Blender tutorials (game scenery specific)?

[Iros]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, so mods, please move if necessary...

I am looking at Blender, and there are plenty of tutorials online showing the basics of course - but do the forum members have any tutorials they would recommend specifically about how to create scenery (i.e. to render the sort of things used for FF7 backgrounds?)

A lot of the blender advice on the forum is about how to import/export the FF7 models of course, which isn't what I need. I will look through tutorials online but if anybody has any pointers on where to start, that would be very useful

(Also I really do want a tutorial - not just "here is how to do a specific thing", but "here is a good way to actually learn your way around the software so you go on and do your own things afterwards" if that makes sense!)

[Kaldarasha]

Sadly as it is, but you have to look the basic tutorial first. Blender is very potent so it has a large field of specializations.
If you want to create new renderer, then is my first advice to learn to create things in the Cycles renderer mode. It is quite different to handle as the internal render (specially the way material and textures are handled). I think that you should start with creating some resources (like chairs, tins, plants, etc) to get familiar with it. After you get routine with creating certain things you could start with the first level you want to remodel.
I think Mayomaster would be glad to get some help on this front and he probably will show you one or two tricks. 

I personally would prefer a manual re-mastering of the scenes with Photoshop, but this is also way too much for only a few persons and of course do look the result of a 3D renderer better. But I think to re-master the images by hand is easier to learn, so it would be more likely that people could help with that.

[Mayo Master]

Well... Sorry, I should probably have replied this post earlier!

I guess I would have to guide you there, since I must be the guy who made the largest amount of FF7 field scenes with Blender. Currently, it's at the heart of the Team Avalanche project, so you're welcome to check the corresponding subforum if you haven't yet.
Generally, if someone wishes to make field scenes for FF7 using Blender, while being new to Blender, here's what I suggest: first, I recommend the user to get familiar with very basic controls in Blender, as some may not be very intuitive. For the most basic stuff, I recommend the user to browse this wikibook. I also recommend the user to browse some of Andrew Price's tutorials at blenderguru.com. Once the user has a grasp of the basic tools, he/she can take on the creation of a FF7 field.
There is a step by step procedure to do it, and generally I was walking newbies through it, mostly with PMs. I haven't made a thread fully dedicated to specifying every single aspect of the procedure (I can do it though, when I have time). The procedure can be summarized as follows: first, the user needs to prep the scene by retrieving the walkmesh and the camera data from the field file, using SpooX's Shinratool. Then, the original image is to be placed as background, and the scene needs to be rescaled (by taking large objects as a reference for dimensions). Then 3d modelling, texturing and lighting can begin, and obviously that's the core of the work. Finally, once the scene is finalized, some work is necessary to get the proper render layers, which would be combined with the tool Palmer in order to reconstruct the field file.
As a sidenote, I would like to mention that I have already made a "screening" of the field scenes to evaluate which are the easiest to do, so that newbies would tackle them. For a newbie, it is often best to first try a small, simple indoor scene. One has to learn how to walk before learning how to run.
For more details, I invite you to ask your questions on the Team Avalanche subforum or PM me.

[Tsuna]

I know this has been left alone for a long time but is there an update to this? i would love to be able to help with field scenes. Speed up the whole game development