Rickious modelling - Rhino to blender?

[Rickious]

Hi all, Blender is an insanely abnormal interface to me so im going to do the best thing which is convert to 3DS Max... Its about time really. Shame as i have been using Rhino 3D daily since i was last on here designing allsorts to build up a portfolio and just for practice, cars, perfume bottles, mobile phones,etc etc. But in terms of modelling for gaming Rhino is pretty poo. One option is to model in Rhino, texture in 3DSmax then pass to peeps on here for collision etc but im going to give the full 3DSmax usage a go first.

The Borneo emigration is most likely going to be put on hold for a few years which either the UK housing market recovers or we pay of some of our debts, mortgage etc, so this means that there is now time to put into learing 3D Studio MAx. I have version 9, ans am literally about to start the tutorials which come included.

If anybody can suggest better tutorials to save me starting on these let me know ASAP!

Cheers!

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Rickious
I have version 9, ans am literally about to start the tutorials which come included.

Doh! You've just missed out on the Civ IV exporter (works with versions 6-8). I guess if you're not going for animation you'll be fine. The NifTools exporter has been updated quite a lot recently, so it handles everything else pretty well, plus I know some animation related things are being developed for it.

If anybody can suggest better tutorials to save me starting on these let me know ASAP!

Cheers!

I highly recommend this book. While it is oriented towards low poly character modeling for games, it contains loads of useful tips for modelling in general, plus things like UV mapping, optimising and so on. I improved massively after going through it.

Also, there are quite a few tutorials on these forums, usually oriented specifically towards modeling for Oblivion. Check out the tutorials section in the FAQ board.

[Koniption]

I recommend also going here if you haven't already:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/3ds_Max


And if you ever get into animating creatures:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind..._Creatures

http://saidenstorm.googlepages.com/home


And if you want to do simple animations that are not creatures:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/ind...n_Tutorial

Koniption

[Sachiel]

Well in case you want to give Blender a second try, here's one tutorial about normal map baking that helped me a lot:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v6379634HgSpwjCM

And another one for simpler stuff:
http://revver.com/video/661005/blender-n...-tutorial/

Using Blender for the first time is quite a pain in the ass, i.e. it takes forever. But it feels good once you feel that you mastered the first hurdles.

Hi, btw.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hey, a new face! Hi Sachiel =)

[Rickious]

Just to wander a little. On exploring the AutoDesk website i did a 'Doh!' when i realised Maya was too AutoDesk. So, back to the old faithfull, managed to start to pick it up quick and feel thsat warm comfortable feeling with the menus etc. Options for baking, vertex paint etc etc so possibly totally compatibe... possibly! #

We will see. I will stick with it for a while and once i have a feel for where all the various things are and the ins and outs i will send something fully textured to someone for checking. Rhino-to-Blender/3DsMax reversed some of the polys textures or whole objects textured inside out and Rhino doesnt bake, normal etc etc. Maya is pretty much the daddy and is as much a game/film industry standard as 3DSMax so hopefully should be ok now...

ALSO on a showing off note. I purchaced a nice new full HD LCD for our front room a few weeks back, at the same time i ordered all the leads to connect my PS3 etc etc but better still its got VGA in with a good 1900x1200 resolution and my new Dell Vostro has an external monitor output and good graphics card so now running a dual-screen setup. Picture me sitting in my front room, 17" laptop on my knee with Maya help , winamp, google or even one of the views from Maya! then if i look up a 40" HD monitor infront of me with the main Maya program running, all sorts of music churning out from my new 1TD External hard drive which means i can FINALLY back up my PC on a perminant basis. I lurve my new setup! Just want a nice sound system to hook up the the TV now and im sorted! :goodjob:

Thanks for the advice and links all! still apericiated even if i am avoiding 3DsMax and Blender like the plague! Maya is my last hope before resorting to weeks of learning 3DsMax

[nick_op]

I'll warn you of one thing - the Maya nif plugin has quite limited export options and has not been in development for about a year now, I think.

If I were in your posistion, I'd get 3ds Max 6,7 or 8. They have, by far, the best support for .nif files, plus I tihnk both 7 and 8 deal with normal maps.

All of the problems you mentioned with taking files from Rhino->Max are very easy to sort out.

[Rickious]

Nick, in an ideal world i would JUST do the modelling part, export in whatever file format you like and someone else pick up for texturing, collision etc etc etc. I can model fast and really enjoy it, but texturing is slow and troublesome for me for TES, my other projects, car design, product design etc use paints and few textures so its easy, plus the other things i do are currently for render quality only so i can do VRay materials or whatever and exporting is of no concern. so yea, like i say, for TES ideally someone would love my models sooo much they would be happy to tune and finish them for me. Otherwise may be a while until im producing finished items for Silgrad.

If anyone is slightly tempted to finish my models then im talking larger things and one offs, i wouldnt be throwing loads of clutter and small items at them, im talking large scale models like an arena, temple etc.

[nick_op]

I can understand where you're coming from. I'm not particularly good at texturing. Texturing becomes increasing more difficult with the speed at which graphics improve these days. Unfortunately, being a modeller includes being able to texture.

As you can model fast, I'll point you towards this. It demonstrates a method to get most of your texture done using different bakes from your model, rather than doing the whole lot in your 2d app.

One last thing, ST has plenty of textures available for it's modellers to use, so unless you're going for something that requires a completely new texture, you may not even have to create your own.

[Rickious]

Cheers Nick_op!

I actually mean the whole thing texture wise, i would just export gray models! :lmao: