Hopefully someone can answer some questions for me and I thought a thread on the subject may be a good idea for all us newbies who have done Jays awesome tutorials as they left me asking more questions about blender so here goes..



1.. So far from what I have seen.. Is it best to use the one block to make models ? Or If you were making a castle for example....Would you use 4 blocks for the turrets and 4 blocks for the walls ? or is the golden rule to use one block all the way if possible



2..I have seen WIP models that have been partially textured....Big Ones !!. Does this mean you unwrap and bake as you go and have many textures on separate sheets...or are they all somehow put on one sheet at the end.



This is my first little list before I try something of my own

No doubt I will have more but any hints or tips please post..

Not sure if I'm fully qualified to answer this as I'm a beginner to blender.. but anyway here goes!



It doesn't matter how many blocks you use. Remember you can always join objects together using "control j" in object mode with all objects selected in object mode together.



One of the things I struggled with when I textured my castle was the UV being out of scale with the model and that caused stretching. To avoid this press "control a" in object mode and select scale from the list. Scale on x,y,z axis must always be 1 or your objects texture will look skewed. This prevents it looking ugly and warped.



If your interested in making a castle like I did look at this tutorial. It goes step by step and is aimed at beginners. http://gryllus.net/Blender/PDFTutorials/02ACastleModeling_iTunesU/CastleModeling.pdf



I still haven't perfected texturing mine yet, but I'm very close. Just a couple of seams to sort out because I was lazy and used the smart uv unwrap. I have to go back and mark the seams and do it manually. When I've textured the castle I'll post it up here for everyone as long and it looks good enough!



Sorry if my answear isn't what you hoped for.. just trying my best to say something helpful!

@Duncan Peck..

Actually mate it was your castle that made me think of a good example....Im sure an expert could somehow sculpt it all from one block but for me the obvious would be to use individual blocks for such a task which you have confirmed is ok

I think I am going to start making models in blender and save texturing for another day. I will just import them into FPSC as boring objects so I can place them and get an idea of what I want. I am getting nowhere trying to texture objects but not so bad at making the object itself..(not great but not horrible).

@BarZaTTacKS



If you are struggling with texturing, have a look at my tutorial series.



Watch video 4 in particular.



Hope it helps.



Cheers



Jay.

@Jay



For me its the texturing that I need to get to grips with as well..

I have used your tutorials and completed my barrier fully textured etc..



Your texture tutorial is awesome but im trying to go that stage further. For example I am seeing

@ synchromesh



When I texture a model it is usually complete or close to it. When I post pics the other parts are just hidden. I start by sorting the different parts into similar groups. For example on the trailer pic above: I mapped all the frame par

If you're looking for Blender tutorials, YouTube is indispensable. I have a few favorites: Andrew Price, BornCG, and BlenderForNoobs. Between them, you should be able to do anything you need. I haven't seen them all, but I've been trying and failing at Blender for over ten years, and since Reloaded has come about, I've promised myself I would learn it, vs. all the other programs I've spent mucho $ for. (Truespace, Milkshape, UltimateUnwrap3D, Poser 4, 5, and 6, Bryce, Carrara, Daz Studio(when it wasn't free), and all the assets associated with any of them, and there are many others) I'm getting used to it thanks to those tut's and finally feel pretty confident in using it! Happy modeling!

Andrew Price is great for tutorials. However, I learnt the most from Jonathan Williamson.



His style of tutorial is pretty fast and does rely on your having a good working knowledge of the shortcut keys in order to keep up, but, he is fantastic for some more advanced tutorials.



I had this image as my wallpaper for a long time; this might work for you as well?



I must add, this keyboard reference is designed for 2.48, so, there will be subtle differences and it will be missing a few.



Cheers



Jay.

unfamilia, I had a similar reference sheet that I had printed out but I gave it to my girlfriend's son as he is getting into all this at 11 years old! Setting it as wallpaper is a brilliant idea. It is now my new wallpaper! Thanks!