Speed and efficiency advice for 3D modeling - please!

#1

Hi,

I wanted to find out what type of tricks, techniques, or advice anyone has on improving speed and efficiency when creating a 3D model as well as animating it. At present it takes me about a month to create a high-poly 3D model, then another week or two for texturing and lighting. Yet from what I read on forums I get the feeling that it should only take me a day or two at most.

When I’ve asked people on other forums or even classmates, they usually say “it just takes time and experience”, while others have said that they are just naturally fast. However instructors use to say, “When you learn the tricks of the trade and hidden tools in the software, you’ll be able to save hours even days off your work load!”

But they always seemed to skim over what those special tools and tricks were or how to get the most advance from them.

At present I’ve been using 3DS Max and Revit for about 2 - 3 years, but I’ve started wondering if I should switch to Maya instead.

::Side note - At the beginning of a 4 hour class last year, a classmate opened up Mudbox and began messing around with it for the first time. Than at the end of class everyone took notice of what he had created, a life-like movie quality dinosaur head complete with texture and detail.

When asked how he had made it and so quickly, he shrugged and said something to the effect of “It was simply, you just need to keep at it”::

So again I would be very grateful for advice that would help me improve my speed and efficiency so that I can become marketable.

Thank you!

#2

“Dinosaur guy” sounds like he had lots of practice elsewhere. If not with the same software used in class, definitely with another one with fairly similar features. Once you understand the equivalents (if hotkeys aren’t the same), it’s not too hard to jump in and get a feel for doing in software-A what you’ve been doing in software-B.

Also keep in mind there’s more than one way of 3D modeling. The different workflows may be more suited to different tasks or just how some people like modeling.

If you prefer to start out by defining volume in regards to topology, you’d probably prefer the box-modeling workflow. This mostly works by extruding faces or regions of faces to build up mass and then cutting those into smaller faces to define smaller details.

If you prefer to define volume with no (or very little regard) to topology, you’d likely like to work by sculpting. (But for meshes to be useful, you may have to re-topo them after a sculpt. To do that effectively you’ll still have to understand the ideas behind other modeling processes and practices.) Virtual sculpting obviously is very much a parrallel to sculpting with clay.

If you prefer to define details first and build up parts into larger structures, you might prefer edge extrusion style workflow. You basically plop down vertices or edges, stitch more edges together, and fan out edge extrusions to define surfaces.

And then there’s NURBs which is another beast, but lofting and such probably has the most parallels with edge extrusion modeling.

Keep in mind not all modeling software supports all types of workflows or modeling paradigms. So you might have to dabble and practice a bit with various things and ways of doing things to find which one you have a knack for. Sometimes it’s also good to learn more than one (not only because concepts often overlap), because you just might find it conveinient to bulk out a model with box modeling, and then plop that into a sculpting environment for creating a displacement and normal map with finer details.

And occasionally there are software add-ons or plugins that speed up certain task flows. Most may be considered specialist tools, but if you’re doing some things a lot - it’s worth investigating those too.

Other than that? Learn your hotkeys. (At least know the ones for the most often used things if you haven’t already. Seriously.) Those save a lot of time in regards to “menu digging” in terms of frequently used actions. Those seconds spent moving the mouse around and trying to remember where stuff is to perform a task could have instead been spent ot work on the model.

#3

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