Lightwave 3D is my choice for mdl creation. If you own a copy of Lightwave, you may already know how to use it well and may not need this part of the tutorial, but there's probably some people out there who have no idea how to make a decent model for Quake with Lightwave. That's what I'm here for. Hopefully this tutorial will get you on your way to making new baddies for Quake in no time.
Setting up Modeler
First of all, start Modeler. I know this may seem tough, but I'm sure you can handle it.
The default preview for Modeler is "none". Press "d" to go to the display options. Choose "OpenGL Flat Shaded" as the preview type and click "OK".
Now we gotta make sure the data options are set correctly. Press "o" to bring up the data options. Make sure the polygons are one sided quadrangles. You may also want to set the undo levels a little higher; I have mine set to 10 ( I think the default is 3). I know what you're thinkin..."but Quake models have to be triangles!" Well that's true, we'll triple the surface after the model is complete. For this exercise, working with quadrangles will be easier.
Creating the torso
Under the object menu, click on "disc". Press "n" to bring up the numeric settings. Set the number of sides to 6. The segments to 1, bottom to 0, and top to 50 cm. X,Y,and Z Center should all be 0. X and Y radii should be 50 cm, and Z radii should be 30 cm. The Y axis should be highlited.
Highlight "Point" at the bottom of the screen to go into point editing mode. Click "Modify" at the top of the screen, and choose "Move". In the Face view, move the bottom-left point along the X axis to -80 cm, and move it along the Y axis to 40 cm. If you want to make sure you have it exact, click "Display" at the top of the screen and choose "info" From here you can manually enter the values. Now move the bottom-right point to 80 cm along the X axis, and 40 cm along the Y axis. For both of these points, the Z axis should remain 0. The easiest way to deselect the left point so you can select the right one is to make sure you are still in point editing mode (click on "Point" again just to be sure) then click in the empty grey area on the left of the screen. This deselects all points (works with polygons too).
Now highlight "Polygon" at the bottom of the screen. Select the two shoulder polygons, as shown in the picture below. Click on "Polygon" at the top of the screen, and then click "triple". This makes the shoulders look better.
Deselect all the polygons, and select the bottom polygon on the cube. We don't like this polygon, so press the delete key to get rid of it.
Click on "Polygon" at the top of the screen. Highlight "Points" at the top-left of the screen (not point editing). In the Face view, click at -25 along the X axis. In the Left view, Click at 0 along both the Y and Z axis. Now click "Make" at the top-left of the screen. Congratulations, you just made a point. Add another one at 25 along the X axis, and 0 along the Y and Z axis.
Now go into point editing mode. Select three points, as shown in the picture below. Hold down shift to add more points to the selection. Make sure you have only the three points shown in the picture; to make sure you only have three points selected, look in the little black box at the bottom of the screen, to the right of "Volume". The number shown is the number of points (or polygons) selected. Click "Polygon" at the top of the screen, and click "Make". The makes a polygon out of the three points we have selected. Look at it in the preview, make sure the polygon is facing out. If it's not, click "Flip" and that should take care of it. Make sure you only flip the new polygon; to do this, select it before you flip it, otherwise you'll flip all the polygons. Make three more polygons; two for each shoulder. When you finish, the shoulders should be solid on the bottom. Check your preview to be sure. Now make the bottom of the torso solid the same way you did the bottom of the shoulders.
Select the four polygons you just made. Now click "Merge". This should merge the polygons into two polygons instead of four. Deselect one of the polygons, it doesn't matter wich one. Now click on "Multiply" at the top of the screen. Click on "Extrude". We want to extrude about -25 cm along the Y axis. Move the points around so that the shoulder resembles the picture below. Sometimes when you extrude a polygon, the polygons on the new extrusions are facing the wrong way. This is easy to spot in your preview. Select the flipped polygons, then click "Polygon" at the top of the screen, and the last button on the list at the left side of the screen is "Flip". Geuss what it does. After you flip them, the preview should look better.
Now is as good a time as ever to get rid of some points. Select all the points in the shoulder you just made, and then click "Tools" at the top of the screen. Then click "Merge". You should have eliminated some extra points that could cause problems later on down the road. Now, remember that polygon you selected, then extruded? Well, select it again, and delete it. It's not going to be seen, so it isn't a good idea to keep it in there. If you delete the right polygon, you should see no change at all in the preview. If you delete the wrong one, click "undo" and try again.
Now select the polygons in the shoulder, and triple them all, except for the very bottom one; it'll make life easier if we keep it a quadrangle for now. Sometimes when you triple the surface, it doesn't come out right, so you may have to do it manually. That's what I did. You may have to merge and delete some polygons, then manually turn them into triangles. If you do it like that, you have more control over what the final product will look like, and it's good practice. Try a few different ways, and be sure to check the preview from all angles to make sure it looks right. When you finish, repeat the process for the other shoulder. You can see how I did it in the picture below. When you finished the shoulders, you're probably looking at the preview thinkng that the chest is way too skinny. You're right. Grab all the points on one side of the body and move it out, then do the same to the other side of the body. It doesn't matter if you get it exactly like mine, just make sure it looks good to you.
Select the bottom polygon (or polygons, depending on how you made it) of the chest. Merge them into one polygon if you have more than one. You should have a rectangle with six points. Extrude this polygon about -20 cm along the Y axis. Move the outer two points on the front of the chest in towards the center, and move the middle four points outwards, as shown in the picture below.
Now extrude the bottom polygon again, then delete it since we won't be seeing it anymore. Remember to get rid of extra points. Take a look at the side view of the model, it looks pretty lame. Move some of the points out to give it a more pleasing shape. Take a look at what I did if you aren't sure what to do.
