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I've decided to start a poll for "Which Graphics Program do you like the best?". Simply write down which Graphics Program you like and what you like about it.
NOTE: You can't post saying: "YOU LIKE STRATA!?!?! DIE!!!!!!!!!!! and things like that.
-Nova6
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(This message has been edited by Nova6 (edited 12-15-2000).)
Sorry to say, but I really like 3d Studio Max, even though it's WinNT-only, AFAIK. (Thus, I've only used it in school graphics labs - but it can do some neat stuff)
Bryce ($199, (url="http://"http://www.corel.com)")www.corel.com)(/url) is what I used for essentially all of the graphics in my Secession plug for EVO. It does grayscale-based landscape models very well, and has decent Boolean modeling. However, it has no polygon or spline-based modeling. Its animation editor is flaky at best; sometimes moving the time slider causes parts of a model to fly off into space for no good reason. It has very nice procedural texturing features, and does nice skies, clouds, and stars.
Strata Vision/3D (free, (url="http://"http://www.3d.com)")www.3d.com)(/url) has spline modeling of a sort, but still not nearly as full-featured or precise as a true professional program. And its texturing is limited to image maps and a few very simple built-in procedurals. I use it to model basic shapes (like the fins on the ships in Secession), which I export to Bryce for texturing and rendering.
Pixels 3D (www.pixels3d.com - older versions are free for download) has near-professional modeling capabilities, but, at least in the older versions of it I've used, it has a very cumbersome interface and suffered from serious stability issues. Also, if you download the older versions that they offer free on their site, you've basically signed your willingness to receive "Special Upgrade Offer" spam from them about twice a month. Because of its stability problems, I really haven't used it all that much.
If you can't get your hands on a professional program like Cinema 4D, Lightwave, or Studio Max (all of which are very expensive), I'd probably recommend Bryce.
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Bryce 4 has most of the features i will ever need, and it's very easy to use....Bryce gets my vote.
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I like Raydream Studio 5.5. I do most of my 3D work in sci-fi graphics, and its features are useful for spacecraft and the like.
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Originally posted by Talos: **I like Raydream Studio 5.5. I do most of my 3D work in sci-fi graphics, and its features are useful for spacecraft and the like. **
How do you get it?
(This message has been edited by Nova6 (edited 12-14-2000).)
I am a loyal Pixels:3d user. This professional quality program is often overlooked. It features advanced spline based modeling tools - it's ideal for modeling organic stuff such as people, etc. It has one of the best spline modellers around. It also features a very intuitive shader system. Also, the more recent versions are much more stable. I believe that a fairly recent version, 3.6.3, is available for free. There are 3 downsides as I see it: it is a major memory hog (don't even think about it unless you have at LEAST 128 megs of ram). It's renderer is not nearly as good as lightwave's or other professional apps (make no mistake - it's EXPONENTIALLY better than mechanisto). It has no radiosity or caustics. Finally, the interface is very un-mac-like. It somewhat resembles that of Lightwave. I still found Pixels to have a reasonable learning curve.
In short, I feel that Pixels is the best choice. It costs several hundred dollars, but every once in a while, they release a full, uncrippled version for free. Go figure.
I use Infini-D for modelling and Cinema 4D XL (legaly obtained thank you very much :rolleyes: ). I'm in the process of switching to Carrara, I've been told it's much more powerfull that I-D, but it's hard finding a copy out there.
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(This message has been edited by the Necromicon (edited 12-13-2000).)
Originally posted by ben1cohen: **I am a loyal Pixels:3d user. This professional quality program is often overlooked. It features advanced spline based modeling tools - it's ideal for modeling organic stuff such as people, etc. It has one of the best spline modellers around. It also features a very intuitive shader system. Also, the more recent versions are much more stable. I believe that a fairly recent version, 3.6.3, is available for free. There are 3 downsides as I see it: it is a major memory hog (don't even think about it unless you have at LEAST 128 megs of ram). It's renderer is not nearly as good as lightwave's or other professional apps (make no mistake - it's EXPONENTIALLY better than mechanisto). It has no radiosity or caustics. Finally, the interface is very un-mac-like. It somewhat resembles that of Lightwave. I still found Pixels to have a reasonable learning curve.
In short, I feel that Pixels is the best choice. It costs several hundred dollars, but every once in a while, they release a full, uncrippled version for free. Go figure.**
I like Pixels too.
Originally posted by Nova6: **How do you get it? How much does it cost?
**
I got it before Metacreations sold its 3D division to Corel. I'm not exactly sure about availability of any previous Metacreations 3D products (which were really quite good). Corel said it will update the 3D programs, but, unfortunately, Corel normally turns good software into garbage. But we'll have to see.
I'm just a beginner at graphics programs, and i am interested in coldstone and might want to use them in my game (if i make one), whats the cheapest program out there? i mean i dont have hundreds of dollars to spend on one.....
If you want really cheap (ie free) Strata (see above) is free in its basic form, 3D-Joy (www.vidi.com) is also free for the LE version, and is pretty decent. The most powerful free one is Blender (www.blender.nl), which sadly won't be available til Mac OS X is out. You can, however, get it for most Unix variants and on Windoze. The program is very powerful, particularly with its own 3D game engine(which works for PS2). The only real problem, aside from the lack of a Mac version, is the interface, which is a nightmare to learn. Many people swear by the interface's power and speed, but a good tutorial is reaallly helpful.
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Oh, I almost forgot, Patchdance, a simple spline-based modeler is also nice. It's shareware (aprox. $30), and is very good with simple objects like swords, and allows amazing precision. It does take a while to make the objects though, so its really only worth the effort if the object is important to the scene. It also totally lacks any real texture mapping or rendering but can save in POV-Ray format... Pov-Ray (www.pov-ray.org) is a completely text-based rendering engine, but the results are some of the best I've ever seen. It hasn't been updated for a while, but there still working on 3.5. It's is nice if you have the skill and patience to type the stuff, but it is much better to use another program to make the scene and then port it to POV.
In response to Talos, I have seen the new corel Bryce, they havn't really added much, a few more landscape textures and some filters, but not much.....I suppose this becuase Corel has never really dealt with 3d rendering apps before....they have Bryce in their hands and don't know what to do with it.
Eek! (url="http://"http://www.3d.com")www.3d.com(/url) is down! I neeeeed a 3D modler!! plllz!and free. I'm not paying $500 to adobe so they can give me a windozer version.
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Originally posted by the Necromicon: **I use Infini-D for modelling and Cinema 4D XL (legaly obtained thank you very much:rolleyes: ). I'm in the process of switching to Carrara, I've been told it's much more powerfull that I-D, but it's hard finding a copy out there.
Carrara is more powerful but I still find it lacking a lot.
It has 3 different modelers though, which is a big plus, but the animation system sucks, it has no "bones" ability, and has a less than great setup. However, it is still much better than Infini-D, but I like Cinema 4D XL much better.
------------------ --------------------- I am the Walrus, Goo Goo G' joob
Bryce dominates on landscaping, but for other features I don't really have a favorite.
-cybergnu
I've heard that Bryce is best for landscapes, and that Infini-D is better for rendering and making ship and outfit graphics. I personnaly really like Bryce. I've made quite a few landscape PICTs with it.
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I have a few thousand dollars on my mac (mostly paid for with student loan money when I was in college... so it cost a lot less), two nice cameras that I could sell on ebay and get a nice digital thingy for, paint supplies I haven't touched in years, a scanner, a Wacom tablet, and well, I could go on and on. A tool is a tool, it's just a matter of how you use it.
I find that the single most important thing I have for artmaking is a bunch of paper (sketchbook or pad of newsprint), two pencils (B and 4B weights) and an eraser. If I can't capture my idea on paper first, I am not going to waste the time trying to realize otherwise.
That said, gems that stand out among my digitally-based tools:
Wacom tablet. I don't know what I'd do without this thing. I hate mice (The Wacom and my Kensington Trackball love each other) and I don't know anyone in their right mind who would try to draw with a trackball.
Photoshop I don't know how they do it, but Adobe keeps making the perfect better with each new release.
Animation Master I've only been working with it for two months, but I am honestly surprised by how extensive this program is. If you look at the image I'm posting to the board, you can see that I've constructed my own marionette system for animating characters to make sprites with. Ten levers and I have all the control I need, it's really a joy to animate with.
Other software: Audio production: Pro Tools, it's basically a digital multitrack recorder; Final Cut Pro: Straightforward Non-Linear Video Editing at it's best; and um, well, nothing else stands out as much as these... But then again, these programs are all geared toward production. They don't try to force a paradigm of artmaking upon you, but rather let you do what you want.
------------------ --You notice that you have been turned into a pile of ashes.