Teaching 3DS Max: 3 Day Live Stream

Rizz

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2009
210
21
Hello everyone, my name is Graham. For a while now, I've been interested in teaching people much of what I know in 3ds max and now I've decided to make that idea become real. I've never taught anyone anything before, and I feel that as artists, there is always room for improvement and to grow; however, I have enough experience with 3d modeling and texturing to teach people how to make a game-ready 3d model and implement it into the Unreal Development Kit and the Source Engine.
This Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 8:00 PM Eastern, I'll be going over the fundamentals of the various features inside of 3ds max, how to construct your own model in max, and my texturing techniques in Photoshop as well as how to implement this model and texture into UDK and SDK. I'll be modeling a weapon for the "Medic" class in Team Fortress 2 and submitting it to the Steam Workshop.

If you are interested in signing up for this free mini 3d modeling live stream, please follow me over Twitter and Twitch. Regarding Twitter, I'll only post tweets regarding times that I'm going to live stream. There are hundreds of tutorials on YouTube on how to create your own 3d model, texture it, and even make it game ready by implementing it into a game engine; however, the major benefit to this over those tutorials is my presence. I'll be there to try and answer questions to those who're interested.
On all three days that I'll be live streaming, I'll post an announcement in this thread.


Key features I will Teach:
1. Fundamentals of 3ds max features, such as: Basics of Primitives and Splines, Editable Poly, Editable Spline, Various Useful Modifiers, Pros and Cons to using a Boolean, and much more.
2. Unwrapping your models: What you should and should not do, and how to prepare for texturing.
3. Using Photoshop to create a Diffuse, Specular and Normal Map without 3rd party plugins like NVidia Tools.
4. Basics of Rigging and Skinning.
5. Importing your game-ready weapon into UDK, and SDK and submitting it to Valve's Team Fortress 2 "Steam Workshop".


Tools you will need:
3DS Max 2013 ~ I recommend a trial or student version.
WallWorm 3DS Max 2013 Tools ~ For Exporting .SMD
Photoshop CS6
Team Fortress 2 Photoshop Brushes
Unreal Development Kit ~ Just to import your model. Not to get the weapon into your characters hands.
Source Development Kit ~ Download from Steam under "Tools". I'll show how to get your weapon into a Team Fortress 2 character's hand.


You can view some of my art here:
http://graham3d.carbonmade.com/
https://sketchfab.com/graham3d/recent

Follow me on Twitter to see exactly when I'll be live streaming:
https://twitter.com/_Graham3D_
http://www.twitch.tv/graham3d/old
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Cool.

Will these streams be auto-recorded for posterity, in case any of us want to go back and look at something a second time?
 

Rizz

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2009
210
21
Cool.

Will these streams be auto-recorded for posterity, in case any of us want to go back and look at something a second time?

Absolutely, and I'm thinking that I'll be teaching people how to model environmental art instead of a weapon.
 

Rizz

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2009
210
21
this is interesting, I already have some knowledge of max but I'd like to solidify that knowledge in a condensed fashion. 3 days sounds good to me
You may wish to skip the first day as it'll be going over tools and the basics, as well as shortcuts. Read below for the 3-day itinerary.


For everyone else...! :)
Tomorrow is the big day guys! I'm going to be teaching 3d modeling over Twitch.TV for all those who're interested in learning how to create his or her own game ready environmental art.
I'll teach as followed:
Day 1: Tools, Shortcuts and more for 3ds max.
Day 2: You will learn how to create a model from scratch using the skills learned from day 1, as well as how to unwrap a model.
Day 3: With your model finished, I'll teach people how to rig his or her model. I will also show people various texture techniques, and I'll thoroughly go over what a diffuse, specular, opacity, normal and emissive is. I will show the importance of how a specular and normal map rely on each other. Afterwards, I'll teach everyone how to get their now textured and rigged model into two different game engines (Source SDK by Valve and Unreal Development Kit by Epic Games).
I will be modeling a simple light fixture that I saw at my work today, I figure that I could utilize all five unique texture maps to show the importance of them. I'll show people how to do a very simple rig so everyone understands the basics of rigging.
http://www.pokemon-battling.com/light.jpg
www.Pokemon-Battling.com/lights.JPG

If you're interested, read more about what programs I'll be using and where to get them here, as well as misc tools such as brushes and more...
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1873544#post1873544


*This three day live stream will be entirely free, and will be watchable as a video after its complete*
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I was the one person who was watching last night. I have a few questions now that I've started playing around in Max myself. One, the grid. Should I generally try to work on-grid like in Hammer, adjusting its scale as necessary, or is it better to just disregard it and use other methods to make sure things line up with each other? Assuming the former, how do I adjust the scale of the grid? Assuming the latter, what are those methods?

Two, there's something screwy about the move tool. When I try to move an object up or down by dragging the blue arrow, it just snaps to the ground. And then I can't select any other object. What am I doing wrong?
 

Rizz

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 18, 2009
210
21
I could show you tonight steve? I'm currently out at a family party however. :/
Pop in around 8 and talk via the twitch live stream :)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Sorry I was a no-show on the 11th; I completely forgot about it. Are there still plans to pick this back up at some point?