Introduction to modeling

These first weeks of the master, we have two types of classes: design and art. Daniel Sánchez Crespo, the Novarama founder, he teaches design. The art class is given by an artist from Novarama. In art class we start with 3D concept:

• Modeling a geometry
• Mapping, to give texture to a geometry
• High detail modeling
• Textures
• Materials
• Lighting
• Particles system

The objective of this stuff is to know how artists work. We’ve started with 3D Studio Max 2008. At university I had done a class about it, but I only remember a few things. We started with modeling. As introduction, we created a simple chair, we drew the texture and we put it on the chair. Up to now, everything OK. After the chair the difficulty level changed. And the rhythm is now fast.

The original model of the house

We are creating a house from a model already created. See the photo above of the original model -when I’ve finished mine, if it isn’t too bad, I’ll show it-. The look is awesome, with real textures, normal mapping and a great lighting. We are supposed to follow the professor’s instructions, but some times I got lost. Too fast. Thankfully, in the next class the professor repeated some steps and I assimilated the basic concepts. Everything was better. Anyway, I think that to be a good artist, of any kind, you have to have some innate ability.

The professor recommended the work of Andrew Loomis about drawing, you can find it free on the web. Also, he recommended a book called Modeling a character in 3D Studio Max by Paul Steed. To end, some interesting links about computer graphics:

• CG Society
• Gamasutra
• Polycount