When I was deciding which course at University I should choose to apply to, I wanted to find one that would mix the thing that I am most passionate about, but also good at, which is drawing, and my number one hobby, which is playing video games. The perfect mix was Game Art. Even tho I did not have any experience with working in 3D before joining the course, I have always been excited about learning how to that.
When I actually started studying game art, my excitement for learning 3D modelling got mixed with fear. It is a subject I have no background with and seeing how fast everything was moving scared me. I found the user interface of 3DS Max extremely complicated, but I used to think the same thing about Photoshop when I started using it.
If the table and chairs exercise introduced me to the basics, the dagger and the treasure chest showed me just how complicated 3DS Max can be. I realized how important making a plan is before actually starting to model the desired object. You have to know exactly what shapes you should start with, and not just improvise on the spot, or at least that is what I find to be the best strategy.
Starting with the dagger exercise, I want to say that I felt very good about myself after finishing it, but the process was a very difficult one. I was still not used to the UI of 3DS Max, and also with the shortcuts. Following the tutorial was slightly difficult since when I was pressing pause, the video would start playing again by itself after 5 seconds. I have talked to some of my colleagues, and they have encountered the same issue. I did not try to make it my own, of course, I have made some minor tweaks, but not major ones since I was not feeling confident enough to do that. I mainly stuck to the model presented in the tutorial. Interesting enough, I found the unwrapping part way easier and the process more enjoyable.
When I got to the treasure chest, I was already more comfortable with 3ds max, having the previous experience with the dagger, and that made the process a lot smoother. Of course, I was still struggling a little, took me a lot more time to complete it than the length of the tutorial, but I did not encounter any major issues while working on it. It was just a bigger project, from which I got to learn more techniques that are going to help me a lot in the future. One example would be the symmetry, that spares a lot of work time. In this case too, just like with the dagger, I have tried to stick to the tutorial, since I was still struggling to follow it in the first place. Even though it was kind of a long process, I did not get bored, since there was always something new that I had to learn. The unwrapping part of this one was a lot more difficult too. Overall, I am happy with the result that I got.
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