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Hexagon Tutorial Starting from the very beginning please.

ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
edited December 1969 in Hexagon Discussion

This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

Comments

  • RectroRectro Posts: 35
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

    With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

    I do cover the basics of the software, but I think your talking about project based learning, but more on a fundamental introduction to 3D modelling, rather than to Hexagon itself?.

    I did start such a tutorial, but didn't complete it, I would have had to expand it beyond just Hexagon, because most 3D modelling software use the same tool set in one way or another. If there is enough demand I will finish it.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Yes, that is exactly what I was meaning. I used Hex as an example, simply because it is a DAZ 3D app, and this is the Hex forum I think there could indeed be a demand for a tut like that, although not sure how much of a demand.

    An analogy, I learned to use Bryce from magazine articles, back before there was such a thing as the internet for everyone and forums with helpful people. Nowadays all tutorials tend to start thinking people do know the basics, and don't start from the very beginning, just because of the amount of information that is around. But there are still some who want, and indeed need, to start from the very beginning.

  • johnnybevo_1ac43c32dejohnnybevo_1ac43c32de Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

    With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

    I was thinking of recording something, just did not think anyone would be interested.
    Maybe very basic like what is an extrusion, edge, vert, polygon, loops, translate, scale and so on. I would try to keep it non 3d app specific.
    What do you think?
    Should I?

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    johnnybevo said:
    chohole said:
    This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

    With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

    I was thinking of recording something, just did not think anyone would be interested.
    Maybe very basic like what is an extrusion, edge, vert, polygon, loops, translate, scale and so on. I would try to keep it non 3d app specific.
    What do you think?
    Should I?
    Well it's me that kind of prompted Chohole to write this, so I figure I should probably poke my nose in and say something :D

    Firstly, I want to say thank you for your quick reply. Secondly, I want to say that I struggle to follow video tutorials and I've had lots of conversations with others that struggle with them as well. We prefer to read, and digest at our own speed, if that makes sense.

    From a purely personal point of view, I am spoiled for choice with software, but the tool I'm learning at the moment is Cinema 4D simply because I like the interface! Most tools can be used within other apps, I appreciate that.

    The problem I'm facing at the moment is modelling a pistol. Let's assume that I am making the most simple pistol in the world, a cube with a tube coming out of it (a tube is a primitive in C4D but I realise it isn't in some other apps).

    I make my cube. Easy peasy.
    I make my tube. Easy peasy.
    I scale and rotate my tube so it looks like it's going to stick on the cube...

    Then what? This is a problem I'm going to face again and again while trying to stick primitives together. I don't know what the terminology is, and I can't find a tool to actually do it. What I want to do is to stick my primitives together but make them into one hollow mesh, to make it easy to UV unwrap and texture.

    Now, I'm not sure if you understand what I'm trying to do, nor whether I am going to understand your replies, but somehow, somewhere I need to find out how to do this or it will drive me mad.

    Thanks again :D
    Barry.

  • RectroRectro Posts: 35
    edited November 2012

    There are some things you have to take into account when combining somewhat Hard surface objects with more organic objects, Ngons being one of them.

    You need to know how geometry reacts when you smooth it, and how to reinforce certain parts to not collapse it. Without knowing it, what your asking is rather complex, and far from simple, but here are some examples of how you can have a tube from a cube shape, this is not a full quality tutorial, and you may need to watch it a few times, and pause it when text shows on the screen, its midnight here, so could not record voice.

    Video: http://youtu.be/BQcB5ioRmWk
    File: http://www.mediafire.com/?ua901xj9ltn5njw

    Post edited by Rectro on
  • johnnybevo_1ac43c32dejohnnybevo_1ac43c32de Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    BlumBlumShub said:
    johnnybevo said:
    chohole said:
    This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

    With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

    I was thinking of recording something, just did not think anyone would be interested.
    Maybe very basic like what is an extrusion, edge, vert, polygon, loops, translate, scale and so on. I would try to keep it non 3d app specific.
    What do you think?
    Should I?


    Well it's me that kind of prompted Chohole to write this, so I figure I should probably poke my nose in and say something :D

    Firstly, I want to say thank you for your quick reply. Secondly, I want to say that I struggle to follow video tutorials and I've had lots of conversations with others that struggle with them as well. We prefer to read, and digest at our own speed, if that makes sense.

    From a purely personal point of view, I am spoiled for choice with software, but the tool I'm learning at the moment is Cinema 4D simply because I like the interface! Most tools can be used within other apps, I appreciate that.

    The problem I'm facing at the moment is modelling a pistol. Let's assume that I am making the most simple pistol in the world, a cube with a tube coming out of it (a tube is a primitive in C4D but I realise it isn't in some other apps).

    I make my cube. Easy peasy.
    I make my tube. Easy peasy.
    I scale and rotate my tube so it looks like it's going to stick on the cube...

    Then what? This is a problem I'm going to face again and again while trying to stick primitives together. I don't know what the terminology is, and I can't find a tool to actually do it. What I want to do is to stick my primitives together but make them into one hollow mesh, to make it easy to UV unwrap and texture.

    Now, I'm not sure if you understand what I'm trying to do, nor whether I am going to understand your replies, but somehow, somewhere I need to find out how to do this or it will drive me mad.

    Thanks again :D
    Barry.


    CG dreams gave a great answer and the method he is showing in the video is a good solution, but I have learned that some hard surface models do not always have to have connected surfaces.
    I have been following a 3ds max tut recorded by a pro who works in the game industry. He is modeling a shotgun. He is modeling each part without the surfaces being connected.
    So in Hexagon you would model each part and then weld them together having each part close enough together so it would appear as a single object. In Blender for example after everything is modeled you would go into object mode select each part and then use join. In Max it would be attach. In C4D i don't remember, i tried out C4d a long time ago.
    So the terminology can be different from application to application.
    There are plenty of things I don't know, I just try to share what I seen done. I am sure I have asked the same questions you are asking.
    So we can all put our head together and figure something out.
    I hope this helps.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    CGDreams said:
    There are some things you have to take into account when combining somewhat Hard surface objects with more organic objects, Ngons being one of them.

    You need to know how geometry reacts when you smooth it, and how to reinforce certain parts to not collapse it. Without knowing it, what your asking is rather complex, and far from simple, but here are some examples of how you can have a tube from a cube shape, this is not a full quality tutorial, and you may need to watch it a few times, and pause it when text shows on the screen, its midnight here, so could not record voice.

    Video: http://youtu.be/BQcB5ioRmWk
    File: http://www.mediafire.com/?ua901xj9ltn5njw


    Oh wow, that's exactly what I was trying to do. I knew about the collapsing object upon smoothing, the C4D manual was very clear about the benefits of reinforcement and also explained that it's more realistic anyway because almost nothing has a knife-edge sharp corner.

    I am going to have to watch that again, where you actually draw the circle on the face of the cube before deleting it, that's the part I have been struggling with. No idea how to do that in C4D (or anything else for that matter) so maybe I'll play in Hex before going back to C4D. Get the concept right in my head before I go all app-specific.

    Thanks for the help. Just one more really really important question, more important than modelling anything...
    Erm... What was the music you used on that vid? It's quite good!

    Thanks again,
    Barry.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    johnnybevo said:
    BlumBlumShub said:
    johnnybevo said:
    chohole said:
    This may seem like a silly question but are there any tutorials along the lines of "Basic 3D modelling for Dummies" which start right from the beginning, ie with an explanation of the terms that are used etc, for someone who has just downloaded a 3d modelling program and doesn't know the first thing about where to start.

    With Hexagon currently being free we are getting questions from this sort of New User, and it would be handy to be able to link them to some really basic tutorials.

    I was thinking of recording something, just did not think anyone would be interested.
    Maybe very basic like what is an extrusion, edge, vert, polygon, loops, translate, scale and so on. I would try to keep it non 3d app specific.
    What do you think?
    Should I?


    Well it's me that kind of prompted Chohole to write this, so I figure I should probably poke my nose in and say something :D

    Firstly, I want to say thank you for your quick reply. Secondly, I want to say that I struggle to follow video tutorials and I've had lots of conversations with others that struggle with them as well. We prefer to read, and digest at our own speed, if that makes sense.

    From a purely personal point of view, I am spoiled for choice with software, but the tool I'm learning at the moment is Cinema 4D simply because I like the interface! Most tools can be used within other apps, I appreciate that.

    The problem I'm facing at the moment is modelling a pistol. Let's assume that I am making the most simple pistol in the world, a cube with a tube coming out of it (a tube is a primitive in C4D but I realise it isn't in some other apps).

    I make my cube. Easy peasy.
    I make my tube. Easy peasy.
    I scale and rotate my tube so it looks like it's going to stick on the cube...

    Then what? This is a problem I'm going to face again and again while trying to stick primitives together. I don't know what the terminology is, and I can't find a tool to actually do it. What I want to do is to stick my primitives together but make them into one hollow mesh, to make it easy to UV unwrap and texture.

    Now, I'm not sure if you understand what I'm trying to do, nor whether I am going to understand your replies, but somehow, somewhere I need to find out how to do this or it will drive me mad.

    Thanks again :D
    Barry.


    CG dreams gave a great answer and the method he is showing in the video is a good solution, but I have learned that some hard surface models do not always have to have connected surfaces.
    I have been following a 3ds max tut recorded by a pro who works in the game industry. He is modeling a shotgun. He is modeling each part without the surfaces being connected.
    So in Hexagon you would model each part and then weld them together having each part close enough together so it would appear as a single object. In Blender for example after everything is modeled you would go into object mode select each part and then use join. In Max it would be attach. In C4D i don't remember, i tried out C4d a long time ago.
    So the terminology can be different from application to application.
    There are plenty of things I don't know, I just try to share what I seen done. I am sure I have asked the same questions you are asking.
    So we can all put our head together and figure something out.
    I hope this helps.
    The reason I want it all to be one hollow mesh is purely to aid in UV mapping for texturing. Otherwise I suspect I'll have a UV map with unseen faces that don't even need to be textured, just taking up room on the map.

  • RectroRectro Posts: 35
    edited November 2012


    The reason I want it all to be one hollow mesh is purely to aid in UV mapping for texturing. Otherwise I suspect I'll have a UV map with unseen faces that don't even need to be textured, just taking up room on the map.

    Maybe best to take this to another thread as this is a tutorials links thread.

    Johnny is right, you certainly can make separate parts and insert them into each other, and It wont effect UV mapping in a negative way by not connecting the verts of each part. In Hexagon its done by using the weld tool for multiple parts to become one model, and in cases where you are not going to need a slight edge bevel between parts its the easy mans way to join parts, and requires less modelling knowledge to achieve.

    For games assets, and production this may be the way as your going to keep the polygon count down, but for illustration renders it will look very amature.

    Post edited by Rectro on
  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    A very good point. I have now split this off into it's own thread.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    Good plan making this a separate thread, I suspect I'm going to be hogging it when I get going.

    Thanks again for the replies.

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    Wow, I almost feel ready to start my project properly and do a WIP!

    Thanks for that guys.

  • eyelinereyeliner Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Me and my peasants have garnered quite a lot of knowledge by looking at this particular outerweb paper: http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagontutorials/begining.php

    In the tutorials portion of that particular space, it has a section dedicated to our loving Hexagon, where a lot of knowledge can be acquired.

    Praise to ye on your adventures out in the land. Much peril awaits...

  • BlumBlumShubBlumBlumShub Posts: 1,108
    edited December 1969

    eyeliner said:
    Me and my peasants have garnered quite a lot of knowledge by looking at this particular outerweb paper: http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagontutorials/begining.php

    In the tutorials portion of that particular space, it has a section dedicated to our loving Hexagon, where a lot of knowledge can be acquired.

    Praise to ye on your adventures out in the land. Much peril awaits...


    Now I'm scared!

    Not because of Ye Greate Outsyde, but because I'm learning so much, very quickly, and am just fairly whizzing along in one of my projects, but now I'm thinking about things like using shaders in various applications to bake on some textures.

    Meep! It never ends.

  • RedSquareRedSquare Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Welcome to our kingdom young varlet. :snake:

  • Blaine91555Blaine91555 Posts: 148
    edited November 2012

    There is a Subdivision Modeling Primer at Glen Southern's Site. http://southerngfx.co.uk/tutorials/3d-primer-page-1

    Also a basic Box Modeling vid. http://southerngfx.co.uk/tutorials/box-modelling

    I see someone also pointed out Geekatplay.

    Post edited by Blaine91555 on
  • grinch2901grinch2901 Posts: 1,246
    edited January 2013

    The Guerilla CG project has a bunch of videos that cover the basic concepts of 3D modeling, not tools or anything but more like what polygons and objects are, what n-gons are and why they aren't good, what smoothing angles do in rendering, concepts more than techniques and tools.

    Guierilla CG Project - Learning 3D

    Post edited by grinch2901 on
  • IppotamusIppotamus Posts: 1,579
    edited January 2013

    Love the simple project based tutorials from Geekatplay.
    Working on something is the only way I can remember. :)
    Any more like those, simple project based, would be just grand.

    Post edited by Ippotamus on
  • Dumor3DDumor3D Posts: 1,316
    edited December 1969

    This one by Fugazi will cost you some money, but I find his teaching methods to be fantastic for me.

    http://www.daz3d.com/utilities-resources/tutorials/genesis-starter-kit

    This takes you from importing Genesis into Hex to starting with basic Hex tools to create a shirt and finishes up with a clothing model. It covers creating material zones but leaves off just before adding textures and does not cover the nuances of making it a product in Daz. I ran it and Hex both at the same time and followed pretty much step by step as he created his shirt. It was a great tutorial for me plus I had something useful when I was done!

  • cris333cris333 Posts: 107
    edited January 2013

    I think some one new to modeling should know first what is a polygon,nurb,subdivision surface first.

    http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?pid=2530&autoplay=1

    http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?pid=44&autoplay=1

    first lessons are free and refers to the Polygon, Nurbs or Subdivision surfaces basics.THe lessons are for Maya modelling but the rules/basics are the same in any 3D application .

    See also
    http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?vid=31381&autoplay=1

    with these lessons , anyone very new to modeling or 3d art will learn the basics/fundamentals/essentials , what is a polygon, what does it mean a NURB, or what is a subdivision surface.

    Feel free to explore that website and hunt for modeling tips even from mudbox,zbrush,maya,3ds max.,modo, rhyno..etc
    Some lessons are FREE and some are only available with subscription, however the basics of modeling you can learn them for free. :lol: When you see FREE click on icon to view the video.Hexagon modelling is very similar to maya or 3ds max modelling :) .Get inspired from these tutorials too, you won't regret it ,, i promise.

    How to create a cool rock http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?vid=16474&autoplay=1 (sculpting not modeling)

    Related to Hexagon see : http://www.sharecg.com/b/3/Tutorials/?keywords=&b_upload_type[All]=All&member;_type[All]=on&attribute;[2012][3653]=1&attribute;[2024][-1]=1&attribute;[3848][-1]=1&s=dd

    or see http://3dexport.com/3dtuts/category/3d-tutorials/hexagon/

    Happy modeling :coolsmile:

    Also remember:
    -hard surfaces ,technical modeling,working with polygons can be done only with hexagon,3ds max, maya,blender, etc.
    Zbrush,mudbox,modo,etc are only for sculpting (working with clay) and for fine details such as wall cracks ,aging a wood (planks),etc
    -hiding parts when sculpting on a specific part of a model on slower machines might do the trick to prevent some lags when rotating.(sculpting high poly models)

    Post edited by cris333 on
  • cdordonicdordoni Posts: 583
    edited December 1969

    cris333 said:
    Also remember:
    -hard surfaces ,technical modeling,working with polygons can be done only with hexagon,3ds max, maya,blender, etc.
    Zbrush,mudbox,modo,etc are only for sculpting (working with clay) and for fine details such as wall cracks ,aging a wood (planks),etc

    I am sure you are generalizing here to make a complex subject a bit more organized for beginners.

    I would like to point out that ZBrush can effectively create hard surface models. There is a tutorial that came out with ZBrush v4.0 (over a year ago) for a tank that shows which tools to use to get very mechanical looking objects.

    I have to admit that I would much prefer Hexagon for this type of modeling, but I was very impressed by ZBrush's additions that improve its hard suface modeling capabilities. For several reasons it is advantageous to work in ZBrush with only ZBrush native modeling, so although I personally might prefer to use Hexagon for these objects and import them into ZBrush, I might be sacrificing some flexibility in Zbrush's capabilities with an imported object.

  • Zev0Zev0 Posts: 7,089
    edited December 1969

    I learn all from youtube...

  • ZyloxZylox Posts: 787
    edited January 2013

    Thank you for starting this thread and for all the links to tutorials. I have just started learning Hexagon. I had found and been watching the Geeks at Play tutorials, but something just wasn't clicking there. The Guerilla CG tutorials as well as CGDreams Hexagon Quick Start series really made sense to me.

    Post edited by Zylox on
  • IppotamusIppotamus Posts: 1,579
    edited December 1969

    Definitely agree. This thread was just what I needed to actually open Hexagon and take a look around. :)

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