Intro to Hard Surface Subpatch Modeling Videos

#1

After seeing all of the great video tutorials that Proton recently posted on the NewTek forums in addition to all of the great free tutorials here, I decided to buy some screen capture software and put together a few video tutorials on subpatch / subdivision modeling. These are very basic tutorials but I know that when I started doing subdivision modeling I would have loved to see basic ones like this. Right now I have three subdivision/subpatch videos done in Lightwave and one older video I did in Silo1.4. The principles would apply to most software that has basic subdivision modeling, although some of the tool names might be different, etc.

Here is the link to the directory that has all of the videos:
http://www.pixelandpoly.com/video.html

These are my first video tutorials with audio so don’t expect too much. I’d be curious to hear if anyone finds them useful at all - or has any suggestions. I plan on creating more videos if people find these helpful.

enjoy! :slight_smile:
Jeff

#2

So far I found these to be very helpful! I have been using LightWave for years but only enough to just “get by”. I’m currently spending time learning more of LW (especially with Proton’s free videos!) so this is greatly appreciated as well.

I would love to see more. Hopefully more people feel the same.

#3

…YES!..
…
…thanks for the videos. since owning a lot tutorial DVDs from Desktop images and Kurv Studios, i find them the best way for to learn LW
…but to have ALL this info for FREE…ah, let me pinch myself!.
…
…do you plan to produce any vids on: modeling objects, detailed character modeling and texturing characters?

…regarding the second video. how would i go about making a hole, hatch type openings and the grooves in a sphere to end up like this image…?..
…
…thanks again for the videos. please keep them coming.

#4

@rickmorgan and Booyar: Thanks guys! much appreciated!

I am planning on doing more vides. I will most likely start with simple objects. The next video I work on may be the creation of a perfume bottle - or something like that. I will probably not do any videos on orgaics as there are ton and tons of great free videos on that subject matter by very talented people already.

Opening in curved objects follow the same priciples but are much trickier as they need to subdivide well to honor the intial shape of the curve. Personally if I was going to model one of those spheres with all of the panel and hatch cutouts I would probably poly model it and not use subdivsion surfaces. If it didn’t have the panel cuts I might use subpatches, as I find that when you have to add such small detail it gets easier to polymodel them in. But that’s just my take on it, just by looking at the picture quickly.

So it might go something like this: create a sphere that is pretty poly dense, stencil in where you want your panels to be. I would then use multishift to inset the panels and shift them out slightly. Stencil in where the hatches are to make the holes. Use rounder to add curves or bevels to all the edges as needed…

I might do some poly modeling videos, but that would be later on.

Thanks again for the great feedback!!

Jeff

#5

ouch…both explorer and firefox just crashes when I klick on the vids, anyone else having this
problem?

Phamarus

#6

ouch…both explorer and firefox just crashes when I klick on the vids, anyone else having this
problem?

Apparently disabling DirectShow acceleration will fix that.

#7

Big thanx on the work that went into these informative vidz…I love that your showing an area that really hasnt had much coverage.

#8

…hi JeffrySG…
…
…thanks for that info!.
…when i get time this week i’ll get a try for sure.
…
…big THANKS again for the videos. look forward to more!..
…

#9

It seem that there are some issues (in windows IE and FF) that are fixable. This thread over on the Foundation3D fourms has a lot of info on how to resolve the browser issues with the quicktime movies… hope it helps!!! :slight_smile:

http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=598

#10

ahh… but it is I that thank you, William! Seeing all of your vidz on the NT forums (and Richards Subpatch tutorial on the wiki page) really got me inspired to help out the community as well. :smiley:

no problem! hope it helps! and thanks again!!! :smiley:

#11

These are two suggestions that people had from the Foundation3D forum:

  1. Go to Tools > Settings…

  2. Choose the content menu (the one with the globe)

  3. In the bottom you will see a area called “file types”. There is an “edit” button to the right. Click on it

  4. Now you will see a whole bunch of file exentions (MOV, WMA, MP3 etc.) Look for the MOV -file (quicktime movie file extension) and then click on it.

  5. When it’s marked, click on the “edit”-button

  6. Another window will open. In this window the Quicktime 7.x.x plugin is choosen as default. Deselect by choosing quicktime player on the top of the window instead. It says something like “open with the standard program” or something. Press OK and now you should be able to watch quicktime movies in firefox without crashes

and…

Easy-peasy.
Launch QT player
In menu Edit/prefs/QT prefs
Advanced Tab and change Video to Safe Mode (GDI Only)
Apply and shut down.

That should fix it.

#12

Hey JeffrySG…

Thanks for the LW tuts! I’m adding them to my recently created folder of knowledge started by Proton.

#13

Again Jeffry
Ty for the tutorials.
These were somethings i normally take in account but i dont plan like you did.

I really apreciatted the Rounder to multiply a single point (very usefull) and the Disolve, very nice. Actually you made me give a better look to the reduce tab, and i found a tool that’s handy to me too and i didnt knew it; Remove Vertices from Polygons.

Late edition:

I forgot to say that in the last video (4th-curved box) i cant hear a sound, just me?

And a tip, since you like very much precise things: Info pad, wich allows you to select multiple points (b4 u open info pad) and change coordinates. For example u to put A B and C with C’s Z, u got to C, copy Z value, select A and B and paste.Ok. Sometimes in the processed looked to me that this might help.

#14

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.