So, at my school here in Australia, the closest we have to a "3D Design" subject is Graphics where AutoCad is used to create architecture plans. As a result, with help from a teacher, I will be creating a 3D Design and Animations class to a basic level, teaching any volunteers how to 3D model in three general themes: historical, modern and futuristic.

What I'm looking for from the community is a rational idea as to where to start. I understand that the first few lessons should be dedicated to learning the interface, but from there on, what do you think is imperative for a beginner modeler to learn?

This is the tutorial that I started off with. It taught me the basics of plane modelling in 3ds max. Give this tutorial ago.




Edited by OHunterO on Nov 10, 2014 at 07:19 AM

I'm actually planning to make use of this tutorial. I'm more of talking about techniques and methods that are imperative for new modelers i.e. should I teach organic/terrain creation so they learn how to "shift-drag" and then later apply that to modeling strict architecture or vice versa?

First of all, don't teach them how you would if you wanted them to create levels for Halo. It's not how games are made today, believe it or not. If your going for the game design route, teach them the basics of max, how to make modular parts, and so forth.

The tutorial Hunter linked is a good start to learning how to model props and so forth, but you need to make sure it covers all the basics of learning max's user interface and so forth.

And like Mootjuh said, if your going for the architectural route, Revit is an industry standard and what we used in my own Architectural design class for 2 years.

Another thing to mention is that your probably only going to get either a) modeling or b) animation out of one class. One or the other. There is so much required to do and learn for each one that you probably wouldn't have time to fully cover everything in one class (assuming its one semester long.)

As a Civil Eng. student and Industrial Designer I use AutoCAD mostly. It's my software of choice. I also do work in Revit sometimes when it comes to architecture. Not to mention I draw terrain layout and bases layout on AutoCAD before starting to work on Max.

Well, my 3d art course was a 2-year one, so I don't know if this is applicable. But it went basically like this;
Term 1: Introduction to MAX, learn how the basics work.
Term 2: Hard surface.
Term 3: Terrain.
Term 4: Animation fundamentals.

Year 2 term 1: Basic character modeling.
Year 2 term 2: More advanced principles.
Year 2 term 3: Texturing.
Year 2 term 4: Rigging/animating.

And that was that. A major in 3D art, and I learned nothing a 10 hour Digital Tutors tutorial couldn't teach. Oh well. I suppose it works for a classroom but such a skill should, in my opinion, be learned auto-didactically.

I'm not completely sure what I'm talking about but, eh.

Maybe this is better?
Term 1: Introduction to MAX, learn how the basics work.
Term 2: Hard surface.
Term 3: Terrain.
Term 4: Basic character modeling.

Year 2 term 1: More advanced principles.
Year 2 term 2: Texturing.
Year 2 term 3: Rigging/Animation fundamentals.
Year 2 term 4: Animating.
Edited by P3 on Nov 11, 2014 at 06:59 PM

For me, my fav program for modeling is Softimage. Sadly it's been discontinued and the amount of apps and scripts it's very limited. But it's pretty amazing for animating, modeling terrain and just about anything. Not to mention it's pretty easy to learn. I would recommend it for starters. Another program I use for modeling terrain is Terragen and Vue. Another good program it's MODO by THEFoundry.

Speaking of apps.

I've never understood why we have both Max and Maya.

To my untrained eye they appear more or less the same.

Maya is like 3ds max but nothing is where you expect it to be and nothing works like you expect it to work.

Max is used more as a Hard Surface modeling program that also allows you to animate. Its a rather general use sort of program

Maya is more geared towards organic modeling and compositing. Namely the latter as the Autodesk 3D Suite is set up in a way where you build stuff in every other program that they have, then toss it into Maya to put it together. Maya also has better animation workflows apparently but I'm too dumb to figure it out

This is not confirmed at all in the least bit. However what is confirmed is that within 12 - 24 months they will be transferring 3ds Max to a subscription only model. Hopefully along with this change the prices per month/quarter/year will drop, as of right now they are pretty expensive. Maya and Max are the top 2 competing industry standard 3d modeling software packages. Although they are both owned by Autodesk, there is really no serious reason for them to just drop 3ds Max altogether.

Aww I hope we don't lose 3dsmax.

It's a little biased but since I'm also too stupid to even figure out how to toggle transparency in maya I'd prefer max to live instead of the latter.