Becoming an Expert?

How long would it take to become an expert like the BeamNG crew?

My Goal:
Get to the point where I can create cars in a 3D programs such as 3DS Max, Maya etc., be able to import them into BeamNG or other games and have them work correctly.

Currently:
I can model a Kitchen table and some other basic things in 3DS Max and have some knowledge of textures and such.

I know to get to my goal I would need to pretty much be an expert at C++ and 3D programs and such, i know it will probably take years to get to that point or.. could I be there in a few months if i work very hard? I have alot of time on my hands and am willing to learn. So where should i start? learn 3DS Max first? Learn programming first? where did you start?

 

You will need to learn a lot of Blender. Thats what suggested to use for moddelling here.
Not that easy, i guess some months are needed.

 

thanks! Do you know if blender comes with its own tutorials? I'll download it now

 

I am trying to learn as well, hopefully I will be able to make my own car someday.. with some luck. Here is a good starting guide on the forums: http://www.beamng.com/threads/2969-Tutorial-Don-t-know-how-to-Blender-Learn-here , and Google is also your friend

 

Cool i'll use that once i get the basics down, I just found this guide online

http://cgcookie.com/blender/lessons/3-modeling/

set-by-step guide on everything blender, all lesson videos.

 

Max works too, so if you already know how to use that, you don't need to learn Blender. But whatever works better for you, both are good. No need to learn programming either if you just want to put a car in BeamNG. You could learn lua scripting to code new features or such, but that's not necessary for most modders.

Once you have a 3d model, you could import it into Torque as a static model first and set up the materials. Then you'll need jbeam files for the physical structure. It's probably best to start with modifying an existing car. When you have some idea of how it works, start a simple structure from scratch and build from that.

 

Cool, Im only using blender because its really cheap and in most cases free, Max is better but very expensive. Is Torque part of BeamNG? How do i run that program?

So i should import any item I create from Blender into Torque first to get it ready for BeamNG right?

I think i should run through those steps first, to get a feel for how importing works I want to import a simple cube from Blender into Torque and then import that cube into BeamNG so i can interact with it. Do you know of a step by step guide on importing objects?

 

Torque 3D is the game engine that BeamNG runs in. Press F11 in game to open the Torque level editor. If you have a model in DAE (Collada) format, you can try importing it into a level there. It's not a necessary step if you have jbeam files that use meshes from the DAE, but it's easy to check if the model works and how it looks in the editor. You can also use the material editor there, but once you've figured it out it's easier to just edit the .material files in a text editor.

There are importing guides in the wiki and forum, I haven't looked at them much.

 

Ok so im modelling my car using blueprints and its coming out surprisingly well despite the fact I've only been using blender for less than a day!

I need help with making th =e perspective view rotate around the transform tool, when i pan zoom and rotate the view goes out of bounds from the area im working on,

for example i will select a vertex and try to zoom in and pan around it but the perspective view is not locked to the vertex it is locked and pans around some invisible point and its hard to complete my work.


EDIT:

Found it! I have to choose lock to Courser

- - - Updated - - -

Check it out, my own 2004 Hyundai Elantra! I should have this up and running in BeamNG in a few weeks if I stay at this pace!

 

I got used to manipulating meshes in a hurry i used to use 3DS Max for a while but I never got this far before. I want to keep going untill I have a fully working car ready for BeamNG, I still have a lot to learn and I'm having fun while learning, I think that's where the motivation comes from.

I hope to be able to make some tutorial videos for any noobs out there, I search YouTube but the videos are not very thorough, once I get my car into BeamNG drivable and crashable I want to post a step by step video on how to do that.

Also my actual car is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra! That's the best reference! I took all kinds of pictures of it, I've never seen my caar modeled, I searched and I found 2011 hyundai elantra from 3DS Max but it's a different body style so I decided why not, I'll model my car and release it to the world ha. Plus it would be cool to crash my car in BeamNG!

 

Great job on the modeling, the hood creases look really nice! If you do decide to do some tutorial videos on making the car I would be very grateful. I want to model one of my cars IRL too, my first car, an old corvette that's not running any more. It would be so much fun to model and smash it up in game. I had never even thought about doing 3D modeling until I found this game, so a through tutorial specific to blender and BeamNG would help me immensely!

 

Its quite easy to do once you know your way around blender, I compare it to when i used to use tracing paper to trace the outline of a car in elementary school, you just trace the lines on the car through the see through paper, very easy. This is the same concept. You already know what to trace, the hard part is using a 3D programs tools to do it. i still dont know what half the tools do, and im sure im doing it the hard way haha

 

UPDATE:

about 25 hours in and I have most of the body done! its taking a long time since im new and have no idea what im really doing haha,

heres a sneak peak:





when its doesn't it will have alot of mistakes but that's ok for a first build, its hard to make it all in quads maybe I can have someone clean it up for me

 

Not bad for a first model.

 

Thank you! As i go im learning more and more, i have the shell done and i cut the doors out. Im keeping the model low/mid poly for the game. what should i do next the car lights? and since this is going into a video game i should use all triangles instead of quads right? indeed when I import a BeamNG car into blender it is made of entirely triangles.

 

" and have no idea what im really doing haha,"
*makes a model most people would be proud of for their 5th go...*


Keep going man, this is turning out real good, your poly flow is pretty much perfect, and you're modeling it quickly. I honestly can't say anything you should improve at this point. Use quads as much as possible, like Gabe said, you can use some triangles, but for shading it's best to keep quads wherever possible. But don't change whatever you're already doing, because you're doing it perfectly judging from the pics Also great choice of car. Making your own real car is a great way to make sure you get the shape right, since you care and know more about how it looks than any other car(I remember all my car models suddenly became much more accurate after I had made my real car once)

 

Another update on the progress! I have the engine compartment almost done, then i'll start modeling the interior which I think will be the hardest part. I should have a finished product in a few weeks!