Best 3-D Modeling Software

[HemlockGrey]

I'm going to teach myself basic 3-D modeling(it's going to be a bloody uphill battle) and I was wondering what the best program out there is. I have some very limited experience with InfiniD, but that's it.

Try to keep it 100-500 dollars, if that's possible.

[oberon]

Oh, IDEAS, of course!

[oberon]

Oh, IDEAS, of course!

[oberon]

"You cannot make another post so soon after your last post, please try again later"... "OK!" *click*

[Sea Skimmer]

Think you could try a little less blatant way of inflating your post count?

+1

[oberon]

Yeah, I could
TRY...

[HemlockGrey]

Info, plz!

[Enlightenment]

Try to keep it 100-500 dollars, if that's possible.

3D software in that price range is a real waste of money. All you get in the $100-$500 dollar range is a unstable, feature-poor software that has a bare minimum of features but none of the serious tools needed to actually do anything. Start with the free/cheap stuff and save up your money for the pro tools like Lightwave, Maya, or 3DSMax.

As for what free stuff to start with, take a look at Blender, OpenFX, and a combination of Povray and an external modeler such as Wings or Hamapatch.

[oberon]

OK, then, in all soberosity, I don't know, but maybe a retelling of my limited experience will help, at least a little? First off, I don't know what you mean by "3D modeling". Do you mean making special effects/CGI? Then I don't know at all. Or do you mean design? Or do you mean fluid dynamics? Then my (very) limited knowledge I can share.

IDEAS is in use by auto manufacturers, and it's easy to use, but it doesn't have an "undo last" button. That doesn't prevent it from being used to design cars and a whole bunch of other shit. I've used it and it seems nice and fairly intuitive, you have plenty of options, and the learning curve is shallow. So my only beef is the no undo thing.

I used a program in school called "CFD" which is a dumb name bec it was the same name as the thing it was modeling, and it's not the only one. I didn't like it. If you made a finite element picture in some other program (mine was Mathematica), then it would seem to read the image you made, until you actually tried to run a calc on it. Then it became apparent that what looked like nodes to you, did NOT look like nodes to the CFD program. I wasted an entire summer project trying different formats (STL, Python, others that I can't renk) to translate my images into something on which CFD could perform FEM. If you make the image in[/i[ CFD to begin with, it's very nice. It did have an undo feature, but instead of following the order in which you MADE stuff, it would DELETE stuff in some kind of random order.

So I could name 2 things that were state-of-the-art as late as 2002, and the things that are being worked on are the coding and usability issues I just mentioned--and add that I would have to try some of the other large licenses, such as CATIA, which is in use by Chrysler (for one).

Now, you did have the price stipulation. So I can't help you. I'm not helping huh? But hey, it's one more post The licenses I mentioned are in the tens-of-K dollars. Mathematica student version should be abt $150, and if you want to write the code, it will do anything.

[Azeron]

go download 3d studio max. its pretty good, and lightwave aint bad either. though its warezzzzz..

[Beowulf]

Here's what you do...
Join your high school's robotics team.
Convince them to do the animation competition.
Win said competition.
Get free copy of 3DS Max and new laptop.

Aside from that, download POV-ray.

[Enlightenment]

Do you mean making special effects/CGI? Then I don't know at all. Or do you mean design? Or do you mean fluid dynamics? Then my (very) limited knowledge I can share.

He's talking about 3D graphics. Building 3D virtual models (meshes) is generally called modeling.

[Shaka[Zulu]]

Here's what you do...
Join your high school's robotics team.
Convince them to do the animation competition.
Win said competition.
Get free copy of 3DS Max and new laptop.

Aside from that, download POV-ray.

not many high schools even THINK about doing projects like that (just mention it to them and an overwhelming majority will laugh and snicker behind your back)... even the most prestigious private schools in the country would rather waste their money sending social studies classes on field trips to the UN or Washington DC than letting their science classes do REAL work. there just isnt much prestige to go with having a truly world-class high-school science/engineering department... stuff that leads to law & politics however... need I say more?

[Beowulf]

Thing is, this is actually how one of my friends got a brand new laptop...
Then he went and bought Lightwave. Most of the high schools in the area i went to school were pretty tech friendly. Then again, this is Silicon Valley we're talking about... However, there are something like 600 teams around the nation for FIRST, so, um, yeah...

Oh, if your in high school, see if you can get one of your science teachers to help you make a team... It'll only cost around $15,000 for the whole thing
(Yes, my team did regularly spend more a year than all the rest of the clubs combined...)

website:
http://usfirst.org

[Shaka[Zulu]]

yeah... nice, but the FIRST competition is not what I mean when I suggest doing a competition, for the simple reason that the organization so heavily restricts what you can do, and the exact nature of the event itself. I prefer the AUVSI competitions... see here:

http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/

note that these competitions are not limited to just university students... high schools can compete as well, but you have to be much farther along than for FIRST, because they dont do half the work for you by telling you what to build and how you can build it.

[EmperorMing]

Try to keep it 100-500 dollars, if that's possible.

3D software in that price range is a real waste of money. All you get in the $100-$500 dollar range is a unstable, feature-poor software that has a bare minimum of features but none of the serious tools needed to actually do anything. Start with the free/cheap stuff and save up your money for the pro tools like Lightwave, Maya, or 3DSMax.

As for what free stuff to start with, take a look at Blender, OpenFX, and a combination of Povray and an external modeler such as Wings or Hamapatch.

Thanx for the info. Been thinking of the same thing...

[salm]

i started with blender (we made a crapy little spacebattle animation for a project in my university), did a FormZ Radiozity CAD course at my university and am now messing with charakter modeling with 3ds max.

blender was quite a good start because it was free and is quite good imo. the user interface might be a bit weird but you´ll get used to that in no time. formZ is good for architectural modeling but lacks a good feature of getting measurements on your plot.

i dont have to say that max kicks ass but is fucking expensive.

[Shaka[Zulu]]

in any case, to get back on topic, the best modeling SW depends on what you are doing...

for engineering, IDEAS
for general industrial design: AutoCAD -- widely available, and can be understood by just about everything else
for media: MAX, Lightwave, MAYA, Rhino -- all of which can export to others programs like IDEAS as well iirc.

[Ted]

Think you could try a little less blatant way of inflating your post count?

+1

And you aren't?

+1

[bigchicken]

Personally, I'd get MAYA. There are copies floating around out there...and a "personal learning edition" that you can download from alias|Wavefront. It watermarks your images, but it's great for learning the mechanics of modeling.

So, if your against warez, go with the personal learning edition. I used it till I could find a copy of MAYA 4

[LordChaos]

Both Maya and Lightwave offer a free version intended for learning.

I *think* the older versions of Truespace are also free (but don't quote me on that).

[Enlightenment]

Both Maya and Lightwave offer a free version intended for learning.

I *think* the older versions of Truespace are also free (but don't quote me on that).

The demo/learning version of lightwave can't save meshes with over 400 points and is therefore utterly useless for learning to model.

Caligari sells the older versions of trueSpace at a slightly reduced price. IMO tS is still a ripoff even at $200usd for version four. Put the money towards a real 3D package rather than an overgrown toy.

[LordChaos]

Both Maya and Lightwave offer a free version intended for learning.

I *think* the older versions of Truespace are also free (but don't quote me on that).

The demo/learning version of lightwave can't save meshes with over 400 points and is therefore utterly useless for learning to model.

Caligari sells the older versions of trueSpace at a slightly reduced price. IMO tS is still a ripoff even at $200usd for version four. Put the money towards a real 3D package rather than an overgrown toy.

Hey! I USE Truespace (3.1 and 4.2). (because I started with it, and so I can't figure out lightwave or maya...)

[salm]

Both Maya and Lightwave offer a free version intended for learning.

I *think* the older versions of Truespace are also free (but don't quote me on that).

The demo/learning version of lightwave can't save meshes with over 400 points and is therefore utterly useless for learning to model.

Caligari sells the older versions of trueSpace at a slightly reduced price. IMO tS is still a ripoff even at $200usd for version four. Put the money towards a real 3D package rather than an overgrown toy.

Hey! I USE Truespace (3.1 and 4.2). (because I started with it, and so I can't figure out lightwave or maya...)

of course you can. i managed to go from blender to max. it´s the same thing just different buttons and submenus and 70 billion more buttons 80 trillion more submenues.

[LordChaos]

The demo/learning version of lightwave can't save meshes with over 400 points and is therefore utterly useless for learning to model.

Caligari sells the older versions of trueSpace at a slightly reduced price. IMO tS is still a ripoff even at $200usd for version four. Put the money towards a real 3D package rather than an overgrown toy.

Hey! I USE Truespace (3.1 and 4.2). (because I started with it, and so I can't figure out lightwave or maya...)

of course you can. i managed to go from blender to max. it´s the same thing just different buttons and submenus and 70 billion more buttons 80 trillion more submenues.

It's not that the buttons are different, or in different places... it's that I can't find out how to do ANYTHING I can already do in Truespace. It took the better part of half an hour and constant dirrections from someone else to teach me how to do simple Bollean operations.. and they still don't come out the way they should (would in Truespace). let allone distortions, sweeps, etc. (possibley because I don't use the mouse for manipulating objects, I work with the raw numbers and properties...)