Eva Model Finished

After a months hard work, I finally finished the modeling part of the Eva model from the tutorial I told you about previously. Isn't she a beauty!? Tomorrow Ill have to start on texturing her but with finals coming up I don't know how much time ill have. If your interested in learning how to model to this level click on the link below on my previous post. This tutorial was defiantly worth my money. I highly recommend it to everyone that wants to build there skills to a more professional level.

Learn to easily create a realistic human charecter

Ive been modeling for a while and I can model all kinds of things, but there was one thing I was never really good at...Modeling high detail realistic people. Yea I can box model a decent low poly character for a game pretty easily but I was never able to hit that movie production professional quality like you would see in the movies. Well I decided to buy this tutorial from the3dstudio.com. The tutorial was 50 bucks but let me tell you it was worth it. Ive been following the tutorial for a couple of days now. Its mostly a high definition flash movie taking you step by step during the process. It also features a written version and all the resources needed to make a human model. This is what Ive gotten so far. I can say that I'm pretty happy with the result. The model isn't ready to jump of the screen yet but its getting there. Doing this has also helped build up my skill light years ahead of what it was. Ill keep posting updates of my progress as I go. But if your a serious modeler that really wants to learn the tricks of the pros. I highly recommend this. Its more then worth the money. You can get it here.

Skin Cell

I just finished my skin cell model that I will be using for a future project. So here it is what do you think?

If you like it you can download it here Skin Cell

3dsmax Tip: Why edit poly is better then edit mesh

Ive had the chance to work with a lot of new modelers and all of them (including me at one point) all had one thing in common, When fine tuning details they all used the edit mesh modifier. Which is fine but as soon as i showed them the capabilities of Edit poly it was amazing how, almost every time, there quality of work, and there efficiency almost doubled instantly.

The reason is that the tools in edit poly are much more versitle and its easier to mold things into the shape that you want from the perspective veiwpoint. Im by no means an expert but Im going to try to outline some of the key reasons why I almost always use the edit poly modifier instead of edit mesh.

When you select the polygon subdivision the first thing you will notice is a number of tool that are either completly new from edit mesh or that they are similer but with more obtions.

For example using extrude and bevel, you have a lot more control in how you want your subdivisions to behave. If you click on the square icons next to them you will notice that you can adjust exactly how far your subdivsion will move. Also, unlike edit mesh you can choose choose it to extrude from the entire group, the local normal or by each polygone. Im not going to go into what all these mean but if you experiment between each one you will quickly notice each effect. The effect really applies to when more .

Just to give you an example of what Im talking about, here is a virus that I made using edit poly in about 5 mins. All i did was take a geosphere and use the edit poly modifier to bevel each polygon to the desired shape, using the extrude along polygon option so that each polygon would be seperate and I added meshsmooth and then relax and voila!

Using the edit mesh modifier this same exact model probally would have taken anywhere between 15 mins to an hour.

You can download this virus model for free here :http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=39528

Another option I found to be very helpful is the extrude along spline option this is very helpful for things like tentacles, pipes or any thing really that is long and curvy. This helps you get a more natural curve out of you objects by allowing you to set the path of the extrusion. Just click on the square icon next to it and set the amount of segments that you and to extrude (the more segments the more smooth but at the trade off of increased polys) and then choose your spline and it does the hard part for you. Its really that easy. No more manual jaggy curves.

Other options you should explore is the ability to use meshsmooth only on certain polygons instead of the entire mesh. Paint deformations - the ability to use a paint brush to push in or out paolygons. Quickslice comes in very handy. Bridge - fill holes in your mesh with polygons and many more.

Grand Opening

Welcome to my very first post of this blog. Basically What I hope to accomplish is to provide information, and tips, and news as I continue my modeling and learn new things. So at least twice a week (probably more) I will post something like a new trick I learned, or some thing I think is worth sharing. I will also feature some of my new work as I continue my modeling. The featured work will also be hyperlinked to an area where you may purchase the model. I will also feature free models so check back frequently.

My wish is for this site to grow so if your a modeler yourself and your would like to have your work featured for free. All you have to do is send me an email with a picture and a download link with a discription and I will gladly post it on this site.

My first featured model is an influenza virus that was modeled spacifically for high definition rendering. Its use of final gather and archetural maps gives this its unique lighting. Very detailed, model is available through turbo squid at this link http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/369543