Teach youself Modeling! part1

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

FireSlash

Whats a FireSlash?
Feb 3, 2001
4,300
0
0
38
Central Ohio
www.unrealannihilation.com
im starting a every-few-days modeling tutorial, where forumers can give feedback, and ask questions/give help, all based around the simple, easy to use, happy modeling system, known as MS3D.

MILKSHAPE TUTORIAL ONE. GETTING TO KNOW MS3D.

first of all, we need to get the software. www.milkshape3d.com . that wasnt hard! :)

now, we need to familiarise ourselves with the interface. that will be lesson one. on first look, MS3D looks like a poorly designed VB app, but on closer inspection, it has some fun features to make your life easy. see the attached refrence image for placements.

Familiarise yourself with the tabs, and placements. were going to run through the basics on this tut.

after each objective, clear the screen, with File>new.

Objective 1. creating a box.
go to thr primitaves tab, snd click the 'Box' button under sphere, above extrude. now. move your mouse to any 2D view, and click, and hold down, the left mouse button. you can now, by moving your mouse, ajust the dimensions of the box, exept one axis, being your mouse isnt 3d. make it square, but keep the mouse down. now look how your perspectives change. now make it a rectangle, see how the views change? get used to that, amek a few boxes, and we will move on to another primitive.

Objective 2. more complex primitives.
go to the primitives tab, and click sphere. you will notice you ahve some options now, on the bottom of then tab. stacks and slices. for now, were going to ignore them. create a sphere, and notice the changes when you make it wider, and taller. now change the stacks to 20. it looks alot smoother now, but this makes huge polycounts, and thats bad. (ill go into polycounts later) now, get familiar with the stack/slice settings, and see what changes what. when your happy with your knowlage. select 'Geosphere' make a geosphere. you should notice somthing. in 2d, its structured alot differntly, but in 3d, it looks (nearly) the same. whats changed? your options for starters. you now have a depth option. the geosphere isnt very flexable in making, but in modeling it is, as you can move the faces around a bit better, i usually use them for making player faces.

Objective 3. That darn cylinder.
ok. click cylinder. the first thing that should pop into your mind, is those stack/slices options are back, along with a 'close cylinder option. first, make a default cylinder. i am right now going to point out, that if the cylinder is going to be kept straight, you only need 1 stack. now, un-check the 'close cylinder' checkmark. compare the tops of the cylinders.

you know have a basic knowlage of primitive contstruction. now, were going to learn how to manipulate faces.

Objective 4. Face Manipultaion.
create a box. now, press the 'Select' button. more options. yay! now, select face, and make sure 'select by vertex' and 'ignore backfaces' arnt checked. now, make a box around the one of the sides of the box. now click 'move' and drag what you selected around. we can now move our box. now, lets play with those settings! make a new box (delete the new one) check the 'ignore backfaces' option now, select one of the box's sides. move it. notice only one of the sides moved. we can now manipulate the shape of the box! yay! now, click the 'select by vertex' option. when you select the whole side, you get the same resault, but when you just select a corner, see what happens. now, experiment with combinations of each setting, along with using them on other primitaves. when your comfortable, select some faces, and press the 'del' key! no more faces! this is great for reducing the poly count when 2 objects will touch but some of the faces are never seen.

Objective 5. tips and tricks.
now, lets get lazy :D create a box, and select all of it. now, go to Edit>duplicate selection. now. move the selected box away, its an exact clone of the one under it. now. make a box on the left of the screen, and use Vertex> Mirror Left<-->Right. it moved! now, try both options in conjunction with eachother. neat for making a left and right arm without re-creating the bugger.

Next tutorial: Your first model.

till then, FEAR ME!:rolleyes:
 

barnEbiss

Member
Jul 8, 2001
781
0
16
uskaarj.beyondunreal.com
I have finished my last model and got it all skinned and done
And am working on my next one I have gotten it into UT fine and the mane part of it that I skinned is fine its just the head and hands that aren’t skinned
The last model I did was all one texture now here my question
how do I get Multiple Textures to work ??
 

Silver_Ibex

Member
Feb 27, 2001
654
0
16
I know what he wants, as he was asking me about the same thing, he means like the regular UT character meshes that are skinned with four separate 256x256 textures, you know, one for head and hands, one for pants, one for chest armor.

He has been trying to get a new model that uses three textures for different parts of the body to be imported.

He showed me one that used a single texture for the entire body and it was cool for a first attempt at an UT model, I can’t wait to see what he can do with four textures :D.
 

pepslet

New Member
Feb 7, 2000
190
0
0
Visit site
Just a little thing...

Slighty offtopic, for those of you interested in low-poly (game) modeling, Paul Steed (modeler for quake3) has released his book about low poly modeling. I've ordered it, but I'm still waiting for it :(

Paul Steed's book

(That's amazon UK btw).
 

Machismo

Up The Irons
Jul 21, 2001
1,278
0
0
42
MaidenHead
cloud.prohosting.com
Saw PaulJ pimping the book at q3world :D. The babe on the cover looks really cool. But you gotta be intermediate user to make use of the book :(

:p :D

FireSlash nice job. Even my peanut brain was able to pick it up :b

:p Hey you are mirroring this on your site right :D
 

MxFxSunrise

New Member
Jul 21, 2000
567
0
0
Looking in from the outside
Ummm That Book. . . .

Low poly my ass. This is low poly:
sunarmrock2.jpg
The stuff that book talks about is "low poly" in the high end developer sense! Bahh >_<

PS don't make fun just becuase he has soda cans for arms >_< ^_^
 

Machismo

Up The Irons
Jul 21, 2001
1,278
0
0
42
MaidenHead
cloud.prohosting.com
Re: Ummm That Book. . . .

Originally posted by ATR|SUNRISE
Low poly my ass. This is low poly:
The stuff that book talks about is "low poly" in the high end developer sense! Bahh >_<

PS don't make fun just becuase he has soda cans for arms >_< ^_^

seeing as how Paul Steed is the q3 modeler you can expect it to be geared towards the q3 engine. which just supports higher polys :p . but the babe does look good ;)
 

pepslet

New Member
Feb 7, 2000
190
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re: Ummm That Book. . . .

Originally posted by Machismo


seeing as how Paul Steed is the q3 modeler you can expect it to be geared towards the q3 engine. which just supports higher polys :p . but the babe does look good ;)

And since the newest builds of the unreal engine support a lot more polys for the models, the book might come in handy.

But don't let the book hijack this thread, after all, this is fireslash his thread about his tutorials, so let's focus on that again he? ;)
 

DrWinky

i didnt do evil school to be called Mr
Jun 20, 2001
296
0
0
43
UK
Visit site
hey fireslash,

Cool beans man, ive been looking for MS3D, and some decent tutes for ages, this is a great idea, and im sure much pimpage will come from myself.

All others, leave the man to his own stuff, as any questions are either irrelevant or will be covered at a later date, Ask in a different thread if it isnt relevant to the tutorial, or whatever i mean.

/me gets confused

I was gonna say something, but i fergot

/me decides to find some roadkill fer his paw's dinner

DrWinky