So how long did you pro 3DS users take to become so skilled. How did you guys get your skill, watching a ton of tutorials from this site, modacity, other ways. Did you look into 3DS tutorials specific to Halo or just general tutorials?

Tutorials
Practice
Observation
Studying


It takes time to get good, no one starts amazing (though some are pretty close). 3D is both an art and a science, to be good you need to have an eye for it and understand the technical side of it.

About 4 Years, although I still have a lot of room to improve. As for the second part, I didn't really have any instruction on 3ds, I just learned by "trial and error" and experimenting.

About 2 I think. Gmax for one year, 3ds max trial for half a year, and I've been using 3ds max since.
I don't know If I constitute as 'skilled' in all things, like rendering, but I make bsps well and can skin or uvw any assets.

Well, different people have different opinions and different learning abilities. Takes years for people, may take a few days for others.

Patience is virtue.

So did you guys only use Halo tutorials or did you also use just general tutorials about 3DS. Not specifically about Halo?

I've got about 8 months and I'm already pretty good.

Both, i used Haloguru's "making a map" tutorial, to learn how things work in the halo engine.
Then i used other 3ds max tutorials (tutorialized) to learn more about the tools in max.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. You aren't going to watch any tutorial and magically improve your modeling skills. To actually learn, you need to tinker with the program, make different models and play with the tools. Tutorials are just to get you started and to provide useful hints.

And where exactly did the OP say that tutorials will "magically" improve his skills?

I think he was getting at the fact that the OP asked, "How long does it take?", when really there isn't a certain amount of time that it takes to be skilled. It's not like a microwave, where as 2 minutes will heat up your chicken and stuffing.

ahh, but in fact he said "how long did it take you guys?"
which in my mind means something different to "How long does it take?"

:)

oh, lol he did :P

I miss read it :P

Alright, so I would think you guys probably got started with making BSP's and then moved into animation and other cool stuff right?

Why good sir I do recall him asking what tutorials to use, but not asking what steps along the way.


Edited by General Shepherd on Mar 13, 2011 at 06:54 PM

You are digging farther. Just admit that you are wrong.
OP, yes , i personally did start with making bsp's.
Not everyone here did though.

lol, someone's in denial.

about?
You should re-read the 1st post, and take the time to understand it.

or not.

I started with BSPs also, in retrospect working on BSPs is more difficult to working on props, weapons, etc.

Not sure if others would agree but to OP, I would suggest starting with "smaller" objects.

Yes i do agree.
I will explain a couple rules that everyone who is modeling for halo ce should know.

1- Bsp's (main level geometry) must be a sealed world, meaning.
If you were to "fill" them with water/compressed air/gas, they would not "leak".
The triangles on the model should not overlap each other.

2- There is nothing physical in this world that consists of only 1 side, everything has volume. You must reflect this with your modeling.

3- All other models need a render model (gbxmodel) and a collision model, the collision must also follow the sealed world rules, but do not need to be the exact same model as the render model.
This tutorial by Martyn Lee Ball/Hunter/Anon2009 explains this quite well.
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?22321-Noob-Guides

Edited by Maniac1000 on Mar 13, 2011 at 10:22 PM

I also started with bsps. In fact, I had no 3d knowledge before that.
With bsp modeling first you learn the sealed-object rules that will come in handy with any kind of tagging.

if triangles overlap each other, does the model not show up when you put it in sapien?

If 2 triangles are overlapping, the collision will not compile.

Yeah, because once people have been modding for a bit, then they're like "aw, if only i could make my own maps." I started modding with, "aw, if only i could make my own ai."