Is there a 'dummies guide' to 3D modelling?

[Lace]

I used to do a lot of 3D studio stuff a long time ago, and am considering starting up again with some simple DCS objects.  Is there a beginners guide to the software and process required to do this?  I know the game has moved on somewhat in the last 20+ years

[Zeagle]

hi Lace.

Blender is my recommendation for modelling software.

Grajo has some really informative tutorials on the basics of getting a static model in game. You can find his files in the ED downloads area.

Start with something small. Get a workflow going. Try not to get discouraged. Youtube blender tutorials are life savers. Learn to use Node based materials. 

Some familiarity with lua is also required. Lua is easy to learn. 

Good luck.

 

[joey45]

For 3d software you have -

3ds max - Official plugins

Blender - Unofficial / community plugins

Use what you are comfortable using

2d - anything that can save in dds format . Photoshop / Gimp/ Paint.net

 

Like Zeagle said, start off simple then work your way up.

For the lua side download a few mods and look in the lua files to see how they done it.

[Lace]

That's great.  Going to give Blender a good looking at and see what I can come up with.  

[joey45]

For 3d painting  you can use anything

Paid route - Substance Painter

free route - Quixel Mixer , bit like SP but free

paid Indie - Armory3d/Armorpaint

[Zeagle]

I took a 1/48 plastic model kit and used it as a reference to make my first blender 3d model for dcs. I used calipers to measure the dimensions of the objects and scaled them appropriately.

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Zeagle

[Zeagle]

My advice is start small and watch plenty of tutorials. In the model above, the materials are all procedural. The tires,long handle, and cotter pins were made from Bezier curves. I create all my materials in blender using nodes. Then I bake them to whatever textures I need for export. The Blender texture painting tools are great for final touchups and weathering. I still have some work to do on this model. But Blender is my choice for 3d work. You can channel-pack PBR textures from within Blender as well using compositing nodes.

The rubber material on the tire, the paint, and the rust were all created from scratch using procedural nodes. I suppose substance painter and the others will help a lot in a production environment. But I like doing things by hand. 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Zeagle

[joey45]

Awesome.

[Lace]

Had a quick play with Blender last night.  A few more features than 3D Studio 2!  Stuff I could have only dreamed of back then.  I'm going to make some donuts and then get on with some more relevant simple stuff, see how I get on.  

[Zeagle]

Good luck man. It's a long journey. 

 

[harrier443]

some help will be nice on creating my first model! (a tornado f3!!)