3D modelling

[Prpl_Mage]

Well, the 3D viewer I have simply reads the obj files and views it with textures if I have the texture png's in the same folder as the obj. It's convenient I suppose.
And to view the 3D models - that's probably as far as I get with this hobby.
So I assumed that I could simply find a program to edit models to make it into what I wanted to match with all the textures and so. But I have to find out how to apply them textures to the models. Textures should appear once I export them as dae files in that case.

[Prpl_Mage]

I'm getting off the whole colouration train, finally found a tutorial that explains textures, how to attach them and so on.

Here's a pic of a dino inspired by my lego barroth inspired by the actual barroth in monster hunter.



As you can see, it doesn't really look like barroth.

[DragonBlaze]

That's really good for just starting off! Did you do design the model too? And what program did you use?

Some of the edges look a bit hard (you can see the crease when it should be 'smooth'),  this usually happens with low polygon models, but there is an easy trick you can do to make them appear much smoother. Vertices have these things called 'normals' associated with them. Normals are the angle at which light reflects off of the vertex. If the normals along an edge are equal, the edge will apear to be more seamless and rounded even, even if there is a hard edge there. The geometry does not change at all, and it's basically an illusion with the textures/colors. This is not the default behavior because with many objects, such as cubes, you don't want the edges to appear rounded. However, when it comes to organic objects such as body parts, usually you want the more rounded look. Many editors have a tool or command to smooth the normals for the selected polygons, so it is really quick and easy, while making the object look much nicer.

[Prpl_Mage]

Thank you.
Aye. Did it with maya, 5 different cubes that expanded into the shapes I wanted. Then I mirrored the entire thing to get the other side identical. Kinda nifty feature.

Yeah the head got awfully blocky, didn't pick enough subdivisions. I'm kinda assuming that subdivisions are the same thing as polygons.  I realized this after starting to form the shape but changing the subdivisions after shaping = bad. It all became a jumbled mess. Realized that there was some sort of "interactive split tool" I could use to add more subdivisions, but it was a bit too late.
The colours are kinda improvised as well, used one colour for the entire thing, then coloured some parts of it in a lighter shade and used some sort of "smoothing brush" to make it look all professional. It's more obvious on the claws though, that it's merely smoothed out.
I'll check out the normals though, could be useful.

[DragonBlaze]

Ah I see, in Maya the interactive split tool and cut faces tool work well for that. You can also use extruding or wedging to add more detail easily.

Anyway to demonstrate how much of a difference editing normals can make, I made two identical low polygon spheres. The only thing different about them is one has smoothed normals, and one has standard normals. The geometry is exactly the same. Notice how even though the one on the right is still low polygon, it looks much better than the one on the left. To smooth normals in Maya, go to the normals dropdown menu and select soften edge. You can apply this to whichever faces you'd like.

[Dr. Ace]

I have completely NOT read a single post besides the original in this thread, but if you have questions about 3D modelling just hit me up. I got a big amount of experience with modelling, texturing, UV mapping and unwrapping, rigging and animating. I'll be reading each post after this one so ask me whatever you want to know, any of you.