Your arsenal?

cookedpeanut

This is a thread made out of curiosity, what weapons of choice (Software) do you have in your toolbag?
I'm particularly interested to know what UV and Baking programs you would recommend.
As a hybrid Modo/Blender user I'm left with the predicament of choosing software for the above.

Stromberg90

Don't know if better is the word, different maybe

I use 3ds max for modeling, uv mapping, baking.
Photoshop and soon dDo I think for texturing and xoliul shader in 3ds max for presentation.

Also modo has great uv tools so in my opinion uv layout is not really necessary, might just be me though.

WarrenM

UVLayout has advantages over Modo and can be faster and get better results on some models. I use both, depending on the model.

ZacD

UV: 3dcoat to mark seams and to relax, I will stitch together and polish it in my main 3d package.
Baking: Anything that can render object space normals -> Handplane

Gestalt

I actually like using Blender to do my UVs, maybe I'm weird. I like that you can use the actual coordinates and snap to pixels of a given texture size. It's also easier for me to do things within the same application.

You can mark all of your seams on the model like you'd do in anything else, the auto-unwrap works fine and you can do all of the typical things like project from view and reduce stretching if you want to. You have to get used to some things and discover others, but if you already know how Blender works, many of the shortcuts are pretty much the same. Blender's tools are continually updated so you may be surprised if it's been a while.

My core 'arsenal' is Blender, Sculptris, and xNormal, all happen to be free which is pretty cool and convenient (works out well if I'm ever moving about or need a fresh install). 3dcoat is also great although I use it much less now and it's in perpetual beta; still good for the per-pixel painting and retopology tools. It's not something I currently use for the sculpting, but I know that they are making a lot of progress and working hard on it.

For painting I've recently been looking into Paint SAI, it's amazingly responsive; Sumo paint (free option) also seems interesting.

edit: I forgot to put Zbrush; that's also very significant for the way I work, but you can still do amazing things with a relatively free arsenal.

Justin Meisse

I model & unwrap in Max 2009, 3D Coat & Photoshop for textures - at home & at work. No baking :P

Mark Dygert

Mostly 3dsmax for modeling baking and texture display. zBrush sometimes for sculpting in details, the more I get used to it the more I'm starting to use it for other things besides sculpting. I mostly do environment art so the sculpting I do is normally damage and wear.

Bek

As a beginner / intermediate I've got modo for modelling & UVs, xNormal for baking, Marmoset for previewing. After using ndo2 trial and ddo beta I really want to pick them up when I have the spare funds. I've had to download the original ndo in the mean time as I'm 'stuck' on a model and need to ndo some details in to progress.

One thing I'm finding incredibly annoying in modo is setting hard edges by UV islands. You can do it, but it takes time and is really fiddly, and is only practical for relatively simple islands. Could I add blender to my toolset to do this one vital task for me?

GrevSev

Zbrush
Maya
xNormal
Unity
Photoshop
Xnview (beeesttt Multipurpose Image viewer EVER!!)

Maya's default UVtools are aight I don't see why people go the extra 20 miles to have luxurious uving tools its pretty boring where ever you're doing it

passerby

zbrush, maya, xnormal.

for uving i got UV deluxe, and the nightshade uv editor scripts for maya, with the addition of some of my own scripts.

i also make really heavy use of ndo2, and there are a lot of details i dont bother doing in the highpoly model, especially ones on flat surfaces, since it is much faster, and easier on the system to just ndo2 it, and this also makes tweaks later, since it is on non-destructible.

EDIT:
didnt see the cage question, the cage must be large enough to encompasses both the highpoly and lowpoly mesh, but dont make it too big or thigns will bake out really warped.

fearian

Home:
3ds Max for modelling, unwrapping, baking
Photoshop for texturing
UDK for vfx and presentation
Sometimes zbrush for damage passes!

Work:
Geomagic
Headus 3d Tools, plyEdit, cySlice.
Polyworks
Photoshop

we use some wierd/specialised stuff where I work...

ghaztehschmexeh

3DS Max - Modelling/UVing
Zbrush - Sculpting
XNormal - Normal map baking
nDo2 - Normal maps from images
Photoshop - Texturing

Ged

work: maya, topogun for retopo and sometimes baking, photoshop, ndo, unity3D
home: At home I experiment with different packages and workflows, keeps me up to date with whats going on out there a little. I mostly use these tools in this order 3dsmax, zbrush/mudbox, 3dcoat retopo, xnormal, photoshop, ndo and then whatever engine Im working in to finish textures and shaders(UDK, unity, cryengine, marmoset).

Farfarer

Home:
modo - Model/retopo/UV/rigging/animating/some baking
Max - Needed now and again
ZBrush - Sculpting
xNormal - Baking normals
Photoshop - Texturing
Unity - Engine for presenting

Deadly Nightshade

Autodesk Maya 2012
Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended
xNormal (baking software)
nDo2 (baking software)
Crazybump (not using anylonger - went over to nDo2)
Nightshade UV Editor (UV layouting)
Roadkill Pro (UV unwrapping)
Marmoset Toolbag (Model viewer/Game engine)
Total Commander (file manager, batch renamer - it's a swiss army knife for windows)
Notepad++ (MEL and XML scripting)
File Texture Manager (maya script)
Material Renamer (maya script)
Plus tons of custom hotkeys, shelves, marking menues and other "improvements" in Autodesk Maya.

I would like to say zBrush/Mudbox too but I haven't used any of them in years actually. I work for a company that develops mobile games and at my last workplace (Avalanche Studios) there was no requirement for any sculpting (I worked on Renegade Ops - top-down, vehicle, arcade shooter) and on my free time I don't really do any 3D but have started MEL scripting and making tools. I'm more interested in becomming a TA than an environment artist for example... So, yea...

Ged

is roadkill pro still around? Im looking for something to completely replace maya 2012s uv editor but not a stand alone app, a plugin like roadkill pro is perfect.

Kbrom12

I experiment with a lot but mainly

3ds max - modeling, unwrapping, retopo, baking, etc...
3d coat - retopo
headus uvlayout - unwrapping
zbrush - sculpting
photoshop - texturing

Then others like UDK, Marmoset, Ndo2, Crazybump, Xnormal, etc...

Froyok

My main workflow :
-Maya (with a lot of (custom) scripts, I do base mesh, LP, retopo and so on)
-zBrush (High poly, sometimes texture/polypaint)
-Photoshop (+ nDo 2)
-xNormal
-Marmoset Toolbag (I use it a lot to test my bakes)

I try to keep the number low, I don't like to waste my time jumping from one app to one another.


In the list of the useful tool :
-Notepad++
-XnView
-Display fusion (quick window jump between screens)
-ToDoList by AbstractSpoon
-Scape 0.1.1 (Terrain modeling software)

Insanity_Crab

Maya
Photoshop
Mudbox
UDK
After FX

Are the Big 5 for me

poopipe

home :
max/silo for modelling
zbrush for blockouts and highres stuff
max for everything else

baking/preview stuff depends on what I'm making things for


work:
old maya and photoshop


I'm another believer in not jumping between tools all willy nilly - you spend so long dicking about exporting and importing that you forget what you're doing

Angry Beaver

Pencil & Paper
3DSMax
XNormal
nDo
Photoshop
Filterforge

Because you asked and no-one else mentioned it I'm going to give a huge shout out to FilterForge. Many people expect it to just generate a texture for them and use it as a photoshop alternative. Bzzt *wrong* some of the noise patterns and details it can generate for me, especially when defining custom node setups, are amazing. It's a dream to basically be able to program one time use shader like behaviour to bake some texture layers. Especially when I can press a check-mark and ensure that the layers I'm compositing stuff out of can tile perfectly. Saves so much time

rogelio

maya
photoshop
ndo
crazybump
zbrush
xnormal
ddo
mudbox


workflow atm

Envio texturing

maya
zbrush
xnormal
photoshop
ndo - creating passes for color,spec, height, and normals
crazybump - creating passes for color,spec, height, and normals

Soon to put ddo to some good use...

Envio modeling

Maya
zbrush - If I need some terrain stuff

Side stuff

Mudbox - sometimes I need to get a specific results and the texture painting options are nice for unique stuff.

I find it that I rather know more tools and have access to as many tools as possible. My workflow works with one simple rule... Speed! I try to choose the quickest tool for the task.

RogelioD

Autodesk Sketchbook
Alchemy

Maya
Z-Brush

Photoshop
3D Coat

nDo2
xNormal
crazybump

Marmoset
UDK

also.... rogelio^ nice to see another Rogelio in the community ^.^

Shanthosa

It's interesting to see everyone breakdown their workflow by program like this. Very interesting to see how no two processes are the same. Mine is centered around the game I'm working on now, so

Maya
Photoshop
xNormal
HandPlane (so awesome)
Marmoset
Unity