Which 3D software for newbie at roomsets

[muldoon_smooth]

Can anyone recommend 3D software with a gentle learning curve to design and render interiors. I need to be able to adjust the lighting, textures, etc. and perhaps export to Flash for walkthroughs.

Thanks for any advice.

[RUSHVision]

I'd recommend looking into Swift3D. It's one of the easiest to learn and most wallet-friendly 3D apps out there.

[muldoon_smooth]

Thanks for that suggestion, RUSHVision, but I omitted to mention that the rendered image must be photorealistic.

I've looked at SolidThinking Forma which produces the kind of images I'm after but the learning curve is steep and most of their tutorials are corrupt or in Italian.

This is the kind of result I'm looking to create:

http://download.novedge.com/Gallery....RMA_05&Num=11.

[tayjax]

i always like maxons cinema 4d xl give great images and there are lots of free copies of the old versions out there on the net or on 3d mag cd's :
http://www.maxon.net/index_e.html

[chewman2k]

Blender - cheap.. free even I think:S Anyway. learning curve I've heard is easy. To get photorealism, then that's going to be steep... heck it's a steep learning curve for anyone in any program

3dsmax - not so cheap. Learning curve for modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering.. easy. Getting photoreal quality.. again thats hard.

Cinema - great lighting system in this program. I've seen some really nice stuff, example: http://www.max3d.org/

Lightwave - different again.

Maya - depending on which version.. Maya Complete sells for under 2 grand $USD I think. Learning curve for modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering.. different to max.. but still easy. Getting photoreal quality.. IMHO easier than max.. but I'm biased.

XSI - I got no idea. I haven't used it before, but from what I've heard it's a rocking program. mentalRay integration with the main application is intruinsic - moreso than Maya - and overall, people reckon it's a superior program... guess that's why they chose to use Maya for LOTR then ey

Advantage with Max: There are many different type of 3rd party renderers on the market today: finalRender, Brazil, VRay.

Advantage with Maya: It 'feels' a lot better than max.. better memory management I've found.. but then again that's nothing to do with modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, rendering etc.

At the end of the day.. it's how you use a program. Granted, some programs are better than others for doing certain things.. but really it's how well you know the program and how well you can use it. People look down on max and talk up Maya because for so long it's been used only for games and hasn't really been recognised.. but then you get people who know the program and know how to get the most out of it doing stuff that blows everyone away:
- day after tomorrow
- sky captain and the world of tomorrow
- the last samuri
- onimushia game trailer - http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault...musha3_gi.html
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War trailer - by Blur studios
- etc etc

Doing 3d is something that isn't done overnight. You don't just get an app and then suddenly you're making you're making realistic renders and stuff.. hey maybe you can, but most can't. Sure there are new found methods to produce realistic lighting etc etc using methods such as HDRI.. but people have been creating realistic scenes way before HDRI came along and before all these funky new rendering systems that do Global Illumination etc.

Anyway.. this is probably an old post which I'm reviving ey Hope it helps.

[muldoon_smooth]

I'm currently assessing Cinema 4D (trial version) and although it's daunting I have begun to make inroads. Dave Davidson's work is extremely impressive and lends weight to persevering with Maxon's product although it'll be some time before I achieve anything so sophisticated.

Thank you for the advice taymax and for your comprehensive post, chewman, which I shall refer back to between bouts of hair tearing. Cheers

[chewman2k]

Hey mate,
no worries. I hope it helped.

If you want to know more about Maya6, read here: http://www.studiowhiz.com/forums/ind...showtopic=7316

Both Maya and XSI have trial versions. I'm not sure about 3dsmax. It can't hurt to download the trial versions for each and give them a go.

For Maya, you download the PLE (personal learning edition) and it's an endless license. The only thing is that it covers each image with a watermark and you can't open up Maya Complete/Unlimited files in the PLE.

XSI, I think it's a thirty-day trial.

[chris-harry]

ok... which ones (just a simple list), that can do vectoring???

[ChiefDesigns]

Vectoring = Swift 3d

Nothing comes close to the Ravix renderer. My personal favorite is to make models in 3ds then export them to Swift apply the lighting and texturing then export with the Ravix (vector) rendering for flash. Swift 4 does have a model editor now, although I doubt I will test it out since I am comfortable with 3ds and I just got 3ds 7 so I'll be busy with all the new toys for some time.

[chewman2k]

Maya Complete/Unlimited (6 and I think even 5) already come bundled with the Ravix Vector renderer.

3dsmax 5/6+ I'm pretty sure you need to purchase the Swift3D plugin to be able to render out as Vector.

All the rest I got no idea about.. apart from the obvious standalone Swift3D package

[tayjax]

and i think someone told me that the latest versions of cinema xl export out directly as swf files if that helps ?