n00b tutorials.

[craze3]

damn! I just tried to take the boombox tutorial for XSI and well, thats really hard! Anyone know any reallly easy beginner tutorials?

And lets say i wanted to make a model of a glock. Would i need to animate it? Any good tuts on weapons either?

(and yes i did read the sticky, but couldnt find much)

 

[random.hero]

the way you model a gun is the same way you model anything else. the same principals apply. you should aim to know a variety of techniques before you start on a project. this way, you should model it faster and end up with a better result. i dont know any good tutorials for total newbs, because i learnt Max with the tutorials that come with it and with a bit of messing around. i suggest you do the same until you find a good tutorial, getting to know where everything is and what things do.

...and dont be ignorant and not do a tutorial because its what you want to model. at this stage, it really doesnt matter, s'all just good practice.

 

[p0lski]

Thats Right,

I myself started with Max and then moven onto Lightwave3D and i love it, tried maya for a while but it really wasn't my thing. My sugestion would be to learn 3D in general, try not to be Application Specific, that was my biggest trouble when i first started. In anycase what im getting at is Learn all the tools and what they do, get used to the interface (and really if you dont like XSI, i find it a pain to be honest, use max or whatever and import into XSI if you really want to do stuff for HL2).

You can give gmax a go its free ( cut down MAx) if thats still out.
Milkshape 3D exelect low polly modeling application to get the basics of 3D ... ahhh the memories. (also ZModeler)

Tutorials ... umm place you have to visit for sure is http://www.cgtalk.com and sign up as well you can get more info from there as the tutorial lists, resuorces and links have been posted many times over ... and over ... you get the point.

You can also have a look at some of the artwork, get some tips while you're at it.

and if you feel like you can't be bothered to model or get tired of it.
Some inspiration http://www.suurland.com

As to animating a gun, a general no, most games use just static models.
But its possible to animate it, barrel launching back effect upon fire type thing.

Annnyywayyyy... this is getting way too long

Cheerios,
Rad

 

[Wrafe]

I actually tried BoxModelling in 3DSM a while ago when i used to work on a bf1942 mod, i got very frustrated and couldnt make a gun look like a gun. After some Extensive searching on the net, and finally coming across HL2.net forums i found IchII 3D's Plane modelling tutorial easy to understand and follow. Unfortunately after some PC hardware problems i had to reformat just when i was working on some models that were nicely taking shape. Do a search for the berretta 9000 VT.

One thing though, you will need to know your way around XSI as its totally different to 3DSM, but the principle should still be the same.