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Which 3D Modeling Software is Best for Learning Use?
An anonymous reader asks: "Blender 2.26 is out and 2.27 is soon on its way. This powerful 3D modeling/animation/rendering program is released under the GPL so it (along with the source code) is free, there is only one downside: the learning curve is large due to is abnormal user interface. I am in High School (unfortunately) and I want to do something related to 3D animation (movies, games, special effects, etc.) when I get older. Which package should I choose? The free, but difficult, Blender? The amazing, but bankrupting, Maya? Or should I get another program that is cheaper than Maya but easier to learn than Blender? If we take money out of the picture which is the best program to learn about modeling/rendering/animating on?"
I'm a big fan of Lightwave. It's a LOT cheaper than Maya, especially if you get a student discount, and it's pretty easy to learn to use, and it's DAMN powerful.
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
It is 3-d, you can model with it, and it is soft. Meets the requirements!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
It's about $600 for the latest version, and fun to use. I like it anyway. No I don't work there.
Caligari
MAYA PLE - personal learning edition. Gives you all features, but puts watermarks on everything.
AW
I'll admit learning Blender is a real pain in the you-know-what, but the community is top notch, and the documentation for it really makes it easier to learn. (And it's available in the online store for less than $20). Granted, it doesn't have the plug-in support of Maya, and it's a little more difficult to get results, but once you're there, the pay-off is tremendous. Plus you get Blender's amazing game engine to boot.
Are you looking to pursue a career in 3D artistry, or are you looking for something to just play around with? If you're looking to do this professionally, you might want to use Maya or 3ds Max. If you're just looking to get your feet wet, or don't want to spend yourself silly, then Blender is the way to go.
Good luck with whatever you choose!
Available for download - has been for quite some time.
Also, the prices for Maya have dropped significantly in recent times, so check it out.
this is off-topic... but after the disappointment of MGS2 I expected the subtitle to be "MGS3 - Trouser Snake".
Just go on kazaa or IRC and warez a copy of Maya. Everyone benefits. Maya benefits because you're more likely to have a paid copy of Maya once you get a real world job, and you benefit because you get to use 3d software which is used by real world companies (I doubt blender is used by any effects studios)
Photos.
If we take money out of the picture
If we assume that I'll get an illegal copy....
3D graphics, like nearly every other complex software package in the computing industry evolves, and with it so does the interface.
I suggest at this stage learning the concepts, techniques and "general" skills, with whatever you can reasonably afford. When the time comes for you to be on the job market in a few years, the software will have changed a lot, but you'll be prepared because you'll know how to craft a 3D model. As opposed to simply knowing which menu selections to use to apply a texture, or add a special effect.
I've had several people ask me the same question about Photoshop vs. The Gimp. Obviously the cost issue is not nearly so huge, but nevertheless the answer should be the same.
When you get closer to the time when you actually start to interview, you can begin the process of translationing your skills to another package. Until then save your cash so you can by the latest version a few years down the road when you'll need it.
I learned this lesson the hard way, spending cash on software that by the time I needed to use it professionally it was way obsolete. (This was back when DOS was ceding its claim to Windows, and applications ALL had proprietary interfaces.)
Good Luck,
MS2k
version 3.2 is now available on their website for download for free.
It's not the most advanced, but learning the concepts is the important thing - not learning the exact intricacies of current software. By the time the author is out of school, the landscape of features will have changed anyway, but knowing the basics of how to animate and model will translate to any package.
Download Blender, and buy the Blender Book. After a few weeks of struggling with Blender's interface, I bought the Blender Book and within a couple days I was already making some fairly decent-looking animations using IKA's and fun stuff like that.
Previous to learning Blender, I was already familiar with 3D Studio MAX and Lightwave, & I have to say that I much prefer Blender's interface now that I've gotten used to it.
That and $30 bucks for a book and a free peice of software is a hell of a lot cheaper than what they're charging for Lightwave.
(NaN also released a manual for Blender which may now be sold by the Blender community, but it's more of a reference guide. Buy it if you like pretty pictures, but it's worthless as a tutorial.)
If you just want to learn how to make models and stuff, and get the mechanics of it down (such as the fun of lining up textures, reducing poly counts, optimizing curves and arches, and manually moving individual vertices for 3 hours and then a power outage happens...) and just practice, but not have to pay all that money for 3D Studio Max... Use Gmax!
;)
Gmax linkie-poo
If you happen to 'own' one of the many games that it is compatible with, you can even see your creations in a real game engine! Wowie-zowie!
It is very close to 3DStudio max, and it's free to everyone who wants to use it. So it's a good starting point for someone who wants to experiment on the cheap.
Ok, people will you stop with this "Blender has horrible interface" bs? I've started playing with 3d porgrams in 98, and first thing I used was 3D Studio MAX, which has this windows application look and feel for most things. Then I tried blender, and at first i had no idea where to look for what, but then i read 2 short interface tutorials, and i was set. I still don't find it any more difficult than 3D MAX, because I woouldn't know what to do with it either, if my friend didn't show me the basics of (seamingly simple) interface. Also, for any sufficiently advanced feature, you really need a book or a tutorial, for any 3D prog.
Maya, Lightwave 3D and Softimage have interfaces that are somewhere in between of your-regular-win32-app and blenderesque-maze-of-keystrokes. So, whatever you choose, I recomend find a nice book (or site full of tutorials) to go with it.
Um, lets see.
I know how to use 3d Studio, and that is very powerful, but will run you around $1000 for a commercial liscence. I feel that it was easy to use, and I could easily produce some good results.
On the Cheap side, If milkshop 3d is still around, that is a very cheap 3d program used a lot in the game modding community.
Then You have Maya, but ive never used it, so cant compare.
Lightwave, has a great renderer, but i find that making models is easier in 3ds
of course, you also have all the support packages, like Bryce 3d, Poser, etc.
But honestly, from someone whose dabbled in 3d, go with the choice that major motion picture studious use. Blender, as soon as you master the interface, is easily the most powerful modeller around, and it makes great sense for High School budgets.
This
I started out with a copy of truespace a a book. I worked with that for a couple of months. My first job was doing some 3-D modeling and animation for a presentation. I made a little bit of money then "upgraded" to 3DSMAX.
When I say "upgraded" it was an upgrade but nothing that was beyond belief. Yes it was multi-threaded and could do network rendering, there were some other things that it could handle, but it took away productuvity for some time while I learned the new system.
What I would suggest to you is to pick a system that you can afford (or "borrow") and get yourself a book or two. Have some ideas of what you would like to do for a project and learn how to get there.
It takes a lot of time and, for me, a change in how I interacted with the computer to become good enough to claim my work as professional.
One of the other things you might want to try is taking a class at a community college. I know that there are several where I live that offer courses in 3D animation. Try to get your parents/advisors at school to help you with this.
And good luck! 3D modeling and animation helped me to express myself a great deal, not unlike programming.
theres Maya, for animation, charachters, and more 'artsy' stuff
and Studio Tools for 'a-surface' quality modeling. (if you dont know what that means, you shouldnt be using it).
you can also try Rhino 3d, its made by some of the ex-alias coders, and is excellent as wellas low cost.
lightwave and 3studio max are great, but also expensive.
learning any package will make it substantially easier to learn another. once you grasp all of the conceps of modeling, its just learning all of the different interfaces.
you should also figure out if you want to do poly modeling or NURBS modeling, cause they are two distinct sets of skills. in maya you can do both well, so id reccommend grabbing the PLE of that.
I want 2D games back.
Depends on what you want to do with the modeling tools. One of the things I found easy was the half-life or unreal world editor. Granted, you are building game levels rather than, well, whatever you are trying to make with a fancy 3d editor... but hey, at least you can spend your time gaming (and tweaking it) rather than do real work. Very simplistic, easy learning curve, not sure if '3d autocad /w skins' will be meaningful from a professional level.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Play-D'oh is software. If you leave it sitting out, it turns into hardware.
Wings3d
Its free, its Free, and its M-Fing E.Z.
[wings3d.com]
I'm going to lay it to you straight.
There are many things to consider when choosing a 3D package. Most of it really comes down to taste and money. I don't much like nurbs or metaballs -- I prefer to have control over a control mesh, so I use polymesh smoothing / subsurface modeling, for which Blender works wonderfully. But you'll need to experiment with many different packages and find what works right for you. Strangely, whatever you first choose will likely end up being your preference, so choose your initial foray wisely.
However, I'm going to advocate Blender whole-heartedly. It's got most of the important features, support for external renderers, and what's more, it's totally cross-platform. I can model on my Mac and render on my unix box while I'm at work. You can't do that with any commercial package I know, not at prices that a hobbiyst will be able to afford.
Further, the community *is* great, and once you get past the hurdle of the UI you'll realize it's really powerful software. Don't believe me? http://membres.lycos.fr/garbager/ That's what can be done with free tools.
- Cloud
What you're looking for, my friend, is Maya 4.5 Personal Learning Edition. Can't use it for commercial work, and it puts a (rather obtrusive, unfortunately) watermark in renderings and hardware-rendered viewports (i.e. anything but wireframe), and it's purposely gimped to disallow importing/exporting between itself and the real Maya or MEL scripts, but hell if it isn't the whole damn Maya Complete package.
Enjoy - Maya blows the competition out of the water. Also the prices have dropped down to reasonable levels, with Maya Complete for $1,999, so once you get to the point that you need to buy a real copy, your family won't have to starve for more than a week or so.
Pick Blender.
Blender is free, the other software packages are not. While it would be possible to get a pirated version of a more powerful set of software, it won't help. For one, your later employer will probably have a completely different set of tools - so all the time learning one particular interface will be wasted. For another, if you tell you employer you're fluent with Maya, they're going to wonder if you'll be pirating software from work, too. Of course, if you can afford to actually buy some software... then by all means do.
Still, even if you could buy the software, I think I'd still use Blender. You could equally well use that money to buy more computing hardware - either a good workstation, or the beginnings of a render cluster.
The real key is that you _must_ learn how to learn. That's not redundant. Learn what it is that you're doing, rather than how to press buttons. And think about it from the point of view of "what I'm doing" rather than what interface I'm using.
This will help you be ready to make the jump to all the different tools you're bound to use in the future. The ability to make that jump is critically important.
1. 2.
Others have mentioned Maya PLE but there are free / learning editions of most of the top commercial 3D apps these days:
SoftImage XSI|EXP
Lightwave Discovery Edition (takes a while for them to mail it, though)
Houdini Apprentice (a lesser known but very powerful 3D app used by major studios.)
Blender is not that hard, it can be taught easily by an instructor; however, self-teaching is much more difficult.
I like Blender. It is nice.
It lacks a lot of functionality other programs have, it has a somewhat messy interface, it's hard to learn, but it's still nice.
May I humbly suggest a few other possibilities?
First of all there is Bryce 3D which is available from corel (at the moment). It is 'frowned' upon by many pro's but it gets (most of) the job done. Also its terrain editor is great.
And if you just want to learn the basics, then you can do a lot worse than look at PoVRay, which is free of charge. It has a very peculicar interface, since it's entirely text based. But somehow this gives you fantastic control over your scene. See http://www.povray.org for some amazing examples.
---
"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a sick mind." (Terry Pratchett)
on the comuter you already have. Just follow these simple steps...
start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Paint
Who could ask for more?
However, there's no one right answer to this question. Your decision will depend on whether you plan to work in animation eventually; what you plan to do with the software; and to some degree what platform you're using (though there are many who say that if you're serious about 3D you should buy some PC hardware specifically for that purpose).
There's a great discussion of this topic at zaon.org. Also a previous slashdot discussion I started on the same topic when I was figuring this out.
Beyond that I'll try to be brief, since a lot of my original questions and their answers are contained in the first linked discussion above.
Ultimately, as I said, there's no one right answer. Read what you can online, try some demos, call the companies, and see what fits. I do recommend checking out the
Try Lightwave.
It is the least icon driven 3d app I have found, a big plus if you want to use a tool without remembering hundreds of tiny badly drawn icons that seem to have nothing to do with their function.
With any package you need to move beyond menus to key commands to gain any proficiency but when starting it can make all the diffrence.
Lightwave rocks, many animations are modeled and animated in other packages then rendered in Lightwave because it's render is so good.
That being said the modeling and animating tools in Lightwave are topnotch and the package contains all you need to get started modeling, animating, surfacing and outputting beautifully rendered animations.
Don't overlook Hash's Animation Master. It's inexpensive at $299.00, works on PC or Mac, has a great modeler, a decent renderer -- network rendering optional, and can export DXF.
-sid
A magazine that you may wish to check out that deals with 3d graphic design is Computer Graphics World. Their website is located at http://www.cgw.com
good luck!
design is art - art is design
I'd get AC3D - it runs on Windoze and Linux - it costs $40 per seat and it's so simple that my son learned to use it by himself at age 8.
I've used it to build simple 3D games - and whilst it has it's faults and is missing quite a few important features, it has a lot going for it.
There is of course a downloadable demo version.
www.sjbaker.org
The standard package at uni. is 3DsMax. This is nice because the UI is well designed and the learning curve is not THAT steep (compared to Blender or Maya) but I also have heard of student begging letters to Discreet have returned free educational licences. (I used WareZ at uni - DOH!)
Also - beware the dodgy version floating around with a useless crack and a virus in uninstall.exe
Now i have left uni, and costed up the software to start up as freelancer - I nearly shat. £10000 + (for all software covered) so I looked to open source. (cos feature limited 'free' versions just wont cut it)
So, I am left wishing that when I was where you are now - I had learned Blender.
But on the other hand 3DsMax looks better on a CV. So if you happen to be in London or LA and may actually get employed by someone (rather than freelance) and not have to buy your own software... schwings and roundabouts.
Dont judge blender on its performance under Win32. Try it in Linux/OGL - or even the old version on BeOS... hmmmlmm nostalgia.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
I don't see anyone telling you to use clay. If you haven't already done so please start. If your intention is not to model but instead to learn animation of the z variety I recommend Lightwave as its cameras are very easy to use. I use to be an animator (until I sold out) and I learned using LW4 and Softimage (pronounced like mirage) I have seen the newer versions and am quite impressed with both.
If you would like to do this for a living, please start with clay. It will make you loads better as a modeler.
cheers!
M
details and a cool chart here http://www.blender.org/bf/
I'm sure someone can fill in more details.
I work for the author of Art of Illusion so I'll give him a plug. It's GPL and cross platform, and he's been working on it for several years. He's a physics PhD from Stanford and is one of the geekiest, smartest people I've ever met. He goes home and works on this thing all the time (he likes to brag about how he has no TV). I think he's starting to get contributions from other coders.
.pov files now).
AoI is a modeler and raytracer. It includes global illumination, subdivision surfaces, soft shadows, and procedural textures. I've used it as a front end for POV-Ray (it generates
You are correct. I was one of those members who helped buy the rights for blender to become open source. :)