I follow alot of tutorials and I see that the modellers seem to work by a strict method. Maybe I’m imagine this but is there a strict modeling method? A set of rules?
If I model my first instinct is to just do what ever works, this however creates ugly formed polygons sometimes. And in the tutorials the polygons are nice and clean. Perhaps I am too self critical and there are multiple ways of having your poly’s with the same object.
Good practice in 3d modeling without going into specifics keeping it general. What are they?
Here you can see an example of a model I just started, what do you think about this? Are there any critisizms? Am I using too many poly’s? Are they too close to eachother? etc etc…
Personally I dont feel there is any good answer to your question(s). The problem is that so much depends on additonal factors, such as planned use. in general, if performace is an issue, you want to try and use as few polys as possible to achive your geometry and trick the rest using textures, bumps and normal Maps. A static model doesnt need to worry about how even polygons are, a model that will deform during animation does.
Looking at the viewport view you posted, although the mesh may not be the cleanest or most professional, its probobly going to get the job done, and thats the important thing.
Are there rules? No not really. Are there “best Practices”? Absolutely. For example, good topology is more important in an animation than it is in a still image. In my opinion, the best way to learn how to model is to model every day. Model new things, challenging things, watch tutorials and see how the “experts” model things.
So I kind of agree with Star Ranger, there is no really good answer to your questions other than watch, learn, and practice. And don’t get discouraged. Four months ago I could not model a “human” character to save my life, let a lone understand rigging one.
Yesterday I modeled and rigged one in 4 hours without looking at a single tutorial.
I’ve been thinking about your question while I was typing my own answer regarding subD moddeling. And I started to wonder what the difference was between rules & best practices in this case.
Top notch moddelers for instance follow those best practices quiet close and it is reflected in their work, maybe you don’t see it in the shapes. but you can see it in how well organized and clean their meshes are when they work on them AND once they are finished.
Maybe, best practices are called best practices because they can make your life easyer and more rewarding in the end.
I guess it is up to you personally how strict you want to adopt those best practices, and depending on how strict you are they can become rules.
In the end, it’s all about practice just as place says.
I know this topic is from some months back, but I wanted to pipe in and make sure you know about the CheckMate 3D modeling standard at TurboSquid. This is the standard our customers said they wanted for 3D models that would work with the largest majority of pipelines.
CheckMate at a Glance: http://support.turbosquid.com/entries/20210403
We don’t offer certification for Blender models yet, but as more customers discover Blender we will probably add that to the list of certifiable formats.
The reason for using a page, and not the site initialy, is that this page is a good primer on tris/quads/ngons and when to use, or not [although different people, and products, may have differing views] , and then search the site from this page onwards.
It helped me a lot when I first started playing with blender.
1 - no doubles verts
2 - as much quads as you can
3 - no criss crossing edges or faces
4 - use min amount of faces /verts
5 - use subdivison for doing roundede shapes
6 - learn how to use lighting set up for a scene
follow intro tut at cg cookie or blenderguru ect…
that will give you the basic for 3D modelling
Just realised that there is no start page :rolleyes: LoL as its a WIP.