3d Modeling Program of Choice

[Nemesis]

I like LightWave It's easy to use

[startrekfan001]

Hey guys, newbie over here. I like Anim8or to work best for me. I think its really one of the most userfriendly programs available. its just a shame that it has not much functionality... tough that is compensated by programs made by fans of Anim8or, like Terranim8or. it adds the functionality of particle streams and can generate terrains, simplify meshes, make animated textures, all things Anim8or cant do. Also something cool about it: you learn to simulate particles or other things in a way that it mostly saves you rendering time. on the trekmeshes.ch forum i posted a tutorial on making easy and low-renderingtime warpstars. its a really cool program! more people should see it! (its free, also) www.anim8or.com

I use AutoCAD for modeling and 3DSMax for rendering. AutoCAD gives the highest level of precision and it's vector based-- no slow down penalty for complexity. It has many limitations for complex 3D curves, but I can create guide curves and loft them later in Max as necessary. Max itself can be pretty frustrating (at least the old versions) so I try to minimize what I need to do there.

Later,
N. Wilde.

[fls13]

Programs like Max, Maya, Cinema 4d, Blender, do everything. You can model, set up scenes, render, everything you need to do in 3d in one application.

I have Poser so I never felt the need to get Daz studio, but they are similar in that they can render, you can set up scenes in them and they are particularly friendly for character work.

If you're just starting out, stay with those freebie apps. Daz, Blender. For rendering , I use Pov-ray, which is freeware, and modeling I use Blender.

[evil_genius_180]

You can add Lightwave and trueSpace to the list of programs that do everything. Taranis and Warrior can definitely agree on the Lightwave front and I'll throw up a "hell yeah!" for trueSpace.

I know some programs like Bryce and Wings are great for modeling but the renders look crappy. I know of a few people that model in Wings and render in trueSpace.

[evil_genius_180]

You can do low poly on just about any program. Also, your commercial software will have a polygon reducer. Some of the free WIP software will also, but not all of them are progressed that far.

I like Maya but it is very expensive, so I looked around for a cheaper option and ended up buying Hexagon and Carrara. They have both proved to be very easy to use.

[Northwatch]

Ok, I feel old. I started out animation with limited program called "Dr. Halo". Basicly it was a slide show generator. Then my boss want us to go hi tech so we had interviews, you know, where the company comes to you and demos their product on "Their" equipment. We came down to 2 programs: Alias/Wavefront (anyone heard of it) and Cubicomp Picturemaker. Guess which my boss pick. Thats right...Picturemaker. It ran on an 88 processor with and expansion chassie (another cpu teatered by a 3 inch wide/.5 inch thick ribbon cable. OK ready for this...it cost $70,000. It nomally cost 35k but my boss talked another company to bid twice the amount so that we (the US Government) could have competing bids, you (the government) can't just buy outright. Needles to say, the company we wanted to win was late with it's bid so it was disqualified. Cubicomp Picturemaker went out of business two years later. That was the same time zone as the Government buying 70k hammers and such.

After that event, I ended up with a new boss, old one found better things to do. The new boss was gun shy so the next animation program we purchase (after our Picturemaker bit the dust - no parts) was a cheap program - Infini-D, only $99.00 US. IT worked great and met all our needs. The shop closed it's doors 4 years later but I kept up with Infini-D upgrades to Carrara to Carrara Studio doing freelance/hobby work out of my basement. I now use Carrara Studio Pro 5, Poser 4, Bryce 5, Hexagon 2, and have use Truespace in the past. I always wanted to use Lightwave and 3D Studio, I just never had the money to invest.

Now you know my life story.... sad, isn't it.... but even though I work in management and will probility never get back to a job working in animation, you'll have to pry the mouse out of my cold dead hand when you bury me!!!!!!!!!!! (And I'm only 45)

lol, that's funny! Yeah, there are some free modelling softwares out there, and surely you can't beat *that* price!

oh, sorry, this was to comment on the picture on the first page, I still don't know how to post in these forums...