3D Modeling: An Introduction

3D Modeling is the process of modeling three-dimensional models for use in animation. (It can also include, but usually doesn't include, the process of rendering, which is posing and taking a picture or video of 3D models.)

There are three ways to "make" a 3D model of your own, but only one of them involves actually making it. Just so that I cover all the bases, I'll talk briefly about the other two ways, but most of my posts about 3D modeling will focus on actual modeling.

(Please note that my area of expertise is in MikuMikuDance models. Although I'm sure it's possible to recolor and/or piece-together other kinds of models, I have no experience in the subject.)

A Honey the Cat recolor...

1. Recolor an existing model. Not recommended. This often produces less-than-satisfactory results (unless your character is a recolor of a character in the first place, which is also not recommended.) Also, unless you have the permission of the modeler to recolor his or her model, then recoloring their model is generally considered the same as stealing, especially if you don't credit the modeler. The only good thing about recoloring models is that it's easy. It can be a good way to learn about changing the colors and reflections of models, and is suitable for beginners, but it is not a good long-term solution for modeling. 
1. I used to recolor models myself, when I was just a beginner. To the right, you can see one of my first recolors, a recolor of the Honey the Cat model (by dec0rum on deviantART) into my Sonic FC, Wildcat. It looks terrible to me now, lol.
2. Piece together a model from parts. Recommended for those who don't have the skills/budget to create models from scratch. The way it works is that you download parts made for modeling from the internet, or rip them off of existing characters, then piece together and color the parts to match your character. If you're good at this, you can make really nice models using the piece-together method. The only downsides are that, since you're using other people's material, you need to get permission from all the people who made those parts before you post anything involving your model online. You also cannot ethically sell models using such parts without the permission of the part-makers.



Elizabeth the Hedgehog is (C) PrincessElizabeth013

1. I also used the piece-together method to make models for a long time. Here is a model I made for a (now infamous) deviantART user, using the piece-together method. (In order to make selling this model ethical, I only used parts from a user who gave permission for people to do anything with them. I made the rest of the parts myself.)

 The final way, and (in my opinion) the best way to make a model, is to model it from scratch in a modeling program.

I use Metasequoia to model with, but some other modeling programs to check out are:

1. Blender (and it's free!)
2. Maya 3D

If you are more interested in MMD modeling with the first or second methods, I recommend looking around for tutorials. http://learnmmd.com/ has some tutorials for recoloring models, and http://mmd-mall.deviantart.com/ is a good place to find free, high-quality MMD parts.

If you want to make other types of models, I'm afraid I can't help you there, at least not right now. However, I'm sure there are good tutorials out there, take a look around the internet!

But, if you want to create MMD models from scratch, like me, stick around! I'll be writing more blog posts in the future that talk about how to create a model in Metasequoia, then rig it in PMDE so it can be used for animation and posing.

(Author's Note: It should be noted that Metasequoia can export models into a variety of formats, so it may be possible to create models in Meta for use in Blender, Maya 3D, or other software. However, I don't know which programs will or won't accept those formats, and rigging such formats is beyond my abilities.)