My first Model

Well, your diving into the deep end without knowing how to swim.
You can only learn to walk by crawling first.
Would you expect to figure out a complex mathical problem, without knowing first the formula?
Ok, ok, enough stupid cliches!
I would recommend that you start with some tutorials first, then using what you have learnt, go at it on your own. www.3dtotal.com have some good ones, like the joan of arc one....

nice start, im on the same level as you man (see thread entitled work in progress) so i wont crit but just remember, practice makes lemon smoothys!!!.... and uhh better work to...... wonder what a lemon smoothy would taste like....

Thanx for feed back guys. But i was wondering how to make the limbs i've tried to create the arms by the same method (Start with square, cut,bevel,extrude etc) but it just doesn't seem to work.

id do cylinders if i were you, there allready rounded and its looked better for me when ive had one or two goes

How many segments and stuff do i use.

However many you need/want. Start off with fewer and and you can always ad in more edge loops later. It is always easier to add in detail than what it is to remove it.

Just give it a few tries. It doesn't matter if they all look like crap, no one even has to see them. At this stage it is more important to try to learn how to do things rather than get too rapped up in how the final product will look. Experiment and just keep on trying :)

Are you starting with sketches first? Do some sketches beforehand so you know what you're aiming for. You can then set yourself a poly count maybe around 3000. Even then, if you go over the count, you might start to see bits where you could cut down. I know I often tend to waste polys in the arms.

But if you're just beginning, don't worry too much about wasting polygons - just try and make it look right.

I agree and disagree with the replies here. :)

I recommend you make a very low poly man.. About 800 polies at most..

Why so low?

Muscles and other details are very nice, but it's best to concentrate on the form - proportions and shape of the model.
Some people would say I'm silly forcing you to consider poly limits when you're starting out, but I believe it's the best way to learn to model characters.

For my first character, I tried to go crazy with detail, your picture reminded me alot of it. I think after a couple of days of really being stuck, and having this mesh that had far too many polies for me to keep track of, I ended up deleting, and starting it over.

Remember.. When you're taking baby steps, keep it simple.. It's been said many times by the other replyers - but it's very true.. My replacement characters' torso was about 30 polies - little more than a segmented box shaped to work. Just enough to deform well when animated.

Just finish that first boxy character - get the proportions right, then, when you're more confident, you can slowly up the level of detail..

I would also like to point out that I had been using max for about 4 months before we (my class) even attempted to make a character. Even then, with our familiarity of the program, results were far from perfect.

good point - maybe make guns and shit for a while. make houses and whatever, then move onto characters once youve got he hang of the modelling tools.

I disagree with making basic things first, especially guns and cars, god Ive never seen someone go from a gun modeller to a character modeller.
While its a good idea to concentrate on form and deformation and not little details it doesn't really help you get better at modelling with various counts, more just optimising.

I'd say go for a 2500 - 3000 poly model and then build that same model as say a 500 and a 1500 version, these are all skills you will need in the industry.
Then unwrap and texture all 3, animate them if you can this will help you learn where to put the polys for deformation.

The problem with concentrating on one style is that alot of people seem to scared to break into new areas of modelling once they become comfortable with one and if you can only model 500 poly characters it limits your potential employability.

Just for reference if I have to build a 2500 - 3000 poly model and I have an actual model sheet I generally start with a 10-12 sided cylinder with 8-10 height segments for torsos and a 6-8 sided cylinder with 8-10 height segments for arms and legs.

Cut the torso cylinder in half if its a symetrical model and mirror and instance of it, when you work on one side the other will update accordingly.

Use the underlying model sheet as a guide for where to place the major shapes for the silhouette and just push and pull vertices until it starts taking shape.

As for heads well they are different everytime for me, generall just start with one plane and edge extrude it int othe right shape, more sculpting than modelling I guess.

A really old way of modelling but its still my favourite and the fastest for me.
Oh and use edit poly not edit mesh, its has much better tools, especially ring, loop and edge/face constraint.

Hope that helps Bullet. [:)]