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?"

Comments

Lightwave 3D

[Hanji]

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.

Re:Lightwave 3D

[NanoGator]

"I'm a big fan of Lightwave [lightwave3d.com]. 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. "

I second that. Out of the box, LW is very well rounded. Very good for character animation, modelling, and rendering. From LW, it's pretty easy to go to Maya or even 3D Studio MAX. (Or not move at all if you dun wanna...) If you start with something like MAX, though, you can end up with layers upon layers of stuff. That can be rather confusing if you move to LW. "Uh.. I just want to smooth this mesh, but I can't find the modifier for that!"

That's pretty much what I mean by 'get to the point'. You start with polygons, you end with polygons. You don't end up with an 'object' that has a bunch of settings to it you need to keep an eye on. It's like the difference between driving with a stick and having an automatic transmission. If you have an auto transmission, you can start driving right away but never truely understand what it is about shifting that makes a car efficient. LW would be more like the manual transmission, you have to do more work to get around, but you have a much more fundamental understanding of how your car works and how you can apply those gears to various situations like slowing yourself down on a steep incline.

*hopes that makse some sense, I'm in a bit of a hurry.*

Play-Doh

[AtariAmarok]

It is 3-d, you can model with it, and it is soft. Meets the requirements!

Re:Play-Doh

[stefanlasiewski]

And as my preschool experience shows, you can eat it too!

flour, water, cream of tartar, oil, salt, and food coloring.

Yummy!

try Caligari trueSpace

[Jim Morash]

It's about $600 for the latest version, and fun to use. I like it anyway. No I don't work there.

Caligari

Free version of Maya

[JensR]

MAYA PLE - personal learning edition. Gives you all features, but puts watermarks on everything.
AW

Stick with Blender

[Craig Maloney]

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!

translation

[isorox]

If we take money out of the picture

If we assume that I'll get an illegal copy....

Caligari trueSpace v3.2 for free

[ip_vjl]

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.

Not again

[pcbob]

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.

Re:Warez It

[NanoGator]

"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.

Don't deal Blender out of hand...

[i0wnzj005uck4]

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.

Coolest thing about blender is how it became open

[ron_ivi]

If I recall correctly, the open source community bought the software from their shareholders for 100K euros; in one of the coolest fundraising events I remember, beating expectations of all the journalists I saw write about it.

details and a cool chart here http://www.blender.org/bf/

I'm sure someone can fill in more details.