I have never made a sophisticated model before. I posted about making a beanie babie in another thread, and I think I will hand animate it, like buddy suggested. How should I go about modeling one? We are going to use a panda bear shape. Should I use one piece and move vertices or attach spheres together? I remember seeing a tutorial where they made a bear by creating a bone rigging and then applying some modifier to add some “meat” to it. I have no clue what to do and any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would suggest dance lessons, plastic surgery, and really big hair. :]
Ignore the above post, he has a sticky shift key 
Disclaimer - This advice will not help
The best way to model anything is whatever works best for you.
Obviously some techniques are better for certain types of shapes. For curvy type shapes I am a fan of drawing parts with splines and then make the whole thing a nurbs surface.
One very nice technique some people swear by is called box modeling. You start with a box and extrude faces from that. (try looking in the tutorials under character, if I recall they show you how to box model a person) I personally use this method only I use poly instead of mesh. I like the cutting features of poly and the ability to bridge from one edge to another.
Which brings me to another way, spline cages. Essentially what you are doing is a topographical map of the object. The is the technique I think 3d scanners use.
Whatever method you choose it is often helpful to have reference images on planes in the background. The tutorial shows you how to do this. If not google box modeling. If that doesn’t work pm me and I will try to find the tutorial I am talking about.
See, I told you it wouldn’t be helpful.
PS - Dance lessons might not be a bad idea, they help hand eye coordination, math ability. They may also help you become more social and overall a better person. I suggest them for everyone.
Warning: I’m a noob.
Usually I use box modeling, but for this one I don’t think that’s such a great idea, I say this because I find making cylindrical objects like arms, or imperfect spheres like heads is the best aplication for Box Modeling.
I don’t know how to uses spline cages, so I don’t ask.
I would suggest you make 2 spheres for a head and body, 4 cylinders for legs and arms, work with them a bit then fuse them all together, and make them a editable poly… then get to work with the ears, eyes, ect.
Ok bud I will help you out. Through a series of steps and guides.
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Change the graphics mode to Direct-x in 3ds max. It handles actively rendering the textures in the view ports better.
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Create to planes that will serve as to show the picture of the object you are trying to create. One plane will show a front view. The other will show the side. Apply the pictures to them through a material and check mark the show in view port box. Right click on the planes and go to properties, uncheck the renderable box and then uncheck the show frozen in gray box. Now check freeze box and click ok. These are your guides.
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Create a plane in the middle of the head. Apply edit poly then symmetry modifier. Now in the edit poly modifier choose the segment option and now you can hold shift and drag out polys where you need them. If you need to slice polygons you will want to right click and choose the cut tool. Don’t use the slice plane or quick slice.
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Create the basic shape of the head and body. Then refine it from there. You will want to create it in a series of passes. It’s all a matter of moving vertices and creating polys where you need them.
Rules to go by when modeling
- Your faces should only have four sides. NEVER FIVE. And rarely three.
- You need at least 3 slices at the joints in order for you mesh to move correctly.
- Mesh smooth will NOT fix your model. Do not rely on it. You must make a model that looks good in the view port that you can skin correctly. Then you can apply a sub-division.
- No 1,000,000 poly models. My ted boardmen model ran around 1,000 polys.
Make your model and post it here when you are done complete with a wire frame render and we will tell you what you need to fix. When you are ready for rigging I will tell you the procedure I go through to rig a character.