question for you 3d dudes...

[keyth]

my school had our portfolio show a few days ago. some game companies here in chicago were very happy with my drawings and stuff. but they all said i need to show 3d work.

i took some classes at school. we studied maya. my question is this: i need to find some tutorials for low-poly modeling/texturing on the web for maya. i have been trying but to no avail. please help me. thanks a lot.

[Vhy]

Here's my professor's poly head modeling tutorial:

http://www.thehobbitguy.com/tutorials/polymodeling/index.html

[Fabool]

Well.. I would suggest you learn the Maya interface first so that you know most of the tools and have a good idea on how to utilize them.
When you're comfortable with the tools you can use any tutorial, even if they're written for a different software package.

I haven't seen many Maya tutorials around, especially not for lowpoly work. This site is probably your best bet.
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/

Also, if you've got some specific questions about Maya or lowpoly modeling, we've got some professional and non-professional peeps at the Polycount messsage boards who can probably answer them.
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~polycount/ubb/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&BypassCookie=true

[keyth]

thanks so much guys. i know maya's interface and stuff. i have made some models...mostly worked in nurbs though. but all the game companies that came to our portfolio show said "low poly only". one of them recommended polycount. so i'll head over there. thanks so much.:chug:

[Stonepilot]

hey dude,
Hope this helps. I rencently had a guy from some game company in my class as a speaker. I wish I remember his name or company. All I remember was that he's the lead animator at the company that's coming out with the new X-men game. Someone asked him the same question or similar
one. He's answer was something like. It doesn't matter if you have hight poly models.If you can model like that chances are that you'll be able to model low count with no problem. As a matter of fact he himslef prefer to see really detail stuff just cause that way he could tell if you undestrood anatomy etc.... Also ideally he mention that if you can do more than one thing its more ideal. I'm pretty sure you've heard that already.
Honestly dude. I would really suggest just freaking craking some stuff out. Sky the limit. If you know how to model in nurbs poly's are so much easier. Except When you lay out the U.V that's just tedious.
From my own personl experience all I did was look at one of my teachers model a generic head in poly and it all just kind of makes sense. I'm also asuming that at some point you had a class that just went over all the modeling tools. Well good luck. Its to bad you don't live in L.A I wouldn't mind showing what ever I've managed to pick up at school.
Good Luck dude. And post what ever you've done on here.

[espaki]

keyth-

in my personal opinion, the best way to model is subdivision surfaces. I hear maya is pretty good at it but i dont know where some tutorials are offhand. one place that has good reference for sub-d modeling is http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/index.php

there are also numerous other forums and such. if you want something with a simpler interface than maya, http://www.wings3d.com. wings3d is a FREE modeling program that can export various file formats (including .obj for maya and .3ds for 3d studio max) and has a very intuitive interface and a low learning curve.

http://www.izware.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Nendo&number=2&DaysPrune=365&SUBMIT=Go - here you can find some good tips on modeling sub-d. these were actually written for nendo/mirai, but wings3d is almost an exact copy of nendo.

hope that helps....

-Nate

btw: you should attempt a self portrait in 3d, im sure you know your face well enough after all the SPOD's

[keyth]

i haven't been back here for a while b/c i had no connection. thanks guys!!!!!:chug: everything you have sent me can help. i found some others here and there...it took a while, but i found'em.

but hey, if anyone else still knows of something...drop it in!!!

thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jaku]

Hey keyth!

Take a look here.

http://maxrovat.sns.hu/subdiv/

Is about subdivision modeling tips. In this type of modeling you start with just a cube and start adding pols. I think it´s a good resource.

Good luck!

[Grooveholmes]

What I would recommend, aside from actual 'low poly modelling' techniques is to pay special attention to your texturing. i.e. How your model is unwrapped, efficient use of texture space, and overall quality of the painted texture. Good textures will go a long way to hide the fact that something doesn't have too many polygons. I purchased this book.Learning Maya, Games and Interactive. (http://store.aliaswavefront.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry10?V1=385089&PN=1&SP=10023&xid=41107&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0) And found it to be a pretty good resource. Mind you it doesn't get incredibly in-depth on any one topic; but, it does go a long way toward covering all the bases regarding maya+games and getting people up to speed in those areas.
I'd also recommend checking out
Bobo the Seal's Website (http://www.bobotheseal.com/) . He's made some good tuts and is definately one you'd want to check out if you want to see how to do it right. He's also a fellow citizen of our humble forum.:D

[MadSamoan]

Stonepilot: That artist that talked at your class was Cory Barlog, animation director for Paradox Development.

As for lowpoly modeling, don't get too caught up in all the fancy-schmancy techniques that the various software offer. Subdivision surfaces, NURB patches, splines, etc.. are great and all, but in the end you just need to be able to place vertices down and connect the dots to construct polygons.


Learn just enough of the software to do what you need to do, but your priority should on studying anatomy and especially construction, or surface anatomy/planes of the body and head. Invest in John Asaro's Planes of The Head model and study from Vanderpoel's Human Anatomy and Bridgeman's Anatomy series of books.

[keyth]

guys, thanks again i can't tell you how much i appreciate the help. as a matter of fact...there has been so much help that my low poly model is complete.

now, if you guys are feeling extra nice i need help laying my UV's out in maya's texture editor. what im doing is automatic map and then sew peices back together. tedious but i dont mind. the only thing is this: i can't figure out how to cut some peices so i can pull them apart to rearrange a bit. any suggestions?

once again people. you rock. thanks again. weeeee.