Recommended 3D Software
Alright here it is. I've been learning Blender for a while now and can do some basic things with it, but I just feel like the program itself is hindering my learning abilities. I downloaded SILO and in about 30 seconds of playing around felt like it was better than learning in Blender.
I commend the guys at the Blender Foundation for all the work they've done, and the Blender community is the best. There are alot of great tutorials out there and some nice sites dedicated to helping people learn.
While I was impressed with SILO, I'm not impressed with the community at all. I had the hardest time finding any tutorials at all.
I tried Maya's PLE version but I can't stand those stupid watermarks.
What suggestions do you guys have for a 3D program that's easy to learn and a good one to learn on that will take me to a higher level of quality art.
I commend the guys at the Blender Foundation for all the work they've done, and the Blender community is the best. There are alot of great tutorials out there and some nice sites dedicated to helping people learn.
While I was impressed with SILO, I'm not impressed with the community at all. I had the hardest time finding any tutorials at all.
I tried Maya's PLE version but I can't stand those stupid watermarks.
What suggestions do you guys have for a 3D program that's easy to learn and a good one to learn on that will take me to a higher level of quality art.
Replies
Quoted For Truth
it's a bit more intuitive to pick up anyway. Max took me a long time, cinema 4d took about 3 days and it feature packed, and very very very stable (compared)
Like max, they make feature films with cinema 4d (the golden compass etc). bodypaint (included) is frikken awesome
If anyone recommends Cinema4D to you, just assume they're on drugs.
...if you can learn that then your sorted, cos its sooooo un-intuitive everythingelse will be a breeze
I'm not sure though about your opening statement though, all these software packages take a bit to get used to so I'm a bit lost there. If you can deal with blender dealing with XSI, Max or Maya should be easy. It takes time and you'll have to read the tutorials that come with the program to get the basics down.
There are plenty of video tutorials out there for each, so just get your hand dirty and get ready for needing lots of patience and take breaks if you are about to start breaking things.
Silo can be plenty annoying as well.
Alex
If you want to do modeling and quick easy not need for texture editor on steroids. Max
If you are looking to do some heavy work with shaders and want control over every lttle thing with no automation needed, XSI or Maya. In you are into scripting those as well.
really?
x - scale
c - rotate
v - translate
ctrl-d to extrude a selected face or right click and select extrude.
XSI I found has the best interface out of xsi, maya, max, blender. hell you can even set it up so the shortcuts are similar to max or maya.
Because cool girls like penis i recommend Modo, its fast, intuitive and comes with a lot totally handy
stuff, like sculpting and 3D painting.
http://www.silo3d.com/users/Feed/files/surfacetoolpreview.mov
Of course, it has no animation or rendering, but I built about 1/2 my GTA 4 models in it.
I've been learning Maya in my spare time and I have to say, for animation and dynamic simulations its great, but for modeling, I find it lacking a lot of features.
You're just upset because another Blender user has come to their senses.
Secondary to that would be Maya, since it's used the most in games after Max, and used in movies a lot.
After that is XSI, which is my program of choice but isn't something I'd recommend until you've mastered Max or Maya first. If you just want to do 3d just as a hobby, I'd go with XSI.
They must be doing it wrong if it can only do 'basic' stuff
lol I use Cinema4D at work and it is really good for small design studios but I wouldnt recommend it for making game art. Pros: The tools are good and fast and the simple soft shadow raytracing is really fast compared to competition. Cons: The viewport renderer isnt great and the advanced render GI and AO are quite slow and more often than not they result in crazy flickering in any animation.
I use 3dsmax for game art.
I would stick with SILO for a while, but the community seems to be seriously lacking and I really need a strong community. I'm no where near a good artist. Matter of fact I'm not much of an artist at all, but I have a strong desire to learn and just want to make sure I start off on the correct foot. I feel like Blender did help me to learn about the basic concepts and the reasons why 3D components work and how to make them work, but I've still got a long way to go.
I'm not worried about the animation or material aspect of the 3D programs yet. Just the actual modelling part.
This is the reason why I asked the question that's probably been asked on this forum 100 gazillion gabillion times. I'm not necessarily looking for the program that's going to land me a job later on, but a program that will allow me to grow to the point where I eventually can use the programs that will land me that job when I'm as good as you guys. I know people say if you can learn Blender than you are doing just fine, but sometimes certain programs just don't fit certain people.
Go for it then! If it feels good it's all good. I completely understand what you mean and I think that's the most important area on which the heavier 3d apps need to focus on. I think what felt so good about Silo for you is a couple of simple yet important things : raycast selection (what you click on gets selected indeed - not some stupid vertex at the back of the model) and screen space component manipulation. These two things are absent or rather tricky to setup in Max and Maya, yet Silo has them just right.
Maybe just keep an eye on Max and/or Maya as you will need them at some point for exports and such, also there will be some jargon you need to know. However if you become badass in Silo I don't see why a company wouldn't take the time to train you at another app if they want you badly. But by then you will likely have experience in either of the two.
Best luck to you!
Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread. I know that most of you guys are professionals and don't really have time for noobs. Just the fact that yall will respond without flaming here is one of the reasons I love the polycount community so much.
X, Y, Z, and even number keys help
it also helps to split the viewports to display other views, yes you can do that
http://www.3d-palace.com/
Heh I forgot this one shows everything, like reading a manual....
http://www.vast.ws/resources/xsi/tutorials/tutorials.html
http://community.softimage.com/
http://www.xsibase.com
also max, maya and xsi are the only ones out there that support cg shaders for games.
however cinema 4d does have the same if not better low poly tools, enough to rival silo & modo, along with animation and a strong particle / hair / cloth / physics system. If you've ever used flash, photoshop or anything else that has a pervasive visual hierarchy, cinema 4d will be a breeze.
(visual hierarchy example)
also, its a fair whack cheaper if you ever buy-to-try. Cinema 4d is only 800 euros and comes in 7 languages, max is still bizarrely 5000 euros and comes in 3 languages. I've tricked companies into licensing me both, over the years. The max manual in hard copy is a god send, although they have done away with it in recent years.
I guess cinema 4d is best suited to the freelance / designer / web designer types at the end of the day. 3ds max is probably the best documented software but can also be highly confusing to the novice. But would set you best for the games industry.
I was a Max user, i played a lot of time with xsi (years), maya and blehh... Modo do all what i need without efforts and in the fastest way. You only need to read the pdf included, and watch videos and more video tutorials.
I don't use another thing, only Modo ^^
I'm so glad I asked this forum about recommended software. I almost gave up on 3D Art because I was so frustraited with Blender. XSI has really turned that around for me. I keep finding myself daydreaming of models to create and how I can go about doing them in XSI.
If your on a budget, Silo for modeling and you can use Blender for rigging.
Also, I agree that if you learn Maya, going to any other app will be a breeze.
There isn't exactly a correct answer. Each has it's strengths. I know both Maya and 3dsmax well though so here are a couple reasons I use one or the other.
Maya:
the good- visibility. I love maya for it's scene information. At any time I can EASILY find link parent etc anything. There are no hidden nodes in Maya. This is a strength for certain. I also find organic modeling quite pleasant. The custom scripting and customizable interface is rad.
the bad- rigging is a bit complicated if you're not aware of the technical constraints that maya will let you do when you really shouldn't. Such as joints rotating incorrectly. Not to mention setting up IK and FK or more complicated rigs.
3dsmax-
the good- Character Studios is the bees knees. It is so easy to implement and animate with. I recommend it if you're rigging bipeds regularly. Animating in 3dsmax has surpassed maya as well.
the bad- visibility. It's not fun grouping objects and finding missing textures in 3dsmax. There's a lot happening behind the scenes you dont know about. There are ways to do some of these things in here but it might involve 5 different windows.
Blender is a deadend, and its users can never work professionally!
Nodes: similar to xsi's material editor, which uses a nodes setup as well
Organic Modeling: think organics, humans animals, etc
Rigging: attaching a mesh to a skeleton
IK: Inverse Kinematics. Move the hand and the upper and lower arm move accordingly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_kinematics)
FK: forward Kinematics. Move the shoulder and the arm moves alongside. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_kinematics)
Character Studio: A quick setup for animating a humanoid within 3dsmax
Biped: a bipedal character such as a human. biped = 2 feet. quadraped = 4 feet.
Alex
...don't know if anyone here has heard of it, but I have spent a good year messing with the trial and haven't looked back. Animation may not be as powerful as Max though, but as others stated above, its a matter of what suits you.
Use the Trial, Luke...
THE MASTER ELITE
Such sweet memories. The booleans were quite powerful in there! I remember doing whole vehicles with just that! And then came trueSpace3, with metaballs!
If you want to spend money, and you want all the features, you will have to go for one of the big 3. SoftImage XSI, Maya 3D, or 3D Studio Max. Of those three, 3DSMax is the most industry-standard for game development, and SoftImage is probably the best for more high-end CGI work. I know there are trial versions for SoftImage and Maya, so give those a look-see before making a choice. These are all pricey programs.
If you want to spend money, but don't want to break the bank, you might consider settling for a modeling-centric program. These would be ZBrush, MudBox, or Silo 3D. All of these are going to run you much, much less than the big-name packages, and you can use them to produce some very detailed models. The downside is that there are many features that you won't be able to enjoy. Most noticeably, I don't think any of these packages supports animation. I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure these packages focus on pure modeling. Most of them feature decent support for exporting your models into formats that would be more friendly for games. (obj, 3ds, etc...)
If you want a compromise between free and commercial, your best bet is probably the SoftImage XSI Mod Tool. (ver 6) This is a very nice package that provides a lot of the features available in the full version of SoftImage XSI. At the same time, it streamlines the interface for game modeling, and makes learning how to do low-poly modeling in SoftImage fairly easy. It also provides all of the tools you need for constructing, texturing, animating, and exporting models. It even has packages available for exporting finished models into various game engines. (it is the default tool for making Source-Engine models) I've only used it a little bit, but I highly recommend it if you want to make game models.