Modeling and Texturing - looking for tutorial

[Rohan Kurup]

Does anyone know of a tutorial for making models and textures for Empire at War? I would really like to learn how to do so.

[Corey]

First thing would be making sure you can get a copy of 3DS MAx 6,7,8 or 9. They've stopped selling the program, and it's the only thing that can rig for EaW.

[Rohan Kurup]

Wait, I can't use blender?

[Slornie]

You can model in Blender but to get that finished model into EAW it needs to be rigged in 3DS Max and then exported using a special converter for the games' proprietary model format.

[Helix345]

out of curiosity, where would one find a copy of 3ds max

[Rohan Kurup]

so how do you actually nake the models. I want to learn but have no experience

[Corey]

Do you know which program you intend to use? New versions of Maya and Max (which can't rig for EaW, but the process is similar) are available for anyone with a student email on the Autodesk website, and there's also things like Wings 3D and Blender which are a lot more basic freeware. Wings is probably the simplest, but Maya/Max are industry standard and offer more tools once you know how to take advantage of them.

[rohan kurup]

3ds max if I can find it.
otherwise blender

[Corey]

Do you have any sort of student email?

[rohan kurup]

i am a high school student

[Corey]

In that case, Blender is probably a good option for now. There's some similarity to 3DS Max/Maya there, and a ton of tutorials: https://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

The biggest thing I'd say is start small. Pick something pretty simple, give yourself a limit on the number of polygons to use (say, 1500) and try to make a fighter.

[rohan kurup]

Thanks!
If I make anything good, I might put it here

[Rohan Kurup]

I just realized that my brother has a college email, and he is willing to let me use it to sign up for 3ds max. Where could I find tutorials for that?

[Corey]

This is a good place to start even though it's not necessarily program specific, as far as topology goes:

http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/how-create-low-poly-3d-models-121310159

The 3DS Max userguide has some decent tutorials, too.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-C99064E7-7E14-4F98-9A41-796BFC5613EF

[Rohan Kurup]

Which would you recommend as a starting point, Blender or 3Ds max?

[Corey]

If you're able to, it's better to start with 3DS Max