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3D application - Which one should I buy next?

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#1

Hey everybody! I’m having some serious issues here. I’m very new to this whole 3D modeling genre, so I’m not very familiar with the programs.

I need something to accompany ZBrush. My forte is photo-realism and ease-of-use. For a noob like me I’m becoming very confused with all the jabber.

I’ve been impressed by the renderings I have seen from C4D. I’m also familiar with the professional implications that 3DS has. Then there’s Lightwave, and Wings, and on, and on, and on.

Forget about price, guys, and tell me what you think I should get.

I’M COUNTING ON YOU!! :wink: PLEASE HELP.

Adam

#2

My advice is download the demo of all of them. Choose whichever one you like the best. All of those are great software, so it’s really just a personal choice.

#3

If you forget the price, take the all :slight_smile:
Pilou
ps the best price / quality seems Carrara 3 as renderer!
But try this absolute FREE prog similar 3Dmax !!! (Yes :eek: )
Anim8or.com :cool:
It’s so “big” that one floppy disk of 1.4 mega is suffisant :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

#4

okay…erase that…The software to look into is all in what suits your workflow. I suggest downloading the demos and try them all out. My opinion is either Lightwave or Cinema though LW seems the better (IMO anyway). Then there is codt consideration…

#5

my two cents, Nalrac: after zbrush, which is absolutely alone in his field, there is the choice between two “families” of modelling, each one having advantages… Nurbs and polygones… with the exception of the polygones of zbrush, I never learned to model in polys, and don’t know how to do the simplest form in polys; for exemple, lightwave (i think) don’t have nurbs tool, and most of the 3d package have very low nurbs tools; so I can suggest you try first to use in demo a poly software, and a nurbs one, and see what style is ok for you… with the coming of amapi pro that I did’nt try, actually the only “heavy” nurbs program is rhino… friendly.M. oh, and I agree with pilou: allowing to model ,one of the most powerful render engine actually is carrara 3, wich is cheap…

#6

Carrara is a good one–particularly when starting out. It’s capable of photorealism, and some animation. The only issue using it with ZB is that Carrara doesn’t support quads, only triangle, so you have to use the right export settings. I think there’s a thread on here somewhere that talked about this in detail.

#7

just to add that, in .obj, never had a single problem to import in carrara zmodels…

#8

I use LightWave, and it was like falling in love… :wink:
It also works wonderfully with ZBrush, and has a fine Displacement Mapping function, that the new version of ZB will take full advantage of.
:cool:

#9

May one ask what the final(commercial)result will be?
If we are talking hobby=
If we are talking business=
“Money no object” kind of makes the situation worse instead of better.
Also, what do you see yourself doing ( if hobby) down the road.
I like the suggestion of demo’s.
Even the kings at Maya have a ple you can play with.
No need to respond to anything I write here.
But as you are aware, everyone here is a little different, approaches things from a different perspective and has their own opinions on just about everything.
Which makes a question like this harder to answer.
One thing I am learning the hard way, there is no “one size fits all”
It also makes this kind of wide open forum extremely valuable.
edit: someone mentioned Carrara, they have an earlier version on sale for about 30 dollars it appears to have the basic interface of the later edition.
One more ps, Barnes and Noble have books about basically all the top of the line software packages.
Browse the aisles, thumb the books.

#10

Good points, Ryter… :+1:
I have a very close friend who uses Carrara, and I have been impressed with it. I like the render engine in particular, as well as the ‘shader’ options for material production. Also, if you decide to go to one of the ‘high-end’ apps later, the workflow, and a lot of the tool use is transferable to these other packages, and therefore what you learn will still be relevant… :sunglasses:

#11

Wow. I wasn’t expecting such a great response. You guys are so awesome.

Carrara sounds cool too. I haven’t even considered that. I’ll check that out.

Well, to clarify a little about my usage of the sofware. I want to do it mostly as a hobby but with the possibilty of going professional later. Right now it will be mostly still images. But animation is a future venture, for sure.

For photo realism I was looking at some different renderings and was impressed by the HDRI renderings of C4D. I also saw the subsurface scattering of Lightwave and was impressed by that. I just want something that would be reasonably easy to learn and be as versatile as possible.

And ZBrush is still at the top of my list of must-have-can’t-do-withouts.

Adam

#12

Houdini + Renderman is a very nice combo when price is not a consideration. Procedural modeling is very powerful.

#13

Hey Nalrac! :slight_smile:

The learning curve is a little steep with LightWave, but it seems to be able to do everything I want, and as ‘Inside LightWave’ points out, you don’t just ask what a tool does in LW, you try it and see if it works to do what you have in mind…
It has YET to disappoint me. :wink:
On the other hand, C4D does a lot of things as well, and the learning you achieve in C4D is ‘transportable’ to other apps.

So, by all means, check out Carrara and C4D…Both are great packages, and they do work well with ZBrush. I have MAYA, 3D Studio, LightWave, and the learning edition of SoftImage, and they all offer different things. In the end, it will come down to what you feel comfortable with anyway, and it is the artist, NOT the tool that does the work! :cool:

#14

cararra is a toy.
not very stable with complexe scenery.
ok, I think all of us will try to explain that this tool is better, but in fact many things depend of you handling, sensibility etc… then as said someone, try them all! :slight_smile:

Actually my prefered tools are :

-3dsmax
-Zbrush
-Animation master
-Amapi

#15

Hi Fouad
And me I have said if it’s not a story of price “buy all” :smiley: (see above)
You are an Amapian, I don’t know that :slight_smile:
Pilou
Ps What is your advice for
that ?

#16

I just received my Carrara-3 and have a few crashes, I haven’t found out what I did wrong, “unknown error”.
I realized that this is not the right forum to ask but there are many generous experienced user here then elsewhare.

Any idea advice?
Frenchy, does Animo8 export OBJ or dxf?

#17

filip, you have a patch for 303 version on eovia site; you can go on carrara site www.carrarastudio.net (I think) and ask a lot of questions… and sometimes you have some erratic things with carrara, but not more than other soft… reboot, in that cases… friendly.M.

#18

Hi Filip
You can export your 3D Objects in formats : 3ds, Obj, vtx ??, C and anim8or :slight_smile:
“export” ! and not “save as”
And import : 3Ds, lwo, obj
Hope this help!
Pilou

#19

Incidentally, I noticed you did not mention having it, but if you don’t, Adobe Photoshop is a must before considering anything else.
Even Zbrush agrees :their compatible exports imports etc are .psd files.
One suggestion, the new cs version is out.
Unless you have a digital camera the new features are not that much(IMHO).
But it does mean you may be able to get 7 and the books at a reduced rate.
Thought I would throw in a little plug.
Luck again

#20

Wow, You guys are the greatest!!!

marcel, I’ve the patch, did not seems to make any difference, maybe I click on things too fast. :+1: :smiley:

Frenchy, I have downloaded Animo8 and could not export.

Sorry rtyer, are you talking to me?

I just bought Anything Grows!( hair/fur ), Actually That is the main reason I bought Carrara. it also include Amapi-5 free! could use some spline modeler too.