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scott wrote:
>>> Ummm yeh, it's a mesh based modeller, what do you expect?
>>
>> OK. So... how do you build anything nontrivial with it? Just adding
>> endless predefined meshes together doesn't seem very flexible.
>
> There are many modifiers for working on meshes. The general work-flow I
> use (and I am by no mean an expert in mesh modelling) is to draw a
> fairly blocky low-vertex mesh by adjusting vertices by hand to get the
> correct shape, then use the subdivision-surfaces modifier to smooth it,
> making tweaks along the way if necessary.
I've never really understood this. I mean, yes, theoretically by moving
individual polygons one at a time you can construct any possible shape.
And, theoretically, by drawing individual pixels one at a time you can
construct any possible image, so what do you need a 3D package for? :-P
Seriously, to build anything of any complexity using just polygons, you
would need hundreds of billions of them, and there's no way you can
manually place that many polygons within a single human lifetime. There
has to be a better way...
> You can also use NURBS, which are roughly speaking a 2D surface version
> of bezier curves, they are quite handy for modelling smooth stuff, see
> here for an example:
>
> http://www.blendernation.com/tutorials/blender-3d-beginner-tutorial-dolphin/
This sounds infinitely more plausible. (Although I can't actually make
much sense out of the tutorial... I guess I'd need to actually install
and run Blender.)
>> Oh, yeah, *sure*. Because, I mean, there are libraries *everywhere*,
>> right? :-P
>
> Did you go to this one?
>
> http://www.mkweb.co.uk/mk-libraries-network/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=26803
Yes.
> If that isn't big enough then I guess you'll need to travel to a
> different city. There's a library in Cambridge that has a copy of every
> book published, but I doubt you'll need to go that far for a book on 3D
> Studio.
Presumably you also have to be a member first.
> Watching other people do stuff on YouTube is actually a cool way to
> learn - assuming you know roughly how to use the software and can spot
> what icons and windows they are clicking on etc, I wouldn't suggest
> learning from scratch via YouTube.
Have you watched that one of Tim Absath drawing the Christmas edition of
Ctrl+Alt+Del? That was pretty amazing... Still, it was speeded up
several times. ;-)
However, all I really "learned" from watching that is that
- Tim is a ridiculously talented individual.
- His "special secret" is simply to spend hundreds of hours tweaking and
retweaking every individual iota of image over and over until he's happy
with it. It took him, like, 6 days to draw *one* picture!
In other words, there's nothing he did that a normal human being could
duplicate.
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