first of all I am a programmer who is still studying computer science and I just had the opportunity to make a small animation movie to get some points. Three weeks ago I started with blender and I created this model here.
It was probably not a good idea to start with something so complex but I did it anyway. Some parts of the mesh are looking really messy and I am not so happy with the result yet and it wasn’t even fun to create because I run into so many problems. (I am still not finished with this character)
Now because I am a student I get Maya for free(non commercial). And digital tutors has many tutorials that really explain modeling in depth. Do you think it would be a good idea to switch to Maya to learn to model properly?
It does not matter what you use to build things for a 3D world. As long as you understand the principles and workflows needed to get content into UE4 you will be good. Blender is just as powerful as Maya and learning one over the other is not really something that matters persay. If I were you I would actually take a step back and model some environment stuff, like boxes and crates as it’s easier and it will also help teach you the ins and outs of modeling for games. Then once you have a handle on that, jump into character modeling. Character art is one of the hardest things to get right IMO and it takes a lot of time to get there.
You have some skill and I can see that and if you want to jump into Maya do it, it always good to have a major 3D package under the belt but remember this. The videos are going to show a very small subset of the knowledge that is needed to model. Sure you will have followed along and you will know some tools, but what you make in the video is not going to suit your needs for the game you try and make. I guess what I am saying is no matter what you use in the end its learning how to do it and how you get there does not really matter. The only thing that matters is practicing modeling.
I know how to use every 3d package in the universe, yet im absolutely terrible at it.
Stick to 1 software, learn to make some art, knowing more programs or using one instead of other will NOT make you a better artist.
Polygons are polygons in every 3d software, blender, 3dsmax, maya, they are all the same, specially for lowpoly modelling, so just keep with blender becouse you already know a bit of it and you dont need to start over learning a new UI and workflow. If you get to create nice art in blender, you will be able to do the same in any other software.
I know that I can create everything in Blender that I want, the problem is I have absolutely no experience at all. That’s why I thought I should watch this modeling series from Digitaltutors to learn all the basics and then maybe switch back to Blender if I want to. I am usually not a big fan of tutorials but this seems really helpful.
But if you think that it is enough to just play around a create some assets in Blender itself, then I am going to do that.
Pay a donation to Project gooseberry, you get access to the blender cloud with that, wich has plenty of awesome tutorials. They also need funding badly for the movie they want to make https://cloud.blender.org/gooseberry/ . Do the 50€ pledge, it gives you access to several high quality tutorials and helps blender in its funding.
I actually just began to familiarize myself with Autodesk Maya, and 3D Modeling in general. I’ve checked out a lot of websites for tutorials and such, and so far the best that I’ve found is http://www.digitaltutors.com - they’re however, a bit on the expensive side at $45/mo.
