The reason why this was not posted in the 3DWS board is plainly blankly simply due to the amount of views to this board in contrast, and this is open to the thoughts and opinions of designers, texture drawer's, and users other level building programs as well.
For quite some time, I've been going back and forth into 3DWS and trying to replicate what marvelous work I've seen on these forums. Sometimes, it ended up alright. Other times, it just turned out absolutely positively undoubtedly terrible.
The quality work I'm aiming for has the level design genius and texture work quality of games such as Half Life 2. It's quite an endeavor, but I'm willing to give it my all.
I'm averagely average with texturing in Adobe PhotoShop CS2, and my skills with 3DWS have no current rank. Yes, I'm that
bad.
Here is an example of my best work.
Pitiful.
As you can see, highly mediocre. The design is awful. It doesn't even make sense. I would never be accepted as an architect. The textures, only one or two are my own work. I'd much rather be able to draw out whatever fit best in my opinion or wisdom.
The entire building doesn't even look like a building. Most areas are just plain, blank walls. The staircase is impossible, the windows are just holes, blah blah blah. You get my point, I totally suck.
Well, the point of this post, finally, is for everyone on these forums who knows what they're doing to submit links, tutorials, tips, concepts, sketches, instructions, ANYTHING to help out those like me who know absolutely crap about what they are doing.
I'll compile all the links and info here. Most info will be something I'll just put into a word document and attach a zip link to download.
I'm hoping to learn step by step; drawing the early building concepts, building the model in 3DWS or whatever, picking out and creating fitting textures, and then lighting.
I'm most certainly asking for a lot. I beg for anyone to start helping openly. Please, just submit links to anything or anything at all. Every little bit counts.
Apart from the database of links and info, there's one thing I would like to ask specifically for anyone who thinks they've got the smarts for this stuff. Please, do the simplest building if you may, but make a small, understandable tutorial for each of those steps I have listed above.
I swear, I feel like I'm just begging selfishly, but I am keeping this an open thread, with all the information submitted held in this first post, and once I get the smarts, I'll even start creating series and series of tutorials and tips on my own.
-=Video Tutorials=-
------------JoshK's Beginner 3DWS Tutorial1------------------------
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the keyboard to control the most important features of 3DWS.
LINK:
Right Click, Save as to download
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------------JoshK's Beginner 3DWS Tutorial2------------------------
This tutorial instructs how to create a room scene with textured ceiling, walls, and floor. It also gives a basic preview of how to use the lighting capabilities in 3DWS.
LINK:
Right Click, Save as to download
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-=Useful Tips and Rules=-
------------Form Follows Function----------------------------------
FFF- Form follows function. This is a simple, yet very useful rule that everyone should keep in mind while drawing out the concepts for a building, or actually building it. For example, there's a major flaw seen in my screenshots at the top of this first post. The awning is disproportional. It's form in of an incorrect size, so it can't really serve it's function, or purpose, which is to shade from the sun, and block rain away from the building. Form Follows Function. Keep in mind that everything you build with form, should be able to follow it's function.
(Contributed by: BenDStraw)
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------------Tile Texture Realism-----------------------------------
Before I actually thought about what this tip could mean, I would just place sloppy tiled textured around my map, and I didn't notice something rather big. There were cutoffs on the tiles that didn't even make sense! This effects the realism of your building bigtime. Having half a tile, where every other tile is whole, makes it look cheap and shabby. So always keep Tile Texture Realism in mind; scale out the texture and scroll it out accordingly in 3DWS so there are no cutoffs or anything like so.
(Contributed by: BenDStraw)
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Thanks.
Xeno.
Sig by BiggAdd.