I'm sure this has been asked before, I looked around the forum and couldn't find anything on it, so I'll go ahead and ask again.

I have ideas for models that I would like to create, and have photoshop... but don't know what I need to be able to do so?

I think I read before that people often use a full 3D graphics package to create the finished model, and then some other software to pull the model apart into a flat sheet ready for you to add glue tabs.

With a very low budget, but a decent PC, can anyone suggest what software I could pick up for this? I've tried sketching lines in photoshop but it really doesn't work out that well.

Arabin

It's a HUGE topic that could span at least a couple years worth of material (And the cult of WWG must keep some of our "precious" secrets ). It really depends on what medium you are most comfortable with and what the desired effect is. For some the best solution might be to take a more hands-on approach and physically draw and build their own creations to later be scanned and tweaked digitally.

I myself don't really have one technique. I bounce around between conceptual design on paper, to Photoshop and once in awhile in my fav 3-D modeller (for perspective reference mostly). EVERYTHING starts on paper with good conceptual design and I think that's true for all the model designers here. As part of your conceptual design process surround yourself with good reference material! The best advice I can give you though is to wrap your brain around Photoshop. I've been using Photoshop for years now and I'm still learning new tricks that keep the program fresh. I was a graphic artist before all of this but once I got into Photoshop I found myself hanging up my pencils for a stylus. There are some amazing online tutorials out there for PS which are a good place to start but I would strongly suggest taking a PS course if you can afford it.

If you're looking for a "quick and dirty" approach to building models and texturing, I'm afraid your models will look well...quick and dirty. There's no substitute for patience and knowledge

Thanks Denny. It's useful to know that the pros use paper for some of the design at least. I'll start scribbling and see if I can get things to fit together. I'm interested in textures at this stage, I just want to figure out fitting pieces together and getting them to measure up correctly.

It is amazing how complicated things get so quickly. You start out with a box, put a couple of angles on it, and it's suddenly a mathmatical nightmare of angles and glue tabs. Perhaps I should start with making the original preview for MA... j/k.

Arabin

If you want to get into designing cardstock models from scratch, I can strongly reccomend you try something extremely simply and fairly boxy to start with.

The first model I designed myself was a little outhouse: just a box with a slanted roof and a door, plus a bench on the inside. I don't have enough confidence to do textures from scratch, but I'm pretty good at manipulating existing ones in The Gimp (a free PS lokalike for Linux), so I downloaded some free wood textures and decorated the outhouse inside and out.

It's just a 1x1.5" model, but it turned out to be a great learning experience. Plus it's a great addition to any village scene.

Give it a try! Maybe you'd like to replicate Aleph13's . Or how about a phone booth, or a dumspter, or a new type of cargo container fro FL... Plenty of small boxy models that would make a great prop and an excellent modeling excercise.

I, on the other hand, started with a fairly complex shape for my first outing. Just crazy, I guess.

If you're interested, I talked about it .

He's back!

So Peter, how is that Himmelveil set coming anyways?

No pressure, just curious...

The white card construction prototype is done, most of the textures are done ... just a few more props ... believe it or not, we are getting there ...

Thanks for the comments and advice. I hadn't seen the mail box or urinal before but they are both very cool. I would love to see Conaills outhouse sometime though...

Who knows how long it might take me before I have something to show, but I'll keep tweaking things.

My main problem is that whenever I get into a hobby or project, I want to super-serve it... but unfortunately there just aren't enough hours in the day. I usually end up dabbling in lots of things. Hopefully I'll manage to follow through this time around

Arabin

I use Microsoft Word 97, the one that came with my last computer.

Why MS Word? It has really good clip-art/vector graphics-making drawing tools, and shapes can be specified in units of measurement. Say I want to make a 1 inch x 1 inch x 1 inch cube... I just make six 1"x1" squares and "snap" them together at the edges. Then I make 1" wide tabs out of the trapezoid tool and rotate and place them.

BAM! You got a pattern for a cubey block, and in less than a minute when you get good at the procedure.

Also, here is an expert tip for ya: If you want your models to be free of skewing, and perfectly-sized as intended on paper/screen, recess the tabs into the shape they fold from 1 line width. This way, the thickness of the tab is compensated for, and the finished construct has the dimensions and angles that you planned for. You can make a cube that is 2 inch" on all sides, and have another cube that is 1.96" on all sides, and it will fit perfectly inside the larger cube -- if you recess your tabs.

If you didn't get MS Word on your computer, there is always , an open-source, powerful alternative to Adobe Illustrator (though you will need Illustrator to create low KB PDF files from the Inkscape files).

I would reccomend using a vector program to lay out the patterns for the actual shapes of your 3d models, select a good resolution for print, scale them up and then lay on the texturing in a pixel graphics program like Photohop or Paint Shop Pro.


All of my models so far were made 100% in MS Word, and then turned into PDF via Adobe Acrobat.



(May, June, July 2004)
(May, June, 2005)
(April 2005)

Some paper models are easy to design, and take only a week. Some are hideously complex or involve new things I need to try, and I've spent 2-3 weeks on construction and art. That's like 2-4 hours a day... all spare time. Ever since WWG, I've been a paper model freak!

I have gained tremendous inspiration from Denny and Paul and this . My advice is to definitley buy several WWG sets, build 'em, and try to think how you would have gone about making them all.

I haven't heard of WIGU before, but I love that Sheriffs Pony model. Great job.

I don't have a good track record with doing things in Word though. Typically Word does whatever it wants, and I try to fit what I want into that. Most impressive that you managed to build these paper models from there though.

Arabin