Blender 3d Modeling Tutorials

[Old Murgh]

i personally found it more user-friendly and intuitive..

Thanks for going in depth. I did watch a pretty good intro tut the other day ( Blender–20 mins) which made it seem quite friendly and logical, making a switch very tempting.

Although Wings probably has a more primitive feel, and support is narrow (hey, they do have that one gentleman who is quick to respond and help), I know what I get and it essentially works. But..

My biggest Wings gripe is being that point when I've committed to a UVmap and when a while later into the map piece placement you realise that you missed an edge for cut or should have decided on another solution, the only way is to go back and start the layout placement from the beginning. Agony multiplied by the amount of time you've wasted. Can anyone relate?

If Blender has a solution that allows for small step corrections, I would definitely go all in.

What does Griff use - ?

All his master models that he shares exist in .wings format.

To my point above, if I was Griff and had made a Murgh mistake after 90 minutes into my meticulous placement of a multitude of tiny pieces (as he surely must –they look so perfect, he's like a watchmaker), and discovered that two of them were connected even though I was sure I had cut them all apart, I would implode and do something else for the evening. Or worse.

[Killer Wolf]

Blender has changed quite dramatically from 2017, eg it used to use r/click select and now used l/click, but everyone has their own tastes and preferences.

[Cody]

... they look so perfect, he's like a watchmaker...

On the gripping hand...

[Old Murgh]

Blender has changed quite dramatically from 2017, eg it used to use r/click select and now used l/click, but everyone has their own tastes and preferences.

Yes that tempting video was from 2021. Please let me know if you find that Blender is much more forgiving about locking you into a UVmap that can't be changed unless you initiate the whole process from the start. (If I managed to explain what I mean)

[Killer Wolf]

i find Blender very good, and there's no "locking." eg: My King Cobra model was made and unwrapped, and then i ended up amending part of it ~ the altered/new faces are a mess on the UV map now, so you just select them and unwrap them again, everything else is unchanged.
there's loads of vids on youtube, here's a quick one i found for Blender 3.0,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fthcqufSA3U [excuse the cg voice, lol]

it has several inbuilt unwrap methods like "project from view" [eg, go top-down and you can get a good plan view unwrap of your top surfaces - if you look at my KC skins that's how i did the top hull parts] and there's other plug-ins for unwrapping and map packing you can get if you want, some free some buyable.
my method:
- create an image/texture at the required size
- unwrap bit by bit
- pack the bits onto the map/image that you created.
- select all the bits and export the UV map. there's fill options to you can go from 0% [just get the lines, which i use for overlay in PShop] to 100% [basically makes every bit a solid colour, i use this as my base layer in PShop for selection purposes]
-paint it up
- create a material slot for your model and use your image and the UVs to map.
- if you want something in the UV changing, eg make a part of the map of the cockpit area larger so you can paint a ship name/logo on the side, you can select those faces and enlarge them and the new UV data is fine, just export the amended map to repaint in PShop etc.

[Old Murgh]

i find Blender very good, and there's no "locking." eg: My King Cobra model was made and unwrapped, and then i ended up amending part of it ~ the altered/new faces are a mess on the UV map now, so you just select them and unwrap them again, everything else is unchanged.
there's loads of vids on youtube, here's a quick one i found for Blender 3.0,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fthcqufSA3U [excuse the cg voice, lol]

it has several inbuilt unwrap methods like "project from view" [eg, go top-down and you can get a good plan view unwrap of your top surfaces - if you look at my KC skins that's how i did the top hull parts] and there's other plug-ins for unwrapping and map packing you can get if you want, some free some buyable.
my method:
- create an image/texture at the required size
- unwrap bit by bit
- pack the bits onto the map/image that you created.
- select all the bits and export the UV map. there's fill options to you can go from 0% [just get the lines, which i use for overlay in PShop] to 100% [basically makes every bit a solid colour, i use this as my base layer in PShop for selection purposes]
-paint it up
- create a material slot for your model and use your image and the UVs to map.
- if you want something in the UV changing, eg make a part of the map of the cockpit area larger so you can paint a ship name/logo on the side, you can select those faces and enlarge them and the new UV data is fine, just export the amended map to repaint in PShop etc.

Thank you, that was very educational. Yes, its features are sleek and impressive, undoubtedly superior to Wings. It comes with a lot of minutiae though that would take me a long time to get a handle on.
I get the feeling it would take another pandemic or sick leave to get me in the frame of mind to start at the bottom again.

[Killer Wolf]

just learn the bits you need. it's like Photoshop, i probably use aout 15% of its capabilites i know very little about the video compositing, sculpting, texture painting stuff, but can happily use Blender to model, just ignore what you don't use.

[Griff]

I let the 3d software (Modo indie) do about 99% of the UV packing Murgh, i'm sitting there sipping on a mug of coffee whilst the computer does all the hardwork and elegant looking stuff like packing UV's or making glow maps
Blender looks absolutely stunning, if i was young enough to be able to cope with switching software and learning new keyboard shortcuts all over again i'd jump ship to it

[Old Murgh]

I let the 3d software (Modo indie) do about 99% of the UV packing Murgh, i'm sitting there sipping on a mug of coffee whilst the computer does all the hardwork and elegant looking stuff like packing UV's or making glow maps

That's a relief, I'm glad for you. From what I imagine about those meticulous watchmakers, that kind of miniscule detail perfection takes a heavy toll in the end.
Modo Indie, huh. I have to look into that.

[Killer Wolf]

just in case it hasn't been mentioned, if anyone wants asteroids there's a "rock generator" addon build into Blender, can spawn any number of rocks w/ all sorts of random attribute features.