1. Realise the amount of time it takes to create an object - the police building has taken me a long time to figure out how to create and, put together in the best way. Keeping in mind that when using group it can cause many issues with animation at a later date. The grouping also removes the ability to make changes to the original drawing.
2. Save your work on very regular basis, there is nothing more upsetting than have to redo all the work again - and it always seems to happen when its going well not when you've done it all wrong and need it to go back.
3. Try to find the right shape to start working with in the beginning - if I had used a cone shape for my building I would have already created that perspective feel with my shape.
4. Try to include as much details as possible on the models before using the symmetry - mirror option.
5. Use a blue print model on a plane to create realistic dimensions to the 3D creations, I used a similar shape just to get the dimensions right then carried on adding to make my own version of the spinner vehicle. Change the image to transparent.
6. View your creations in various different view ports : left, right, top, bottom and perspective, manipulating in just one view can create all sorts of weird contortions that you may not be able to remove, meaning you will need to start again.
7. Use the render window to view your work, it makes you feel great when it finally comes together.
8. SAVE YOUR WORK (again)
Some tools that I used to manipulate the models include:
Extrude and Bevel : which I used to on the spinner and building to extend out parts of the original shape to give more details
Connect : to allow me to create extra lines to create smaller faces this gave the extra lighting effects to the body of the spinner.
Swiftloop : I used this to create particular edges/vertices on the spinner when creating the first basic shape, I could then select the vertices on that cut to shape to the reference plates.
Chamfer : This was used on the neon lights to give rounded edges, this works better when there are more vertices to work with.
Smooth : I used this to smooth face selections on the spinner vehicle this worked better for me than the meshsmooth (that smoothed the whole vehicle which was not the result I wanted).
Attach : attaching two shapes together.
Lens Effect - Glow - for my neon lights to give a lighting effect coming from the shape.
UVW Map - This was used to fit the bitmap to a small selection of faces on the spinner.
Symmetry - mirror - to give a mirrored image of the my complete model allowing me to have both halves showing the same details.
Clone - Instance : This copying method allowed to me to continue making changes to the oringinal model and this being replicated in the clones.
There are many more tools that I could use in the future now that I feel more confident in creating and manipulating shapes into models.
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