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pF · 10-02-2012, 10:05 PM

I also use 3DS Max nowadays, since it's somewhat of an industry standard, and while it's a strange mashup of a decade-old foundation and countless 3d party plugins they bought up, it's still quite elegant once you get the hang of it.

I can recommend sites such as 3dmotive.com or Eat3d.com for (paid) tutorials of high quality, and there's also quite a lot of good beginner tutorials on cg.tutsplus.com (the water tower tutorial is how I transitioned from XSI back in the day).

Random tips from a heavy user:

- As soon as you're semi-familiar with the core functions you'll be using, start adjusting the UI and keyboard assignments to your workflow. You'll gain a lot of speed and Max is very customisable.
- Don't be afraid to use 3d party/user-made scripts that add or enhance functionality. Scriptspot.com has a fuckton.
Selection of scripts I use: TexTools, turboTools, SubObjPivot, VisualPivot, QuadChamfer, a couple I've written myself (which is fairly easy to do), and loads more.
- Use the modifier stack for 'great benefit!1'. It's Max's singlemost useful feature.
- Set your autosaves to every 5 minutes. It will crash on you

Maybe more when they spring to mind. And if your goal is to create complex objects, you won't learn to do it in 3 weeks, so set your goals realistically and start small, including the whole workflow from (highpoly to) lowpoly to UV to (baking to) texturing to importing in-engine.

Great program. For more simple stuff, Sketchup might be the way forward - the paid version can export meshes and I do know a couple of game designers that use it to quickly block out geometry for levels.

10-02-2012, 10:05 PM	#11
pF no war but class war Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: big bad berlin Class/Position: Soldier / Scout Gametype: ctf Affiliations: [w~k!] Posts Rated Helpful 3 Times	I also use 3DS Max nowadays, since it's somewhat of an industry standard, and while it's a strange mashup of a decade-old foundation and countless 3d party plugins they bought up, it's still quite elegant once you get the hang of it. I can recommend sites such as 3dmotive.com or Eat3d.com for (paid) tutorials of high quality, and there's also quite a lot of good beginner tutorials on cg.tutsplus.com (the water tower tutorial is how I transitioned from XSI back in the day). Random tips from a heavy user: - As soon as you're semi-familiar with the core functions you'll be using, start adjusting the UI and keyboard assignments to your workflow. You'll gain a lot of speed and Max is very customisable. - Don't be afraid to use 3d party/user-made scripts that add or enhance functionality. Scriptspot.com has a fuckton. Selection of scripts I use: TexTools, turboTools, SubObjPivot, VisualPivot, QuadChamfer, a couple I've written myself (which is fairly easy to do), and loads more. - Use the modifier stack for 'great benefit!1'. It's Max's singlemost useful feature. - Set your autosaves to every 5 minutes. It will crash on you Maybe more when they spring to mind. And if your goal is to create complex objects, you won't learn to do it in 3 weeks, so set your goals realistically and start small, including the whole workflow from (highpoly to) lowpoly to UV to (baking to) texturing to importing in-engine. Great program. For more simple stuff, Sketchup might be the way forward - the paid version can export meshes and I do know a couple of game designers that use it to quickly block out geometry for levels. __________________ Support FF: Gay And Lesbian Fiction \| Teen Books \| Bath Products Last edited by pF; 10-02-2012 at 10:06 PM.