Totally new to CG Modeling, PLEASE help

Hey guys. great forum you guys have here.

I am currently going to get into 3d modeling, for a $45,000 Fan Film. I need to do all the modeling and sequences on my own. I REALLY need to learn how, because I have very good skills with a pc, I am a video editor in profession, I have just never done 3d editing. I recently bought 3Dstudio Max, and I guess, what I'm asking is that:

Do any of you know what book/books are good to use to find out about starwars-type modeling. What i really want to do is make a space sequence with a couple star-fighter models that I see here. Also, if there are any free tutorials for beginners on how to do this, please send a link.

Thank you for your time.

 

YOU BOUGHT 3DS MAX WHILE YOU HAD NEVER USED IT !!!!???

 

Well, i have used it a bit before to make environments to later do in green and blue screen, but never for actual star wars space sequences. I know what your thinking, $3,500 is a lot, and it is, but i got it for the student price, of i think it was around $750.

 

MMMM-HMMMM

Well this exact thread has been posted countless times here... not trying to be a jerk, but a simple search could get you all this info and much more.

 

Hum hi!!
I think you can't learn 3D in one week (or one month), it take a long time to make something preatty good...

 

Hey Rogue,
take a peek at one of the previous threads re:3ds Max Book Recommendation. Posted by ironhide. It will give you a couple of suggestions.

You might want to look into you licence agreement with your student copy of Max too! Sometimes, software companies require that you can not use the product on projects if you are charging, or making money off of.
Some student software even watermarks the rendered images making them useless.

Later
Steve

 

$45,000 fanfilm? Um.. If the creators are spending that kind of money on the film, why don't they farm out the CGI to someone who can make what they need? Or will they be waiting for the five years or so it will take you to become proficient at it?

 

Rogue606, are you shooting the fanfilm with actual film or are you setting up a render farm with all the proposed CG you'll be doing.$45g's is a large chunk of change.

 

Okay, the poor guy just wanted advices on books, so best thing it to look on amazon. Most 3ds max books are the sames, and like photoshop, everytime there is a new version, they print a new book, exactly the same, but with a different cover and a few more pages.
And the problem is sometime you still find very old modelling method, like patch modelling, nobody use this anymore. Personnaly, I don't think book is the best thing. Tutorial around the net are far beter, because they go to essential points. I would recommand Scifi-3D link page, that's a good start, and then look on CG communities.

 

I thought my question was reasonable. I mean, if someone is spending that kind of money on a fanfilm, obviously it has rather high production values, and the film will probably be excellent visually. In that sort of situation, you do NOT hand over your CGI to a person who doesn't know how to create it. It will look horrible and clash with the rest of the film. Bear in mind this is not a put-down, nor a direct statement of rogue606's skill, but a simple statement of fact. It takes time to learn how to make professional-looking CGI. It's not something you can pick up in a few weeks or months. It takes years upon years. So if you have a profesional-looking film project, you want to have visual effects artists who have been doing it for years and years. Otherwise there will be a distinct visual clash between the CGI and the live action.

Do you have a link to this fanfilm's website?

 

I think the best thing to do is not get too invovled in the motives and picking apart this guys story. Alot of it doesn't make sense. As far as the question goes... Amazon is good b/c you can read people's book reviews and usually a professional review too. Books are a good place to start for beginners. Alot of the stuff on the net can be very outdated too. I think... KnightQuest cost $40,000+ too. All those costumes and equipment. They shot it on film too. So they had to process all that film. Depends on what exactly the project is... but it could easily cost that much. I'm sure there's alot of guys all around who would work on it if they were paid. People are definitely more eager if they can get paid. This stuff if very time-consuming and difficult to make ... CGI that is.

Just whatever you do... don't come back here asking silly questions like.. how do you save a render. Stuff like that. Buy a book, check the net, practice.

 

Well, this is what I would say, get a better renderer for 3ds Max, like Final Render. That will help with some qualitiy. Then look through the tutorials that come with Max, Star Wars stuff comes from all of that and there isn't anything specific to just Star Wars, also go to 3D Cafe for some tutorials on stuff. I hope this helps, also, check out the links from this site(although I think that has been said before).

 

Well it's true that giving the cg effects to a beginner for a 45000$ film will give a weird result

"I'm sure there's alot of guys all around who would work on it if they were paid" well, hu, I would (I don't need books)... Not that I really need money, but for once, a 45 000$ film, it must be a serious project. I've been asked so many time to work on film while the guys din't know yet what the story would be exactly, just something with jedis. Well, if it's a real project with real story, real actors, something like this : Tydirium , I'm your man, I can make you saving money, with a far better and faster result than learning 3ds. Ok, that was Zoo's idea