I've never done any modeling except for something easy...like clicking the circle or square button :p How do most ppl start off, specially like with a car, how is everything scaled perfectly, i havent seen many measuring tapes in 3dmax or maya. If autocad was 3d i could see it working, but im so curious how ppl do it with just circles and squares, or am i missing something?

Kind of, yes. :) We use reference photos, preferably blueprints which contain exact measurements as background images in our work environemnt. Then, depending on your program and modeling style, you will either build curves to create lofts/sweeps of particular parts, or you would use primitives and start poly editing that to match the images, or you would use metaballs and hope for the best. The more accurate the references the better and also, refs from different angles beyond the top, side, front and back that a blueprint would have also helps you catch subtle nuances.

I don't model cars, or anything even remotely organic... come to think of it, I don't model anything that exists in real life. :o( I guess that's my work around to making credible models, work in the sci-fi genre, that way you can't really go wrong. :oP But seriously, most 3D applications will have a way to measure your meshes in 3D space. In fact, my favorite non-3D modeling tool is a tape measure. Like Teyon said, tons of reference material. You can use the images as modeling templates, by loading tri-view images (top, front, side) as background images to trace over; or simply by looking at them to get a sense of proportion and scale. The critical thing about tri-views is that they all have to be the same scale relative to each other, and positioned in the same reference location in 3D space. Hope that helps. :o) Cheers! M

Mind Over Matter
"If you don't mind, then it don't matter."

Most (if not all) modeling programs have measurement units of some sort. As they are needed to create the mathematical underpinnings of a mesh. More often than not, the units are arbitrary non-dimensional ones. Thus it is up to the person modeling to decide what the unit represents (whether it's inches, cm, feet, miles, km, cubits, furlongs, etc.) In most cases within the modeling environment, measurements are called "program name"-units. So in Blender it would be Blender-units, in Wings it would be Wings-units. Not that it really matters as 1-unit in one program is usually 1-unit in another program. However the scale which 1 unit represents varys quite a bit between programs. Also some of the higher-end programs support real-world dimensional units. Somewhere in the code they have conversions for metric, english, and maybe a few archaic units of measure. In most cases, there's also a way to set what unit will be represented when the mesh is output. If that's not an option, it usually does a conversion to some metric unit of measure. Just remember when this is exported, that dimensions will be lost - and it will be up to the end user to determine the proper (or at least desired) scaling factor. In most cases when modeling from real world objects, there is a way to place a blueprint behind the modeling space. Then the modeler can just eyeball it so that the model matches the views. (No yardstick required.) Also it is important to use an isometric viewing mode when doing this to prevent errors due to perspective distortion and parallax.

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.

There's a useful pop-up screen ruler or two somewhere around for download on the net, and also a protractor which is handy for cross-checking angles( called Graphic Protractor 1). m.

Attached Link: http://www.topqualityfreeware.com/mathsed.shtml

..to some useful-looking on-screen measuring tools.

m UPDATE: THat's a members-only download and it costs to be a member. Here's a URL for free calipers, though: http://www.iconico.com/caliper/

Message edited on: 06/09/2004 09:03

another thing i was curious, i heard shrek and lord of the rings used maya, i was wondering what software they use to build and animate their characters, looks "poser like"

For Shrek and LOTR Maya was used as a base application. Then the programmers came in and wrote all sorts of specalized apps for body mass, facial control and movement. Do not confuse Pozer with a real application for doing rigging and animation. Rigging is an art in itself, just as modeling is. There is alot more to the Shrek model than just polygons. The rig is very complex and does alot more than just allow Shrek to move. Spaz.......