Neophite
24th August 2009, 03:06 AM
Not being a professional and knowing that my stuff is definitely NOT in the same category as those who have spent years in the CGI field I have somewhat avoided presenting a "Showcase" of my 'work'. I am now in my third year of fiddling with this hobby and have got about 18 months (give or take) in using LW and while I have spent some time with other programs ( mainly through trial versions and PLE's ) my main body of experience has come through the popular and lightweight program Poser.
When I first began I had not the slightest idea that certain models were 'program specific' and so I went to town downloading willy-nilly the models that struck my fancy. I had no idea of what a 'polygon' was much less what a 'polygon normal' was. 'Nurbs' were as foreign to me as a 'strange particle' in quantum physics was.
My interest had been piqued in 2000 when I was building a computer for myself and decided to include a graphics card that had a TV tuner onboard (ATI's All-In-Wonder) with the card came a piece of software called 'Merlin VR 1'. It was difficult to manuver through and I never really got to using it....but the idea fascinated me.
In 2005 I was building my next generation of computers and had talked extensively with a friend about 3d programs and CGI in general. So when I was perusing software to include on the main machine and found a 'half-off'' offer on Poser 6 I jumped at it.
I did not even get a chance to load the program until mid 2006 and then I couldn't get a render... my machine would lock.......you know, I have always just jumped in and tried doin' whatever I was interested in doin' learning as I go.......using manuals only when I finally admitted to myself that I was stuck........ finally got my first render and even though it sucked on so many levels I was proud of it......That was September.....
After that I was all over the net downloading every model I could find format didn't matter and I found myself often frustrated when I would import into Poser a figure that I thought was cool and find I couldn't Pose the thing ......I had thought 'rigging' would import (live and learn). I joined a forum and actually started posting my renders. Through Planit3d I started getting feedback and progressively my renders began to improve. I started to understand more about the different model formats and even began dowloading the trial software and PLE's of various programs and converting models so I could use them with Poser.
Whether we like it or not it is through feedback and criticism that we learn from anothers experience that and actually doing the thing we are learning is how we gain knowledge and experience...for me the feedback is an integral part of learning and when it began to die out in Planit3d... I began to shop around for a new place to learn......at the same time I was looking at other programs because the limitations of Poser were beginning to become apparent.....
I found this forum and posted a conversion I had done......
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1444
A BSG thing I was tryin'.....
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513
And a vintage aircraft....
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1546
The feedback, advice, encouragement and critiques were invigorating and showed me that my hobby could be improved in so many ways and gave me the idea that I just might actually (given time) produce some good artwork.
Since that time I have chosen the next program to continue growing in this hobby and have chosen to mix the programs I know in various ways... I am probably making every mistake in the book and inventing some of my own......but it is fun and that is another ticket on why I keep pushin' it.......my first combo effort did not get much feedback until later....after I had posted some other things to it,,,,,
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4432
I have since started some extrmely longterm projects some of which I don't expect to finish for several years more.......all dealing with aniamtions of long duration......
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4836
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2595
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5928
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3533
Now there is a good back ground for part 1 of this posting.......
When I first began I had not the slightest idea that certain models were 'program specific' and so I went to town downloading willy-nilly the models that struck my fancy. I had no idea of what a 'polygon' was much less what a 'polygon normal' was. 'Nurbs' were as foreign to me as a 'strange particle' in quantum physics was.
My interest had been piqued in 2000 when I was building a computer for myself and decided to include a graphics card that had a TV tuner onboard (ATI's All-In-Wonder) with the card came a piece of software called 'Merlin VR 1'. It was difficult to manuver through and I never really got to using it....but the idea fascinated me.
In 2005 I was building my next generation of computers and had talked extensively with a friend about 3d programs and CGI in general. So when I was perusing software to include on the main machine and found a 'half-off'' offer on Poser 6 I jumped at it.
I did not even get a chance to load the program until mid 2006 and then I couldn't get a render... my machine would lock.......you know, I have always just jumped in and tried doin' whatever I was interested in doin' learning as I go.......using manuals only when I finally admitted to myself that I was stuck........ finally got my first render and even though it sucked on so many levels I was proud of it......That was September.....
After that I was all over the net downloading every model I could find format didn't matter and I found myself often frustrated when I would import into Poser a figure that I thought was cool and find I couldn't Pose the thing ......I had thought 'rigging' would import (live and learn). I joined a forum and actually started posting my renders. Through Planit3d I started getting feedback and progressively my renders began to improve. I started to understand more about the different model formats and even began dowloading the trial software and PLE's of various programs and converting models so I could use them with Poser.
Whether we like it or not it is through feedback and criticism that we learn from anothers experience that and actually doing the thing we are learning is how we gain knowledge and experience...for me the feedback is an integral part of learning and when it began to die out in Planit3d... I began to shop around for a new place to learn......at the same time I was looking at other programs because the limitations of Poser were beginning to become apparent.....
I found this forum and posted a conversion I had done......
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1444
A BSG thing I was tryin'.....
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513
And a vintage aircraft....
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1546
The feedback, advice, encouragement and critiques were invigorating and showed me that my hobby could be improved in so many ways and gave me the idea that I just might actually (given time) produce some good artwork.
Since that time I have chosen the next program to continue growing in this hobby and have chosen to mix the programs I know in various ways... I am probably making every mistake in the book and inventing some of my own......but it is fun and that is another ticket on why I keep pushin' it.......my first combo effort did not get much feedback until later....after I had posted some other things to it,,,,,
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4432
I have since started some extrmely longterm projects some of which I don't expect to finish for several years more.......all dealing with aniamtions of long duration......
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4836
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2595
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5928
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3533
Now there is a good back ground for part 1 of this posting.......