[Arthur_the_great]

I have decided that I want to start making models any advice is welcome

I have access to Truespace 7.61 but the machine I have the most access to is a mac so blender is probaly what I'll be using

[Droid803]

don't use true****.
best advice.

[Arthur_the_great]

It's that bad?

[Droid803]

It's obsolete in my books.

[Rodo]

patience, lot's of patience... making good models is one of the hardest things to do in the modding side.

an advise of someone that had a hard time getting along with it, start with something really REALLY small, finish it and then move to the next level, this way you might avoid frustration.

[Rampage]

Best advice I can give you is for you to browse around the forum.

R

[rhettro]

It's that bad?

Yes, Truespace is quite obsolete.  A better option would be to download the latest version of Blender for free at www.blender.org .  That would be how I would start.  From there do some basic modeling tutorials and come back.

[Hellstryker]

Blender and 3ds max are good, though I tend to lean more towards the latter myself. I find the interface easier to get around.

[BlasterNT]

Starting up takes a really long time--heck, it took me a year to get myself to pull out the reference drawings and build something worthy for ingame , but once you've got something that looks good ingame, it's a huge motivator.  So start with something small and simple, but that still looks good, to figure out the import process (definitely stick with blender, though make sure that you export from 2.4) and rigging, and for a piece of inspiration. 

As a rule, don't get the supernewest 3d modelling programs for working with fsopen--both the latest version of Blender and 3DSmax have borked collada export. 

[Arthur_the_great]

which version should i get then?

[BlasterNT]

Blender 2.49 is the latest version that has working DAE export

[Arthur_the_great]

Thanks

[Arthur_the_great]

so what should i start with and where do i find them??

EDIT
Oops i thought i wrote "tutorials" after "what" sorry

[esarai]

Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender.  Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface.  As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it. 

When you have a program, you should just start experimenting with building shapes.  Get a feel for how things work.  And also, read the tutorials for whatever program you choose.  They will help more than you can imagine. 

And never be afraid to ask for help.  Modeling for FS is a very finicky process, and a lot of things can (and usually do) go wrong.  But the payoff is immensely rewarding. 

The most important thing, however, is to have fun while modeling. 

[Rodo]

Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender.  Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface.  As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it. 

I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.

And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.

[Arthur_the_great]

Opps i forgot to the "tutrials" in there sorry for the confusion

[Enioch]

Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender.  Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface.  As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it. 

I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.

And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.

Can you export to Collada 1.4.0 with Blender 2.5? I haven't tried the 2.5 version, but as far as I know the old 1.4.0 plugin works only in 2.4, and PCS2 doesn't import newer (read: 1.4.1 and up) formats.

Get me a 1.4.0 plugin for Blender 2.5 and I'll switch in a heartbeat.

OP: don't touch TS with a ten-foot-pole. You're still young and pure - don't go down the dark path, because forever will it dominate your destiny.

[headdie]

Arthur, go to www.blender.org to get Blender.  Notice, however, that the most recent version is a 2.5x, and to be quite frank they changed so many things in there that a lot of blender users here aren't too familiar with its interface.  As such, I highly recommend acquiring the 2.49 build, as it is stable and a lot of people are familiar with it. 

I would suggest the complete opposite.
We don't need a lot of people gifted in the use of unsupported programs!, 2.5 is not that hard to learn, there are tuts out there.
Get blender 2.5 and search "blender 2.5 tutorial" in youtube, that should get you started with the first simple meshes.
After that's done, and you want to export something to FS, you'll need to go to the wiki and search for "blender to pof convertion", or something like that.. try to find your way through that guide.

And AGAIN, don't try to make complicated things at first, if you want to see something imported right away to FS, I would suggest you to grab a single cube, UV it, texture it and then export it following that wiki article, then try with something harder.

I belive 2.49 is still oficially supported atm.  and like Enioch says, the collada exporter for 2.5 is broken and as i have said in other threads the fixed one for 2.49 dont work with 2.5x

[Water]

Best to learn 2.5 - modeling, uv-ing materials and hierarchy. The interface is different enough that you will need to relearn where stuff lives and other differences. Make your life easy and start with 2.5

Once you can do that in 2.5 then you can use 2.49b to export the model. Take you all of a minute to do and no need to learn an obsolete interface.

[Flipside]

If you are planning to do modelling for Freespace modding, or any other game for that matter, you should first really focus on getting something simple working before you start on any kind of grand project. This is because different games have different 'rules' about how they will accept their models, and there's nothing worse spending hours, or even days, working on something only to find it refuses to work in game