Softwares ? workflow ? how do you do ? discussion/advice !

MyLittleWeirdFriend

Hello, i got this big school project starting in a week and i was wondering how more experienced designers would do for 3D graphics. i am currently only using 3Dmax for everything and i have become pretty good at making these basic low poly objects/characters. you see clearly what it is but it looks bad. for this year i aim to make more detailed objects/characters.
i was thinking of doing more of the detailed work in something like mudbox (when it comes to the model) and then convert back to 3Dmax for animating and erasing eventual triangles, and photoshop for the textures, would this be a good idea or would it be better to stay in 3Dmax ? how do you do your things ? which softwares are used ? 
my thought right now is doing basic models (low poly) in 3Dmax-convert to mudbox-add details (high poly)-3Dmax add textures (made in photoshop)- eventually add animations.
thanks for sharing any ideas and advice ! have a great day ! 

Brian "Panda" Choi

If you can use Mudbox, use it.  Totally fine, I know several artists that use Mudbox to effectiveness.  Mark Kobrin is one.

Jeff Parrott

MyLittleWeirdFriend said: would this be a good idea or would it be better to stay in 3Dmax ? how do you do your things ? which softwares are used ?

Use whatever program you have access to. If your school has Mudbox go with it. The online community for Mudbox isn't as large as ZBrush so keep in mind tutorials might be a little harder to come by. Also it's not as widely used at game studios as ZBrush. Just stuff to think about. A good barometer of which programs companies used check the jobs board on polycount or gamasutra.com and see which programs as listed in requirements. That'll help you see what companies are using.

It's always good though to stay a head of the curve. If there's a new program out check it out. See if it's usable. There's a lot of Concept Artists that use Modo now because it's a quick way to get a block out going to paint over. Having that foresight to try new things and grow with the trends is really a huge key to working in a tech field. Anyways hope that helps you out.