Help - 3D modeling techniques

Hello, I’m a game developer who decided to dive into 3D modeling. I’m not an artist and I can’t draw with my hand, but I have a very decent imagination and sometimes I wish I could make the shapes in my head come to life. I’ve already followed some tutorials and I managed to make some stuff including a character. What I find a bit hard to grasp is the ability to create complex shapes out of a single basic geometric shape, for example creating a sword out of a cube or creating a character out of a cylinder. I would like to have that kind of thinking, for example, If I want to make a chair, I know that I can start with a cube and then manipulate its faces and vertices to get the shape that I want.

I’m not talking about how to work with the software itself, but rather how to think before actually starting to work. Can anyone help me with that?

3D modeling is a production step that turns an existing design into a usable 3D model. The model is made for a target purpose, and the model structure fulfils the requirements from the end use and from the pipeline steps before that.


Modeling stage itself might be broken into multiple steps and might have multiple outputs if needed or required.

You used the word “shape” but since this is 3D, the term should be “form”. Both are important but have to be specific about the difference

We’re not modeling anything from our heads. If you can’t see what you’re modeling, you shouldn’t be modeling. References are used everywhere; If you’re creating a wine glass or a coffee cup, find references. If you’re trying to create a character of your own design you should be designing, which has different workflows and goals than modeling, although it can take it into account.

When it comes to modeling stage, it has its own problems to solve. You have to be able to interpret the forms and proportions, and make decisions about the structure based on those and what the end use requires. Those can be things like structure flow for pipeline stages or modeling workflow itself, or deformations for animation. The structure also takes the density into account, and how it affects the shape/silhouette.

If you try to juggle all of that and create a design of any kind of complexity at the same time, it’s going to fail. Even if you think you know something so well you should be able to model, you still can’t draw notes about the decisions you made for modeling if it’s just in your head. It all begins from understanding what is being modeled, what the forms are, and then decide on the workflows to get those built in 3D. Could separate forms and proportions from technical modeling which would be sculpting or blocking, then retopology for the structure. Sculpting -> retopology workflow is beneficial for modeling when the forms are complex, or when you don’t know what the forms are, in which case you’re designing.

I’m assuming that by geometric shapes you mean primitives. Primitives are just starting blocks that help to make something, but you don’t actually need any geometry to start with. Could start with an object that has no object data (geometry), and be able to complete the model structure you want. What you start with and what tools you use isn’t that important, the various tools and workflows that you come up with just help to achieve the end result easier, faster and more efficiently. It’s the end result that matters the most.

Thanks for the reply.
So, if I understood correctly, 3D modeling is not designing, I should always have a reference then start turning it into 3D. that for the most part easy, I can find pictures for most objects in the world and few tweaks could make them look unique or different. The problem appears if I wanted to create a Sci-Fi weapon, vehicle, or a monster. I can then try to draw them on paper and fill the gabs with pieces from that picture in my head.
But, still, my question remains, what kind of skill or what is the technique behind (for example) looking at a chair design and then deciding that the best way to model it is by creating a cube and two cylinders ?

A whole lot of information and experience is what gives options, and then choose one that is the best for you. There is never the best way to do anything, even though people keep asking that all the time.

A lot of it falls under the topic of topology. In one sense topology means the structure flow of the mesh, which people usually refer to when they say the word, but it also means all the things that flow is derived from.

A round chair leg could start with a cylinder because of the form and the flow of the structure that the cylinder has. But even though a cylinder provides a simplified form for a human arm, doesn’t mean you would actually add one. A cylinder is just an extruded circle, and a cube is an extruded plane. If you’re modeling a human or an animal, the forms and proportions follow the underlying bone and muscle structure, and so does the structure flows you’re modeling. That means the study of topology involves the study of anatomy.

The decision to make something in a certain way comes from the knowledge of all of those things: what are the model requirements, what the forms and proportions are, what structure flow is needed, and how it can be broken down into substeps for the tools you’re aware of.

Here are couple of simple examples about the edge and face flows that follow the forms

same in this, with a bit of explanation what they mean

and an alternative structure without flow

for deformation

A lot more involved example. Not only are there no forms visible in the reference which makes it difficult to begin with, box modeling requires that one is able to interpret the forms, know the structure flows, and know how to break it down to steps for the tools, all at the same time. It’s a fast modeling style, but it’s that because it’s so involved and that’s why I wouldn’t recommend it. At least not for a beginner and for so complex subject matters