Wanting to begin modeling/animating for the source engine Thread

Like the title says, I want to try my hand at making custom models/animations for the source engine but in reality I have no idea where to get started. So.. Does anyone have any guides or tips that they can share with me to get me off my feet?
Oh and Also, i'm interested in using Maya more then 3Ds max.

Cheers!

Can you model/animate already or what? I would asume you cant?
Do you plan on having these newly animated modles in the game or do you plan on handing them off to some1 experienced with the editor?

If your a begginer the best thing to do is get some already made models and animations and tweak them which can be tough to find. Follow some tutorials on youtube or goodle some tutorials. I have only used 3d max to animate. It was ok following along the tutorials it comes with. I loved messiah for animations. It plugs into 3dmax so you can use them at the same time to animate. Very neat stuff.
If you are going to be using the source engine. You should mess around with the editor. Learn to make a small box level and place some things down. Make some simple animation on your simple custom model and drop it in so you can test it. Go from there to make more detialed stuff. Agian there is plenty of youtube tutorials on it.

well i know how to animate, but i was interesting on giving modeling a shot. Doy ou have any rescourcess (guides, ect) for making custom models and importing them into games or anything?

You should check out the XSI mod tool. I don't have the link with me, but it's what I have my 3d modeller / concept artist using for my mod. It's designed for the source engine, so theres quite alot of compatability there. As far as freeware goes, i know that it's currently the only thing able to export for source excluding a plugin for blender, which is currently in beta. Digging around, you should be able to find it on this website. There are loads of tutorials for everything on the internet, doing some basic searching for the xsi mod tool tutorials should be a nice start.

I'm not sure about 3ds max or maya and how well they support the source engine, but because its professional software I'd imagine its possible. However, if you're specifically looking for some tutorials and such, I'm of no use there. Should be pretty simple to find it though.

try 3dbuzz.com thats pretty snazzy for tutorials and such, or come over to the 1985 forums, we can help you out there.

It's designed for the source engine

Other way around

Tutorials are a pain to find now that Autodesk killed of the XSI Community forums and tried to move everything to the horribly cluttered and unorganized 'Autodesk Area'. They're uploading the video tutorials there, but so far do not seem to be arranged by category or difficulty as they once were.

Developer.valvesoftware.com <-- Best place to start

mmh thanks hendrix, i'll be sure to take a look later today

I'll also take a look at the valvesoftware.com link

Edited by: Ryswick17

no no no! make sure you actually click Cryrid's link! It actually takes you to the main page for the valve developer community. Not just valvesoftware.com

Noesis Interactive can show you the way! ha ha. In addition to our tutorial products we have a bunch of free tutorials to get you started and you should be able to find them in many different places just be googling "Noesis Interactive"

Noesisinteractive.com

There are third party Source engine exporter plugins for Max and Maya but the best way to go is definitely with the Softimage Mod Tool. It's free and is designed to work with the Source engine, they actually included the Source engine tools in the Mod Tool 6 and provide the addon on their site to download. The newest version of the Mod Tool (ver. 7) includes a bunch of Noesis tutorials that explain the software and even show how to model, rig, and animate a character.

You can download the latest version of the Mod Tool here: Softimage.com

and the ValveSource addon can be downloaded here: Softimage.com

Hope this helps and good luck with the modding!

Hey thanks alot

I'll be sure to check out the dev cmonnuty on valvesoftware.com and noesisinteractive.

What is Softimage like?

You know when man first went into space and looked back at Earth, seeing it for the very first time in all it's beauty. It's like that.

lol, okay then

Sorry I couldn't be more descriptive. I'm not sure how to describe it, or what kind of a description you were even looking for ^_^

You'll have to download it and see for your self!