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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