3D modeling software

verpakeyes

I am feeling ambitious today. Far too ambitious for my own good probably, and certainly more ambition than I could possibly use up in a single day.

And because I am a huge geek, with way to much time on my hands because of a fairly light course load this semester, this ambition doesn't have to be focussed on schoolwork. Instead I have chosen that it is about time I actually learn to make some 3D models. My overall goal for learning this skill would be so that I could create some models to import into games and create mods.

I told you it got to ambitious for one day.

I am primarily interested in making starships so I don't believe animation is going to be as important as if I was making a person, or any object with more moving parts.

What program do I use though? Maya, 3ds max, Mudbox? Some of these and more are on my school computers, and others I can get a pretty sweet student discount on at the campus bookstore.


So here is a short list of what I want to be able to do.


Make models that look pretty badass (this will require some texturing I imagine)

Export these models in a wide array of formats so that I can try to get them into a format different game engines will recognize(Maya seems to be missing this functionality!!, but I may just be not seeing it)

Possible animation for down the road (Battle Damage and the like)



So HA what is the best 3D software that fits my needs?

Ponge

Well you could try Blender, it's free and it's ammasssing quite a following in the games community these days. Its maybe a bit harder to learn than Max or Maya though.

I use Max daily at my work and while I do enjoy using it, sometimes i wish I'd picked up Maya instead. I'd say Max is slightly easier to use, but Maya is a lot more powerful when doing organic modelling and has much better UVW Unwrapping tools (for texturing). Either of them have 30 day trial downloads and plenty of tutorials on things like building spaceships. So really, either is a good option.

Reznik

Modeling and animation: 3DS Max or Maya
Super high-poly sculpting (for making normal maps, or just super pretty shit you have no intention of animating): ZBrush, Mudbox (I think, this one I've never used)

Blender is a free modeling program, but a few people in my course (we all use 3DS Max 2009) found Blender to suck. I haven't used it but I imagine it's not so bad if you start with it and then move up to Max or Maya.

I haven't used Maya before but I'm planning to learn it over the summer. I'm more familiar with 3DS Max. It was completely alien at first but after getting used to the interface I find it super easy to use for both modeling and animation.

As far as texturing goes, you absolutely need textures for your models to look awesome. This is where I have a problem since I never know when to stop adding details in the model and leave it up to the textures. It'll come with practice I s'pose.

In any case, I can heartily recommend Max for your modeling and animation needs. Just be super sure you want to stick with it because that is a lot of cash to drop on a program.

NotYou

Blender is a very good program, and people use it to make stuff that's just as good as what people make in other programs. For example, this was made in blender: http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/trailer-page/

However, the user interface is a bit confusing and hard to get used to.

Still, it's free so I'd go with that.

valeryce

MAX, from what I hear, is easier to use than Maya (I'm going to try and learn maya over the summer, I've been using MAX for about a year). If you want to just do modeling, I'd start out with Max and follow some tutorials. This one is kinda old (It uses an older version of max and uses editable meshes rather than polys) but it's still good for the process and how to lay down good edge flow:

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.asp

Also, check out the area for lots of tasty tutorials on just about anything owned by autodesk:

http://area.autodesk.com/

If you are going to be doing high poly sculpting, I'd reccomend Mudbox for a first time user. Mudbox is very much a pick up and use software as opposed to zbrush; zbrush has a lot of great tools but it's UI is rather confusing at first. Also, if you have the cash and want to unwrap things quickly get yourself a copy of UV layout. It is unwrapping software that makes unwraping a million times easier.

This is of course assuming that your school has Max and Mudbox. If it doesn't I'd recommend blender. Blender has a lot of great tools for being a free 3D package.

TychoCelchuuu

3dsmax and Maya, since they are both on your school's computers, are your best bet. Maya has a free trial edition that never runs out of time that you can install on your computer, so that's a good choice. Either one you learn will be just as helpful; I personally greatly prefer Maya, some people like max more. They both export to everything (including to each other, so anything you can't export from max you can just import into Maya and vice versa) so you might as well flip a coin or choose whatever one of your friends knows how to use or whatever. Or use Maya! It's sweeeeet.

If you want to learn to texture you'll need to know how to use Photoshop too, but beyond that you sort of need to know how to draw. So you should probably also learn to draw.

narv107

Maya has a free trial edition that never runs out of time that you can install on your computer, so that's a good choice

This is no longer true. Maya 2009 only has a 30 day trial and they've removed the free edition of 8.5

Dog

Max and Maya are equally difficult to use. It's sort of funny. Freshman year of college we all learned Max, and then moved over to Maya for animation in the fall of sophmore year. Everyone complained about how hard Maya was (or how much it sucked compared to Max etc.). The class below me started on Maya and moved over to Max and fielded the same complaints. They are both superb programs and have their own unique pros and cons.

Personally, I enjoy working with Maya a lot more. There are less visible menus and animations are a bit easier to control (again, opinion).

Hypatia

A couple other ones you could look into are Rhino which usually has some really really nice student discounts and can be easier to pick up if you're experienced with vector based programs, or Alias (expensive) which is harder to get into but can be modded for working really really quickly.

Rye

To export things in Maya to different formats requires that you turn on and load the exporter. Maya can export to many of the same formats as Max, it just requires a little digging - nothing extreme though.

Max and Maya are both great for games honestly. Many studios use Maya only. I think Insomniac Games is one. Blizzard uses a combination of Maya and Max.

Maya is hard to start with if you have the clear intention of doing games, though. Maya has weird things like making the base unit centimeters instead of meters (Max), as well as Z facing up, instead of Y facing up (Max). Once you understand a lot of the basics of 3d modeling, it will be easy to compensate for these things and be comfortable digging through the menus, but until then, Max works pretty standard out of the box for games. Some engines even support Biped skeletons without questions.

TychoCelchuuu

Hypatia wrote: »

A couple other ones you could look into are Rhino which usually has some really really nice student discounts and can be easier to pick up if you're experienced with vector based programs, or Alias (expensive) which is harder to get into but can be modded for working really really quickly.

Ignore this dude if you want to work on games; Rhino won't let you make game models and Alias has been replaced by Maya.

Hypatia

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Hypatia wrote: »

A couple other ones you could look into are Rhino which usually has some really really nice student discounts and can be easier to pick up if you're experienced with vector based programs, or Alias (expensive) which is harder to get into but can be modded for working really really quickly.

Ignore this dude if you want to work on games; Rhino won't let you make game models and Alias has been replaced by Maya.

Ah, I wasn't sure, I've just had experience with them from school and only know them from a 3D modeling angle.

verpakeyes

So 3ds max sounds like the way to go. What are the best resources to learn from? Online or should I look for a course textbook or something else entirely?

Rye

Look for tutorials online. A good place I've personally taken tutorials from is Digital Tutors and Gnomon Workshop.

Both produce DVDs that are comprehensive and slow enough to learn for the first time. You can look around at beginner tutorials for free online, but their starter tutorial DVDs are pretty good.

If your school owns the programs, there's a good chance your school library will have some of these DVDs. Mine had their entire collection, and I went crazy watching them all. They are GREAT resources.

If not, check your public library. After that, you'll have to buy them

Ponge

Another option is a lynda.com monthly membership. I found a 30 day free trial code and gave it a shot and it has some quite basic, but quite interesting tutorials.

Bear in mind 3ds Max have just released 2210 which has a dramatically different GUI than version 2009 (they have implemented the Windows 'Ribbon' design used in Microsoft Office. I want to groan, but as I haven't yet used it I'm withholding my opinion. Just be aware because Max 8-2009 didn't look very different, but now you might need to scout out options and features when following old tutorials.

The Gnomon tutorials might be a bit advanced at this stage. Honestly I would just spend a day doing any of the zillions of spaceship tutorials and see how far you get. It'll give you an idea of box modelling, editable polygons, the viewports, basic materials, basic lighting, basic uvw unwrapping. It'll end up looking like a 1993 cg spaceship, but thats really all it is! Start small, and be proud of what you accomplish in a day. It can get very addictive.

If you have any 3ds max questions let me know and I'll see if I can answer them.

ViolentChemistry

In terms of making the original models there are lots of good, easy to learn options. It's once you start skinning, boning and animating that differences become glaring. There are a lot of important "little steps" that home-brew and open-source and otherwise free/cheap software makes you do manually, making those steps not little at all, that multi-thousand-dollar apps like Maya and 3DSMax do automatically for you. As far as detail in model vs detail in texture, for gaming applications the line is dependent upon the engine. Some engines can handle more polys more efficiently than others, and then the same goes again for textures. Forums exist that center around modeling for the engine of your choice and they would be the best place to look for what you should expect to set as your target polycount.