Well I downloaded 3ds max yesterday. I spent yesterday going through tutorials and fooling around with the program.

Am I completely lost? No. Do I completely understand the program? No.

So if you guys have any advice for me, please help me out. I'm mostly focusing on modeling right now. I want to model a plane (http://www.emfa.pt/www/conteudos/aeronaves/ajet/plano_s_ajet.gif), so if you have any project specific advice, feel free to help me out.

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www.emfa.pt
Sun Dec 7 18:43:48 2008
Apache"

When you start out you should just experiment with shapes first, THEN go on to making models.

The picture is unimportant for the most part.

I can't fix their server.

I also just downloaded 3DS Max, but I can't find any useful tutorials..I hate it.

are you an engineer?

they're asking how to solve problems, they're not solving problems themselves

Quote from Dudeman

The picture is unimportant for the most part.

I can't fix their server.

It wasn't them, it just added the parenthesis into the link.

And I know how you feel. I tried to make a 1979 Chevy Camaro for a project but had no idea what I was doing. I think the best thing to do is to start from the beginning to learn the ropes of it's modeling tools. I forget which site it's from, but there was this one tutorial that tells you how to model a face. It's not a fighter jet, but it should help you get in touch with the tools.

Lol. Thanks for the fixup.

Yeah, I've kind of observed how modeling works in this program. I severely messed up the glass area of the jet trying to do something fancy >.>

Anyway, here's my first attempt. It's pretty bad.



edit: scratch that, I fixed the main body and updated all the wings. It looks like a decent model right now. Now I just need help focusing on details and materials.

pretty good but work on the details

umm... he's not finished yet.

www.the-blueprints.com, theres lots of awsome references for vehicles and shit, www.pixel2life.com then 3ds max section, lot's of tutorials to learn the basic and advanced stuff.

always keep in mind to keep your mesh as clean as possible, this means:

a good poly flow so no chokes or pinches.

always try to keep quads and basicly no tri's in your model (this meaning rectangles and no triangles, they mess up your smoothing sometimes.

no duplicated verts(copy by accident, while holding shift then dragging, so basicly only 1 verticle at 1 point. (if you have more it also messes up your smoothing.


The planes basic shape looks good but i can already see some mesh errors.
maybe make a wip thread in art?

the best way to understand(at least thats how i think of it) 3ds max is to do alot of tutorials on www.pixel2life.com and then self experiment. keep redoing tutorials or the same models to understand the tools and effects of your actions thoroughly.

and if you need any specific help you can always hit me up on msn or by pm ;)

Thanks for the tips. I've figured out a good deal of stuff because I did find that exact site already lol.

Here's the fixed rendering. The reason I'm not making a WIP thread is because I'm not too sure about where to go with this. I need to work on the details and the materials, but I'm not sure how I should be doing that. I might need to ask for help later Pancake, but I'm still messing around.

i remember i tried this shit a while back. i tried to follow a tutorial on how to make a pen and i could barely do it. a pen.... a ****ing pen.

not bad Dudeman, Got a wire? just printscreen your workspace.

it's easier to help when you show the wire ;) there are still some mesh errors i can see.

http://i37.tinypic.com/b5jkn6.png

The top is smoothed, the bottom set is unsmoothed.

I undid the glass cockpit extrusion at the sound of mesh errors :0