Best 3D Modeling and Animation Program

#1 Hey there !

3ds Max, Maya - its all much of a muchness - stay away from them until you upgrade your learning potential - absolutely NOT your first port of call !! :-)

In all due honesty, I think you should go for software such as MilkShape or LightRay3d. These are very good products - especially for character/avatar etc design, and is based on low polygon techniques - ie the number of connected faces needed to form your object. Alot of people strive for less, but with hardware advancements, even a medium range of 2000 polys isnt bad at all.

They are perfect for an introduction to serious 3d modelling, and less than a tenth of what 3ds etc cost. There are also fairly competent exporters for DTS supplied with these to get you on your way. It also supplies you with basic animation features aswell, and allows you to export to DSQ - the Torque animation data - format as well.

And not to mention Blender - which is fully featured - completley free - but does have a steep learning curve and "unusual" gui. But that aside, its an exceptional package. Maybe also not for starters, but pick it up for sure, asap !!!

There is also Anim8or, which is possibly the most easiest 3d modelling software ever, but nowhere near as featured as the others -- but use it more playing around.

For designing .DIF files ( Your buildings, interiors etc) - well, GG has released constructor, which is only going to get better anyways. I do think its free?

Alternatively, there are at least two VERY excellent programs that you can use to design your interiors - 3d World Studio, and DeleD - WWW.Leadwerks.com and WWW.Delgine.com

I still use those now - and have always found them to be exceptional when working with CSG and exporting to the .MAP file format. And of course, theres always Quark/Hammer - if they are still around....

I personally think it is a rather useless exercise to give you an indication on how hard any 3d work is. The best way you will ever find out, is to jump in at the start, and accept the fact that you ARE just new, dont get ahead of yourself. Easier said then done!! The sites that provide the software I mentioned also contain tutorials from begginer to advanced, and they can be applied to any application, basically.

You DO NOT have to be academically oriented for this !!!
But you must have at least some drive and passion!!

Hope this was at least some help for ya !

Regards,

Daniel.

#2 I looked at a demo of 3ds Max 8 and the first Pawn tutorial was terribly written as the instructions weren't able to be followed properly. I had to snoop around for a lot to be able to actually do it. Too hard you reckon? Maybe I'll give Milkshape a try then.

#3 I looked at a demo of 3ds Max 8 and the first Pawn tutorial was terribly written as the instructions weren't able to be followed properly. I had to snoop around for a lot to be able to actually do it. Too hard you reckon? Maybe I'll give Milkshape a try then.

#4 LightRay3d

is an excellent tool.. is not too expensive ( like 100 us dollars ).. its incredibly user friendly.. way much easier to use than milkshape and blender and works great with torque... i think its great tool to start ...


you can download a demo of it here:


www.sxcreations.com/lr3d/lightray3d.php

hope this helps

Cheers

#5 Actually, just a heads up there on LightRay3d !!

It is infact a brilliant program to use - for Torque/Blitz what ever -
but I would like to also point out that they are bringing out a less full featured edition of LightRay3d, called ..
LiteRay3d - get it?? Oh well...

Anyways, this will be slightly less expensive, less featured - but heavily geared towards popular "modding" and game engine character design.

It might be worth holding out for that one if you do indeed intend to purchase any of the software.

Mind you - when you look at what LightRay3d does - it pays for itself !!! Brilliant software and brilliant pricing -
much more advanced than Milkshape 3d - but - whatever floats yer boat I guess...

Regards,

Daniel.

-PS For what its worth, I actually stopped using Maya and LightWAVE in favour of LightRay3d and MilkShape, simply because they fit so perfectly into my development pipeline - not so strenuous on system resources - it was a seamless transition, and one I dont regret. Serioulsy, unless you are going into basic 3d production, there is NO need for highend packages !! HONEST !!! Try em all out. Use what works for you, and hopefully, buy the software. Dont get into the "mine is bigger than yours" crap with 3d programs !! GO FOR IT !!!

#6 I've these programs around: Constructor, ShowToolsPro and Cartography Shop. What are they exactly? The descriptions are all long and drawn-out and I can't easily find what they are exactly.

#7 Constructor is the GG made program for designing your .DIF files.
DIF files are basically all your interiors or any large scale object, such as bridges, buildings, large rocks etc, and anything with an interior :)

ShowTool Pro is a program designed for viewing your .DTS files, to make sure that they integrate smoothly into TGE/TGEA. Its basically a fine tuning program, not to be confused with a designing program. DTS files are anything of a smaller nature than .DIF - example - your players character, various onscreen objects like crates, plants, pickup items etc etc.

Cartography Shop is a design program, almost cad like style, used for designing buildings, houses, etc etc. You can use this to design buildings and the sort for Torque by using the Cartography Shop exporter. But it has more or less been superseeded by 3d World Studio, which already comes with exporters for torque and more.

Hope this was some help :)

Regards,

Daniel.