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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.
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
"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) "
Dude, don't suggest things like that. If it's public knowledge that stuff like that is easy to acquire, then the company who makes that stuff MUST do something about it or face not being able to take action down the road. Do you really want 3D rendering developers who make >$1000 per sale to become fans of DRM?
Please, use legit channels to acquire software. with a student ID, you can get LW for $400. That may seem high, but it's much better than using it's list price of $1,600. It's really not hard to sell your parents on either, provided you want to make a living with 3D. Let me explain:
1.) College doesn't exactly train you to take a decent paying position at a company. You still have to be talented. That's the type of thing that happens by pursuing it on your own creating inspired work. I'm dead serious about this. Somebody who didn't go to college that can show they have creativity + skills will go a lot farther than somebody with a 4 year degree but cannot do more than push a few buttons on the program. Art's funny like that.
2.) $400 is not too much to spend when learning how to use that app can get you a job you can make a living on. That $400 alone (plus personal effort put into making yourself into an artist) can earn you a living. My dad realized this while I was in high school and he spent $3,000 on a high end computer and software for me to expand my skills with. Not only did I earn a $22,000 scholarship with my 3D stuff at the top of my portfolio, but also within a year of starting college I had a job doing it. (I never finish college as a result of that, wish I did though. Drawing courses in particular would improve my abilities a lot.)
3.) 3D related demand is only going to go up. All one has to do is watch the 'making of' section of a few DVDs here and there to find that 3D's a major part of any movie or TV show. Even ER had some 3D effects in it last week that most people probably didn't notice.
Hope that's helpful. Don't take parent poster's advice.
"Derp de derp."
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.)
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)
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
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
details and a cool chart here http://www.blender.org/bf/
I'm sure someone can fill in more details.