Totally new, suggestions :)

[ala]

Hello everyone!!

I am doing a degree in computer science, and I am doing a course in which I need to choose any multimedia related field, and do a project on. It is suggested to do something unknown before, in order to gain new skills.


I was thinking of doing a static CG image, with high quality texture. Whether it be a human model, or object, or landscape, didn't decide yet before I'm sure of feasibility of such project.

Is it possible to achieve that, starting with no knowledge, in around 8 weeks?

Also, what software would you recommend, and which tutorials/books ? (there are alot of graphics and software-related books in the library).

Thank you!

[zartoop]

8 weeks and no knowledge = stay away from anything remotely human

[ala]

Originally Posted by zartoop

8 weeks and no knowledge = stay away from anything remotely human

thank you for your reply

It doesn't have to be a perfect CGI, as the lecturer specifically asked the students to do something in an area they never ventured into before, and he mentioned he doesnt expect perfect results, although he does expect good results or at least ones with noticeable effort put into.

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I love those game art commercials where they say, if you can playa game, you can make a game.

They leave out the part where if you have no artistic ability, then you will suck at art related activities.

[Buzzy]

Originally Posted by ala

I am doing a degree in computer science

So, you're a programmer? Why not do something a bit more "programmery"? Like, for example, make a simple realtime 3d viewer. Making CG is usually a very art-intensive process, so if you're not an artist, it might be a bit much.

Or, if you really want to dig into the nitty-gritty of CG, perhaps try PovRay. It is a completely programmable 3d renderer. So, you can literally write a script that defines a bunch of shapes, lights, colors, and textures...and then PovRay will create a rendered image from it. I haven't touched it in ages, but its actually where I got my first taste of CG, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Its great because you really get to learn the absolute basic nuts and bolts of CG.

All of that said, if you still really want to get into the art of CG, by all means go ahead. Its a great field. 8 weeks is enough to get decent results as long as you put your mind to it (and as long as you understand that you will likely make 30 different scenes before you get one that is half decent)

The 2 most common software packages are Maya and 3dsMax, both of which are exorbitantly expensive (several thousands of dollars each). They both can be downloaded as a free demo, but I don't think the demos last for 8 weeks. More like 4 weeks. There are other programs out there, like zBrush or Blender. Blender is pretty much exclusively a modelling program, and zBrush is a monster of a package to learn, so I'd stay away from that.

Any route you take, expect ALOT of blood, sweat, and tears because learning CG is frustrating, to say the least.

[poopipe]

thinking about it - a few more free viewport shaders for max wouldn't hurt and that sounds like a programmery project to me

[Mr. Bluesummers-3DT]

+1 To poopipe's suggestion!! It's awesome on like...a couple of levels.

[TekNeek]

If you start now, you possibly could (if you stay indoors in front of the computer for those 8 weeks that is).

Get 3DS Max, do the joan of Arc tutorial. make your own modelling sheet and use Joan of Arc as refferance, make a simple scene for your character to stand in and there you go.

It won't be easy nor simple though.

[Perversonality]

There are plenty of Direct3D tutorials out there that tell you how to set up a 3d model for interactive viewing, so you could do something like that. Even if you only used simple models to represent objects then it would be a reasonably cool project and wouldn't take too long to put together. That would keep in line with programming, though if your skills are more pascal than C++/C# then you might want to look at something else. XNA would be another option as it's really quick and easy to create a 3d model viewer app and you can hype it as something that could be used on an XBox 360 as well as a PC