#3dhelp

[the-regressor]

UM UM UM..... Could you point a beginner to any good resources for 3D/Low poly modelling? I'm lost and I need an adult or two. Please and thank you? ヾ(｡･ω･)ｼ

There is this cool blog 3dhelp.tumblr.com that has lots of 3D modeling, not necessarily low poly, but the same skills apply, just with fewer numbers. I hope that helps! 

-Mark

[shadowtajun]

Hi my community handle is phanjam and I help out modding games, mostly Torchlight 2. I offered to help another member make some tilesets for his TC mod. Then relaized i didnt know the first thing about tile-makeing for games :P can you suggest any reading materials please? Thanks a ton!

Sure thing, I would love to!  If you need any more help, send me another PM and we can figure out a way for me to contact you to explain things further.

Firstly it depends on if you’ll need a normal map (most games do nowadays - but I’m not sure what Torchlight requires). 

Personally I have access to Digital Tutors so first thing I generally do when I am looking for anything in particular is look there. But if you don’t have access to Digital tutors there are some good sites like Polycount (take a look at the wiki and the forums, so many questions get posted on the forums) there’s Tuts+, 3D Total, Youtube and Eat3D (to name a few). 

If you want to work with Zbrush then there’s a nice tutorial “ZBrush TilingTextures WrapMode” by nickzucc on Youtube  Video 1, Video 2, Video 3. It’s a maya to zbrush tutorial but if you know Blender or 3dsMax then you’ll be fine. 

This is best for getting a normal map

Zbrush can be used for texturing as well

Zbrush has a tiling feature that is realtime (pretty cool - it does take some setup though) 

Zbrush is sculpting so you can grab AO maps and Spec maps if you want to.

If you’re working on just diffuse (like I generally do) then you can just figure out how to use the Offset Filter for Photoshop. I do a few different layers so that I can see the basic layout it’s going to do. But this requires I make macros (Actions) in PS. 

There are a few tutorials you can find online just by searching for tiliable textures in google.

The tiling is not real time (and it applies to one layer at a time)

Photoshop seems to be the only drawing program that has this ability

remember that you are working with textures so the texture sizes will need to be 2048, 1024, 512, 256, 128, 64 or 32

The videos I linked previously shows a very quick use of offset while customising maps

Here's a demo on how to use photoshop to create realistic textures from photos. (using a few of photoshop's features).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7XCEFSjRF8

http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-turn-a-texture-into-a-seamlessly-tiled-background--psd-1565 - If you prefer a written tutorial

I hope this helps and thanks for the question! keep making awesome art!

If you have a chance, I'd love to know more about modding for Torchlight, I really do enjoy that game and love the art style. Hit me up with guidelines and requirements. Or what you do specifically.

[tantgurka]

is there a way to scale/squash an edgeloop selection in MAXscript in 3dsmax?

Im trying to learn Maxscript at the moment and I can't find any answers to this one. It is possible to do it once i modell the thing by hand, but I can't find any way to do it with scripting. Hm. 

[k-attridge-blog]

The topology for the girl viking so far. I’ve modelled it similarly to the mage character that Ellen taught us in class; save the head, and a few details, so it should be fairly good. I’ve left the body relatively simple for now, and will talk to my group more on Thursday, before considering more details, if needed.

[shadowtajun]

I have a suggestion for your character. the above image is a possible alternative to the character's wireframe you currently have. The arms and legs have 8 sides not 6 this will give your a little more shape if you want. 

There are certain things you need to remember to make sure you get the most out of your character's mesh. Firstly ask yourself "where is my character going to bend?" you'll need compression loops/areas (in darkblue) "and if it's going to bend, what parts need to keep the same shape throughout?" (in bright green). 

When making my characters I usually put them in a straight T pose because putting the bones in the hands is easier this way. But that's personal preference. I know a few people that really prefer their character models in like a X pose. 

Keep an eye out for your hands. they're some of the hardest things to make. When I started making hands I'd draw what I thought would be good wireframes on my left hand and used that as a reference. Saying that, I probably wouldn't now - some ink is difficult to remove. 

I can suggest the following hands to reference 

Joan of arc - careful of n-gons though  (image is seriously hard to customise with this theme - please view final image in tutorial.)

this one is the one I use the most  on the Toribash forums

And I also like this one. from the NewTek Forums

Oh and for hair, I totally suggest the Varga Hair tutorial to look at. The technique is very nice.

hope that helps!