Comments on: First steps in 3D design

By: mipago

mipago — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:15:35 +0000

hi please could you share me the first draft of the car to my mail. or a link where you can download. advance my thanks.

By: Bosworth99

Bosworth99 — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:44:11 +0000

I completely understand where you are coming from! I went to school for drawing and painting and then right after graduation got handed a job doing what interested me, as long as i produced solid results… almost 10 years later, I’ve spent thousands of hours getting seriously in-depth in 3dsmax, blender, and swift, and learning the high level ins and outs of Flash development. Over the last year, I’ve been seriously pushing as3 and its core OOP fundamentals. Mixed in with a load of web development, photography and endless photoshop…

so then I loaded unity3d up this weekend, after reading about it on your blog and WAS IMMEDIATELY HOOKED!!

Can not wait to sink serious time into and see what i can come up with …

thanks for the thoughts – always awesome!!@

By: Kurtmel

Kurtmel — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:10:09 +0000

Bartek,
Can totally relate, but I’ll do you one better, I’m turning the corner on 50, pursuing my Doctorate degree in Educational Technology; learning 3D modeling, game programming, Unity3D all at the same time for creating instructional games, simulations, and virtual training applications for e-learning.

I’ve been creating e-learning in Flash for a few years. So I know just enough actionscript/javascript to be dangerous, as well as creating training management applications in RAD programs like ASPmaker and PHPmaker (Both awesome btw) for web-based database applications as well as being the Learning Management System (LMS) administrator for a US Air Force organization that delivers over 200 courses to over 200k military and civilian civil engineering personnel.

I retired from the USAF after 20 years service and now work for a large Defense contractor. Not trying to blow my own horn or anything, but can very much relate to major career changing moments and those wonderful epiphanies that get us excited about learning and doing new things, regardless of age. I find myself working and managing creative people like yourself, and it most definately keeps me young. (My 4 teenagers crack up at hearing my musical tastes, which range from Metallica to Howling Wolf – an eclectic mix picked up by working around fun, young, creative people)

IF you love what you do and love going to work every morning, you are very lucky indeed, so keep on learning, experimenting and growing – and don’t take any criticism to heart. (But BTW, Jeeps even then, were 4-wheel drive, and I had to get it stuck on the only branch you put on the ground in your demo because you didn’t script the rear wheels too…LOL)

I’m glad I found your site, although I haven’t found any scripting code examples yet, its always interesting to see what others are doing. I’d love to get the magazine article you wrote, hopefully I’ll be able to find a hard copy in the states somewhere.

You’re doing great stuff, good luck to you, and never stop learning – if you think you have, you become arrogant and boring, luckily not something that happens in the 3D game development and Flash communities very often….grin.

By: AlexG

AlexG — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:30:03 +0000

I tried the car race game, it has late reaction on users input. I press left or right, and car responds only after a second.

By: thatkidrich

thatkidrich — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:48:10 +0000

Have you had any luck using Flash AND unity together? I find the Unity GUI very limiting. I would love to be able to make a HUD in flash and overlay it on top of Unity. Every attempt has failed. Unity seems to want control of the Z order no matter what. Any ideas?

By: sascha/hdrs

sascha/hdrs — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:08:41 +0000

Totally understand your thoughts about becoming a 3D designer. It’s one of the many areas where I’d like become more proficient. But a man’s got only so much time. I’ve once started character design in Maya, came pretty far, then dropped it because of lack of time (mainly because coding contract work interfered) but I’d like to catch up someday again and get to the rigging part and all. Problem is that 3D design and particularly character design is all a whole life-occupying task by itself. There must be a way somehow though, it’s too tempting, isn’t it?!

By: nicholassimon

nicholassimon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:30:43 +0000

If you are interested in 3D modelling software for free then check out this post here for a comprehensive list of free software for working with 3D:
http://ninjarabbits.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-some-3d-modelling-for-free.html

By: bartek drozdz

bartek drozdz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:07:23 +0000

@janwos you found the turbo boost, right? ;)

@jeff Thanks. I was thinking about Cinema4D, mainly because it’s price seems reasonable. However first I need to buy Unity Pro :)

By: janwos

janwos — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:10:10 +0000

Couldn’t speed up enough for the ramp :) nice hidden feature!

By: DavidG

DavidG — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:42:15 +0000

Bartek,
I find your post and your “new” direction most intriguing. I find myself in the reverse situation having worked in 3D imaging for some 15 years and now contemplating taking up programming – something I’ve been trying to avoid for as many years. Plus I’m on the cusp of entering my forties too. Life can sure take some interesting paths sometimes.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:11:35 +0000

Bartek,

I hope you get to read this, because I went through the 3D Design route and now am trying to get into programming. I started a small contract, which laid me out flat that I have a lot to learn. Design patterns, other languages, and so on. I can only say it’s easier to look for 3D design help as a programmer first, than the other way around.

However, since I am a 3D designer, I can make some great looking products. The trick to good 3D modeling and design is detail. I see that you added some texture to those walls in the cell-room you have. Try and add a floor drain, or a sprinkler pipe and spout, giving the reason to the dingy texture you have.

With every scene try to think of it as designing a forest. What you would need is not just trees, but bushes and grasses, and leaves, and stray tangles of webbed vining. All of those start to add up and make a beautiful picture that you wish you could stray into in some dream.

Therefore, you don’t have to be the best 3D modeler, just remember to have a good design sense – lighting and shadow are the hardest parts, but give you the best depth and point of view. With the correct lighting and shadow maps you can make practically anything look good.

Please email me with any questions about 3D concepts you might have. Take care, and good luck!

By: Ringo

Ringo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:38:19 +0000

We hire you for the next 3D model job :) Good luck.

By: ash

ash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:00:56 +0000

“But soon I realized that this might be what I’d like to do for a living. Wait, what? Can you imagine? I’m in my thirties.”

I don’t think that’s a crazy thought. In fact, I think most Flash/Flex developers are thinking the exact same thing. I know I am!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:55:28 +0000

When you’re up and running with your basic 3D skills you might wanna try an commercial 3D program like Studio Max, Cinema 4D or Maya. Some have non-commercial of student licences, and there’s bittorrent. That will give you a feel for the differences in these 3D editors (and the way Unity works with them), and also some experience in the tools most of the professional 3D artists use. In my personal experience Blender is nice, but does not compare very well to 3D Studio or Maya.

By: col000r

col000r — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:57:31 +0000

Yeah, unity is great fun, isn’t it? It’s without question the most fun tool I have seen in the entire industry… Beats virtools, beats torque, and sure as hell beats all the half-cooked inhouse game-tools I’ve seen… :)

A few years back I was looking at Blender and as much as I wanted to like it, the interface was just too unintuitive and weird… So ultimately I settled on modo and am very very happy with it. It’s not cheap though. Another _free_ tool that I have seen people do fantastic stuff with is wings3d…

By: hebchop

hebchop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:36:54 +0000

You certainly have enough 3D knowledge to become a great 3D designer / modeler.

I took the opposite path, went to school for computer animation learning 3D software and then pursued a career in Flash.

Unity is the perfect place to play if you like both:)

By: Pedro Sousa

Pedro Sousa — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:18:38 +0000

Great post Bartek,

I was trying blender to but i had 2 problems with blender . The first
problem was the axis changed and the second was the mesh collider, that
always have the diferent size of the original mesh and the axis changed in collider.

You had the same problems ?

Cheers

By: Paul Neave

Paul Neave — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:46:25 +0000

Great post. There’s no reason why you can’t learn 3D and still do Flash development. Learning new things is always important, and learning Blender and Unity just adds another feather to your bow!

By: flashmech

flashmech — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:17:40 +0000

Hey Bartek, I love your enthusiasm, and it encourages me. All the best in your direction! :D