3DS Max anyone?

[BMW POWER]

i plan to try some 3D modelling but i'm not to sure what program would be best. i mainly want to do high detail character design. someone recommended 3DS Max and after looking around, 3DS seems to look the best out of the lot. if anyone has any experience with 3D modelling or knows about the programs your help would be appreciated
cheers

 

[rjensen11]

What type of 3d modelling are you interested in? 3d Studio Max is very good, but it is also MUCH MUCH harder than Photoshop, especially if you are trying to make all of your models from scratch, which is what I'm trying to do(if you need an example, check out the Photography & Graphics folder and search for some of my posts of my 3d models.)
3d Studio Max is very expensive, however, and if you want any plugins(which aid SO much, and I'm thankful of having some of them) you should also expect to spend a pretty penny on those as well.

That is, if you plan on buying it/them....

 

[Shannon]

3D Studio Max is the cream of the crop. It's used in the majority of 3D Games. The other option is Maya - which costs about twice as much as 3DSM. Maya was used in Gran Turismo 3.

 

[Shannon]

Originally posted by rjensen11
That is, if you plan on buying it/them....

And did you buy you're copy? $3,000 seems like a lot to shell out for someone that only has a 200mhz computer...

 

[CDailey]

Originally posted by Shannon
3D Studio Max is the cream of the crop. It's used in the majority of 3D Games. The other option is Maya - which costs about twice as much as 3DSM. Maya was used in Gran Turismo 3.

What did they use Maya for? THe car models?

 

[Solid Fro]

I suppose Polyphony used Maya to model everything, including the tracks, buildings, and cars.

 

[Pako]

You could use a combination of 'Poser' for body structure and skelital design, and 3DSM for the details.

That is of course if your into animating your models.

 

[BMW POWER]

i would like to try and design some animated models, so do you guys think 3DSM is worth the money or could i get the same results from something cheaper?

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by Shannon
And did you buy you're copy? $3,000 seems like a lot to shell out for someone that only has a 200mhz computer...

I have 3dsm on my 1.7ghz computer. My 200 runs Linux, not Windows.

Originally posted by Pako
You could use a combination of 'Poser' for body structure and skelital design, and 3DSM for the details.

That is of course if your into animating your models.

I don't know about poser. I'm going to try it out sometime soon, but I get a better feeling knowing I made the models from scratch, and this way they can all look different, rather than appearing as if they all came from the same model. But hey, I'm sure it can be customized enough to look different, but then you start to wonder whether or not it's just better to start from scratch, and that gets you back to the beginning...

Originally posted by BMW POWER
i would like to try and design some animated models, so do you guys think 3DSM is worth the money or could i get the same results from something cheaper?

It's a matter of principles. If you think you'll only be interested as a hobbyist, then I'd go with something cheaper. I know there are things out there, things for all different platforms. There's POV Ray http://www.povray.org/, which runs on Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux, as well as many other 3d modelling programs. I can't really give any reviews for any ones other than 3dsm, but that's because my dad hasn't let me put Linux on any decent computer yet. Once he does, I'll try out some 3d modelling programs(Most likely I'll start out with POV Ray, seeing that its results are very good. I'll try it out on Windows, but if it appears as if it's impossible to make complexe animations[well, simple to look at, such as just a simple character, but it's still complexe because of the morphing objects and such] I will give it a [poor] review.)

 

[f50]

i down load a free program for make 3d grafics is called ani8tor, i didn't use yet but if you want just use like hoby and don't have much money you could try it.

sorry if this program is to cheaper, but is the only one free i know and if got or know a better one,please let me know.

 

[Solid Fro]

You could use Discreet's Character Studio 4. Ubi Soft used Character Studio for modeling characters in Splinter Cell.

Unless you want to go professional, you don't buy programs like these. One copy of 3D Studio Max 5 is $3,495. See my point?

 

[BMW POWER]

ok i got a copy of 3DSM 5 and its very impressive but i havent got the foggiest on how to work it, if anyone can recommend any very simple tutorials for beginners then it would be appreciated
cheers

 

[ALPHA]

I have no idea about some good sites but a good place to start is google.

 

[rjensen11]

use the tutorials that come with it, and also check out http://www.3dcafe.com

 

[Psxgamer27]

3dsmax is a great program....i recommend 3.1, i dont like 5....i used to run it on my 266..lol but it runs fine on my 1.7 now.....i have maya but havent tried it yet...

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by Viper Zero
You could use Discreet's Character Studio 4. Ubi Soft used Character Studio for modeling characters in Splinter Cell.

Unless you want to go professional, you don't buy programs like these. One copy of 3D Studio Max 5 is $3,495. See my point?

Uhh, Character Studio is a PLUGIN for 3d Studio Max. Ubisoft used 3d Studio Max and Character Studio for everything for their Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear games. But ever since they started using the Unreal engine, they've steered away from 3dsm for maps.... I wonder why, 3dsm is soooo much better than the programs they use now....

Originally posted by Psxgamer27
3dsmax is a great program....i recommend 3.1, i dont like 5....i used to run it on my 266..lol but it runs fine on my 1.7 now.....i have maya but havent tried it yet...

Really? I love 5 so much more than 3.1! At first I didn't like how the keys were set up with 5(R didn't go to Right View angle, K didn't go to back, and B didn't go to bottom, so I had to hit V to bring up a menu of the viewports), but simple configurations of the program let you set it up however you want! I use two viewports on the left side and one on the right(This is especially helpful when doing objects like humans. If I were to do animals like bears, cats(big ones), or dogs and the such, I would have two on top and one on bottom.)

 

[Shannon]

3.1? I use 4.2.

 

[rjensen11]

3.x and 2.5 are all resource hogs, that's why I prefer 5.1 over 3.1

 

[Psxgamer27]

i never have a problem with 3.1 and resources...then aqgain i have 768mb ram

 

[rjensen11]

Originally posted by Psxgamer27
i never have a problem with 3.1 and resources...then aqgain i have 768mb ram

Heh, that's still not enough for when I render... But then again, I do some complexe images, with hair and the such.... I remember having well over 500MB of memory, most of it was imaginary, for one frame.... Maybe if I want to produce some films, I should hack into Pixar's computers to use those to render for me?