Making your own Models and Charaters.

How I learned to model was from box modeling, which I think is useful to get you thinking about how to use quads and geometry effectively.  It depends on where you want to go with it.  If you want to create game characters, it might be better to start with box modeling to get the basic shape with the best, most optimized mesh possible, then you can sculpt over that mesh some high frequency detail to bake out into maps later.  Or there's more of a top down approach where you just sculpt up the character, then retopologize the mesh.  I think this approach makes less sense because you're trying to break down a hi rez character into a low rez character where if you started with a low rez, the mesh is already optimized, saving some work later down the line.  But if you just want to sculpt characters and not worry about things like planning topology for deformations where the mesh is just going to showcase your sculpting abilities, then I wouldn't worry about box modeling.  Again, depends on where you want to go.

I suggest started with box modeling because again, I think it will help you develop your feel and understanding of good topology flow and how to optimize your mesh for the best performance and look.  But I guess I'm kind of old school.  Sculpting definitely allows you to realize your vision in a more artistic and free way, where as box modeling is a little more planned out, kind of like solving a puzzle under some constraints sort of thing.

Intro to Blender is a good overall look at what Blender can do.

Modeling in Blender is the next step.  I haven't gotten very far (at the retopo part right now) so I haven't found anything that talks about box modeling.  The new course might go over that just based on what they said in the stream, but I can't speak for that right now.

Here's a tutorial I quickly found showing what box modeling is.  A few things I suggest is: 1. to not be dependent on the subsurf modifier as it can mask your bad topology.  So only use subsurf to check if your smoothed topology is following the turnaround then turn it off again.  2. Only add an edge loop if you absolutely have to!  This prevents you from adding too many loops at once, thus making things easier for yourself.  You won't get bogged down in the details before you need to be dealing with details.  3.  Make sure the form is as round as possible before adding in another edge loop.  This saves you so much work down the line.  For example, for an arm, if you don't round out the arm shape before adding an edge loop, you'll have to then round out an extra edge loop.  If you have everything all set and ready to go, then add an edge loop, you will have little to nothing to do with creating that rounded shape.  Maybe you'll have to scale it to fit, but most of the work is done.  4.  The guy in the video has his turnaround refs off the axes.  I suggest to keep everything (the box) at (0,0,0) so it'll be much easier for you to work and avoid any funky behaviors of Blender.  You can line up your reference images to the axes, so it's easy to set up.  There's a really great playlist of videos from one of my former professors that talks about all of these things, but I'm pretty sure you have to be invited to view the videos.  I'll look around and see if I can find anything of similar quality.

EDIT:  This is the video playlist from one of my former professors, it's just unlisted.  It's very Maya specific with all of Maya's wonderful quirks, but once he gets into the actual modeling, the skills should be translatable.

First you start with mesh modeling. Soon you realize that you can’t get it really right. Scary you move to sculpture mode, with your mesh as is, and experiment with the tools available there to get your mesh right without all those fancy stuff like ‘Dynotopolgy’ or ‘Multiresolution’. Just the mesh as you were working on in edit mode and it’s subdivisions. You move back to edit mode to continue working there on your character as you were never in sculpture mode. Again you move back to sculpture mode, seems that you have discovered now a second way to manipulate your mesh, use a little bit the ‘Gabb’-, ‘Smooth’-, ‘SculptDraw’ tool. Go back to edit mode, back to sculpting, back to edit ... ... and two years later you skip mesh modeling in edit mode and start making your character by sculpting.

That’s all there is to it :-)

Thank you both. Dolores74. Based on what you said, why wouldn't i just go straight to Sculpting and learning that way?

silentheart00

Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate it. I am watching all the links you have posted.

Than just do it.

No problem.  Sorry for a wishy-washy answer.  This is more or less my philosophy behind it, and you'll have to experiment to find your preferred workflow.  I just provided the tools, so understand each side and experiment.  Each method has their own applications, so you'll have to use your best judgement.  If you have any questions, feel free to keep posting them in the community.  We're all learning here =]

To me personally - It all depends on what:
- your own personal preference is.
- you want to do with the characters when they are finished later.

I can imagine that - if you already have some real-life sculpting experience - then try that out first... or..

Being with a (series of) very small not-to-complex 3D models.
- Try both mesh and sculpt parallel to another to
- Experience what FEELS best for you (and this can change over time).
Just go ahead and try, fail many times and feel what method works right for you.

Right now I have 0 clue what i am doing. I have mostly create thing in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. My son stumbled onto Blender. I watched a video by Blender Guru who said that CGcookies was the best place to learn. So I started to look around the site and the projects that I have seen you all post, are amazing. I want to be able to do the same.

My son and I have just gotten into 3D printing. So we want to make our own characters. I'm a very detailed oriented person. I had to learn CAD software in order to use my CNC table to cut out projects for people. I learned there, that the details is what really made me happy. I really enjoy the challenge of the smallest detail,

So to answer your question Ronald, I would love to make extremely detailed 3D prints or a detailed scene for a poster.

The other area of interest would be to someday take my models and maybe get into making a small animation clip, but that is a later down the road thing for me. Its just something I have seen on here and thought "Wow that would be fun to do some day"

So that's as far as I have gotten  :) The work on this site is amazing. You all do some amazing work. I would like to learn how do this as well.

Thank you all for your time.

John

For what it's worth, I disagree with silentheart00's suggestion of trying out polygon modeling for character creation, especially given your particular interests in 3D printing. 

First off, you should build yourself a solid foundation and understanding of Blender before getting into character modeling. It is a much more complex task than basic modeling of simpler objects. Go through all the intro courses here that interest you. When you are comfortable with the software, I strongly suggest learning to sculpt your characters with dynamic topology. 3D printing doesn't require good topology like animation or game creation, and a little practice with sculpting allows you to produce organic shapes in a way that is really difficult with polygon modeling. Then when you want to start texturing and animating characters, learn the sculpting-->retopology-->detailing workflow.

I disagree with this part of the comment above - "I suggest started with box modeling because again, I think it will help you develop your feel and understanding of good topology flow and how to optimize your mesh for the best performance and look.  But I guess I'm kind of old school.  Sculpting definitely allows you to realize your vision in a more artistic and free way, where as box modeling is a little more planned out, kind of like solving a puzzle under some constraints sort of thing." 

Polygon modeling is not more planned out than sculpting, it is just a different workflow. You need to be very skilled in polygon modeling to be able to get ideal topology in an organic shape (like a face), and it is simply less practical. I would argue that learning retopology gives you a better understanding of topology because it teaches you how to isolate features, maintain smooth edge flow, etc on an existing model, rather than trying to do it on the fly.

And just keep an open mind and understand that it takes a lot of practice and learning to become comfortable and skilled with Blender or any artistic 3D package.

Thank you very much Matt for your response. I greatly appreciate it.

I think I am going to go the route of learning sculpting to create my own models for printing. Since I have a wide variety of things that I want to make from character creation to animals and so on and I will see where this leads me.

Like Dolores 74 said, time to do it

Thank you all very much for all of your opinions. They were a great help.

Sounds great!  Feel free to make something called a Polybook here in the community and post your progress there!

LOL Silentheart000... I don't want to make to community laugh to hard at my Polybook. LOL. Like I said earlier, I have 0 experience. :)  

If people are laughing at your work, then ignore them.  They're not helping you to improve.  I know it's difficult to overcome your personal feelings towards your work.  "Oh, this is shit.  No one will like this.  This is the worst thing I've ever seen."  I've gone through the same thought lines.  But, how will you know if you're improving if you never show your work?  My experience with this community is great; no one has laughed at what I've made, I've never laughed at someone else's "bad work."  We're all learning here, we're all sharing tips and tricks to help everyone become better.  If someone is laughing and chastising you hard for your shitty work, they don't have your best interests at heart, and that's to learn something new with your son.  I will always give constructive criticism and resources to help you improve if you choose to create a Polybook.  Your choice, of course.

Oke now.. John.. get going.. we want screenshots, we want screenshots!

LOL working on it now :) Time to get busy