TIP: Super tips to save a modellers life

[cdxbow]

I was going to do ten tips, but I very quickly got to 10 and thought, who wants' to be limited to 10, its so 1990's. Nonetheless I have stayed with tradition and kept it at 10. Some are general, some specific. Tips 5 to 7 could literally save you hundreds of hours, because thats what they cost me. So here goes....

General
1. Modelling very much follows the 80/20 rule. The last 20% takes at least 80% of your time, and sometimes it feels like it's closer to 95/5
2. Starting to learn modelling with Blender is like giving a hand grenade to a baby, the results are seldom pleasant. Since 2.5 the GUI of Blender is better now, but it is still dangerous in inexperienced hands.
3. Check every step of your tool chain to make sure it works, and I mean it really works. Import/Export can be complex, difficult and error prone, often it depends on legacy 3rd party tools, that may not work with your exact version. So check, check and check.
4. Read the Cube Modelling Guide http://sauerbraten.org/docs/models.html, then you will find you will have to reread it frequently if you are making progress. It is your best friend.

Player models in Red eclipse & mekArcade
5. No spaces in your bone names. If you do the model will distort with animations, but will load OK as a static model. Applies to smd and md5. Haven't 'tested' with iqm. This one cost me a lot of time.
6. Keep player mesh names unique. This refers to the mesh name used within the mesh file not the mesh file itself. If not then problems with animations of one model may affect them all.
7. MD3 are unsuitable for complex player models, performance starts to die once you get into hundreds of frames. Use a skeletal format and harness the GPU
8. MD5 versions number shall always be 10, no greater, no lesser. If your exporter puts out a different number, make it 10

When dealing with artists in a commercial fashion
9. Don't pay them out until the job is properly done.
10. Make sure you get the source model, even if it is in a format you can't handle properly. Get all the animations and exports.

Number 11. This is possibly the most important. If your model is not working as expected, reboot your system. The Cube2 engine does no housework with the trash, so dud model data stays in memory and can affect your models behavoir.

[Julius]

Blender really isn't as bad anymore as you might think given what you read on the Internets about it. The problem is that (like any complex full 3D suite) 75% of it is literally of no use what so ever if you are making game models. A nice feature are the selectable interface options for animating etc. though, which hide unnecessary GUI elements for that specific task.
However for beginners I highly recommend Wingd3D as a modeling application ( www.wings3d.com ). It is a very strong dedicated modeling application that has an very easy to understand interface that is largely mouse driven and the tool tips at the bottom always show the available options to click. Disadvantage is that is doesn't support animating, but for that you can import the mesh into Blender once you have learned how to model and texture.

Other tips? Import your reference drawings as image planes into your 3D application to have them always in view, and if they are front/back etc. you can also "trace" their shapes by overlaying your mesh in x,y,z wireframe view.

Advanced tip: Modern 3D modelers allow you to bake features onto the texture. So if you are bad at drawing textures, rendering AO shadows and high-poly modeled features onto your texture is very easy and looks better than anything I could ever draw.