Modeling with Littlefox

Modeling with Littlefox is an instructional modeling tutorial for beginners, focused on creating an actual product-quality dress step by step instead of only explaining tools in theory.

"How do you do that?"
"Where can I learn how to do that?"
"Can you teach me?"

I see these emails pretty often, and I try to help where I can, but teaching the fundamentals of modeling in a new program to a total newbie is a bit more than a one-email job. So I've created this series to help jump-start people into content creation.

With the first eBook, I walked you through making a model completely from scratch.

This installment sees you through UV mapping and setting up the model's grouping and material zones in preparation for the next eBook, which will cover rigging for Poser and DS.

In this product, you'll find a great many things that set it apart from other tutorials on the market.

I don't assume you know how to model.

Now, it would be nice if you had the bare basics of what I'm talking about in the form of polygons, edges, and meshes, but beyond that, if you don't know how to use any modeling software, that's fine. I'm starting everyone from square one, so don't be intimidated!

I don't focus on tools, I focus on getting the project going.

The tutorial starts off with a brief "Hi", followed by a quick talk on the layout of the user interface, how to use the viewport, and how to select things. I'm not going to be teaching you here what every tool does, just where to find things later when they're being discussed.

I do teach tools and technique in action, not in theory.

We go straight into actual modeling!

Not what every dial does and why.

Wow, unique concept, huh?

Well, if you've ever picked up a book with the intention of learning how to model, you know that it actually is quite a unique concept. Most how-to-model books are set up like an encyclopedia of modeling tools with "let's practice" projects spiced throughout that are about as useful as a trap door on a canoe. By the time you get through the first couple of chapters, you've given up the cause as hopeless and gone on about your life. Yes, I hate those books too!

I do teach you by doing an actual product-quality dress!

We start off modeling a dress, not just an eh, it'll work as a dress if you squint and use your imagination...

No, I mean a dress!

One of my dresses.

No teapots, no crummy dinosaurs, no cheap sheath dresses with no details. A dress that I would more than willingly put my name on and make into a product, but instead I'm going to teach you how to make it.

I do go step-by-step. Every single one of them!

If we use a tool, it's right there what I used and how to get at it.

Not every tool in the book, just the ones you need. And I'm not going to skip steps and just assume you can keep up. Nope, we're going start to finish. Every step I do is illustrated and explained so that you can do it yourself!

And if you get sick and tired of me telling you that you hit "B" to do a bevel here, and you find yourself skipping ahead because I'm stating the obvious, then good! That means you've learned it! I've accomplished my mission and you're soaring on your own!

For the rest of us, there is nothing more annoying than a tutorial that dumps the tools in your lap and says have fun. We'll have a tiny bit of that in the sculpting section, but that's it. Everything else, I promise, no flying solo till you're ready!