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Looking for the right 3D modelling program.
donhonk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm looking to learn up some 3D soon, I have been trying out 3DS Max 2009... So far its been a good experience. Until I find out all the tutorials on the site are for the new 2010 one, and I hear nothing but bad things about Max on forums / youtube. As far as I know there are 2 more, XSI and Maya. Both I know close to nothing about, but I'm looking for one that would export stuff easily into Source or Unreal Engine 3 for I'd like to be making some game assets. Which one should I trial and invest in?
donhonk on
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http://www.blender.org/
I can't claim you can use it for UT mapping, but it's my current favorite 3D program. I bought 3dmax as a student about 8 years ago, figuring if I made the investment I would be able to use it for years. Fat fucking chance, it was obsolete by the time the next version came out and I was unwilling to pay their retarded prices more than once.
So, Blender it is. It's like the Linux of modelling programs.. painful at first, but give it a chance and it'll treat you right.
I'm sure there are exporters for UT and Source, but the downside with them will be they'll be made by amateurs and could be hard to use, buggy, incomplete, or a mixture of all three.
3ds max is a pretty common program to be used at game companies, the modding community etc. If you end up at a game company that uses 3ds max you will just have to use it anyway.
I think pretty much any industry standard tool is like this, whether in 3D, post, animation, sound, graphic design, or web development. Flash, for instance -- It's amazingly powerful and a lot of the old annoyances have been fixed in later versions, but as with any software package with that much freedom, there are always going to be some things that just end up difficult to do with it.
I don't really know a lot about the current state of the 3D industry, but my guess is that Max is a well-rounded package that has some long-standing quirks, just like all the other packages.
PSN:RevDrGalactus/NN:RevDrGalactus/Steam
I don't think that makes 3dmax a poor choice, just that if you're looking to get a foot in the door at a game company, Maya might be better.
(You can 3D model, Animate, Use the Physics Engine, Use the Game engine, And use the Sculpt mode, as well as video and audio sequencing all in the same program)
I use it to make HL2 props, never made anything for UT but I'm sure there is an exporter out there. As far as exporters being buggy... some are but they get fixed pretty quick. There is a big community out there using blender many being very experienced programmers, so there is a big library of neat little scripts that can do all sorts of things.
Also, it's free.
Honestly, 3D modeling is 3D modeling. If you're just wanting to make models there is no reason not to use Blender. If you're wanting to learn the work flow of a certain program used in the industry then by all means get that program.
Blender Links:
http://www.blenderunderground.com - Fantastic site for learning Blender. Very thorough video tutorials on the interface and introduction to modeling. Watch these and you'll be zooming around Blender like you know what you're doing in no time (you'll also begin to see the genius of the interface design, may seem like a small thing but a clunky interface (XSI!) makes modeling a chore.
http://blenderartists.org - Great sight with an awesome forum full of threads with helpful info.
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
I do film vfx / motion graphics (design) and use mostly MODO and Cinema 4D only. used to use max and maya but I became frustrated with their ancient UI's and the ancient methods of doing things.
I got to say though- if it wasnt for learning Max inside and out- i would never been able to pick up the easier to use programs or be able to trouble shoot / do difficult things because of the inner workings of 3d understanding I gained from learning one of the big 3.
Once you know the complicated ones you can move on really let your work shine. SILO is also a really good app but its strictly for modelling and nothing else.
I've only ever done 3d modelling and rendering as a hobby over the years, but I have to really emphasize that the interface to Blender is like having somebody drill a hole in your head through your eyeballs. It is horrendously awful torture.
I miss Imagine, that was such a funky ray tracer. What's Cinema 4D like these days? I've not used it in years.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Thinking Particles are easy.
Mograph module makes me very happy.
Having everything integrated with After Effects makes me even happier. So happy that I now have tunnel vision.
None of which really matters. If you're learning 3D modeling, you want to worry about techniques and theory, not user interface. Any decent package - including Max and Maya - will teach you about things like sculpting polys, extrusions, hand-manipulation of vertices, morphs, yadda yadda yadda. And once you learn how to model stuff, you can transfer your skill set to any modeling package out there with little difficulty. If your goal is to get into professional modeling, don't sweat what package you use too much. A company that uses Maya is not likely to pass over an excellent 3D artist who uses Max. Because that excellent artist can probably pick up Maya to the point where he's producing usable artwork inside a couple weeks.
Ray tracing is pretty difficult, in terms of setting up lighting, but even that can be learned through lots of trial and error. Creating and animating an organic creature is what separates the men from the boys.
I could be wrong. Animation was never my strong suit, except animation of rigid bodies (machines, etc), and that's pretty damned trivial in comparison.
A bone is a bone no matter what its name is. I used to do a fair amount of character rigging- but since found my niche in the more abstract parts of animation.
Most of the big packages do it all the same but get from point a to point b a tiny bit differently. mathematically they are all based on the same ideas and theories that cross all forms of 3d. This will be changing in the next few years though as some pretty amazing research is being done on how to deform meshes in different ways with different algorthims. But thats a whole different topic.
Most rigging is the same in packages. the big ones like xsi, max, maya, lightwave are all better at it than the lower end ones though. there is some pretty complicated math under the hood and the tools are just better developed in them.
that being said though you wont find anything all that different from package to package though. they all use the same methods. bones, weight maps, vertex maps, morphs, rotation wiring, ect... some apps just have better tools.
youd be right though. a fair amount of apps dont even offer you bones. Modo for example can animate, but has no bone system.
as for the technical things- the tools are slightly different but all do the same things. its harder to be an expert across all the platforms in this field though as opposed to being able to model like a super star in max, maya and xsi. but if you learn how to be good in one, you are not going to have too much trouble figuring out how to do it in others. just got to do a bit more under the hood digging.
edit: the big challenge in animating and rigging comes in being efficient. each app has different languages. max has max script, maya has yada, xsi has yada ect... thats where it starts to get difficult.
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I liken it to driving a car. Once you learn how to drive your own car, learning to drive someone else's is much easier. You just have to figure out where your familiar controls such as the turn signals are and maybe learn some new idiosyncrasies regarding how to start the engine or use the gear selector.
Massive suck.