What software is needed for a complete 3D modelling work-flow?
polycounter lvl 7
I am new to 3D modelling and I'm looking for some expert advice. I'm going through the process of deciding what software I should learn to use and incorporate into a complete 3D modelling work-flow. I want to be able to build props, texture them with realistic PBR materials, and import them into a game engine such as Unity or Unreal.
There appear to be lots of different applications to choose from and I don't have a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each. I'm aware of Blender, 3dsMax, Maya, Maya LT, SketchUp, Modo, Modo Indie, and I suspect there are probably others that I haven't heard of. I'm also aware of specialised material-creation systems like allegorithmic's Substance applications, as well as the Quixel suite of programs.
I would like to avoid having to download them all and spend weeks learning the basics of all of them just so that I can decide which one to continue with. This time-consuming (and probably frustrating) process seems needless to me because I suspect that there are plenty of people here who have a wealth of experience in this field and who could point me in the right direction.
I'm looking to set up a work-flow that is relatively easy to learn, intuitive, and uses the fewest number of separate applications. I'm hoping to find software that doesn't have an overwhelmingly complex, generalised interface but rather has a simple, specialised interface. (Specialised for video game prop modelling, hopefully.)
I would be very grateful for any advice about what applications I should acquire and begin investing time into learning. I'd really like to just be able to go 'full-steam-ahead' into learning one application without worrying that I might be heading into a sub-optimal work-flow.
By the way, I do have some previous modelling experience in the form of level design using the BSP tools of Hammer Editor for the Source engine. More recently, I learned to construct levels with Unity using assets from the Asset Store.
The sort of modelling that I would like to do is mainly the creation of props. I like to work accurately and I appreciate good snap-to-grid functionality. One of the first projects I want to try and do is to create some modular mansion interior assets that could be snapped together in Unity to build up a level. There would be wall pieces, door pieces, ceiling pieces, pillar pieces, etc. For example, here's a drawing of a potential door piece:
In the future, I might want to try creating more organic objects but, for now, I'm mainly interested in making objects with hard surfaces and lots of symmetry. It's also worth noting that I currently have no experience with UV mapping and so I'm hoping that whatever software I end up using exposes this part of the process in an intuitive way. I also don't have any experience with creating my own textures, which is why Substance or Quixel seemed potentially useful.
I'm sorry for posting this boring topic - I'll bet that those of you who frequent this forum see this question a lot but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for when I used the search function. I did manage to find this blog post but I don't have the time to "try as many 3D packages as you can get your hands on", as the post suggests. The post gave me the impression that Modo might be a good option but I'm still very unsure.
There appear to be lots of different applications to choose from and I don't have a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each. I'm aware of Blender, 3dsMax, Maya, Maya LT, SketchUp, Modo, Modo Indie, and I suspect there are probably others that I haven't heard of. I'm also aware of specialised material-creation systems like allegorithmic's Substance applications, as well as the Quixel suite of programs.
I would like to avoid having to download them all and spend weeks learning the basics of all of them just so that I can decide which one to continue with. This time-consuming (and probably frustrating) process seems needless to me because I suspect that there are plenty of people here who have a wealth of experience in this field and who could point me in the right direction.
I'm looking to set up a work-flow that is relatively easy to learn, intuitive, and uses the fewest number of separate applications. I'm hoping to find software that doesn't have an overwhelmingly complex, generalised interface but rather has a simple, specialised interface. (Specialised for video game prop modelling, hopefully.)
I would be very grateful for any advice about what applications I should acquire and begin investing time into learning. I'd really like to just be able to go 'full-steam-ahead' into learning one application without worrying that I might be heading into a sub-optimal work-flow.
By the way, I do have some previous modelling experience in the form of level design using the BSP tools of Hammer Editor for the Source engine. More recently, I learned to construct levels with Unity using assets from the Asset Store.
The sort of modelling that I would like to do is mainly the creation of props. I like to work accurately and I appreciate good snap-to-grid functionality. One of the first projects I want to try and do is to create some modular mansion interior assets that could be snapped together in Unity to build up a level. There would be wall pieces, door pieces, ceiling pieces, pillar pieces, etc. For example, here's a drawing of a potential door piece:
In the future, I might want to try creating more organic objects but, for now, I'm mainly interested in making objects with hard surfaces and lots of symmetry. It's also worth noting that I currently have no experience with UV mapping and so I'm hoping that whatever software I end up using exposes this part of the process in an intuitive way. I also don't have any experience with creating my own textures, which is why Substance or Quixel seemed potentially useful.
I'm sorry for posting this boring topic - I'll bet that those of you who frequent this forum see this question a lot but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for when I used the search function. I did manage to find this blog post but I don't have the time to "try as many 3D packages as you can get your hands on", as the post suggests. The post gave me the impression that Modo might be a good option but I'm still very unsure.
Replies
I doubt, that it would be the best idea to start with all potentially useful tools. As it seems you want to start with environment art, it would be a good idea to start with one of the standard tools.
Industry standard modelling tools are maya,max, modo. But these are expensive, look if they provide some cheaper (eg. student) licenses. If you want to dive into the industry later, most people will recomment to learn (one of) these tools.
On the free market you get blender, which is a free complete modelling tool (including sculpting, animation,video editing etc.).
You will most likely want to manipulate texture, therefor you need either photoshop (industry standard) or some free alternative (eg. gimp).
Take a look at polycount wiki to get more information about the available tools: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Tools#Main_3D_Software_Packages
But, they're just tools. You could pick anything really because it doesn't matter right now. Once you learn how to get from nothing to a fully completed game prop asset that both looks really good and is as efficient as possible as far as mapping and poly count are concerned, then you can pick any tool you decide you like after a few minutes of playing around with it because you will know what you need to get done.
I don't know if I qualify for a student license because I'm not at any learning institution. Maya LT and MODO indie appear to have reasonable subscription prices, though.
I'm just wondering if that wiki has the most up-to-date information. It mentions Maya and MODO but not Maya LT or MODO indie. It also mentions Mari but makes no mention of Substance Painter.
Would you say that Maya LT is an intuitive and easy-to-learn, relative to other options?
I agree that, once I've gained a lot of experience, I should be able to transition to another application easily. However, I'd like to learn using an application that has a well-designed interface that won't confuse the hell out of me.
The author of this blog post said that Maya "[he] tried to teach myself Maya, and it made [him] want to stop doing 3D modeling". Is he being over-dramatic or is Maya known for being hard-to-use?
i cannot agree here (and not talking about tools in this case) but it´s a subjective thing. for me it was super easy to pick up and i know people who agree and others who dont. thats what trials are for. everybody has an opinion on that matter and everybody will be slightly biased towards his tool of choice.
Maya used to be annoying in little ways because of the way the UI was organized. They've been restructuring the UI for the past few releases and Maya LT 2016 has a completely new UI. It comes out on the 26th.
Modo has continually ignored the needs of game artists for years. I've been trying to get them to get basic functionality in Modo since version 401. For what it can do it's awesome, but your experience will end in frustration if you use it for game art. Hopefully 901 will be the version they finally listen and fix stuff.
3ds Max is fine. It's what I learned 3d on myself.
If you're curious this was my path in 3D:
3ds Max(6 years)>Modo(3 years)>Maya(4 years in college)>Modo(2 years)>Maya LT(last week)
I'd switch back to Modo in a heartbeat if they ever get their act together.
At first I started by learning MAYA from Digital Tutors. You can use MAYA/3Ds max/MODO/blender (You can get MAYA and 3Ds max student version for free). So first start learning 3D modeling. For texturing I started with Photoshop.(you can use GIMP/Photoshop) And for 3D painting and sculpting I am learning Mudbox (you can use zBrush/substance painter/Mudbox/3D coat ). Again get mudbox student version for free. And also learn basics of any game engine (Unreal engine 4/Unity/Cryengine) I started by Unity and now UE4. For normal maps , you can use xNormal.
things wich u need to learn to have get a strong position in a 3d company is:
Modelling
Hard surface
Organic
Sculpting (zbruzh)
Unwrapping/UVmapping
Rigging
humanoids
quadropels
vehicles
Customs
Animation
Dynamics
Particle effects like explosions, dust, blood ect.
Physics
Rendering
Vray
Mental ray
Gameengines
Unreal
Unity
Photography skills are always good to have to take pictures of textures.
Concept art skills To be able to draw before u model. THis is important if u are working with clients. Also u develop the way think when u model.
Human/animal anatomy
mechanical
croque
Scripting
If yer aiming towards realtime gaming
I would recommend starting with coding, and just have 3d as a hobby. Start with c#. then in 5 years u can do some cool stuff. Since everybody needs a coder, and noone needs a 3d artist since evryone already are one:P
You need to learn some coding for creating shaders, some general scripts for rigging ect.
Today its not said out loud, but its there between the lines. That you must know coding. And preferbly be at the same level as a medieocre Coder, like c#,c++, some scripting languages depending on what engine ect. The more coding languages and scripting u know the better of course.
Making a cute model isent enough today, u need to have the rest in the backpack. But if yer passionated u might get there, question is how fast. Since everything changes pretty fast in the 3d world. And the demands on a 3d artist continues to increase all the time. So you always hafto learn new approaches, workflows, procedures and softwares to be on top, if not, its pretty safe you´ll get fired sooner rather then later because of budgetcuts. Its not all that common.
my path was, started with 3d studio max, maya, zbrush, mudbox. I tried Modo, i thought it looked good, intresting tools, but total crap for my current work. Max, and maya has the tools needed for most things. Though everything is leaning towards realtime, though theres still issues with some realtime materials wich is keeping the archVizbiz at bay. In a sense thats great to not hafto bother with rendering.
Good luck with the learning.
I really would consider Blender. I never quite understood fully why people recommended not worrying about which program to learn 3D with and just fully understand one, which i think it basically because in the end, you are mainly just pushing vertices around and some other somewhat simple stuff for the most part. Before you dismiss Blender, i'd check out youtube videos about Blenders features and check out the comments about Blender in this thread (starting on p3 or p4):
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151494
Pior:
http://pioroberson.com
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2310075&postcount=5
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2304189&postcount=2461
Max:
https://mmaaxx.artstation.com
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2303911&postcount=99
Apart from that theres nothing really wromg with it - the big names all have their problems and idiosyncrasies
I usually recommend people learn maya even though i really dont like it as its more widely used in professional pipelines.