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  • Subject: So you want to learn about 3d and make games?
Subject: So you want to learn about 3d and make games?

brain = confused

@

  • 12.02.2012 12:23 PM PDT
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Posted by: General Ryan
brain = confused

It can be very confusing but if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

  • 12.02.2012 12:26 PM PDT
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Hello, Hola, Velkomin, Bienvenue, Kon'nichiwa,
sorry I don't remember the rest

This could prove to be very useful, thanks
:)

  • 12.02.2012 1:27 PM PDT

I am an Xbox Live Ambassador so feel free to hit me up with any questions via PM :)

Follow me Twitter: @TheBestTheyHad

Awesome stuff bro!!!

  • 12.02.2012 1:32 PM PDT
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No problem,if you have any questions after this thread dies just message me. I also do freelance work if anyone needs some 3d done for whatever it may be just message me for that as well.

  • 12.02.2012 1:32 PM PDT

A competitive players main goal is to win.
A casuals main goal is to have fun regardless of whether that results in a win or loss.
It has nothing to do with individual skill or knowledge, it has to do with the reason you play.


Posted by: kimy1688
>employee posts
>everyone else posts too


I have no idea what's going on, I just wanted to post here too!

  • 12.02.2012 1:34 PM PDT

Posted by: AngryBrute1
Oh yeah, since somebody does not believe what YOU believe; that makes us vapid...
I cannot grasp that what you call "Something happened to nothing, and that nothing became something, and it was smaller than than a period."

Posted by: Enormous CorgiAutodesk? For free?!?!
I used that program in a technology class I had a few years ago. It was awesome.
Good luck to anyone learning 3D technologies.

  • 12.02.2012 1:37 PM PDT
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Posted by: JusT CoLL
How can get formal tutoring in programming?
Any of CourseRA's "Intro to.." or CS 101 classes will do the job, as will Codeacademy.

  • 12.02.2012 2:41 PM PDT
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Posted by: Enormous Corgi
If you're a student, you can download almost all Autodesk products for free, after an agreement to not sell the content you make.
http://students.autodesk.com/

If I recall correctly, it doesn't even require an .edu email address for verification. It's a great opportunity to try 3ds Max/Maya out without taking the financial plunge.

These two are a mainstay of the industry, and an absolute must if you hope to pursue a career involving 3D art/design.


Almost done finishing the 3D modeling class at my community college. I can never look at video games the same way again...

  • 12.02.2012 2:43 PM PDT
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Anyways, what do you know, OP?


You're just a bunch of cats.

[Edited on 12.02.2012 2:44 PM PST]

  • 12.02.2012 2:43 PM PDT

You know who I am.


Posted by: Enormous Corgi
If you're a student, you can download almost all Autodesk products for free, after an agreement to not sell the content you make.
http://students.autodesk.com/

If I recall correctly, it doesn't even require an .edu email address for verification. It's a great opportunity to try 3ds Max/Maya out without taking the financial plunge.

These two are a mainstay of the industry, and an absolute must if you hope to pursue a career involving 3D art/design.

Yea you don't need the .edu extension. I'm about six months from my bachelors degree in game art, and I've downloaded Maya and Max on four of my computers, using autodesk's student accounts.

  • 12.02.2012 2:46 PM PDT
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Posted by: z0mbiebot
Anyways, what do you know, OP?


You're just a bunch of cats.

You've gotta be kitten me.

  • 12.02.2012 2:46 PM PDT

In memory of those fallen in the defense of Earth and her colonies.

March 3, 2553

Im learning or should I say getting familiar with 3DS Max now so Im ready for second year of Uni.

Good read.

  • 12.02.2012 2:46 PM PDT
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Posted by: cameo_cream
Im learning or should I say getting familiar with 3DS Max now so Im ready for second year of Uni.

Good read.

Thanks! Its nice to hear from people who are already doing this at a university level. I wish you luck in the future.

  • 12.02.2012 2:55 PM PDT

"We are the next generation of soldiers, an A.I built for war. We battle the darkness for humanity. We are the Caedus A.I"

To Cats

1) How does Sculptris function for you? My Sculptris keeps crashing about five minutes into a project. If you know of a way to fix this issue, or you have a few pointers on where to start, please tell.

2) How good are you with Sculptris? (i.e. designing models, adding texture details)

  • 12.02.2012 2:57 PM PDT

In memory of those fallen in the defense of Earth and her colonies.

March 3, 2553


Posted by: Cats

Posted by: cameo_cream
Im learning or should I say getting familiar with 3DS Max now so Im ready for second year of Uni.

Good read.

Thanks! Its nice to hear from people who are already doing this at a university level. I wish you luck in the future.


Thanks. So far I've found it is a very hard program to self teach. I was intending to start building some basic Skyrim mods by the end of Summer....... I need to get a move on.

  • 12.02.2012 2:57 PM PDT
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Still battling UV mapping.

  • 12.02.2012 2:59 PM PDT
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Posted by: z0mbiebot
Still battling UV mapping.

UV mapping is notoriously hard to do in Maya. Many maya users turn to blender for their UV mapping needs although it takes time to master. For those who don't know UV mapping is the process I talked about where you put an image on a model and manipulate it. If you have any questions about it feel free to post them

  • 12.02.2012 3:03 PM PDT
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Posted by: cameo_cream

Posted by: Cats

Posted by: cameo_cream
Im learning or should I say getting familiar with 3DS Max now so Im ready for second year of Uni.

Good read.

Thanks! Its nice to hear from people who are already doing this at a university level. I wish you luck in the future.


Thanks. So far I've found it is a very hard program to self teach. I was intending to start building some basic Skyrim mods by the end of Summer....... I need to get a move on.

Indeed it is. I still run into at least one problem with every single project I do. Luckily I've made a lot of friends that are doing it professionally that help me out. Before then I had to do a lot of digging in dead forums because 3d wasn't as popular as it is becoming.

  • 12.02.2012 3:06 PM PDT

Join Halo Haven for all things related to Halo 4


Tell her that If you jingle my bells, Ill promise you a white Christmas - Call Me Venom
The world can't end next month. My yogurt expires in 2013 - Princess Cadence
If Apple invented a car, would it have windows? - Xxembers

Wow. I was actually looking at Maya yesterday. Thanks for this thread.

I guess this would be the best place to ask my question that I had though:

I'm an aspiring animator and in the pre-production phase of a short film. I'm trying to decide whether to use traditional 2D animation or 3D animation, and it's mainly based on the time frame between learning and creating the final product. I have Animation Master but never got into it and would rather use a different program.

What program out there has a relatively small learning curve (4-9 weeks) and is able to produce high-fidelity results in a decent amount of time? I know my way around Flash as far as 2D animation but it's difficult to get a high-caliber animation out of that. Examples of such would be Robo-Western and Katan - both of which appear to have had a lengthy production timeframe.

  • 12.02.2012 3:09 PM PDT
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If people are seriously looking into 3D arts, esspecially in games, check out these websites:

Polycount is a my personal favorite site for getting critiques or finding tutorials. The people there can be a little brutally honest, but that's kinda how the art world works.

Poly Count Wiki is where I go to find the majority of the tutorials I read. It can be a bit confusing for a noob, but once you start to understand how to make game art this site is great asset to make your work better.

Digital Tutors is another great place to go for getting information on how to model/texture/etc. I like this site because they use video tutorials, which is nice if your more of a visual learner. Their videos range fro basic to advanced, so this is a great place to start. Only downside is that you need to pay for some of their most in depth info.

Eat 3D is another good video tutorial website, though I think you have to do something special to join (my teachers gave me an account to use, so I never made one.) They also sell DVD's of their videos, so you could just purchase their tut's if that tickles yer fancy.

The OP didn't mention this, but if you want to make games you'll want to look into a good game engine like the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). UDK is nice because it's free to use and download, but it only works on windows so be warned. Also, it's not backwards compatible, so always start a project on the most recent version.

  • 12.02.2012 3:15 PM PDT
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Posted by: A 3 Legged Goat
Wow. I was actually looking at Maya yesterday. Thanks for this thread.

I guess this would be the best place to ask my question that I had though:

I'm an aspiring animator and in the pre-production phase of a short film. I'm trying to decide whether to use traditional 2D animation or 3D animation, and it's mainly based on the time frame between learning and creating the final product. I have Animation Master but never got into it and would rather use a different program.

What program out there has a relatively small learning curve (4-9 weeks) and is able to produce high-fidelity results in a decent amount of time? I know my way around Flash as far as 2D animation but it's difficult to get a high-caliber animation out of that. Examples of such would be Robo-Western and Katan - both of which appear to have had a lengthy production timeframe.


Yeah I was forced to try animation master at school and I couldn't get into it either.
hmm thats a very tough question. First off as I'm sure you know how quickly you learn it is going to be directly related to how much time you spend watching tutorials, timelapses and things like that. My three suggestions that come to mind would obviously be maya, max or blender. Ideally I use a collaboration of the three because they all have their strengths and weaknesses. But because of your short timeframe you are probably only going to have time to learn about one. I'm not sure which is right for you because I only have a lot of experience with one but what I can tell you is that all three of these programs have the ability to produce the result you are looking for.
To prove that point here are examples from max and blender:
max animation
blender animation

In short I would look into each of these programs if possible and try to figure out which one best suites you. Or try asking around on some forums because there are people on there that have been doing this for longer than I have been alive.

[Edited on 12.02.2012 3:24 PM PST]

  • 12.02.2012 3:23 PM PDT
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Posted by: The Coffee Boy
If people are seriously looking into 3D arts, esspecially in games, check out these websites:

Polycount is a my personal favorite site for getting critiques or finding tutorials. The people there can be a little brutally honest, but that's kinda how the art world works.

Poly Count Wiki is where I go to find the majority of the tutorials I read. It can be a bit confusing for a noob, but once you start to understand how to make game art this site is great asset to make your work better.

Digital Tutors is another great place to go for getting information on how to model/texture/etc. I like this site because they use video tutorials, which is nice if your more of a visual learner. Their videos range fro basic to advanced, so this is a great place to start. Only downside is that you need to pay for some of their most in depth info.

Eat 3D is another good video tutorial website, though I think you have to do something special to join (my teachers gave me an account to use, so I never made one.) They also sell DVD's of their videos, so you could just purchase their tut's if that tickles yer fancy.

The OP didn't mention this, but if you want to make games you'll want to look into a good game engine like the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). UDK is nice because it's free to use and download, but it only works on windows so be warned. Also, it's not backwards compatible, so always start a project on the most recent version.

Very nice links. I didn't actually know about polycount. Yeah I didn't go into nearly enough detail about the game process because before people learn about that they have a lot more to learn about the basics and they shouldn't be diving into a game making program if they can't model, texture, and animate first. Plus I'm more ignorant on making games than other subjects because I've never been into programming.

*Edit added your quote to my original post.

[Edited on 12.02.2012 3:30 PM PST]

  • 12.02.2012 3:28 PM PDT

Join Halo Haven for all things related to Halo 4


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Posted by: Cats
blender animation


The animation in there was incredible. I'd say at this point the only thing stopping me from going the 3D route would be its learning curve and time frame. For a lone animator or even a small team it's still a long project, especially considering my experience level. Though I imagine it isn't wise to limit myself or the potential scale of the project based on experience level.

Also, I've heard some unfavorable things about Blender. What would be the pros and cons versus Maya?

  • 12.02.2012 4:01 PM PDT
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Posted by: Cats

Posted by: The Coffee Boy
If people are seriously looking into 3D arts, esspecially in games, check out these websites:

Polycount is a my personal favorite site for getting critiques or finding tutorials. The people there can be a little brutally honest, but that's kinda how the art world works.

Poly Count Wiki is where I go to find the majority of the tutorials I read. It can be a bit confusing for a noob, but once you start to understand how to make game art this site is great asset to make your work better.

Digital Tutors is another great place to go for getting information on how to model/texture/etc. I like this site because they use video tutorials, which is nice if your more of a visual learner. Their videos range fro basic to advanced, so this is a great place to start. Only downside is that you need to pay for some of their most in depth info.

Eat 3D is another good video tutorial website, though I think you have to do something special to join (my teachers gave me an account to use, so I never made one.) They also sell DVD's of their videos, so you could just purchase their tut's if that tickles yer fancy.

The OP didn't mention this, but if you want to make games you'll want to look into a good game engine like the Unreal Development Kit (UDK). UDK is nice because it's free to use and download, but it only works on windows so be warned. Also, it's not backwards compatible, so always start a project on the most recent version.

Very nice links. I didn't actually know about polycount. Yeah I didn't go into nearly enough detail about the game process because before people learn about that they have a lot more to learn about the basics and they shouldn't be diving into a game making program if they can't model, texture, and animate first. Plus I'm more ignorant on making games than other subjects because I've never been into programming.

*Edit added your quote to my original post.

Yea I agree. They should definitely focus more on getting to know their programs before they get into how to put their projects in an engine. I just wish someone would have told me to look into these things when I was first starting off. My degree kind of just threw the students into UDK and expected some awesome results without a whole lot of knowledge. My biggest regret is not looking into these kinds of things early.

  • 12.02.2012 4:08 PM PDT