Well I had an idea an posted it in the Adopt a Newbie Thread, and 2 guys are interested so this is the thread.
This is what I was hoping this thread could end up being…I planned on posting a few reference pictures of somthing fairly simple. As people start to learn the harder the stuff would get. Then any newer people could work on making it and post their work in this thread, along with any problems. Then us blenders with more experience can help them along with their problems and tell them how to better their models. Thats pretty much what the wip section is but this would focus the newer people on things that would help them move along and hopefully also motivate them. I remember when I started with blender I would get frustrated cuz I didnt know what to do. And if I figured something out to do it would always be to complicated.
Here is what I am hoping to eventually cover.
M0delling
UV mapping
Texturing
Low-poly m0delling
5.Rigging
Animation…if someone good at animation is willing to help out. No worries tho it will be a while until we get there.
So to start I want to find out who wants to be a part of this and what skill level your at, as that will determine what objects we start with. So if you interested just post that your interested and include a couple shots of some things you have done. Or if you dont have any, just what you know so far.If you are totally new to blender I would have to say do these tutorials as they will teach you the interface. Then once you understand the basics we can get started
All the rest of you blenderheads who are skilled please help out with this, once we get started, and any ideas send em over. Hopefully we can get some people started in this and help some people learn.
Feel free to direct the questions to any of us here, everything doesnt exactly need to be directed at me :P. Or you could just direct it to everyone…but yeah here it is.
-Enriq766
-Alex_G
-zog34
-[Kothe]
-Khnum
-BgdM
-themonkey
Attention all experienced users!
As more and more newbies join its going to be very hard for me to crit and help them with their m0dels. I would really appreciate it if other experienced users who have a grasp on what their doing would help with this project.
For whoever helps…I was hoping this would be a friendly evironment, yet harsh. Because in order for us to help them along we have to really crit their m0dels. So if your helping please just tell them what is wrong with the m0dels and how to step it up a notch. Hopefully that made sense…Thankyou.
Ok so for you guys interested the first thing I would like to see made is fairly simple, but it will be good modeling and then uvmapping practice. Once we are done with the modeling stage, we will unwrap it arrange the UV’s, and then texture it. I am not going to say how to make it because I want you guys to make it how you usually would and then I and other experienced users will tell you how to fix it.
Alex_G - If there was a section on logic I would be doing it I would be very happy if someone wanted to take up that task when we arrive at it.
The first m0del is going to be a Hellfire Missile. This is not a competition so if someone else’s m0del is better dont worry you will get there. I threw together a real quick missile myself so I could get a feel for how I would make it, and then be able to help you guys even better As you can see its a very basic m0del. ( Dont bother critting mine, not here for crits )
I am pretty sure there are other versions of the missile so just make this one. Any questions just post em, and dont be shy and not post your work, I want this to be a friendly evironment where you dont have to worry about how good it is.
Ok great zog34! This is gonna be great I have someone already working on this and hopefully their learning, now we just need some more newbies to start and we should be uv mapping soon. This one is highpoly, but once this is uv mapped I want them to go back and do the same missile lowpoly, unwrap it and then texture the low-poly version. I am not sure about the low-poly part yet, need some input on that…might be best to move onto something more complex next.
Yeah definitly post a picture for us, and if you feel like saying how you made it then go ahead. That would let us help you even more, becuase their might be a different way to do it that would be more productive. But the picture is essential so that we can help you improve and show you different things.
He used Ambient Occlusion: Go to shading buttons (F5). Then world buttons,
click the “Amb Occ” tab, then click the big Ambient Occlusion button. There’s no need to change the settings, but if you turn the samples up, the less noise there is, but it takes longer to render
Model is very good, its just some reandom things that need tweaking to give it the shape of the Hellfire missile. What is the problem here is not your m0delling skills, but you need to make what you see. Even if you spend alot of time just looking at the pic thats fine, and dont not do something just because it might take a while, or else your m0del wont be correct.
Use this picture, first if you really look at the picture you can see that at the back and front there is a slight (very slight) slope. So it scales in at the front and back. Right now your missile looks more like a torpedo, so try scaling the front and back down a little bit, not to much tho.
Also the rear fins arent correct, it looks like you have then rounded alot there. Once again as you can see in the picture of the real thing it is a blocky fin and really doesnt curve. Also the front fins are a little too big, and their should be 4 of them. in the same position as the back ones, just in the front. In the link I posted in the post above you can see in some of the pictures there, that there are 4.
Now you can still get the blend file, its inthe tmp folder in your c:/ folder it should be the quit blend ( nice auto save by blender).
And the noisyness of my render is done with ao, here are my settings. I have a white light in the same position of the camera, set to a medium power. An orange light to the right and another white light behind and below. Make sure you turn ray tracing on if your using ao (ambient Occlusion).
Good luck man!
Also everyone please render a more overhead view so we can see everything correctly At least one, more different views is very good also.
are you using subsurf because im a bit unsure and think i tend to use it when it may not be needed and end up having to add extra edge loops to stop edge that dont need to be curved from curving.
is the front nose cone of the model a seperate part or is it modelled as one piece and if it is one piece how is the best way to model in the groove.
should i best avoid having triangles which i will get if i start by using a uvsphere, the other method i can see of is to subdivide a box and then use tosphere so its all 4 sided polys.
could u post a side view in orthographic so the taper shape can be seen clearly
I would be very happy if someone wanted to take up that task when we arrive at it.
As you can see its a very basic m0del. ( Dont bother critting mine, not here for crits 
I have someone already working on this and hopefully their learning, now we just need some more newbies to start and we should be uv mapping soon. This one is highpoly, but once this is uv mapped I want them to go back and do the same missile lowpoly, unwrap it and then texture the low-poly version. I am not sure about the low-poly part yet, need some input on that…might be best to move onto something more complex next.
