Background Info:
I started making games in Scratch in 8th grade. That was two years ago.
I also started using Photoshop Elements in 8th grade.
I started modeling and programming in 9th grade.
I started editing/mixing/recording sound effects this year.
I can model just about anything. Guns, buildings, scenery, levels, etc.
I can uvmap and texture about anything as well.
I am fairly good at programming in Unity.
There’s only one thing stopping me from being a one-man army.
Modeling characters.
I can draw them on paper, but I just cant model them.
I model in Wings 3D btw.
Why can’t I model people?
Is it a skill that can be learned?
Where did you guys learn?
Thats really hard to answer, since you didnt provide any actual models screens. All community can give to you are some critics or advices how to make models better, but without posting any that is very hard.
Also, the human body is much more complex than any building or gun, with lots of hidden muscles that give balance to the whole. Before moving to a 3D creation, you should study the human body thoroughly, so that you can truly envision it in 3 dimensions, and know how it moves and behaves.
I don’t know what drawing technique you use, but a good tip would be to move to paint (even digital) and go realistic: that way you’ll be forced to know and understand how the full human body works (so you can manage lights, colors, and positions/expressions). When you reach a valid result, try again with 3D
It takes a lot of time, study, and practice.
When I was learning to model characters I would start a mesh, flesh it out, delete it, and start a new one. I did this over and over. I would study what was wrong with each character each time and try to improve that on the next model. Organic forms are very complex.
You do know how to do the equivalent of that in YOUR 3d modelling application right?
I have found that in my case, once you learn to model by using background images along 2 axes, it isn’t all that hard.
Once you learn how to do that, it is less a matter of skill and more a matter of experience. The modelling part that is. The texturing, the further optimization using normal maps etc, that is more complex of course
Well, in that case, I don’t see how there could be problem if you’ve been doing 3d modelling for 2 years.
You could maybe post some renders of your work.
Perhaps you underestimate the quality of your own work.
Perfectionists(I’m not saying you are one) often do.
I have to admit I’ve had the same problem. I created the really low poly simple figures you see when you are playing our game but it was a huge struggle for me. For the animated models we use on our summary screens I just finally threw up my hands and bought them from Mixamo and arranged the texture so they resemble the same character.
Some time later I discovered this tool http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/. It was a free alpha test version at the time, I don’t know what the status is now. I haven’t had as much time as I would like to play with it and it is somewhat unstable but it is really a blast to play with and I’ve come up with a number of of models I would have never been able to do otherwise. Granted it produces very high poly models but you can make em high then bring them down. It’s still difficult to do truly human looking characters but humanoid is easy and perhaps you can refine your skills with it.
Humans take a lot of work in themselves, my advice would be to study anatomy, and learn some of the core rules for creating realistic human characters, models, art, etc. Just knowing the measurements will go a long way to helping you get there.
That is an interesting tool. I tried it some time back. Didn’t spend too much time on it though.
From the brief amount of time I spent with it I noticed that the models exported by it had too many polys to be usable in a game but the texturing and everything else was awesome.
Maybe I missed something there and I wonder if there is a way to sue that tool to produce models usable in a game
Scuptris is awesome, especially for a free tool! BTW If you think you can draw or model, and want to be humbled (I know I was) take a figure drawing / life drawing class at your local art studio or community college. Figure drawing is of nudes is one of the most difficult skills to learn. Lifelong learning!
In regards to the MakeHuman someone posted… i have been seeing this around alot lately , and im curious (coming from a max user that is learning how to do all this stuff from ground up) , does make human actually model anything , or just present you with templates and you edit , change things around so to say?
If it offers no form of direct ground up modeling , i cant see its worth at all. Everything you produce through it would just be another clone. But, honestly , i have no idea, i just see it being mentioned alot.
Is it good , or garbage? I prolly wont ever change from max anyways.
Well, MakeHuman is a free program, so it doesn’t hurt just to download to experiment with it, to see if it’ll fit in your workflow. If it doesn’t, you can always just remove it, no questions asked. I’ve been using MakeHuman along with Blender, Zbrush, and DAZ Studio myself, and the results can be somewhat mixed, but that’s only because MH is not exactly a stable program (it’s an alpha). So for each their own.
I played with Makehuman for a few hours some months back so I am by no means an expert on the subject but from what little I saw of it, it does not offer ground up modelling.
It was like one of the customize human modules you often see in fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons Online or games like Sims etc and such only more advanced with a lot of features.
Once you are done configuring your human to your needs, you could export it into one of the formats offered by it and make further changes if necessary in your 3d modelling application.
I did that and the results for me produced a model with far too many polys to be useful in a game. I might have not done it properly since the online documentation says there is a way to produce low poly models but I haven’t been able to test it too much for want of time. Anyway the skin texturing it produced was top class.
Thats as much as I know on the subject(which indeed is not much).
I’ve used that before, but I’m trying to make people with clothes on.
I’ve been going into garry’s mod and looking at the wireframes of some Half Life 2 characters to understand how the people are made.
It’s pretty helpful.
