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3 Dimensional Chat / The best of the best...

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SS1k
21
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Joined: 19th Nov 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 29th May 2003 08:24 Edited at: 29th May 2003 08:39
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Ok, I did a search of diffrent 3D graphic moddlers/animators and I got a whole bunch of them. However, I am afraid of picking the wrong one to use! I wannted to see what you guys whould pick from experiance. I dont care if the grapics are not X-Box Next Gen standards, however, I want to avoid Sega Saturn looking graphics as possible. You chose:

Milkshape 3D
Truespace
Anim8or
3D Studio Max/G Max
Cinema 4D
Maplett
unwrap 3D
Character FX
Lightwave
3D Canvas

P.S. Try not to start a flame-war guys. This is serious, I want to make this game, and I guss most of you want jobs?

.:SIDEP0CKET:.
:..>Mind is Thought
:..>Play is Fun
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indi
21
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 29th May 2003 08:52
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Truespace 3 is currently free but anything after 3.0 is capable of working well with DBC DBP


Anim8or love hate relationship no animations possible


3D Studio Max/G Max expensive but yeah has a lot of features

Cinema 4D had a tinker seems to be very powerfull


Maplett isnt this a blitz basic 2d tile program?



Lightwave mmm lush but also expensive.


3D Canvas very good program for opening x files, has a plethora of hidden features


Milkshape 3D great for $20!

unwrap 3D goes hand in hand with milkshape

Character FX goes hand in hand with milkshape

http://www.lunarpixel.com

http://www.lunarpixel.com/dt/
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Van B
Moderator
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 29th May 2003 11:33
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Hehe, 'Maplet' certainly sounds like an old dusty 2D map editor, I thought it was a Carto Shop clone though - or is that 'Mappy'. By god Blitzers can choose their app names!, my problem is I don't see level models as maps, so it's hard for me to take these programs seriously.

I think you should go with the last 3 options, Milkshape, CharacterFX, and Unwrap3D - the whole lot would cost about £50 and it's pretty much all you need, as Indi said, they compliment each other perfectly.


Van-B

Hate me clown because I'm not from your town y'all. Hate me clown.
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arras
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Joined: 3rd Feb 2003
Location: Slovakia
Posted: 29th May 2003 12:53
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You are puting to the list modelers, which you can't compare.

You want to compare uncomparable, to put 3D Studio Max nex to anim8tor and ask which one is better is like if you would like to compare military jet fighter with ultralight aircraft.

Both can be good but in theyr own category.

Always choose program which suport your needs. If you want to model some funny character for your test program, you don't need profesional software.

As much as I was trying, for most of the people here and theyr needs milkshape is just what they need...thats my opinion.
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Simple
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Joined: 28th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 29th May 2003 12:59
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QUOTE:
I think you should go with the last 3 options, Milkshape, CharacterFX, and Unwrap3D - the whole lot would cost about £50 and it's pretty much all you need, as Indi said, they compliment each other perfectly.

I must agree ... these are what I use, and they do work nice together.

BTW .... the FREE version of Unwrap3D ( Lithunwrap v1.3 ) can be downloaded from my website. But It's still well worth getting Unwrap3D if you like Lith

Spec - AMD Athlon 1000mhz - 256mb DDR - Gforce2mx 400 - 60gb HD - 19" Compaq - DVD rom

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Danmatsuma
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Joined: 2nd Mar 2003
Location: Australia
Posted: 29th May 2003 13:35
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Milkshape 3D - Fun, cheap, easy to animate but no vertex weighting, I'm using it for the animations in "Lester the panty theif", also to restitch vertices that max unwelds on exporting a .3ds and final exporting to .x

Truespace - 3.2 free yes but no skeletal mesh animation, great I.K though, and a cool UI once you learn it.

Anim8or - never used it

3D Studio Max/G Max - I use max 3.1 for modelling and uvwmapping.

Cinema 4D - never used it

Maplett - never used it

unwrap 3D - unintuitive and limiting, but good results are possible.

Character FX - about to install the trial

Lightwave - YUCK! every single bloody operation has to be ended by
pushing the "make" button, most annoying IMO

3D Canvas - never used it.

You forgot Softimage XSI-EXP, but here goes - WOW! this has to be the way of the future, real time shaders, beautiful vertex weight painting functionality and animation control to die for, though the track editor is a bit buggy... 'tis the way of the future, EXP is limited to non commercial use and watermarks renders, but that don't affect models
Complicated functionality and difficult to learn for a beginner.

I have to agree with milkshape in the end, so quick to pick up, and not dissimilar to max in basic functionality, plus the exporters it comes with are very game specific. The lack of a renderer makes some texturing tricks impossible though.

ZX Spectrum 48k Issue 3, Radio shack Tape drive, Rank arena 12" T.V. set.
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Beta1
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Posted: 29th May 2003 15:11
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Milkshape is great.

Anim8or is easy to learn but it cant export x animations.

It is a very easy way to learn how bone animation works and its modelling section is pretty effective and easy to export into milkshape.

Try them an see how you go

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actarus
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Joined: 29th Aug 2002
Location: 32 Light Years away
Posted: 29th May 2003 15:27
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For learning:Gmax,MayaPLE,SoftimageEXP

For commercial:Wings3D,Truespace,Milkshape

Truespace 3.2(not 3SE) will export animated models,just don't try looking for that shitty .3ds format.

Wings3D is like the best thing after sliced bread but for modelling only though.

Gmax,Maya,Softexp...Now you're talking sweeties

Running away You're lost for words again Now you`ve got all what you wanted Are you really satisfied?
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actarus
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Posted: 29th May 2003 15:31 Edited at: 29th May 2003 15:31
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Dan: Did you try XSi?

It's great,I'm completely re-learning everything Max was hiding under it's shell...

I wouldn't say it's 'that hard',just don't expect some nice image buttons in it,just the terms...and the right ones(hence max )

Running away You're lost for words again Now you`ve got all what you wanted Are you really satisfied?
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Danmatsuma
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Location: Australia
Posted: 30th May 2003 13:43
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actarus: yeah, plus my brother is a beta tester of xsi 3.5 so I'm lucky as far as having occasional access to a machine with 2x21" monitors, dual system with quadra2000 etc to use it on at the weekends when no-one is around (at his work) we also play quakeIII on said systems(hehehe) XSI is as close to poetry as a modelling/animation program can get

Still at AUD$27,000 for version 3.0, it's a little out of my range for regular use

So for now I have to stick with max 3.1, actually for low poly modelling xsi is not ideal. But only because of the way it's sub-D masks the edges etc. I used to use a program called imagine, which XSI reminds me of in some ways

But EXP is a free download, and like I said only has some limitations, one nasty one is the plug-in restrictions

ZX Spectrum 48k Issue 3, Radio shack Tape drive, Rank arena 12" T.V. set.
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actarus
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Posted: 30th May 2003 15:33 Edited at: 30th May 2003 15:34
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heh,

The workflow in Xsi is a bit slower,but then again, Max's is also slow compared to modeling in wings(yes,I love it!).

From what I experienced of low-poly modeling in it,it's great and has all you need a click/R-click away.


BTW:Max(any version) doesn't have subdivision surfaces without MaxMan,although it claims it has it natively,it's rather a meshsmoothing(quadrupling(word?) of faces) that emulates very badly what the 'real' subdivision surfaces achieve...Which basically is a translation of the edges to curves giving the infinite smoothness Nurbs surfaces have when for instance zooming on one of those edges.

Running away You're lost for words again Now you`ve got all what you wanted Are you really satisfied?
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actarus
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Posted: 30th May 2003 16:49 Edited at: 30th May 2003 17:19
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Oh and to go back to the exact subject and not just my or their prefered stuff,I think you should test as much different softwares as possible to determine the one that fits you most and does the most work (i.e modeling,texturing,animating) without having to export,which greatly simplifies the workflow by minimizing if not removing export errors/incompatibilities.

Therefore,your best choice,for a first test would be 3DCanvas.

The price is quite reasonnable(65$US or LP ver for 34)available,last time I checked was a 90% fully-functionnal DEMO,it's a fairly comprehensible box modeler,it can unwrap UV's therefore texturing is also built-in and finally,nevertheless the most important,it can export animations in DirectX format in either 'limbed hierarchy(DB)' or 'skinmesh' deformation(DBP).

Do I have to mention the impressive amount of tutorials on the official website?

http://www.amabilis.com

From here on,you make the choice,but I really suggest you also get a hold Wings3D.

Can someone make this sticky or copy/paste in a faq somewhere?


MODS:If it could be moved anywhere,why not try the 3dCanvas forum in this place.

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UberTuba
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Location: Brittania
Posted: 30th May 2003 17:12 Edited at: 30th May 2003 17:15
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Youre forgeting something

wings 3d

Absolutely exelent modelerand the uv mapping pretty good aswell(very simple and easy to use). Works well with character fx.
soo easy to learn. Didn't need help at all.
What's more it freeeeeee!!!

Life is a terminal disease.
You never survive it.
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actarus
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Posted: 30th May 2003 17:15 Edited at: 30th May 2003 17:16
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Post number eight.

-Wings3D is like the best thing after sliced bread but for modelling only though.

I did try to uvmap with it...Tried and failed miserably

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UberTuba
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Posted: 30th May 2003 17:29
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no uv is great.
just selct all the different parts of the thing yore modleling
chest
back
front of legs etc.
and colour tem doifferent auvs
ones you have done that to all faces
continue by unfolding. arrange the bits in the way that suits you.
export that and edit in psp or something like that.
import the file you just exported and painted.
apply texture
exit
et voila
one textured model

Life is a terminal disease.
You never survive it.
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actarus
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Posted: 30th May 2003 17:33
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Ok,I'll give it another try soon.

Sounds easier than I thought.

Running away You're lost for words again Now you`ve got all what you wanted Are you really satisfied?
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