3D software for designers
Out of context: Reply #15
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- twokids0
I have worked with various 3d packages on and off over the past 20 years. This is what I have learned:
1) 3D is hard. There is no 'easy' way to do it. Because you creating things in three dimensions with lights and shadows and texture maps and polygons and vertices and hierarchichal structures and...well the list goes on, it is just....complicated and takes a long time to learn.
2) To really be in 3D you need to be working in it almost every day to be efficient. Being 'casual' does not really work. Even 3D artists who do it for a living are constantly re-looking up how to do things and asking people in forums BECAUSE IT IS SO COMPLICATED
3) All the major 3D packages are pretty much the same. You can use Maya or Softimage or Max or Lightwave or Blender and they will all do pretty much the same things, with just slightly different combinations of tools. You can find passionate advocates for any one of these. A good overview is here: http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.…
4) Stay away from the cheap programs, like Swift3D. They do very little, and what little you can do with them comes at great expense of time and pain. If you are going to spend time learning 3D, learn a real program, like one of the ones in the list above.
5) Blender is free, and the functionality is equal to the other high end packages, if you read the link above. I am using it today and I will tell you; it is hard, but it is an awesome, deep toolset. But it will take time to get good at - months of hard work
6) If you want to work in the industry, you will need to learn Max or Maya probably. This seems to be what most people use (I am not actually in that industry right now, so this is my disclaimer).
good luck