Learning 3D Modeling, mostly polygon modeling, mostly with Blender 3D.

As I've stated in my preview, the purpose of this blog is mainly to share my journey in learning how to 3D Model with Blender 3D.

I'm no expert and I don't have any huge portfolio to show off my work, but I figured if I could help others wanting to learn/refine 3D modeling by taking out some of the detective work then so be it.

I figure instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I'm mainly just going to provide links to some of the already vast amounts of information to help others get a handle on 3D Modeling.

As I've stated in my preview Blender 3D is a FREE 3D modeling program and thanks to one of our very own community members, Joseph Greenawalt (his site www.jsgreenawalt.com ) we have an exporter that's constantly being maintained and updated so we can bring our models into our games from Blender 3D.


First and foremost lets start off with where to get Blender 3D, you can find it at www.blender.org.

While at www.blender.org, I recommend you check out the Features & Gallery tab at the top of the page to get a good idea of just how good Blender 3D is. I also recommend checking out the user manual, which you can find under the heading of Tutorials & Help at the bottom of the page.
The user manual contains a ton of great info and one topic that I feel is necessary to point out at this time which is Installing Blender.
As it says in the user manual in order to get the most out of Blender you'll also need to get the correct version of Python, which is a programing language.

While I've got you downloading things why don't you go ahead and grab Joesph's exporter at his site www.jsgreenawalt.com so that once your models are done you can export them out of blender and bring them into your current TGEA project. The install instructions for the exporter are also at Joesph's site under the Blender DTS Exporter Documentation tab at the top of his main page under Main Topics, Installing the Exporter.

Ok now that we've got Python, Blender 3D, and the exporter installed we're ready to start getting your modeling underway. In order to get started we'll need to put the basics first.

My perferred method of modeling is polygon modeling and thus that's what most of the info I'm going to be linking will be focused towards. Also at the moment my main focus is on character creation again my links will depict that.

So what is Polygon Modeling?
You can find a good description of what polygon modeling is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_modeling. The main info I'd like you to retain from that link is the info under the heading Geometric theory and polygons.

Let's further look into 3D Modeling basic's with Glen Moyes's tutorial Terms and Concepts used in 3D Graphics found here. Glen Moyes has several other great tutorials that we'll be revisiting a little later.

At this point I'd also like to point out The Polygon a tutorial by Andrew Silke found at www.guerrillacg.org/home/3d-polygon-modeling/the-polygon to further help you understand the basics. The Guerrilla CG Project also has sever other great tutorials by Andrew and other great artists that you may wish to revisit later.

Yet another and way more in depth tutorial to understanding the basics and even relearning them is A Modeling Ethic by Boyd Lake.
Boyd Lake is a very inspirational professional cg artist (he's worked on various titles including Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver) and his tutorial is more than just an intro to the basics, but I felt his explanation of the basics in the beginning portion of his tutorial is very detailed and will effect perhaps your entire outlook on 3D modeling. I highly recommend reading his entire tutorial, while it isn't a step by step how to create a character type of tutorial, it will help you understand how to be a better modeler by better technique and better understanding.

Now I know Boyd's tutorial might be a bit confusing after say page 4 if you're a new comer. So don't feel bad if you felt a bit overwhelmed with it.
I felt as though Boyd's Modeling Ethic was good to point out first though so that you don't follow the path that I did. Which was watch a few tutorials thinking I had a decent handle on what I needed to, spending a good amount of time building my first model not realizing that once I got to rigging and animating it that I'd hit a brick wall and have to rework large portions of it just to get desirable results.

You see I had no understanding of what a pole was, or what topology was, or how important edge loops and their flow were.

I didn't realize that I couldn't just throw my verticals and edges in when and where ever I wanted. I thought if the over all shape of my mesh looks good I'm in decent shape right? Wrong! Once you add in your rig and start weight painting it to the mesh and see how the verticals and edges pull and totally destroy your mesh when they deform you realize just how badly they are placed.

With that being said I encourage you to rewatch and reread the tutorials I've listed so far and then we'll move foward.

NOTE:If in any way I've linked to something that the authors of the works wouldn't want linked to and if you are one of those authors just ask and I'll remove the link.