.Any program that handles modelling and rigging already handles anywhere from PS1-class models to the highest poly AAA next gen main character model. That's up to you. No fancy program is going to immediately make AAA-class models. Similarly, there are no 'bare basics' modelling and rigging programs because there's not way to limit usage like that.
It's a bit like asking for program that only allows loose sketching, even though the fact that there's the inclusion of a pen tool and color wheel (the basics) makes it possible to do even finished paintings anyway. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure what you're talking about. Blender is incredibly basic, and imho, makes things more complicated than they need be. But once you know how to work it, modelling is no different whether you're using Blender, 3DSMax, Maya, so on. There are no bells and whistles that make things 'more complicated' just to make the model look prettier. There is only the stock-standard workflow that everyone uses. If you want to make a basic low-poly model without a normal-map, you can do that.
The fact that Blender can do more than that doesn't hamper your ability to just practice fundamentals. To sum up, though, If you're a student, I recommend picking up a student copy of Maya or 3DsMax, the industry standard programs. They're a bit cleaner and more efficient, and thus make learning the basics a bit simpler.
You can then transfer the actual knowledge you've earned in them back over to blender if you need to do commercial work. Edited November 3, 2013 by BagelHero. Use Blender, I know it looks hard, just ignore the buttons you don't need to use. Even if you work with simple 3d modeling program like Google Sketchup, 3Dcrafter or Art of Illusion, you will eventually want more complex models that would take too long using this kind of software. Blender is great for finding out what kind of 3d modeler you are, box modeling, polygon modeling and sculpting are the main methods. You can find software dedicated to each method on it's own, blender has a combination of the basic tools of all these. Learning to make high quality 3d models is a long and hard road, if you have no intend on sticking with 3d modeling it would be better to buy models or download free models.Any program that handles modelling and rigging already handles anywhere from PS1-class models to the highest poly AAA next gen main character model.
That's up to you. No fancy program is going to immediately make AAA-class models. Similarly, there are no 'bare basics' modelling and rigging programs because there's not way to limit usage like that. It's a bit like asking for program that only allows loose sketching, even though the fact that there's the inclusion of a pen tool and color wheel (the basics) makes it possible to do even finished paintings anyway. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure what you're talking about. Blender is incredibly basic, and imho, makes things more complicated than they need be.
But once you know how to work it, modelling is no different whether you're using Blender, 3DSMax, Maya, so on. There are no bells and whistles that make things 'more complicated' just to make the model look prettier. There is only the stock-standard workflow that everyone uses.
If you want to make a basic low-poly model without a normal-map, you can do that. The fact that Blender can do more than that doesn't hamper your ability to just practice fundamentals. To sum up, though, If you're a student, I recommend picking up a student copy of Maya or 3DsMax, the industry standard programs.
They're a bit cleaner and more efficient, and thus make learning the basics a bit simpler. You can then transfer the actual knowledge you've earned in them back over to blender if you need to do commercial work. I understand what you're saying, but what I was referring to would be like the difference between Paint and Photoshop. Granted, if you're just the Van Gogh of digital artwork, you can probably accomplish everything with Paint you can with Photoshop with enough time and patience.
But if all you're wanting to do is some basic cut/paste, crop and add some test to a picture, Paint does everything you need without needing 30 separate blur effects, 9 sharpens, 27 burn settings and a magic lasso. Maybe that sort of analogy doesn't apply to 3d modeling, but it was my assumption that some of them have more options, effects, etc. That professionals or advanced hobbyists would use and seek out, that newer people wouldn't really benefit from. As far as Blender, when I compared the way it looked and it's options to something like Wings3D, it seemed on appearance to be the same as comparing Photoshop to Paint. And that's why this thread exists.
Learning a good 3D program is far better decision than trying to go on the cheap and end with months, if not years, of delay in your learning curve because you chose a software which limits you. To make real progress, you must have courage and motivation to learn new software because that is the nature of the game development occupation. Poser, Blender, Maya, and 3DS Max have all been used by me and they work just fine. Many tutorials exist to help you step by step.
Most great 3D graphics software have student or sort of express versions which cost little or nothing. By the way, I usually make the base model for a character in Wings 3D, UV map it there, create a void and also template textures with Wings 3D, and then export/import into another 3D software program for finishing and animations. If you use a game engine, then you need to learn what the preferred workflow pipeline is for that system.
Some are designed to favor certain 3D graphics programs, but many allow others due to compatibility with the same 2D and 3D file formats or connection via plug-ins such as Collada. Trying too hard to find a short cut can get you lost in the jungle easily in the game development industry.
Best for newbies to stay on the beaten paths for a last a good 1-2 years. Edited November 3, 2013 by 3Ddreamer. As far as Blender, when I compared the way it looked and it's options to something like Wings3D, it seemed on appearance to be the same as comparing Photoshop to Paint Blender and Wings 3D are both great. Wings 3D focuses on the basic 3D creation and applying either 2D surface or rendering with a plug-in such as PathRay. I have found none better than the great Wings 3D for the organic 3D creation. It is far quicker in Wings 3D than anything else that I have tried. Next I export in the correct file format and import the model into Blender or another 3D program for polishing the model or adding animations.
This is a reliable and fast workflow which I discovered. Often I can outpace all but the very fastest 3D modelers with my system and usually with higher quality at the finish. Learning a software with some thousand dollars price tag won't teach you modeling any faster than using Blender would. I wouldn't recommend grabbing one of those 'generator' softwares either because that won't give you the core info on models that you will need to work with them regardless on if you use automated software. Blender is not about belts and whistles it just has a very nice feature set that with the game engine is totally unmatched by it's competitors.
Blender is good for very wide array of things and learning it will yield you many skills you might yourself in need of as you dwell deeper into game development. But there is no easy way to 'just make' things like rigged characters.
There will be a learning curve and if there wasn't there wouldn't be any need for 3D professionals. And I'm not talking about PS3000 quality either.
This article is about software free to be modified and distributed. For examples of software free in the monetary sense, see. This is a list of, licensed under and. Software that fits the may be more appropriately called; the in particular objects to their works being referred to as. For more information about the philosophical background for open-source software, see and.
However, nearly all software meeting also meets and vice versa. A small fraction of the software that meets either definition is listed here.
Some of the open-source applications are also the basis of commercial products, shown in the. Contents. Applied fields Artificial intelligence. General:. – A project that aims to build an artificial general intelligence (AGI) framework. OpenCog Prime is a specific set of interacting components designed to give rise to human-equivalent artificial general intelligence.
Computer Vision:. – Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics library for the.NET Framework.
– Computer Vision Library in C. Machine Learning:. See.
See below. See – packages of statistical learning and analysis tools. Planning:. – Reactive planning. Robotics.
– Robot Operating System. – Yet Another Robot Platform CAD. Main category: Data mining. – Data mining software framework written in Java with a focus on clustering and outlier detection methods. – Java-based data analysis framework. – written in the.
– Data visualization and data mining for novice and experts, through visual programming or Python scripting. Extensions for bioinformatics and text mining. – Data mining software written in Java, fully integrating Weka, featuring 350+ operators for preprocessing, machine learning, visualization, etc. – the previous version is available as open source.
– and script execution tool. Supports integration with J2EE and Spring. Provides connectors to CSV, LDAP, XML, JDBC/ODBC, and other data sources. – data mining software written in Java featuring machine learning operators for classification, regression, and clustering.
– Data mining with programmable abstraction layer Data Visualization Components. – Plotting and visualization functions developed by Sandia National Laboratory; capable of massively parallel flow visualization utilizing multiple computer processors. – Toolkit for 3D computer graphics, image processing, and visualisation.
Digital Asset Management software system. – Widely used system with roots in the NGO sector Disk partitioning software.
Main category: File Systems. – supporting a very wide variety of operating systems. – Distributed file system/ system with integrated privacy and security features.
– Distributed file system included in the Ceph storage platform. Networking and Internet Advertising. Communication-related. – Telephony and server. – Video conferencing application for and. – Front-end and advanced PBX configuration for. – Telephony platform.
– Java VoIP and Instant Messaging client. – Voice, video, and IM client application. – SIP Communications Server. –.
– VoIP softphone. – Cross-platform, peer to peer instant-messaging and video-calling protocol that offers end-to-end and SIP client. – Cross-platform, peer-to-peer instant-messaging and video-calling protocol that offers end-to-end encryption E-mail. Main article: Bug trackers. Code generators. – compiler for.
– Validating XML parser/serializer and C generator for mobile and embedded systems. – Generates lexical analyzers. – 3D graphics application programming interface. – Open Smart Card Development Platform.
– Parser generator for Java and.NET. – Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator for several languages. – code generator for C. – Statechart code generator for C and Java Documentation generators. – Tool for writing software reference documentation. The documentation is written within code.
– The software documentation is extracted from the sources files, from. – Claims to use a more natural language as input from the comments, hence its name. Configuration software. Debuggers (for testing and trouble-shooting). – 'works for many.' . – Stress-tests on machines.
– Record and replay tests Integrated development environments.
The number and variety of on the market is pretty staggering, but unfortunately many of the top applications in use by commercial film, games, and effects studios cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It's true that most commercial applications offer time-limited free trials, or even abbreviated learning additions for students and hobbyists—if you're looking to one day work in the computer graphics industry these are well worth exploring even if you can't afford a full license, simply because skills in the commercial packages is what will ultimately land you a job. However, there are also number of free 3D software suites out there for hobbyists, independent filmmakers who don't have the budget for expensive software, or budget conscious freelance professionals who have found all the tools and power they need in cost-free solutions like Blender or SketchUp. Just because the following software is free doesn't necessarily make it any less valuable.
This list isn't necessarily exhaustive—there are dozens of other free 3d tools available beyond what is mentioned here. However, these are the strongest of the bunch, and therefore the most worthwhile. The Pixel Agency/Getty Images Blender is easily the most versatile and entry on this list, and in many regards, it compares favorably to top digital content creation tools like Cinema 4D, Maya, and 3ds Max. To this day it stands as one of the greatest open-source development projects ever conceived.
Blender is fully featured, offering a complete range of modeling, surfacing, sculpting, painting, animation, and rendering tools. The software is good enough to have produced numerous impressive short films and is in use by several professional studios.
Blender was criticized early on for having a confusing interface, but don't let outdated complaints steer you away. The software was given a thorough overhaul about a year ago and emerged with a fresh interface and a feature set that aims for parity with the best.
While you don't really see Blender in any Hollywood effects pipelines where Autodesk and Houdini are deeply ingrained, Blender has steadily carved out a niche in motion graphics and visualization, similar to where Cinema 4D excels. SketchUp is an intuitive and accessible modeler, originally developed by Google, and now owned by Trimble. SketchUp excels at practical and architectural design and probably has more in common with a CAD package than a traditional surface modelers like Maya and Max. Like Blender, SketchUp has been amazingly well received and has gradually carved out a niche with professionals in the visualization field due to its ease of use and speed.
3d Rigging Software List
The software has very little in the way of organic modeling tools, but if your primary interest is in architectural modeling, SketchUp is a very, very good starting point. Tinkercad is an impressive suite of lightweight 3d tools offered by Autodesk as a free, easy entry point into the world of 3d. Autodesk actually develops five different applications under the Tinkercad banner, including modeling & sculpting apps, an iPad based 'creature designer', and a tool to assist with fabrication and. In a way, Tinkercad is AutoDesk's answer to Sculptris and Sketchup, and is meant to get beginners interested in 3d without the tremendous learning curve of their flagship applications (CAD, Maya, Max, Mudbox). Daz Studio is an image creation tool that comes with a wealth of characters, props, creatures, and buildings that you can arrange and animate to create still images or short films. The software is primarily meant for users who want to create or films without the overhead of creating all their models and textures by hand.
The software's animation and rendering tool-set is fairly robust, and in the right hands users can create impressive shots. However, without a full range of modeling, surfacing, or sculpting tools built in, your content can become limited unless you're willing to buy 3D assets in the Daz marketplace or create them yourself with a 3rd party modeling package. Still, it's a great piece of software for people who just want to jump in and create a 3D image or film without a whole lot of overhead.
See also: (Very similar). These applications are limited versions of commercial software packages that are available as free learning editions from the developer. These learning editions are not time-limited and never expire:. Autodesk offers virtually their entire software line free for non-commercial use to 'students and community members,' however you don't actually need to be enrolled in a school to download them.
If you want to eventually work in the industry, learning Autodesk software is a very strong bet, so this is a highly recommended path. The only limitation is that you can't use any of the software in commercial projects. Vue is one of the best digital landscape creation tools out there, and and e-On is now offering a learning edition free for non-commercial use. Like the Autodesk student licenses, Vue PLE is identical to a full version of the software, the only limitation being the non-commercial use clause.
I've been looking around for a while now for rigging and animation alternatives and was wondering if anyone had suggestions. I'm nearing the end of my maya student license and I'm not sure I'll be going back anytime soon. I've learnt the program pretty thoroughly and many of the methods seem archaic (I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about the clunky weight painting and the week I wasted on a maya muscle rig). Honestly I do all of my modeling and tuxturing (and everything in-between) in 3dcoat now, so all I'm looking for is an alternative program to set scenes up in, rig, and animate.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! (I hear XSI is pretty good for animation, any thoughts?). Well, there are so many apps and so many opinions floating around amongst users of these apps - a person can take a real beating and risks starting app wars, just by stating their preference. But, I think, for the money, Blender 2.5 is coming right along as a viable alternative to the 'Big 5' apps, for the purposes you mentioned.
You can construct simple character rigs very quickly, and complex ones, (rivaling Maya), not so quickly. Animation is becoming simpler and more intuitive, and, I hear, that Blender's non-linear animation methods are really becoming quick and powerful. And, just to underline the point - it's cheap!
Haha very cheap I used Blender last when it was in the 2.4x stage so a lot has changed. I've been following their updates and it's very impressive. When I was using Blender I actually liked it more than Maya, but Maya is an industry standard so I spent more time with it. I was wondering if there was a better workflow out there in any of the applications.
I find weight painting and such as it is to be very frustrating to set up a good rig (especially if the mesh is fairly high resolution). I was curious if there were something that did the same type of revamping of the workflow for rigging and animation that is comparable to what 3dc is doing for modeling. (I mentioned XSI because I heard something about 'ice' or something like that which was 'node based' rigging). One to consider, Messiah, the basic version offers a good deal of punch for the dollars, it is not free, but it is not as expensive as many of the players in the market. Plus there is a cool connection plugin from 3DCoat to Messiah that is pretty handy. If money is an object, Blender as has been mentioned, and the Mod version of XSI is a cool application, not all of the bells and whistles of the commercial version, but I used to play around in it a lot.
Messiah You may qualify for the Autodesk discount give the demo a try, check out the VTMS and also give a look at setup tab (an independent forum for Messiah users) HTH Good luck with your search Rich. Well, regarding 'intuitive' methods of working, (rigging in particular), the pickings are slim, indeed.
And, I heard you mention 'industry standard' - Oh boy, right there you rule out the 'intuitive' aspect, entirely. But, if you care not what industry says or does - I could recommend Poser rigging and animation - for personal animation projects. Few people know or understand that Poser rigging supports ANY mesh, any shape - and it is quite fast to set up - not only so, but the deformations it produces are really quite good. And don't forget morphing - Poser is good at morphing - and the 'Walk Designer' - can't recommend that one highly enough, (bipeds, only). If you can navigate away from the approval of the snobs, (professionals), without suffering an incapacitating blow to your ego - Poser rigging is actually a 'friendly, intuitive' choice, by today's standards.
Now, if we turn the dial on the 'Wayback' machine to some time ago - Animanium dared to introduce truly intuitive character rigging and animation tools - but 'The Professionals' with a capital 'P', shot it down, and Sega got spooked and cancelled the project. Too bad, too bad. I've been looking around for a while now for rigging and animation alternatives and was wondering if anyone had suggestions. I'm nearing the end of my maya student license and I'm not sure I'll be going back anytime soon.
I've learnt the program pretty thoroughly and many of the methods seem archaic (I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about the clunky weight painting and the week I wasted on a maya muscle rig). Honestly I do all of my modeling and tuxturing (and everything in-between) in 3dcoat now, so all I'm looking for is an alternative program to set scenes up in, rig, and animate. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
(I hear XSI is pretty good for animation, any thoughts?) Autodesk recently expanded the student license from 1yr to 3yrs. If you are still a student, you can go to students.autodesk.com and register. That is if you haven't already done so. Personally, Maya is highly regarded and the most widely used for Character Animation.
Although there are other good options out there, if you have already gotten acquainted with the CA tools in Maya, I'd say stick with it. There are inexpensive plugins for Maya that help accelerate the rigging process.such as Face Machine and the Setup Machine: I'm a Max user, so I'm not a Maya fanboy. It's just a matter of you already being familiar with one of the top CA toolsets.might as well build on what you already know. Rigging has never been all that easy. CAT and Biped in Max is about as close as you can get to it being easy, but they have their own issues.
Thanks for the responses! I'm looking into expanding my student license right now (thanks for that, perfect timing). It seems I'll look into the different plugins for Maya since that might be the least expensive option for me (and sticking with Maya is probably more beneficial for getting a job). I've heard that Maya is considered the standard software for animation several times before, and as far as the animation itself goes, it isn't too bad (there aren't many 'intelligent' features, but if the rig is good the animation is pretty straight-forward with lots of curve and time control). I've never been a fan of the disjointed processes in Maya for rigging, setting up controls, painting weights and other information, and the lack of real-time, smooth feedback.
For a piece of software with so many iterations it doesn't feel very advanced (or refined). Messiah seemed promising with it's fast rigging and intelligent weighting, but plugins may be the realistic answer to streamlining the rigging and animation process for me as of now. Thanks for the responses! I'm looking into expanding my student license right now (thanks for that, perfect timing).
It seems I'll look into the different plugins for Maya since that might be the least expensive option for me (and sticking with Maya is probably more beneficial for getting a job). I've heard that Maya is considered the standard software for animation several times before, and as far as the animation itself goes, it isn't too bad (there aren't many 'intelligent' features, but if the rig is good the animation is pretty straight-forward with lots of curve and time control).
I've never been a fan of the disjointed processes in Maya for rigging, setting up controls, painting weights and other information, and the lack of real-time, smooth feedback. For a piece of software with so many iterations it doesn't feel very advanced (or refined).
Messiah seemed promising with it's fast rigging and intelligent weighting, but plugins may be the realistic answer to streamlining the rigging and animation process for me as of now. Thanks Maya 2011 added some new skinning tools (largely adopted from Max, I think), which are envelopes, instead of just weights.
But don't let the Messiah videos make you think it's. You still need to paint or adjust vertex weighting by hand, to some degree or another. It's just one of those processes that requires custom work/weighting. You have to go in and handle trouble spots like armpits, shoulders, elbows, knees, etc.with care. Maya 2011 supposedly has enhanced viewport performance, so playback should be improved.
I remember taking a Character Animation class using Maya, and it was fairly good. I still prefer CAT in 3ds MAx because it is really fast and easy to set up, as well as having some great animation tools (CAT Motion to name one).but it currently has some critical bugs that Autdesk has yet to fix.
I'm hoping that will get done when 2012 gets released in a few months. Still, Maya would be good to stick with if you plan to seek employment in that area.