3D programs - your recommendation?

[Devika]

Hello again, wonderful tapastic community!

I'm looking to get into doing 3D models, partially for a portfolio, but mostly for the inevitable repeated background scenes in the comic. I figure it'll pay off in the long run to invest the time in making some cityscapes and interior models for tracing, so I don't have to figure out all the details all over again in different perspectives. Y'know, the fixed cost/variable cost thing.

BUT.

I have literally no clue where to start, which programs are good for beginners, if the free ones are good enough, if I should buy one... I know pretty much nothing about 3D modeling. So here I need your help and experience! What do you use, what do you recommend? How did you learn it?

In case it matters, I use Win10 and have a tablet.

[punkarsenic]

im jus getting into this stuff w my set design studies. heres what ive learnt.

sketchup - very very easy, free, has a lot of pre-made objects you can drop in. comics wise, its good for creating a scene and then tracing it / using it as a reference in your drawing. for realistic rendering its not great, but for getting down a plan for a scene its very good.

blender - free, again, great tutorials on youtube. very easy to pick up, very good rendering - blenders just great. i picked it up in about 6 tutorial videos, it has a lot of great features, like a very accurate water simulator, and you can find more for free online. my personal recommendation.

if youre willing to fork out (or get your hands dirty in the backalleys of the internet,) cinema 4D is also very good for 3D modelling. its expensive as SHIT though so just pray it falls into your lap

[Ringarune]

If you want them for comics I recommend sketchup, probably the easiest to use.

If you're looking for some more advanced stuff or want to do 3D animation I recommend 3ds max or maya from autodesk. If you're a student, autodesk has them available for free I believe. There's also blender, but I prefer 3ds max over it personally.

[goobermation]

Hello!

I work sometimes with 3D and I would recommend you Autodesk MAYA, it had lots of feature and a pretty good render engine, plus if you are a student you can get a free student version to learn with from their website!

While it can be more complex that others it's not as scary as it looks, most of the buttons and menus you really won't be using if you want more simple stuff and as you work with the simpler stuff you'll be able to learn more complex technique and get a feel of the software.

[fighterxaos]

ZBrush and Maya are like, the standards. Then there's DAZ good for messing around in. I used it back in the day.

[alaingrey]

If you're new to 3D and not sure you're going to use it often, Autodesk has free software (I think its called 123D? lol) They're reforming it into other apps, so you'd have to get it soon, but it's free, compared to a lot of other expensive software. Basically if you're going to be tracing stuff, free software is 'good enough' and autodesk is always reliable as a publisher.

[glennsong]

I like Blender, but it has a steep learning curve. I learned pretty much everything off Youtube and fiddling around with it, but I like the versatility. Once you learn how to model or import models and set up cameras it becomes pretty easy to make backgrounds. I've also made lots of different props and even rigged mannequins that I used for the production of my comic.

Another nice feature is that you can do non-photorealistic rendering. If you want to get flats or do cel-shading then Blender can do that. If you want to get inked lines Blender can output that, and it can even output rendered SVG lines as well.

It can also do advanced things like sculpting (similar to ZBrush), video editing, animation, and even python scripting and game making -- I've never tried this last part.

There's also a lot of help online, so if you have any questions there are places to find answers. I can even try and answer some of your questions too.

[Devika]

Thank you all for your great replies! I'll have a look at Blender and Sketchup, and maybe see if I can get a student version of Maya then! From your descriptions, Blender sounds like the best alternative for me right now - free, powerful and with online tutorials.

When these finals are over and done with, that is. orz

@punkarsenic HOLY SH- yep 4D is the definition of expensive. I uhhhmmm I'll stick to blender I think :'D Sounds like what I'm looking for!

@glennsong That sounds like it's worth the steep learning curve! Thanks a lot : D