3D Modeling

[clyde]

It's time for me to start making 3D models. I haven't downloaded anything for this purpose. I intend to spend no money or less than $100 and I require that everything be legal. What are my options?

[Spenny]

Blender for modelling.

 

GIMP for texturing.

 

I'm not sure there are many other options based on those requirements clyde, some options open up if you're a student, but to my knowledge Blender and GIMP is the only worthwhile free option.

[clyde]

Oh gawd. Does this mean that I won't be able to paint directly on the 3d model? If I had money to burn I could paint directly on the model, couldn't I?

[Berzee]

You can paint directly on the 3d model with Blender, it's rather finicky but good enough at least for a preliminary coloring. (Searching for "blender texture paint" or somesuch may turn up useful results).

[rexor0717]

Yeah, Blender is a good option. I only used for for a few months because of a class I was taking. 3D modeling is hard, or at least its hard to make things that look nice. I'm no good at it. 

[Eftervind]

Sculptris is a fun tool, not super suitable for gamedev maybe. It's free too.

[Lork]

Does anybody know how to set the scale of your model when exporting from Blender? I'm trying to make a simple model for use in Unity, but when I import it into Unity it's microscopic. I tried changing the scale in the "scene" settings, but that doesn't seem to actually change the scale of the object, just the default scale setting for the object's transform in Unity. I want the object to be the proper size at a scale (from Unity's point of view) of 1, as making massive changes to the scale of an object in Unity has broken/undesirable results.

[BigJKO]

Hm.. the default Blender cube you start out with in a new document should be 2 Unity units. Just scale your model up to half the size of that cube and they should be the proper scale in Unity.

[Berzee]

Another thing you can try (no idea if this will make a difference in your case though) is selecting the object in Blender and pressing CTRL+A  -> "Apply Scale". This will make Blender consider the object, at its current size, to be at a scale of 1.

[Lork]

Another thing you can try (no idea if this will make a difference in your case though) is selecting the object in Blender and pressing CTRL+A  -> "Apply Scale". This will make Blender consider the object, at its current size, to be at a scale of 1.

That did the trick, thanks.

[clyde]

Ok, here is a question that lies way beyond my skill-level. Don't waste your time answering if you expect me to ever actually use the information. But...

Do the colliders for a 3d model attach to the rig? I'm trying to visualize how colliders for an animated 3d model are going to move. I want a flopping fish that has rigidbody physics so he lifts off the ground when he curls. I know, I know, this is way beyond my skill-level.

[Abban]

I signed up on http://www.autodesk.com/ and set my account to education and entered my old university. They then let me have a 3 year license for Maya, you can get 3DS Max too for Windows. I much prefer Blender though.

 

If you're on a Mac I would recommend Pixelmator for texturing too.

[Merus]

Does Maya get used much in the industry, or is it used more for film? I'm doing a 3D Animation course and we're using Maya. (I really like its animation system.)

[Murdoc]

I've used Maya and Max equally in the industry. I prefer Max for my job, but animators and character artists seem to enjoy Maya more.

[Berzee]

Hey look I painted a chicken. (It took several more hours than such a chicken warrants, I'm afraid).

 

[clyde]

That chicken is rad.

What's next? Please keep us updated.

[gray117]

Oh gawd. Does this mean that I won't be able to paint directly on the 3d model? If I had money to burn I could paint directly on the model, couldn't I?

 

Even if you're desperate to avoid uv-ing this is probably not your best route for games work. It can be very handy for basic starting points, or end additions/tweaks with specific tools, but not necessarily the best route unless you're looking into a more particular workflow that might make best use of something like substance painter [by allegorithmic] - but this is probably a specialized diversion away your immediate needs.

 

 

Ok, here is a question that lies way beyond my skill-level. Don't waste your time answering if you expect me to ever actually use the information. But...

Do the colliders for a 3d model attach to the rig? I'm trying to visualize how colliders for an animated 3d model are going to move. I want a flopping fish that has rigidbody physics so he lifts off the ground when he curls. I know, I know, this is way beyond my skill-level.

 

Yep typically collision will often be a simplified mesh or even individual shapes (cheap calculations) attached to your rig... other more specialized simulations, or setups using already simple geometry, may simply use the actual model mesh. Implementations can obviously vary. If it's just a canned/non-dynamic animation it's worth noting you should be able to 'bake' a simulated animation sequence into keyframes in your 3d app and export an animation sequence like that. 

 

 

Does Maya get used much in the industry, or is it used more for film? I'm doing a 3D Animation course and we're using Maya. (I really like its animation system.)

 

Yes, it developed more from a film background, but these days that means little (it used to be that maya plug-ins/tools may have been hard to find or followed after 3ds max tools, but these days it's a pretty level play field). However, as an animator specifically, it's worth noting you'll probably also find motion builder as an extremely common solution for all kinds of situations - especially those where data goes across platforms. 

[singing_pigs]

I'll recommend Maya (if you can grab a student edition) but frankly I'm only recommending it cause it's the only one I've really used. Strangely, as a programmer I've found I enjoy it a lot more than my artist friends typically do. I think it's built with more technical people in mind.

If you're insane and want to try something totally impractical for games you can try ZBrush. (Note: don't try ZBrush.)

[deleted user]

_

[singing_pigs]

Zbrush is actually used in the games industry loooaaaaads. The trick is that you bring it into something like Maya afterwards so you can layer the proper topology over it. There's even companies dedicated to doing that for you, but it's really not difficult to do yourself.

 

Oh right, by "impractical" I meant it's not a trivial process to get it into your game. I would never recommend a developer try ZBrush unless they were already pretty familiar with a modeling program like Maya or Blender, since like you said you'd probably have to use that as a middle man.

[monkehhh]

I signed up on http://www.autodesk.com/ and set my account to education and entered my old university. They then let me have a 3 year license for Maya, you can get 3DS Max too for Windows. I much prefer Blender though.

 

If you're on a Mac I would recommend Pixelmator for texturing too.

 

Thanks for this, being a student gets you a lot of stuff free or cheap! Picked up a three year license for Maya and Max, just in case..

[Abban]

We've been using Z-Brush for some character painting. What we've been doing is I make the model and unwrap it in Blender, the painter opens it in Z-Brush and paints then saves the diffuse using the UV layout which can be applied to the model in Unity. Its a longish process but its working so far.

 

For environment models I'm just using potatoshop and some actions.

[1PxOff]

Does anybody know how to set the scale of your model when exporting from Blender? I'm trying to make a simple model for use in Unity, but when I import it into Unity it's microscopic. I tried changing the scale in the "scene" settings, but that doesn't seem to actually change the scale of the object, just the default scale setting for the object's transform in Unity. I want the object to be the proper size at a scale (from Unity's point of view) of 1, as making massive changes to the scale of an object in Unity has broken/undesirable results.

after you complete your model in Blender you can select the .blend file inside of Unity and change the import scale setting.  this will automatically rescale the model on import for you.  This is useful if you want to keep blender scale at default and then keep the models inside of Unity at a useable scale as well.

[Dinosaursssssss]

I modeled a thing for the first time today! It's these six shooters I made in Blender. I think I did something wrong by extruding and solidifying the frame though, it's all...flickery. I feel a little bad that the first thing I ever modeled was a gun, but the only other model I reaaaally need for this game is a person and that seemed like a bit much for my first project.

[Lork]

Another weird question: Is there an easy way to remove a model/texture from a .fbx animation?

Using animations from the Unity Asset store, I often need to make small changes, such as adding events, making new clips, etc. I recently implemented source control on my project and I'd like to include copies of my edits (which are really just edits to the way they're imported) in that, but obviously with source control space is at a premium. Some assets make this easy by neatly splitting up every animation into its own ~250kb fbx file, pointing to a separate file with the model rather than including it with every animation. Other assets make it a pain by clumping all the animations and the model into a single, giant .fbx, requiring me to duplicate the whole thing and remove all the excess clips manually if I want make an edit, and still leaving behind a ~20mb .fbx for one animation because it includes a model that already exists in the original file. Is there any way I can do something about that?