Looking for a Budget 3D Package
polycounter lvl 6
Hello everyone, I'm brand new to polycount here, but have heard many good things and have decided to register today.
First a bit about myself. I'm a young 3d artist just starting out. I do have about a year and a half of industry experience, and right now am in between contracts. I'm wanting to use this time to work on portfolio pieces, personal projects, and maybe some freelance work on the side. The problem is, I no longer have access to a major 3D package like I did while I was in school or working for a studio.
So I'm looking to purchase one, however seeing as I am unemployed at the moment, I don't have a lot of money. I've been looking around the forums here and the tools wiki page, downloading some trials of various software, but I was wondering what you guys would recommend for a budget of $1000? I'm lucky enough to already own Zbrush and the Adobe Creative suite, but I'm lacking a basic 3D modeling, animation and rendering package.
The only one I can see that offers everything for about 1000 bucks is Lightwave. Other ones I have checked out are Silo, and Modo for mostly modeling, but I would like animation as well, and character animation if I can get it. I've also seriously considered Blender, however a lot of the guys I talked to at the previous studio I worked at sort of turned their noses at it. It seems being open source anything makes you a bit of a black sheep in the professional market.
So what do you guys think? What's a good budget tool that I can use for my personal work, some freelance, and will be recognized by future employers to show I have the technical skills?
First a bit about myself. I'm a young 3d artist just starting out. I do have about a year and a half of industry experience, and right now am in between contracts. I'm wanting to use this time to work on portfolio pieces, personal projects, and maybe some freelance work on the side. The problem is, I no longer have access to a major 3D package like I did while I was in school or working for a studio.
So I'm looking to purchase one, however seeing as I am unemployed at the moment, I don't have a lot of money. I've been looking around the forums here and the tools wiki page, downloading some trials of various software, but I was wondering what you guys would recommend for a budget of $1000? I'm lucky enough to already own Zbrush and the Adobe Creative suite, but I'm lacking a basic 3D modeling, animation and rendering package.
The only one I can see that offers everything for about 1000 bucks is Lightwave. Other ones I have checked out are Silo, and Modo for mostly modeling, but I would like animation as well, and character animation if I can get it. I've also seriously considered Blender, however a lot of the guys I talked to at the previous studio I worked at sort of turned their noses at it. It seems being open source anything makes you a bit of a black sheep in the professional market.
So what do you guys think? What's a good budget tool that I can use for my personal work, some freelance, and will be recognized by future employers to show I have the technical skills?
Replies
Also, this might help on your search: http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTools
This way you can keep working with the industry standards and remain legal.
Blender works, as mentioned. You could try getting in on the Autodesk student deal if you qualify (check your id card, the date may be generous). If not, check out their assistance program for the recently unemployed http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=assistance_home
You could also use Autodesk's ModTool, which is heavily similar to Softimage/XSI 7. It's non commercial, but shouldn't matter for personal/portfolio stuff (the student/assistant programs would be non-commercial too). Only downside is a viewport/render watermark, but if you use UDK/Unity/Marmoset/whatever to show your work off then it wont make a difference.
ralusek: I was actually pretty excited to use blender, especially seeing all the things the new 2.5 can do. I even bought the newest open movie they completed and was quite impressed. The only thing that stops me from using it is the amount of time needed to learn it since it is so different and the fact that a lot of industry professionals seems to dislike it for whatever reason.
r_fletch_r & cryrid: I'm certainly out for the student side of things there, as my student id wasn't valid for almost half a year now, and I actually never had a working student e-mail address. I never heard of the assistance program though, so I'll certainly take a look at that.
Also cryrid, yes it is Matt. I also recognize that poor sheep as your avatar. But I can't place who you are :P
Be careful with Cinema4D you might have to buy some additional modules along with the core package depending on what you want to do with it, which will increase the cost significantly.
Lightwave is a similar story with plugins. Quite a few freelancers over on the Luxology forums seem to use a combo of Lightwave/Messiah(animation) + Modo(modeling/rendering), but that's already way over budget.
Blender is free though the new version 2.5 isn't quite ready for serious modeling in my opinion yet, maybe in the next 6 months...
All four of those apps are not considered "industry standard" for games so the only thing that will impress potential employers will be your portfolio.
As for freelance my experience (game industry) has been that Max is the standard with Maya being a distant second. You might have trouble landing freelance games jobs without Max or Maya, though it really depends on who your clients are. For example I would image a lot of indie developers rely on Blender as their 3D app of choice due to it being free. In the end it doesn't matter what app you use as a freelancer as long as you can deliver the files in the format that the client wants.
400$ for maya, dunno how much 3ds costs.
[edit] woops didn't notice you wanted to do freelance with it which would be against the license conditions iirc.
Another thread about adding another app to Modo to get animation, not from a game art perspective.
and
Modo plus Messiah for Game Development
http://mavenseed.com/
http://www.blendercookie.com/
http://www.blendersupportdesk.com/
http://www.blenderguru.com/
http://www.cgmasters.net/
EDIT:
Oh! I just saw this: Win yourself a copy of Modo!
Also check out milkshape if you need to convert to specific formats, as its free for that stuff.
You are asking for the best cheap option for a all rounder, blender is the answer. Like you said Modo and silo or other apps are great or superior in certain areas but they can't animate or do all the other stuff (baking, rigging, scripting, extending, animating, skinning, physics, particles,...). Blender can do that and in that regards can be compared to XSI, Maya or 3dsMax.
Thanks for the all the input guys, I appreciate it a lot.
And I own it, and it has a floating license. So if I do contract work or go to work somewhere else etc, I can show up and start cranking work out on day 1, instead of getting up to speed/set up with new software, loading up plugs and scripts, making changes and adjustments to my work flow based on whatever version of whatever software I've been provided etc. I'm really starting to appreciate the idea of being self sufficient.
It does appear to have some limitations though, in regards to making game art. (Perhaps there are work arounds. I don't know the app well enough yet.) Particularly in regards to controlling and adjusting ones normals etc. Supposedly that has been addressed in the next version, but I'm inclined to take care of those things in whatever the app is my employer is using anyway, just for consistences sake.
On a less relevant note, I also think the design, the direction it's going, and company attitude and mentality behind it is really solid. I think knowing this tool and adding it to my arsenal is going to assist me in taking my game and marketability to the next level.
They do have a certain amateur reputation, which is not entiretly undeserved as most results from them look as if they were done ten years ago. But thats because alot of amateurs use them whom dont know what they are doing.
Go insert monies
You're not a company.
If you're still looking for a cheap animation package, check out this insane deal! for Messiah ($40 for the Pro version normally $1195, $10 for the Basic version).
EDIT:
Hmm... after a bit of research it seems that Messiah has a dongle based DRM system (yuck!) which seems to prevent some people from ever being able to use it.
I think I'll just use Blender if I need any smooth skinned animation tools in the near future.
EDIT2:
I couldn't resist $10 for the Basic version of Messiah. Now at least I have options if I need any animation tools.
There's really no other choice with the same selection of tools at that price level.
The 2.4x and 2.5x releases of it are really good, and it has overcome most of the shortcomings of the past.
It does everything.
Modeling
Compositing
Rendering
Baking
Animation
Particles
Sculpting (not the best, but it's improving by leaps and bounds)
Python scripting
etc...
Modeling especially is very good. It has a very easy and casual feeling about it. Mostly just the G(translate),S(scale),R(otate),E(extrude) keys and the mouse.
The problems with the other cheap programs is that they either focus on one thing, or they are just limited versions of much more expensive programs to upsell you in the future.
With Blender you get a nice program where all the features are good to excellent. The renderer is not the best in the world, but it's more than good enough for most needs, and it will be incrementally improved in the future, like all features.
Something like Carrara has a nice prefab library and a nice renderer, but the actual modeling is shit and useless. I own a version of Carrara and wouldn't model in it if you put a gun to my head. It did have a very nice tree generator though!
http://illusionmage.com/index2.htm
"The companies IllusionMage and 3Dmagix resell via their websites Blender under their own name. Both websites are probably managed by the same person or company."
Take a look here for more info:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10589
I'm shocked that he/she can get away with it.
blender gets all the basic 3d package stuff out of the way and has a excellent bone animation system but currently has a few week spots with poly modeling which can be fleshed out with silo.
This is a link to Blender 2.5+ bundled with the Norma rig. A pretty solid rig for practicing animation.
Norman info:http://ivogrigull.com/blog/?page_id=127
Of course, I haven't used it so I can't really vouch for it but from the reviews it might be worth a gander?