3D Modeling

[Janet]

I have a question. I'd really like to learn to model. What are some good and cheap programs for doing that? I have Hexagon but didn't get very far with it.

 

[theschell]

Hexagon is a good modeller... it's a shame you couldn't work with it... I use it along with DS and Poser for just about everything I do.

There are a ton of different programs for modeling... Blender, ZBrush, 3DS Max, Maya, Lightwave (though that one is pricey), Carrra, Sketch-up, Blacksmith... just to name a few...

 

[Janet]

Yah there are a lot. Maybe I'll give Hexagon another try.

 

[theschell]

Hex really is a good program once you get used to using it. It can be a bit quirky, and takes some getting used to, but that applies to any program you might choose.... they each have their strengths and weaknesses. These were all modeled in Hexagon, just to give you some idea of its capabilities... once you become familiar with using it...

 

[Janet]

Wow!

 

[theschell]

Of course, everyone has certain programs they are able to work with better than the others they try... so try out as many programs as you can. The big thing with any program is taking the time to learn it, none of them are gonna make you an expert modeller over night. I've been working with Hexagon for around 8 years or so now...

 

[Janet]

Good advice!

 

[Miss B]

I had gotten Hex many years ago, but for whatever reason my old WinXP Pro laptop didn't like it. It just wouldn't act stable, so I never bothered installing it on this Win7 Pro when I got it.

I've been using Blender off and on for a long time, and yes the UI can be daunting to a beginner, but I started with Blender long before the current UI was created, and if you want to talk about daunting . . . well I won't go into that.

I will say this, Janet, I have a very long, ongoing list of helpful Blender links here in the Blender forum, and Blender is free open source software, so won't hurt the wallet to try it out, if you know what I mean.

 

[Janet]

I looked at Blender a while ago, they have a bird murmuration setting that's so awesome!

 

[Miss B]

You've got me on that one Janet. I have no idea what that is, but can only assume it's some type of animation.

 

[theschell]

Personally I didn't like Blender... never could wrap my head around the UI or hotkey functions... I must have tried about 8 or 10 different modellers before I settled into Hexagon. It just clicked with the way my mind is organized I guess. I found it very intuitive and easy to work with compared to the others I'd tried, but to each their own I say, you gotta find what's best for you!

 

[Janet]

Miss B, mumurations are one of the most fascinating things ever! As far as I know they still don't know why birds do this. It's bird ballet and poetry on a mass scale. I'd love to make one of Ken's birds do this!

 

[David]

I use Silo. I find it easy to use and capable of doing anything I've asked it to do. It's inexpensive and easy to learn. The Nevercenter (makers of Silo) site is full of tutorials to get you started. There are also a lot of Silo based tutorials for sale over at Renderosity by Fugazi1968 that helped me with creating in Silo.

 

[Miss B]

@theschell I didn't have a problem with using Hex, as it seemed fairly easy to use, it was just the instability of the software on my laptop that forced me to give up on using it. I don't know why it acted the way it did, but it often jumped around when I did the simplest thing lick clicking on a link. It just became too frustrating to work with.

@David I also have Silo, and was able to get it very inexpensively a couple of years ago. I like the ease of use and the simple UI as well. In fact, it was one of Fugazi's tutorials that allowed me to actually model a piece of clothing for the first time, so that's what I use Silo for, and leave Blender for the props and environment stuff.

 

[theschell]

@theschell I didn't have a problem with using Hex, as it seemed fairly easy to use, it was just the instability of the software on my laptop that forced me to give up on using it. I don't know why it acted the way it did, but it often jumped around when I did the simplest thing lick clicking on a link. It just became too frustrating to work with.

Some people seem to have issues running Hex and others don't... I find it to be reasonably stable without any major glitches save the odd random crash. It seems to depend on the software/hardware environment of each system it's installed on. I started using it on an old Pentium 4 with WinXP... it's installed on my old Dual Core desktop system with Win XP now, and on my Quad-Core laptop with Win7 and has run fine for me...

 

[3WC]

I will put in a plug for blender also. It is one of the most powerful 3d programs around, yet completely free. I think what puts a lot of people off is that it is kind of like a swiss army knife with one thousand tools. All you need is a corkscrew, but look at all these other features! So it can be overwhelming. You almost need to learn blender with blinders on, so to speak. Focus on what you want to learn and ignore the rest. After a few years of using it I still discover amazing features. Sometimes I will be thinking, I need a program to do this or that, let me do an internet search. And lo and behold, oh, blender can do that! So then it is time to learn another part of the program.

 

[Miss B]

I happen to feel the same way 3wC, as I decided to take a Blender course at Udemy, because I've never done sculpting, which I wasn't that good at with Sculptris, and spline modeling, which I tried years ago with a trial version of Rhino 3D. Now that I know Blender does both, I figured it's time to learn some more goodies with my modeling software of choice.

 

[Janet]

Does Blender still require a 3 button mouse?

 

[Janet]

Thank you everyone! I just downloaded Blender. I got the work arounds for the 3 button mouse. I'm gonna try to model a pot belly stove as when I was looking for one last night, there was only a DS version.

 

[theschell]

Not sure if this would be helpful but...If you have DS you can load the item and then export the geometry as a an obj. You'd then be able to load that object in Poser though you'd have to manually apply materials and adjust surfaces. For something like that pot-belly stove you mentioned this would be an easy approach, not really useful if you want it as a rigged figure though... For something rigged you would need to export a Poser type CR2 from DS, which you could also do, though this won't work well with anything weight-mapped...