I haven't played with it for literally years. But then I have seen artistic talent and no idea if what I'd make with it, so maybe there's good reason for my abstinence

I'm tempted to get an Oculus, just for TiltBrush.
So you're preaching to the choir in my case.

Has to be the future of 3D modelling, VR...

Wow that looks so cool, would certainly get me more involved.

That is very nicely done, check out the BALLS on that dog tho'

I should be getting some practice in for the first three weeks of September, as I am finally moving flat and Ev has finished her final project.

Tempy wrote:

That is very nicely done, check out the BALLS on that dog tho'

CANT UNSEE.

LivDiv wrote:

Get on it man. Is your course geared more toward realtime/games?

Shit, I missed this. It's basically a groundwork masters but peopl tend to specialise in one of four areas: architecture, games, motion graphics or 3D printing - the latter has the least uptake.

Dunno, probably games because it's a growth industry etc

A few bits of general advice that I have given to my interns in the past.

1. Filing systems.
Have one or follow the provided one religiously. There is nothing worse than missing bitmap.
Also understand how your chosen software deals with this.
C4d automatically lumps stuff in the folder where the file is saved. 3ds Max you have to setup a project. This is important for keeping things tidy but it will also dictate your auto-save locations.
Auto-save is saintly so ensure it is setup correctly and frequently enough for the job in hand. Also be sure to up your number of undos in preferences.


2. Keep modelling as procedural as possible.
I'm not too familiar with Blender and C4d is shit for it but in Max you have a modifier stack that can include smoothing, UV mapping, chamfers, bends, ffd (look it up its handy). These can be collapsed but at that point they cant be manipulated individually.

3. Tape Measure.
It doesnt matter if you are making a pack of cigarettes or a building. Making a photo real living room or a demon crab monster. Scale is important and not always obvious when looking at a 24inch monitor. Have a tape measure at hand to quickly check what a metre or 50mm or 7 inches actually looks like.
Additionally try to learn a few basic measurements.
1650mm is a fairly average eye height.
Desks are 800mm high.
Bars are around 1100mm.
Door frames are 800mm wide.

Sounds all very architectural but getting these things right can ground a fantasy environment.

Also work in millimetres or metres. Centimetres are for children, imperial is for racists.

4. See in Topolgy.
I think this is really important.
Start to view the world in how it could be 3D modelled.
On the bus, bored at work. Put your phone away and focus on something around you. Think about how you would model it.
Is it best to start with a primitive object and manipulate it?
Could it be better produced by drawing a spline and adding a sweep or loft?
How would you add that detail? Model it? Displacement or bump map?

5. Keep it simple.
Try to keep topolgy basic and use modifiers to add detail like smoothing or displacement.

For example if I was to make a wine glass I would start with either a 6 sided cylinder that I then edge extruded to follow the profile of the glass. Or a linear spline with a handful of points in key places.
Either way I would then apply a Subdivisional modifier to get the curvy shape. If it wasnt correct I can then manipulate one or two points rather than hundreds.

6. Dont be afraid to ask.
No one knows everything in 3D software. It isnt possible. Even if they know all the tools they may not know the best way to use them and even then there is more than one way to skin a cat.
I spent a few months at a brilliant architectural design house a few years back. The two visualisers were insanely good but I happened to have skills and understand tools that they didnt.

7. Chamfer/bevel.
3D software will create perfect primitive such as cubes or cylinders which is great but not realistic.
The edge of one face will be at absolute 0,0,0 to the edge it meets. This never happens in reality so applying a a chamfer (or bevel) to simple shapes will make them much more realistic.
The softer material the larger the chamfer, soft wood might be 3mm, hard wood 2mm, metal 0.5mm etc.
Generally I wouldn't want iterations in this though. A single chamfer can pick up light really nicely.
If you look at my visual above. The side table next to the sofa is a good example of this. The front legs are picking up light toward the top. That is just a cuboid shape with a single chamfer iteration.

New Intel Open Image Denoiser is great (works on AMD CPUs also), allows you to massively reduce render times by using less samples then running a denoising pass to remove noise and 'fireflies', retaining image quality really well.

Still not ideal for use with rendering out animations sadly, as slight variance between frames induced by the denoising process leads to flicker when playing back the video. The developer of this is working on 'temporal coherence' apparently though, not sure how long that will take, but that will be fantastic for rendering out great looking animations very quickly.

That looks alright Tempy.
Do you have a wireframe image of it?

Would be good to see the topolgy as that is quite key.
When you get to the end of the course and are putting a portfolio together definitely try to show a wireframe as well as a beauty render, for Junior roles that is what I would be looking at.

Can just do a screengrab mate.

Yeah a lot of it can just be finding ways of working and what primitives to start with.

Haha, I still dont know what a lot of modifiers do but I have my favourites.

It's like anything though practice will help you find quick ways of working and your confidence will build with it.

3DS Max, somI can get help from the teachers easy enough

Nah, for reasons listed above. Hopefully the fundamentals transfer.