While this will not quite the starting point that Moebius87 might have been suggesting (I'm too new to know what I want out of a forum - well except help when stuck) it is a start. I'm not going to ask what software is the best or take that road - too many spectacular postings keep saying learn me see what I can do...(at least from the beginners perspective) that's what demos are for simply to find what's right for you - afterall - other than naming conventions most can get the same result - just different toolsets... What's this do with the topic - well - I am curious as to what packages people are using and what are they doing with them... Hobby, Space scenes, Poser props, character models, games and items etc for...ahhh...games. Architectural work.? This may be better for the applications forum, maybe... But I would be interesting to know what people are modelling and with what...see if there's a trend ;) I myself am about to play with some demos to make a rough piece of ground, a cube + triangle house, a 'moon' and see if I can place the camera is a nice position to see them all - maybe basic texturing - I think that might help me work out which I'm going to use - with the posibilty of props, space/sci-fi scenes (can through realistic accuracy out in place of fun) and maybe - just maybe game modding stuff in the distant future (okay - might need to learn converting from whatever my chosen app will be)... And is just curious as to what you all have chosen to do and reasoning for it..

Great start, WindSprite! I'll bite. :o) I'm a non-organic modeler, my personal modeling weapon of choice is LightWave 3D. Not because it's better than anything else out there... simply because I am comfortable with it and it does what I need it to do. I'm a hobbyist and right now I'm trying to justify investing on all this software by converting some of my original designs and creations into products other people can use. I don't plan to make this a career, just enough to ease the guilt of this addiction. :oP My work has a grungy, clunky near-tech sci-fi look to it. Definitely not slick nor sexy. I am slowly building up enough objects and skills to create my own short animated film... only as a hobby though. What are you up to? :o) Cheers! M

"Grungy, clunky near-tech sci-fi look"...riiiiiight. :) Well, as my better half has stated, I use the program I use because I am most comfortable with it also, that program being Rhinoceros 3D. However, I've been slowly teaching myself Lightwave and I plan to eventually teach myself Softimage XSI. I tried learning Maya but found it wasn't something I could get into. I am first and foremost a character modeler, and while not the greatest in the world, I do have my moments. The reason I chose Rhino was becuase at the time I started modeling my own stuff, Rhino was in Beta and available for free. NURBs modeling was the new thing back then and nothing beats Rhino for easily creating NURBs surfaces. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have purchased Rhino though...for porps, cars, and ships, NURBs are great but when it comes to characters these days, NURBs are a dying breed. Since I want to do this for a living, I've found myself forced to learn polygon modeling. So far, Max and Lightwave have proven the easiest programs for me to get into for polygon work but I don't much care for Max and I've been a fan of Lightwave since its Amiga days. I'd like to put together my own demo reel but I have neither the resources nor the training for such a thing. I'm now looking to take my frist art class ever...and it's going to be a modeling class. I just have to pick a school. Next?

Dunno, really. Six years ago I came out of a background doing theatrical scenery and costumes, building plastic models, and trying to draw and paint (mostly generic fantasy/SF sort of things). I looked at the process and the tools of 3d and said "I would love to have the skills to do some of this." Now I can do some of it. I've gotten my modelling up where I can actually attempt clothing, I can sort of put a scene together, and I know tons of theory. Oh, and I've learned various odd things about game graphics and sprites and low-poly models and so forth. So now I start to stand back and say "Right. Now what was all that learning for? Where do I go from here?"

I know what you mean nomuse - I'm trying to decide where it is I'll be heading with a 3D hobby...I seriously doubt I'll end up doing anything professionally. So have kind of moved into the mindset of just having something I can enjoy doing, make some scenes, take my mind off of a hard day at work and maybe - use the scenes I make in a story I have fluttering abut in the back of my head, and see where I head from there. Animation is currently not on my learning agenda right now - it can wait until after I know how to model... 3D packages might be expensive but then I've spent more than what lightwave would cost on hobbies that have faded away - not to mention computer games (my other hobby :P )

i just like makin stuff. it's not like poser or bryce, where you can't wait to rush it into the gallery. very hard for me to explain...i love to dream up little folks and critters and see if i can create them. in a way, it is like 3d doodling, or, better yet...being a goddess of a sort. did i mention that i just like makin' stuff?

We use Cinema 4D for recreating UK historical sites and making historically based models - like furnitutre for sale here. This is a full time job that was meant to be part time! Why C4D? Simple; we played around with demos of other applications and C4D was the interface we prefered. Well, Pete, our modeler prefered it to be more precise. I could have gone with Lightwave (I deal with light and texture) but Pete is more icon orientated so C4D was the answer for what we could affored. Neither of us are trained in this art, we just drifted towards it. We'd both performed real-time CGI puppets for the Jim Henson Company and I've directed animation for them, but we'd only played around a little with Poser and Bryce before embarking on this madness. What we do struggle with in C4D is keeping the polygon count down when it's converted to .obj's. Not really knowing the maths behind it - even though I've had it explained to me - we can't seem to avoid this. Doesn't help using too many booleans! I think it comes down to what you feel comfortable with, what time you have to learn it and the cost. C4D is great for us, but maybe useless to someone else.

Poppi: That's one of the things I can see about being great about 3d modelling - that you can take a fledgleing idea (especially a rather undecipherrable doodle on scrap paper 1 step from a stick figure) and chip away at it over time. Correcting as you go till you have something that resembles your mental image if not ones actual drawing/baseline :P Of course it would always give you something new to learn I'd imagine...as creatures evolve - skins and textures, wings, claws appendages of different types, plain or irridescent each with own challeneges.... What have you found the most challenging to model so far.? Virtuallyhistorical: I agree one has to fel comfortable with what they're using or else no matter what you try to create it's going to become a 'hated chore' which wouldn't help. I will admit I do like the cinema 4d manual/PDF file nicely explains lots of things and I actually understood 3 point lighting afterwards (which is more than could be said after a different modelling book I read went through it)

When I make a picture, I find myself going...hmm, a book/cobweb/cup whatever would look great there. At the moment I go and search for them in freestuff. I'd like to be able to make my own. One of the things I particularly want to make (for my own personal use) is accurate models of antique furniture and clocks. I worked as an antique restorer for years so I have full sets of technical drawings for a lot of beautiful furniture and clocks, barometers etc.. plus, once I get a digital camera, I've even got polished plum pudding (an absolutely gorgeous veneer) hanging around somewhere, so my textures will be a breeze :-) If anyone has seen a tornado of mail by the way, (my current project) please point me in the right direction. I'm not even sure where to start on making one. I can't just make a funnel shaped thing and apply a texture of post because I want the letters to stick out. Shanna :-) Doing it with c4d.

Attached Link: http://www.virtuallyhistorical.com

Shoshanna: Sounds like you and VituallyHistorical should get together and compare notes and/or reference material :) I don't know if Cinema 4d has the functions - but I think I recall a tutorial somewhere that uses those particle emitter type things to spray particles in a whirpool/funnel type pattern then replacing each 'spot' with an actual object - that might work to make a mail twister... Hopefully one of the Cinema 4d users about here will be able to shed a little more light on that option..

You can indeed use the particle emitter to emit... anything. Just make sure you turn off shadows unless you want to spend the whole night rendering! Mak

I'm torn between Sci-fi and Music, have about an equal number of props for both. I'm noticing a tendency to go to redo some of the same stuff in new packages. Started in Amapi 4.15, to Strata, to Wings, Anim8tor, and Doga L1 (the last is the 3-d equivalent of paint by numbers, except I can throw something together in a hurry..;). May start playing with 'wearable' props, since I can play with Poser 3 at work (but how many Poser 3 items are left? Heck, how many Poser 4 props are left?..;) I'll do anything that I take a fancy to...

Well I'm just starting out really, so I can't pretend that I specialise in anything. Organic modelling is what interests me most so that's what I mostly attempt with variable success LOL! Wings3d is my main modeller, originally because it's free but now out of choice, it's a fantastic sub-d modeller! I'm trying to learn Lightwave too. I'm a paper and paint illustrator by profession (starting to do a bit in Photoshop too now)and I'd like to branch out into 3d illustration. If I can ever figure this stuff out that is! - Baz

lol virtually historical, I couldn't find a trace of my library step commode :-) Perhaps I'll make it my first furniture model. Your site is fascinating, thanks for the link. re particle emitter, I'll have to wait until next month for that. Shanna:-)

Nice demon :) I think organics will be a little ways off for me personally - well - at least anything humanoid... I might get away with a suit of body armour modelled around a person - "no no - that's not an error that's a......um...special pocket/reinforced plating Seems the majority of those responding are all in this for the fun, the challenge and the enjoyment of modelling. I think our friendly forum mods are puttering about the idea of a modelling forum challenge. Heh..Since Moebius' cityscape is being demolished in the lightwave forum - maybe here we should have a 'clean up crew' (or machine, critter, thing, device) type challenge..

We're trying to make money out of it too, but failing with style! Mak

LOL - For some Style is all that matters :)

Hiya stu (laughingnome), :o) Good to see you posting in here, chief. You're definitely going to get tapped for the thread "topology and edge loops" demystified for dummies. (i.e. M). Mak (virtuallyhistorical) wow! that's a terrific site and you guys make excellent stuff. Although I must confess that I am a bit curious about your work experience with muppets. :oP You've just been tagged and flagged as a resource for historical modeling. :o) WindSprite thanks for starting this thread. :o) Looks like we've identified a definite area of interest... organics! Master Teyon and I are definitely toying with the idea of a challenge, but we're not exactly sure how to approach it with all the different modeling apps involved. Any ideas? LOL! Yep, the folks over in the LW3D Forum wanted a hypervoxel (particle systems) challenge, and destroying my city seems to have been a good idea at the time. Poppi I like that you've joined in on the conversation with a challenge to model something your lizard. That's a very interesting starter... Shall we start a new thread and all try our hand at modeling a simple lizard? Baz I'd love to tell you how well your entry did in the LW3D contest... but I'm not allowed to let you know how well it was received by all the judges. Come to think of it... you should post a wireframe of your "lizard" for us to gawk at. :o) nomuse Did you ever sort out the problem with that boot of yours? Something about moving laces over, right? This is definitely the place to post mind-bending modeling problems like that. Can't guarantee intelligent answers though. Shanna So this is where you visit when you aren't in the Writers' Forum. :o) If you'd like... you could post up some simple reference images of some of these antiques that you'd like modeled. I think that some of the forum members here would be up to the challenge of attacking bits and pieces of it. Even if they don't actually model it, finding out how they would address the problem by laying out their work flow might be very informative. pakled "Wearables" are beyond me... after edge loops that is definitely something I would like to learn. In fact, a mini-tutorial on modeling clothes would be a real big help... do you think you'd be interested in sharing what you've learned so far? Teyon chief... care to "scare" us with a wireframe of your awesome Balrog mesh. I still don't know how the heck you managed to model that monster. We're on to something here, folks. :o) Don't worry... after this getting-to-know-you period, we're going to find our bearings and move this forum in a direction. Hopefully not backwards. :o) Thanks for all your replies! Keep posting!!! Cheers! M

have to admit that all I've learned so far is the 'extrude', 'bevel', and 'mirror' commands in Wings 3d. Anim8tor, I know even less. Not sure what an edge loop is; maybe like an Immelman or a Cuban 8..;). Did most of my modelling in Strata 2.5.3, but mostly +- of primatives. Did a Morion helmet (Conquistador style), but that's the only real 'wearable' I've done so far..;)

I model with Wings3D since it fits my budget nicely. I have other reasons as well, since its a fine little program with better development and technical feedback than some stuff people have paid for (How often do people get real feedback from the developer/designer/creator of most other programs?) As far as 3D modeling goes it's only a hobby in my case. ("You mean people get paid to do this?! How can I get in on it?" LOL.) I just make whatever thought comes to mind. Sometimes it moves along. Sometimes it stalls in progress. Sometimes I get back to something or vice versa. In my case it's usually some kind of machinery or mechanical device. So, you could say I like making miscellaneous objects. I've tried organic modeling a few times. But I'm not that great at it. So I have a respect for others who do it well, as is a kind of skill in itself.