[Arthur_the_great]

At first freespace modding then ill move on to other stuff

[Rodo]

Last time I tested .dae export/import was working ok in blender 2.5 (.7?) again.

It had some differences with the 2.49 version, but it was working.

[Arthur_the_great]

does any body know if 2.6 exports collada and if so does it work with pofcs???

[Black Wolf]

Not sure he you still want advice, but I'll troy this in anyway - he you want to mod for FS, take the time to learn not just modelling, but UVingand texturing as well. There would probably be hundreds of topics on HLP alone with people posting pics of their new, awesome models that never go any further because texturers and UVers willing to work on other people's models are all but nonexistant, outside of campaign staff.

And it doesn't have to be as daunting as it seems. Others have said to start with small things, and I agree - missile's, cargo containers and things of that nature are not only easy to model, but also easy to UV and texture.

As for your recent question, I'm afraid I have no idea, as I'm not a blender user. Sorry

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I'll endorse what Black Wolf said - many many models here get stuck in the needs-to-be-textured phase.

As for Blender 2.6, alas, it appears COLLADA export is still not working like it should...

[Arthur_the_great]

thanks
which tutorials should i start with?

[MarkN]

FSFs tutorial (in the sticky posts at the top of the Freespace modding board, is quite useful. Apart from that I used http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro as a reference.

One other piece of advice. Do a lot of drawings (both of general shapes and of detail areas). Finding something doesn't work when you have drawn it is a lot less wasted work than finding it doesn't work after taking some time to make it in 3-d.

[rhettro]

I concur, FSF tutorial is great! On the subject of Blender and Collada, I'm starting to get the impression that PCS needs to be more robust about the files it accepts. I was able to load Collada models exported from Blender 2.6 and Rhino 5 to load in SketchUp and vice versa, but PCS was a no go.

[Unknown Target]

Try as many different modeling programs as you can before choosing one to start learning with.

[Akalabeth Angel]

If you have any drawing skills, draw the ship on paper, preferablly a side view and a top down view and then in the modelling program just trace those drawings off. That can help a lot and can prevent you from floundering about deciding what shape you want to go with. It is also I believe how the professional modellers do it