How to start learning 3D modeling

I think you need to be more specific,

Do you want to become a;
- 3D generalist
- 3D hard surface modeler
- 3D character artists
- 3D texturer/painter
- 3D prop designer
- 3D architectural visualizer
- 3D environment artist/set dresser
list goo’s on

There are many career paths, so it all depends what you want to do.

Personally I learned bit of everything (3D generalist) and became a freelancer (learned everything from internet).

If your target is finding a job in some studio or game facility then you probably need to narrow down on something specific and build a strong portfolio in the area you feel best at. Just following some school is not enough, in most cases proof of attending some school is not even mandatory, your portfolio and skill is what matters. Knowing what you want and focus on how to get there is probably most important factor (determination).

Anyway’s, I cannot help with suggestions what is right schools but have lots of links to great YouTube channels involving learning to work with Blender, Houdini, Substance Designer and UE5. (can send you the links though PM if you want)

Don't get me wrong, it’s not mandatory to master all these apps, being handy with blender can get you far but alongside knowing to make great materials in Substance Designer and knowing how to automate workflows in Houdini, that would make you a true wizard every studio would like to have.

But again, knowing what you want to do or become is important. For example, becoming a great artist is a separate thing. It all has to do with training the eye to get the feel for aesthetics, shape language, color, lighting, shadows, detail, balance, composition, design, story and subject. This is different then becoming a 3D modeler that can model an existing car or real world object.

Character design, that’s great, but again question pop’s up, what type of characters?
- Creature characters
- Fantasy characters
- Sci- Fi characters
- Cartoon style characters
- Realistic characters
and the list goo's on

We also needs to make distinction between game characters or movie characters (game characters need to be supper optimized for real-time rendering).

Unfortunately my YouTube channels selection (https://www.crea-zone.com//Tutorials.zip) is mostly geared towards 3D in general (a bit of everything). You gonna find some topics on character rigging in there but not specifically about character development and creation. I've added a separate selection on that topic here (https://www.crea-zone.com/Character_Design.zip).

If your going to fully devote on character creation my advice would be to learn working with Zbrush or 3D Coat. Alternatively apps like (https://marvelousdesigner.com/) can help with realistic clothing design if that is needed.

With character creation the initial steps usually are;
- Creating a concept drawing
- Block out your concept character in 3D
- Sculpt, establish and separate needed meshes (this can include hopping back and fort between other 3D apps like Blender, 3ds max, etc.)
- Add/sculpt ever more details to the separate meshes step by step

After these initial steps we end up with a list of high-poly detailed meshes that represent the character. Usually (if it involves a game character) we need to retopologize or polyreduce all those meshes and UV map “Unwrap” the resulting low-poly meshes. Then we go trough a process we call “texture baking” to get all the information from the high-poly detailed sculpt and map it to the low-poly meshes (things like the normals, curvature, cavity, material ID, etc.). This information is then used for creating and painting textures onto the low-poly models using apps like substance painter or Quixel mixer (https://quixel.com/mixer). Alternatively apps like substance designer can be used for creating more complex materials, but there are already vast amounts of materials available so in most cases learning to make them yourself is not mandatory.

When the character is finally finished then we go and add rigging to it (the process of adding bones and mesh deformation zones to make it animatable). Consider there are vast amounts of tools for rigging available and using one or the other all comes down to the use case (rigging is basically a skill-set on its own).

All these steps eventually describe how one goo's about creating a 3D character from scratch.
However, in some cases we do not need to start from scratch and can use existing tools and some alternative paths to customize what some apps deliver out the box.

For example, a possible solution to fit existing rigging to your self made character can be to intermediately use apps like (https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/metahuman-creator). Terms like “re-targeting” are key here (basically means to match existing rigging to your “different” mesh points locations). Note: a 3D mesh is made out of points at its core and almost all 3D transformations are performed at those points. Vertexes, edges and polygons are secondarily attached to these points and thus all move along for the ride.

Using self generated metahuman faces on custom body's is also a possibility, or fitting custom faces to metahuman body’s, etc. More info here (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=using+metahuman+for+custom+characters). There is a somewhat similar app here (https://character-creator.reallusion.com/).

These types of apps can get you to some point and then maybe move on adding own imported meshes (armor or whatever) and finally tweak some details in Zbrush, etc. The more experience one gets in using different tools the more options one has for customization.

For 2D concepting/sketching also consider latest advances in AI (GAN) generative adveserial networks. The most outstanding app to this regard is currently (https://www.artbreeder.com/). This domain of creating is rapidly developing so expect more in the future. Artbreeder can get you raw sketches faster then any other method, unfortunately is takes some time to get used to the controls.

Some day we will probably hit one button and some character materializes before our eyes, we then hit a second button and it comes to life having its own unique personalty and everything. We then probably enjoy its presence for a moment and then let it on its way to wonder the multiverse of metaverses.

thank you for your reply was so helpful and really I had learned a lot from your replay also you had explained to me many things it was not obvious to me

The answer given above is so helpful. :)

First choose the kind of things you would like to do:

Props (objects) / Characters / textures / Interiors / 3d prinitng / Manufacturing....

Then look for what 3d software is available, and related to the thing you want to get into:

3d printing, objects (RHINOCEROS)

Characters, objects for videogames (BLENDER)

Interiors (3DS MAX, REVIT)

Manufacture (SOLIDWORKS, INVENTOR)

You can find tutorials for most kind of modeling + a lot of different software on youtube.

Thank you it was helpful

as a main skill it´s better to know how to draw, you can go anywhere from this

Thanks for your replay , to know how to draw it was my first thing I thought about then any software I ll use will be just a tool to use for drawing

Thanks for your replay , to know how to draw it was my first thing I thought about then any software I ll use will be just a tool to use for drawing

Hello,
First decide your track that you would like to take because it will be a long journey, the two categories below are the main bold ones:

- The category of an artist, character designer, graphic designer I would recommend to go with Maya or 3ds max in addition to Zbrush or blender for sculpting.

- If you are an Architect, interior designer or willing to do architectural visualisation then go with revit architecture and render either with Lumion or 3ds max and for 3ds max use vray or corona renderer.

You can find many tutorials about all of them if you want i can recommendsome. But first Depending on what choice you take from the above mentioned, your journey will be taking completely different path, so take your time to decide and I will be happy to help

Ala Sawan
Architect

Thank you for you replay actually I like characters and more about animations

When I first started modeling, I used to visualize the 3D version of every object I saw in my brain. I tried to model what I saw as best I could. I watched youtube videos and tutorials. It takes a very long and productive time.

It is so helpful thank you

It is so helpful thank you

It is so helpful thank you

after months of studying and practicing, I had found these points
1- I like the character design
2- all 2d programs are had the same concept with different tools
4- youtube channels are very useful after you understand the basics of the program you use

Naw I am interested by Maya more than 3ds max but max has some tools work more efficiently than Maya

Grab 3dsmax and start to model anything. Just start and stop to talking about it. It´s like chemistry, if you hate max after 10 mins, you model in maya 10 mins and so on. Than blender or any another package. A 3d pack is like a dog, either there´s chemistry or not.