I have been using Blender for a while now and I understand the basics of how to use it to model. However, I have no idea how to model anything but the most basic shapes. I can make models, and I understand the fucntions of the program, such as subsurfacing, subdividing and extruding, but my models always look terrible
. I also have no idea how texture. Where can I find a tutorial or book or something that explains how to make good models, as opposed to the technical aspects of modeling?
Practice. It's just like drawing. The basics are easy to understand (take a pencil, take a piece of paper, draw) but it takes a lot of time and practice to draw a good picture. Modeling is the same.
Use google to find tutorials, if you need help.
Ok, I'll practice. Are there any techniques you'd recommend? I'm mostly interested right now in making models of space ships from Star Wars, as I'm going to try to make a game in the style of the X-Wing series but for newer computers… I found good images to trace but I'm still having difficulty.
I recommend drawing your model first. Draw it from different angles, scan it and use it as a reference. Try not to trace too much though. For spaceships you could model only half of the ship and mirror it later, so you have a complete ship. Except if you want a non symmetrical ship of course.
When I mirror it, it looks ok, but when I test it in blender by using blender's game engine or rendering engine, the mirrored half is transparent from the outside and you can see the inside faces. What's up with that?
The normals, make sure the mirrored piece is connected to the other, then spacebar edit normals recalculate outside
.
btw: is there a automatic way to mirror in blender? I always duplicated and then merged all the vertices :|.
One cannot tell you how to LEARN to modle but one may teach how. XD
I would suggest wings 3D acctuly instaid of blender but that's just me.
If you use wings I can give lots of pointers.
frenchie: As Bink said, draw you're model first then reference it when modeling. I usually draw a front and side then scan them into my computer then outline them
.
gill: Lets not get into the whole wings blender thing, we all know wings is easier and blender has for features.
Anyway, yes you can, you can tell someone how to learn something "to learn what one plus one equals write 1 mark and then another then count them".
It's pretty much the same thing as teaching
.
Normals -- To recalculate normals with blender, hit spacebar in the modeling window, scroll down to 'Edit' then to 'Normals' and click 'Recalculate Outside'.
Try modeling hands. Over and over again. Not a professional opinion, but they seem a good thing to learn by. They can be a simple set of basic shapes, all the way up to a complete organic shape.