Thanks everyone.
The total accumulated years I've practiced at 3D character modeling? 0.16
You read that right. From the total time I spent modeling the first baby back in 2010 to the recent revisited character model -- that's about two months of accumulated tinkering.
How long have I been using T-Splines? Joined the fold in summer of 2010. 'Bout 22 months as of this post.
What other 3D programs had I been exposed to prior to this? Aside from starting with a bare version of Rhino 4 a few years prior to T-Splines? NONE. Previous formal training? None. Any prior human characters modeled before this? None.
For many of you prospective users, this shows how graspable T-Splines is. Matt and crew have done a stellar job at doing all they can in offering up free tutorials, free webinars, and encouragement in this forum. Show users how to use your product and users will purchase and USE the product. Gee, what a novel idea.
Other 3D products like Luxology's modo? Pay up for their video training. Even McNeel doesn't do such a great job at strengthening its user base by thorough free learning materials. Rhino's free training manuals are OK if a bit dry and their silently sterile video clips through RhinoTV are no better than the manual!
Don't misunderstand, as in all things, not everyone's going to be proficient character modelers just by touching T-Splines. In my opinion, you're still going to need to bring some existing skills to the table. I may be very rusty since my semester in life-drawing class, but I think I still have a critical eye in judging proportions, character lines, surface shading, basic anatomy, etc. T-Splines will simply let you extend those things into the 3D realm in one of the most approachable ways possible. I fully expect there to be MANY others reading this right now that can & will far surpass me in character modeling.
Even as recent as 2010, I was still apprehensive about tackling any 3D project. Could I do it? Will it turn out? Will I hit a solid wall halfway stumping me? After going through every T-Splines video I could lay my eyeballs on (this site, YouTube, Vimeo, etc) I could feel my confidence taking root throughout the following year. Now approaching my 2nd year of use and practice, T-Splines is my trusted tool that delivers for me. Bring it on.
There's no ONE webinar that's the watershed moment. If you're astute, they should ALL have something to teach. Some great. Some small. Along the way, you'll learn some fantastic tips, some new concepts, some idiosyncracies, and ways to get AROUND them. If I had the time (and with a newborn, I don't) I would probably suggest a view order for the various videos and webinars. If you'd like to follow my footsteps, watch them in the chronological order they were released and you should get most of the way there. Just because a video isn't focused on characters doesn't mean it has nothing to teach you. Kyle's webinars on car modeling has a lot of solid stuff that directly applied to character modeling.
Learn to know and predict what certain tools and actions will do to a model before you even touch the mouse. Learn when it's most appropriate to select/move/scale things based on grabbing vertices, splines, or faces. Learn how to leverage Rhino's own bend and shear tools on T-Spline vertices. Practice dealing with star-points and T-junctions so you know how far you can comfortably take them. Practice pre-planning when laying out structures so that you don't end up attempting to weld one surface edge containing 5 segments to another edge with 47 segments! Learn to search the forum for questions that have already been answered ad-nauseum rather than posting "What do red dots mean?" for the umpteenth time. Learn what causes bad/risky/problematic geometry. Learn to appreciate box mode AND smooth mode and how each benefits the modeling process. Consider that T-Splines allows multiple ways to get to get to similar topologies. Go out of your way to practice all those possible ways.
Once you know those T-Splines specifics, venture out like I did and look at tutorials like the one I pointed out from Andrew Klein:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34393Andrew's videos should be used as the basic workflow, but tempered with best-practice "rules" of T-Splines.
by CarterTG » Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:31 pm 
