While I agree with Farfarer in that you should, ideally, understand concepts before teaching them to others I still think this is a good tutorial for the beginner/intermediate modeler. And demanding that anyone who makes a tutorial is a master of his craft to prevent new people from learning unoptimal methods is of course unrealistic.

I think there’s way too much focus on this everywhere, including programming, game development and modelling. People seem so afraid of starting out with the wrong methods that they never even get started. Threads like “What is the best way?” are really not needed. If you have a way then use it. If it is so bad it doesn’t work you should probably look for a new one, but if it does work then use it until you discover something better.

There’s however one crucial step which I think should be mentioned in video 8. You say that the base mesh is now changed and that’s ok, but I disagree. This base mesh is not something you want in a game engine. Ideally you would create a new, optimized base mesh within Mudbox or 3ds Max using your high poly as a guide and then scrap the base mesh you started with.

Everyone should always question their methods and look to improving them and if this tutorial gets someone started that’s great and I’m sure as they keep improving they will find new and better methods. That’s just my opinion.

I agree with Farfarer in that this is not something an experience modeler would do, but then again I don’t see experienced programmers as the intended audience here. For them there’s Eat 3d, Gnomon and the like where you can learn from industry professionals who utilize tried and true methods for creating high quality models as fast as possible. A beginner modeler would most likely not be able to follow those tutorials.

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There’s a difference between using bad methods by yourself and being taught bad methods.

e.g.

I’m an experienced artist but a newbie to programming, the code for my games would make programmers cringe.

I’m competent enough that I can get a game going, even doing some fairly complex stuff. However, I’m fully aware that I have nowhere near the knowledge to be considered proficient. I know that the methods I’m using are bad, so I wouldn’t dream of putting together a tutorial and claiming that what I was doing was a valid way of programming.

I’m not knocking the time and effort taken to put a tutorial together to share with folk (tutorials are a lot of work, I know). Nor am I demanding master-of-craft expertise from every tutorial maker (although it would be nice).

What I am saying is that unless you understand the fundamentals of what you are teaching, you should be very careful that you aren’t teaching things you don’t understand.

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I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t agree.

Video tutorials are the quickest tutorials to make and the best tutorials to learn from, yet few bother to make them. Anyone who does should be praised no matter their attitude or skill level. Anyone watching this tutorial can either learn from it or turn it down, in which they can just walk away, troll (like you did initially), or critique the teachings of the tutorial in which case the tutor can choose to learn from your insight.

I don’t understand a lot of the things I do in Unity yet if someone ask me for help I tell them how I did it. If someone more proficient than me comes along they can lecture me on how to do it more effieciently and I’ll learn from it. If the people I taught continue to use my inefficient method without asking questions then they would not succeed in any computer related industry either way. If they at some point question my method then they will surely find something better.

Expecting that any tutorial out there is made by someone with complete comprehension of their craft is unrealistic. If a tutorial enables you to reach your goal then go for it, no matter if that goal is making your first 3d model or releasing a commercial game. There’s no reason why models created following this tutorial can’t be used in a commercial game. It may not be as pretty or as optimized as it could have been, but if the game works and plays well who cares? If it fails because of the 3d models then looking elsewere for tutelage is perhaps wise.

If I’m misunderstanding you and your issue is with Ray’s attitude for hailing this as the one true way of modeling next-gen models or some shit then I can’t comment because I just skimmed the initial post and the videos. :slight_smile:

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Perhaps, but I see so many new/learning artists who blindly do things because some tutorial told them that’s how it’s done.

Especially “silver bullet” stuff like this tutorial or like throwing a diffuse texture straight into Crazybump rather than fixing it for use as a height map, or using lowest subdivision level meshes as the in-game mesh rather than doing proper retopology.

Experienced artists know when they can get away with cutting corners like that, newbies don’t.

I really dislike that that mentality and would like to see it nipped in the bud is all.