where should someone start when it comes to 3DCG in the context

>>506074
take a class, watch tutorials. where you start depends on what you want to end up doing

>>506074

Do you want to make characters and/or organic stuff mostly? Get ZBrush.

Do you want to make non-organic things mostly? Download both 3dsMax and Maya and try em both, then take whichever feels better to you.

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>>506737
is it basically impossible to choose both being a character model and a set modeller?

if so, i want to make characters in ebmossed armor and overly layered frills, but the thing is i also want to make props for them, like a pendant or hairpin that would have sharp shapes in it. do i have to focus on one or the other to really get anywhere that's considered "worth hiring/commissioning"?

>>506827

You can specialize or be a generalist. Only matters that you can model. Best piece of advice is to learn how to use the software. I recommend max, but really any software will do. Go online find a tut that shows you how to use the software. Obviously max and maya are multi faceted so focus on the modeling tools. Everything else you learn on the way.

Search online for tuts, like "how to make a human in blab blah blah software step by step". Or try to find training videos torrents youtube w/e

Once you know how to use the program then you can work on your skills. and that will take however time you out into it.

>>506827

First get good in one area, then branch out.

>>506833
alright i'll try out max and focus on characters. thanks.

do yourself a favor and use maya not max

>>506859
Don't use Max, especially if you're focusing on characters... Use Maya. Maya is the one Autodesk is focusing all their game development features into.

>>506902
Out of the box max is a better modeler. And hes learning to model which is a skill you can carry over to any tool.

>>506917
Doesn't matter, why start in Max and get overly comfortable with its shitty UI, when nearly every studio that asks for characters artists is going to want you to be using Maya?

Out of the box, Max's modeling tools aren't really much better than Maya's anymore, and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Max has some pros in relation to hard-surface, but Maya excels at organic.

>>506922

Because to get a streamlined workflow in maya you need to customize it to shit.

But i honestly dont care what he uses. I just have a preference to max. Im used to both programs.

>>506926
>Because to get a streamlined workflow in maya you need to customize it to shit
When was the last time you used Maya, 2003?
The modeling workflow was massively revamped over the past 3 versions, general modeling and retopo is much quicker in Maya with quad draw than Max. The sculpting toolset can also easily handle millions of polys.

Not that customization in Maya is hard. If you want to automate anything, you simply look at the script editor, copy the functions it shows you did and save them to a script to automate those functions in order whenever you want.

>>506927
Ugh I'm not arguing the capabilities of either prog anon Max and Maya are both very capable programs. I just like Maxs modeling workflow a lot more. Honestly any complaints about either is just nitpicking.

>>506894
>>506902
>>506917
>>506922
>>506926
>>506927
>>506943
OP here. i said max only because i saw on cgpeers that there were digitaltutor vids on game character modelling and it asked for max. here's the name:

Digital-Tutors - Creative Development - Game Character Creation in 3ds Max and ZBrush

if it's a bad roadmap then i'm open to other tutorial suggestions, it's just the one i saw. there was that one and guthrop's character designing stuff for zbrush but that was more for concept, not necessarily using them as game assets, i think?

>>506952

Once you have a handle on the program and an idea of what youre doing you can polish your workflow however you see fit, don't worry about how you learn it.

>>506952
Digital Tutors is a terrible company to learn from, it's run by "when you can't, teach" people.

I don't know about guthrop's tutorial, but ZBrush is fairly essentially to the pipeline for creating quality characters these days, unless all you want to do is make low-poly hand-painted pixel-arty characters for an indie game, but you're really limiting yourself that way.

Look up the "Eat3D Character Production" series on CGPeers. It covers the pipeline from ZBrush to Maya. Eat3D and Gnomon are the prime places to learn from, they're tutorials and teachers are people who actively work at big name studios in the industry for film and games. Gnomon tends to lean more towards the more advanced students, while Eat3D is more suited for beginners, though Gnomon does have some beginner stuff too.

>>507018
>>507018
alright i'll try out the eat3d guide. thanks.

are these eat3D videos supposed to be silent? i hear no audio input.

>>507754
No, they have sound. Did you launch the EXE it came with that plays the videos? Though you shouldn't need to. The videos are standard H264 video with AAC audio, like any other proper MP4 video. Perhaps install the "klite codec pack".

>>507754
Oh, also there is a volume slider on the executable if you hover your mouse over the bottom where the timeline is, there should be a sound level bar right on the side of the time.

>>506074
>>506952

It sounds like you've settled on Maya and Zbrush OP, that's fine, just understand anything you learn in any package is easily transferable from one to the other and that you should really try a wide variety of packages so that you have a little familiarity with everything, and see different ways to do things

>>507790
will do. i'm still confused about where to learn since i've only understood the concepts, like box modelling from a primitive using modifiers like bevel, cut, and so on, so i don't know what i'm in for. i'll try out others once i'm comfortably making characters and so forth.

>>507778
>>507777
my apologies, it seems my interface settings doesn't like having more than one media player open. it seems that he broke his character production tutorial into multiple parts, so hopefully this one includes maya before going out.