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Not for any project or anything, but i'm looking for those grassroots, self-taught guys that have like 3DS, or Maya, or something to that extent installed on their PC and are actively creating models and animations of robots and etc. (Yes, i've recently found an inspiration in the latest Transformers movie to get off my arse and start actually self teaching myself some of this technology.)

Reason, im looking for them is that im an avid collector of "how-to" videos and software and i was kinda wondering if there is a particular set of videos/media/content i should be looking into to start off doing my own stuff.

I'm a bit of a newbie. I don't even have my own set of brushes created in photoshop yet! But i'm gettin there, or planning on getting there. MY hobby in high school was comic illustrations and as i got older, i kinda set this hobby on the way way back burner to pursue a mechanical career, then an IT career. Back in 2003 or so, when Unreal Tournament 2003 came out, there was a hardcore community of 3DS and Maya modelers out there that were doing mods for the game, so i ended up downloading TONS of 'how to' videos and software, but never did much with it afterwards.

So hints, pointers, sites...anything for an aspiring newbie to learn from that isn't 'master-class' level is what i'm looking for.

And of course, any feedback here is highly highly appreciated.

I was very much a self-taught 3D artist in high school in Maya.
I went out and bought a few books - "The Art of Maya" and "Maya: Secrets of the Pros" - at the time, and that got me slowly but surely started (it was a bit advanced for me at that age/education level, but it slowly came to me).

Now that I'm in college, I'm also using Max, and the most useful book I've ever had on any 3D program has been the 3DS Max Bible. Not only does it cover every feature of the program, but includes tutorials that step you through everything, and even has a starter tutorial as soon as you open the book to get you to jump in and get familiar with the program and have fun starting off.

If you're not looking to purchase anything, I'm afraid I'm not much help on finding tuts, as I generally only look for very specific tutorials occassionally, as I need them (and generally my answers are in the aforementioned books, or other peeps in the 3D field).
There is a very good tutorial on building human characters from scratch in 3D, but the link to it is on my other computer (if it's still on there...I might've deleted now that I've read it so many times). Anyway, it's a "Joan of Arc" character tutorial originally written by a French-speaking man. I'll post it as soon as I can find it.

Really, I'm not certain any tutorials can teach you the basics, beyond what the programs provide you (the starter videos, and then the help section also has tutorials ), and most of the self-taught artists I know just jumped in like I did when I was in high school [and even most of my college work is: read about it, if it's in the text, and then figure out how to do it/include it in your work]...So my suggestion is actually coming up with something you want to do - and then put all your energy into doing that. As you go through you'll learn better techniques and such - my first model was horrendous, looking back on it, but I learned so much from it...

Here he is : o)

I think the 3DS Bible was the only thing im missing. I have access to quite a bit of material and software, i just didn't know where to start, other than photoshop.

I think im gonna continue out with doing my photoshop learning and then begin into 3DS, then Maya.

Thanks for the info though. I knew of that Bible, as my buddy got it and tried getting started, but he struggled with it. It doesn't look too difficult to me, its just understand the interface and how it all works and how i can apply it.

Best wishes.

I don't really use much photoshop myself, beyond the bare minimum needs for my modeling and 2D art/paintings. XP