Hahaha! Funny post, Berry! 😀
Rustyrockets, first you need to learn the tools you’ll need to use to make a mod. But don’t think of it as a mod at this point. It may be the driving force that you some day want to have this or that model in your favorite game, but it shouldn’t be what’s stopping you when you don’t get it to look or work the way you want.
Making 3D models is hard. No matter how experienced you are, you’ll spend a lot of time creating things with different techniques, and sometimes you’ll make parts, or even the whole model over and over again until you’re happy with it.
I’ve always modeled buildings and simple things for motion graphics, so starting on the train I’m working on now proved to be wild idea, because I’ve never made anything even close to any kind of vehicle or with a streamlined shape like a train needs.
So I plonked down a bit of cash for a set of tutorials and started learning about the technique I thought would benefit me the most for modeling trains and cars. It took me almost a week of trial and error before I got something I thought was good enough to continue with and flesh out details and make textures.
First things first:Â
Find the 3D app you want to learn. A lot of the Autodesk apps (3Ds Max, Maya, Softimage) have free student versions.
LightWave 3D which I use have a student price, as well as a 30 day trial.
Modo is also a great tool for vehicle modeling, and looks bit like a hybrid between LightWave and Maya if you ask me.
Check tutorials on YouTube and see which one you like the most. All the apps can do the same things basically, but there’s slightly different roads to get there.
All the above are commercial apps that cost a bit. The Autodesk apps are rather expensive compared to LightWave and Modo.
I only know one free app; Blender. I don’t know how to use it, nor can I tell you where to find tutorials. Personally I don’t get how people make things with it. :p
You’ll need to practice a lot. Over and over again. Start with basic shapes. Make a chair. Make a toy car. Make whatever you see around you in the room or on your way to school. Practice!
Tutorials are great too, to learn how different tools operate and what they’re ment for.
When you’ve made a model you’re happy with you can look into UV mapping (or UV unwrap – it’s basically the same thing, just different terminology). And then texturing using Photoshop or similar tools.
All this is just for the 3D model itself. The next part is making it work with the game. And I’m not the one to talk about that just yet. But from what I’ve seen, it would include a bit of file conversion and scripting in LUA. I’m sure we’ll know more about this once the game is released.
If you’re making the mod for yourself and you’re happy with it, why not share it? Even if it’s only for a couple of friends. Only you as the creator of the mod will decide whether it’ll be released to anyone else.
If I could make money on making mods, I would, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work with the EULA of the game. :p
