`Recently I saw that there is a lot of new developers who is trying to start their journey in 3D modelling, therefore I decided to give some educational tips to you guys, as I knew the pain when I was a beginner.
So you might ask, what 3D modelling software is the best?
To my personal view, Blender is the best choice (Cinema 3D is also a choice but it is really really expensive, which I’m pretty sure young and new developer on roblox cannot afford it) as Blender is free. For beginners, Blender might be quite a challenge as there are so so many hot keys to remember. But if you are willing to spend time watching tutorials on YouTube. I bet you can definitely get good at it.
Here is some channels with good tutorials that I’ve learnt from before:
- Blender Guru (Below is the link of his beginner tutorial series)
(Blender 2.8 (old) Beginner Donut Tutorial Series - YouTube)
There are also a heck lot of tutorials on his channels to watch if you have finished his basic tutorial. - CG fast track
(Blender 2.9 Beginner Tutorial Series - YouTube)
Remember to listen to every single part of their explanation, so you wouldn’t miss out any forms of hotkeys etc.
So the next tip is, start modelling from low poly meshes first, do not rush through immediately towards the high poly objects if you are a beginner.
Learn through every single basic modifiers, shapes first. Or you will be extremely confused afterwards.
Main thing I learnt 3D modelling is to keep trying out new things, from basic wooden sword to maybe a wooden table, low poly tree, then a low poly gun, then low poly food. keep trying from one stage to another. Throughout this process, you will face a lot of difficulties, and you will have to ask for your friends, developers help.there are also a lot of forums on google that might solve your problem. That how you learn modelling. Step by step.
And the most important thing is, try using basic shapes, such as cube and cylinders to start out, and try to make symmetrical things, as this will helps you understand more about how Blender works.
There are few different parts when 3D modelling something , There are obviously modelling, sculpting(for advanced modellers) , UV unwrapping (Step before you can texture your object, there are many tutorials about uv unwrapping and texturing on YouTube) , Texturing (you can think it as colouring your object, but you can add multiple colours, different materials, patterns or anything you want instead of a single colour)
In blender, the most common modifier you will use from beginner to advanced is Bevel, subdivision, mirror. For the simplest objects, these three are pretty much it.
Mostlikely every tutorial would have been talking about these modifiers.
Another modifier I will always use is called Decimate. It is to lower your mesh poly count by a lot without really changing your shape. It is especially used by Roblox modellers as if you don’t know, roblox studio just allows 10k poly count for each single mesh part.
So here’s a tip. If your mesh has a lot of poly count. Either use the decimate modifier or separate your mesh into different parts (better that they are really supposed to be different parts in your mesh object as there might be a visible line in your object if you separate the same mesh into different parts) (separating hotkey is Ctrl P, then by object) Quick reminder, meshparts in roblox cannot be unioned or negatived.
For the options, we will use smooth surface for high poly (I will definitely press auto smooth afterwards as there’s sometimes bad typology on your mesh, I will explain more in this if I had a chance, I can’t explain too much right now coz I’m on mobile)
I’m writing this at 2am in the morning on my phone, so I cannot use images to explain more.
But I will definitely do a more detailed guide on Blender if this helped you.
Thanks for your time if u read till here.
Hope you can get better throughout your modelling carrier!! 