In this exercise, you will gain basic understanding of modeling fundamentals. There are different tutorials and exercise submission requirements for three experience levels. Choose the experience level that matches your own.

Learning Resources

Level 1: Novice Students

Blender Reference Sheet: Blender Hotkeys

Youtube - Modeling advice: Good Edge Flow

Lynda - Watch up to Chapter 3: Blender Essentials

Lynda - Watch Chapter 3 - Creating furniture videos 1 and 2: Modeling the Eames Chair

Modeling reference: Speed modeling a chair

Level 2: Intermediate Students

Lynda - Watch up to Chapter 6: Maya Essentials

Lynda.com - Advanced Modeling

Level 3: Experienced Students

Lynda.com - ZBrush Essential Training (Lessons 1- 7)
Lynda.com - Sculpting a Creature with ZBrush (Lessons 1 - 3)

Reference Websites

Youtube: Good Edge Flow

Random Objects Generator

Steps to Completion

Choose a either level 1, level 2, or level 3 to complete based on your prior experience with 3D tools. If you are a novice, choose Level 1. If you have some experience, choose Level 2. If you are very experienced with 3D tools, choose Level 3.

Level 1:

1. Watch tutorials from Lynda on introduction to modeling.
2. Create a project folder. Save all files to this folder.
3. Model the Kem Weber Airline Chair with your newly learned modeling skills with polygons. (Be careful not to accidentally create nurbs primitives when modeling)
   • Skills to practice include:
   • ploygonal edge flow
   • extruding polygon faces
   • inserting edge loops
   • moveing, rotating, and scaling vertecies, edges, and faces
   • mirroring and duplicating geometry
4. Clean up your edge flow.
5. Save the 3D scene file as modeling-YOURNAME in the project folder.
6. Compress the project folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it modeling-YOURNAME-L1.zip.
7. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
8. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.

Level 2:

1. Watch Lynda tutorials for advanced modeling.
2. Create a project folder. Save all assets to the project folder.
3. Obtain three randomly generated objects from this website. Include a screenshot of the website objects in your project folder called objects-modeling-YOURNAME.jpg (or .png)
4. Create a new file for each object and save in the project folder.
   Naming:
   obj1-modeling-YOURNAME
   obj2-modeling-YOURNAME
   obj3-modeling-YOURNAME
5. Create one polygonal model for each scene file from your set of randomly generated objects in Step 2. (You should be making three objects since you’ve created three scenes.)
6. Capture the gesture of the objects with as little detail as needed to describe the shape.
   • Do not “smooth” the objects.
   • Focus on maintaining quads and good edgeflow. See example image of a crowbar below:
     
7. Compress the project folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it modeling-YOURNAME-L2.zip.
8. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
9. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.

Level 3:

1. Watch the tutorials from Lynda on modeling with ZBrush.
2. Using the techniques learned in the Digital Creature Creation tutorials, create a Creature with quite large ears.
3. Your ZBrush model should be of similar refinement to the model in Sculpting a Creature with ZBrush, by the end of Lesson 3.
4. Take a screenshot of your model and rename the image as modeling-YOURNAME.png.
5. Save your image in a project folder modeling-YOURNAME-L3.
6. Compress the folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it modeling-YOURNAME-L3.zip.
7. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
8. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.