I am awestruck by the talent displayed on this website. I have always been a freehand artist, drawing mostly tattoo flash for friends and my local tattoo shop, all of which are of course 2D. I have moved on to photo manipulation as well as adding to freehand sketches I have scanned into my PC, I have used photoshop for this as well. I currently use Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver to make a living designing websites.. but now I want to get into the 3D realm. I have no experience in 3D and have no clue what most of the terms mean or how they apply, so what I need advice on is an easy to use 3D program for a beginner.

A few weeks ago I got one of the renderosity emails and I clicked on the link for a creation named Nefarian and my jaw just dropped, I can not stop looking at it because of it's beauty, and concept. Being a huge Sci-Fi fan I easliy saw her in my mind as an ailen race in my favorite TV Show Stargate SG-1. That aside my ultimate goal is to make 3D versions of SG-1 Characters, and 3D space ship, as well as totally original concepts. I am very active in the Sci Fi community both on and offline and I know that if I were to design videos of virtual tours in ships I have created in 3D they would go over huge.

In my off time I am writing a Sci-Fi novel and would love to make into an animated 3D movie instead. Now that I have set the bar insanely high, this is where you guys come in.

I think I know what modeling means, but have no idea how it is done, and the term render makes me see stars, everyone I talk to knows this stuff inside & out and when they offer to help.. sadly they can't seem to dumb it down enough for me to catch on. Yes I know it is pitiful. I liken myself to the character Tom Cruise played in Rolling Thunder... he could drive his ass of but couldn't tell you how many cylinders were in a car even if he was leaning on the V8 badge on the fender. I know exactly what I want to create, I can see the ships, aliens weapons and planets in my head now, I just need a way to make them into 3D creations that I can spin to show off the detail, zoom in and pose them... and eventually animate them. i tend to be a perfectionist so I need the ability to create something down to the level of stubble on a creatures face, to the shimmering puddles of oil seeping in the coridors of his well worn space craft. I have a desire to not only make full action motion movies with all these implements but also an interactive catalog of stuff like a webiste with just the aforemention items on display, like in an interactive smithsonain for people to oogle odd looking weapons with my desriptions on how they work. Who knows maybe someone will want to use them. You know Gil Hibben? He is a fantasy knife maker and his pieces have been in everything from Under Seige to Star Trek. His success is an inspiration as is H.R. Giger.

I use a Laptop that I have crammed full of memory and processing power, it is not a Mac. I hope I have specific enough it what it is i hope to accomplish for the responses to point me in the right direction. Oh and I just bought a Wacom 6x8 tablet that I love to death. Someone please help me! I can only offer my art and love in return. Need an avatar? Girlfriend turned into a frog in a pic? A husband turned into a camel, lol?

Thanking you in advance for the advice and what i hope to be the key to taking my artistsc ability to the next level.

~ Big Blue Buddha a.k.a. 3B

Hoping to be the next big thing

Attached Link: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/index.php

        Knowing how to do everythign is not permitted. All kiddign aside ther eis a lot to know to beable to do everyting you want to do. And if you are impatient it will most likely not happen. You need to walk beofore you run. Bite it off in little bits and eventually consume the whole thing. One peice of advice is go to a site like Si fi meshes. There you can look through works in progress and see how things are built up. there are a few industry pros there too.        You can do some collaborations with someone more experienced in 3D and they can model something for you. Even people who are very good have specialties. Some are better at mechanical some are better at organic and others are better at texturing and lighting. When you get together with someone to make one of your 2D masterpeices into 3D make sure they go through the process with you and tell you how they do soem things. Remember some things work in 2D and not 3D also.

I would like to put my 2 cents in also :)

For 1 I would like to help you to understand the difference between modeling and rendering. When you model an object, what you see on the screen is a low quality representation of what you are creating.  When you render, it is the computer drawing the high quality image of your creation. A low quality representation is used so you can rotate, view, and build upon your model.

Secondly, I would like to say that I appreciate where you are coming from and your want for total control of your finished art. Dann-O is right, it would help you in learning from others work. But I came into it like you. I wanted to do it all! My first render was a cube, and I was so excited that I learned how to do that! But anyways my point is this. I think the most important step is in choosing your application. Some may disagree, but I think while learning, using many different tools is not a good idea. I think the best way to learn is to choose a program that can do ALL the things that you want to do, and stick with that one app thought it all. You want to model,render, and animate, so carefully choose an app that can do all those things. Once you have made your choice, stick with that program. I think you will be suprised at what you will be able to do with it in a short amount of time. And as your skill grows, your appreciation of your software will, too :)

As for choosing that app, that is a topic of great debate :) I use Blender, a free open source package that does it all, and I love it to the core.

Anywayz good luck , and welcome to a new world!

Thank you both! Punk I know that great feeling you had with the cube I had a similar feeling the first time I figured out what the hell layers were in photoshop and when I did it made the way I was doing things before obsolete and I was able to do things beyond what i thought was possible. Then when I clicked on the layer properties and learned how to add stroke, change hue and color, add texture... it was incredible and at the same time I felt incredibly stupid at not knowing about it for the 2 years I was using Photoshop like drawng a masterpiece with a pen instead of a pencil... I was still incredibly successful which I been told was a testament to my eye for detaill, but I still felt stupid, lol. A friend of mine gave me something called 3DS Max but I have not installed it yet. First I will try the Blender and tinker with it.

So getting back to terms... when I see that thing that looks like a claymation doll I assume that is the 'modeling' aspect. And am I to understand that the rendering part is something the computer does more than something I do? Like I make a clay cube and the render applcation will allow me to input the parameters of what I want the cube to look like and it will do it? Am I wrong in thinking it works similar to the various 'filter' options in photoshop?

I guess with a little searching I could find some tutorials on how to use Blender as well right? Thanks again guys, and by all means keep chiming away I aim to absorb everything. Am I also right in assuming that the render if my analogy to a filter is correct, come with default renders but I can somehow upload more 'skins' or 'swatches' to use in the render process... or am i comeltely off, lol.

Oh and Danno I never though that some 2D things might not go over well in 3D, that bit of info may have just saved me a great deal of frustration if something comes out iffy... my very first object to try and model and render will be the Stargate itself... and then maybe.. boobies, lol.

Quote - As for choosing that app, that is a topic of great debate :) I use Blender, a free open source package that does it all, and I love it to the core.

Anywayz good luck , and welcome to a new world!

I use blender a little but mainly use 3ds Max as that's what work have. Blender is a superb package, at the right price and punk's work is a good example of what can be achieved with it. It can genuinely do pro level output. I started 3d as a hobby many moons ago with POVRay, no UI at all just used a text editor to define a scene in POVRays language and then let it render away, what a sense of achievement I had producing my first animation ( a pretty bad fly through of a canyon).

Anyway I think 'punk is bang on all round, grab a copy of blender, sit down, and play (it'll take a while to get used to the UI), don't give up and visit regularly to let us see your stuff and get advice  - some of the people here are incredible talents and not afraid to share their knowledge.

A bit of advice from me. Get a stand alone modeler. This can serve you well later. Even if you get a high end app having a mdeler wher ethe tools for modeleing and nothing else at yrou fingertips is very handy. Keeps the clutter down and generally they are freindlier to the various formats so you can share better. I use Wings because I liek i ta lot it is prices as free. I have Hexagon too it is collecting dust but it has some uses.

Modeling types.
Box modeling think of a lump that you shape by cutting and pushing.
Spline modeling think of the ribs of a ship how they are laid out and connected.
Patch modeling making squares and attaching them to each other till you make an object.

Some free modelers for you. Wings my favorite . Metasequoia a very easy to use spline modeler but to get all the options you have to live in Japan. S-Patch JP-Patch Hama patch all free patch modelers. Anim8tor has a lot of features and is a decent modeler. 

Blender is a full featured program like 3DS and the liek it is free if you use wings it can import wings models easy so it works well with that . Blender has spline and boxmodeling features.

I am in no way trying to sell you on 1 certain progam :) That choice has to be yours. I merely mentioned the one I use, and wanted you to know how much I have fell in love with it as I learned it, and how that would apply to any one that you decide to start with. I have heard nothing but good things about 3ds Max. It is a professional application that has been around for years. I cannot say which 1 is better than the other , because I only know Blender. Maybe ignorance is bliss :) Also I am not sure how they handle the updates. When new versions of 3ds Max come out, do you have to make another purchase? But as for tutorials and help, there is a very large amount out there for both.

And yea you have gotten the right idea about the render process. When rendering, the computer draws your scene to the best of its ability, which takes time. Sometimes it can take up to several hours for the computer to render(draw) one image, depending on the complexity and realism (lighting,effects, and other parameters that you tell it). 

Where your artistic skills will really shine is in the texturing. Textures are the 2d images that are "wrapped" around your model, or like painted on it. Like painting flowers on a vase. Textures could include wrinkles and lines on a model of an old man's face, or the scales on a fish. This is an area where I could use much improvement, and an area where I think you will have a head start :) 

Wow I am long winded. This post was mainly to cover myself, and say that I was'nt trying to persuade you into 1 certain app. I just think it will be much easier to stick with 1 from the very beginning.

Good luck and we will be watching for your new gallery submissions! 

Some further clarification of terms. `Rendering' simply means displaying the model or scene you're building, and all modelers today render in real time to some extent while you're working so you can see what you're doing. However, this will be simple wireframe or with basic shading.

For the final image you need a raytraced render if you want photo-realistic output. This produces a view with correct lightsource effects, reflections and refraction based on all materials and lighting used on the 3D content in the scene. Povray is a good renderer but isn't a modeler. Metasequoia is a good modeler, but only has basic non-photorealistic rendering. Expensive software combines both and usually has animation as well.

For attaching textures (like bark on a tree model) you'll need to learn about UV mapping, which is a complicated subject in its own right.

Best advice is to get all the free apps and demo versions and see how you get on with them. You can, in fact, do a hell of a lot with the free stuff.

I am having a hardertime than I though locating Blender... what is the full name?

EDIT: Nevermind I found it now I shall begin to create!!!

I wish you luck with the Blender interface -- I could never get along with it :)

yeah it is daunting but I have been locating Tutorials en masse to fix that problem

It's gonna be a long journey.....

Take your time and learn the basics first!

Model a cube!

texture that cube!

light that cube!

render that cube!

NEXT! good luck. I sugest you download the learning version of a few packges! They are free and all but the same as something costing $1,000's.

In all honesty a great modeler that cost next to nothing is Silo 3d from http://www.nevercenter.com/