Does anyone know of a website or book that could really help me with programs such as pov-ray or photoshop? I'd like to start using these for projects I'm working on, but my problem is some of the tutorials the products themselves offer are somewhat mind boggling for me. Is there anything to "dumb it down" for me? Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Don't know jack and/or squat about POV ray-trace, but I have found the Peachpit Press Visual Quickstart Guides to be invaluable in learning a variety of Graphic Design staples, not the least of which was Photoshop. Lots of pictures for those of us who are visually oriented. Just about any chain bookstore ought to carry them in the computer section. Otherwise I'd recommend poking around online. 3-D design is a horrendously complex process, and there are a large number of general things you should know about in regards to various methods of modelling, means of rendering and the applications themselves. I don't know what level you are at, but if you are just starting out at 3-D, I can give you some fun places to poke around and learn just some basic stuff. But maybe you're way beyond all that and you think I'm being insulting. I'm not. Honest. It's hard. I've been learning for coming up on ten years now and I'm still a noob.
Posted by Captain39 (Member # 1001) on :
Balaam believe me, I don't find it insulting at all. I'm definately a beginner as far as 3-d animations go. Any websites that you know would help would definately be appreciated, and I'll be sure to check out that book you metnioned. I know I have a lot to learn if I ever want to be decent with 3-d animation but I know if I learn it will help immensly. Thanks again!
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Said Captain (said what) Said Captain (said what?)...stop staring at me like that.,
So you're interested in 3D. Well POV may not be the best place to start. Did you know there is no interface? Like you "program" your models/scenes using a 3D scripting language. That equals extremely hard/non-intuitive in my book, and probably isn't the best way to start out.
I don't know what you want to build, but a really good way to learn a LOT is to hang out in the forums. Don't feel like you have to post, and whatever you do don't go in expecting people to teach you everything, but you can learn a lot not only about the process, but about the programs and techniques these people use, just by looking at their Works In Progress (WIPs).
http://forums.scifi-meshes.com/ these guys are really really good, and if you're in the instruction section there are some nice fellas there who know a helluva lot. this is probably the most active 3D sci-fi site out there and most of the people are very cool. i like because part of everyones profile is which program they are using so if you see something you like, you can know right away at least which tool they are using.
http://www.zaon.org/ justin winters with ZAON is one of the best sci-fi modellers out there. fortunately for us, he also happens to be a really great guy and he shares a lot about his hardware, software, and technique. he isn't going to teach you everything, but so he has this forum where people build stuff and ostensibly it will all be collected in the ZAON role-playing sourcebooks, but reallly it's a pretext to make and share neato and shiny things.
You are probably on a PC, and as such you have a vast array of options for doing 3D on the cheap. I've seen some very impressive things done with Rhino 3D and Blender which are both freeware. I've never used either of them, but they might be a good place to start and I know there is a large group of people working with them.
There's more, but that should be enough for now. I'll post some more stuff later later in the week. Just go and look at what these guys(and girls?) are doing. See what they are building and how. Let us (Flare) know where you are, because that's how it's fun, if you can share it. It's very cool. (and when I say cool, I mean dorky, but not like lame dorky, like cool dorky, ya'know. Stop looking at me like that.)
Posted by Aldiwahn Teerodi (Member # 931) on :
i agree with balaam. the 3d forums are a great ressource. i myself have my home at SFM, tho i also look at 3DG and M-CGI from time to time. you really should have a look at this enterprise in povray the guy has done some serious cool stuff. contact him, i think he will be very willing to help you with povray. i for myself am using povray as renderer. sometimes i edit my scenefiles by hand tho normally i use a 3rd party wireframe modeller called moray for windows which is really good but doesn't use all the features povray has. since it's a programming language you can do that: program your scenes/models, include conditions, create loops for arraying objects, not just in circles or straight lines but in every form of function you can imagine (like combined sinus/cosinus for instance). have a look at my site AnimatedPictures all of the images in the gallery are done using povray and moray tho almost all of them have postprocessing applied which was done in a 2d program like PaintShopPro or PhotoShop. almost everybody uses postprocessing, even those with the high-end packages like MAX.
if you want to go way further in 3d than just have it as a hobby i'd suggest you have a look at blender, since it is a polygon based program like the big ones, which povray isn't.
![[Confused]](confused.gif)