3D CG Software info and general chat

[Jaffro]

Dude, that'd be great. At the moment I still need to come by a few thousand that I have nothing do to with but spend on Maya, or 3D Studio Max, or Cinema 4D.


I thought i'd start a new thread as we're straying away from Star Wars a bit....


The full licences of these programs are insanely high, and then there's the upgrades that are always go into the hundreads. All the players in the market have free learning editions, but they've got restrictions. You can also get student versions for a cut down price. Although a lot of the licencing costs for these products are really stupid and often end up paying way more then you have to. Believe it or not it doesnt matter what of the high end programs you learn, the fundimentals are all the same in this area of 3D CG. Different programs = different buttons for pratically the same thing.

Take a look into Softimage/Softimage|XSI, they've recently done a massive price drop in their lower grade version to about £400 i think, full commercial licence. Its got the majority of the major features of the fully packed program so its a reallllllllly good deal. Whats more there is a massive shift over to this program from most of the studio's, at least around here in the UK - i wont go into why.

Anyway,
Here's a list of sites i visit for newsy type stuff, features, articles etc:

http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.cgfocus.com/
http://www.cgchannel.com/
http://www.cgtalk.com/ - Massive forum with a lot of industry people.

They're the main ones that make it easy to get to sites as they're mainly information houses linking to external articles.

Hope you enjoy :)


Btw - Yea im working on a human at the moment for my final degree animation project, have done a couple of similar bi-bed things in the past.

[moonshield]

Well, if you don't have the money to purchase the more expensive programs, try Blender http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Home.2.0.html . Its a little difficult to use, but hey, its free, fast, powerful, and extensible. I personally prefer to 3dsmax.

[James]

Yeah man, CGTalk is awesome, I've gone there for a while now.

I think SoftImage was recently used in a French car advertisement created by a Vancouver-based company. They made it look like there was a car dancing like a Transformer on top of the Vancouver Post Office.

[Jaffro]

Blender is amazing considering its free. I never got my head into it mind you.

James, was that this one?:

http://www.luxology.com/article/113004_1/1.aspx

Love that add its fantastic :)

What sortta stuff you guys into exactly?

[moonshield]

Well, one of my friends is quite skilled in 3d modeling and I did a project in school with him using models and landscapes he created. I did the C++ programming. I liked how the results turned out in blender and from my perspective 3dsmax was a pain in the rear-end.

[James]

That's the one, but I guess I was wrong.

At the moment I'm just trying to get a hold of a 3D program to use, I haven't been on 3D Studio since it was 3D Studio 2, and I've just somewhat opened my mind to the idea that I can get a learning version of the software and maybe use different programs, like SoftImage, Modo, Maya, Cinema 4D.

[moonshield]

At the moment I'm just trying to get a hold of a 3D program to use

Arghhh. Try Blender, its free. http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Home.2.0.html

[Jaffro]

Yea blender is a great place to start. if you can get your head around that then you'll be ready for anything! :D hehe Lightwave is great for learning on too, very quick to get great results. The complex stuff is only there if you need it and wont get in your way if you dont.


PS. James, i doubt you were wrong as such. Most of the time a company will use whatever will do it best/quickest, and the press releases/interviews with particular companies will be quite, lets say 'carefully worded'.

[James]

Yes, a prime recent example being that Maya used in Starwars bit.

[Jaffro]

Yea those people at maya are well known for it too. They're good at publicity i'll give 'em that!