I’m about to purchase my 3D tool personal license, and honestly, after hours of research on the net, I can’t decide myself …
For short, I’m searching for a software that got these features :
very fast workflow
easy character skinning and rigging
perfect FBX support
clear interface
opened to architectural modelings as well
stability
full animation tools (bones, IK, FK, constraints, physics)
and of course, a total compatibility with Unity3D importing process
indie-friendly
perenity. Which means a more or less clear video-game oriented roadmap.
For now, what I got on my mind about existing softwares :
3DS : fits all my needs, and in fact too much more … It’s a tool made for big industries, not for indies. Way too huge for what I need, which would not make a very good need/price balance. It’s such corporate oriented that in France you can’t find a clear shopping offer unless you want to contact the marketing service of 3 or 4 small unknown B to B enterprises …
Maya : same as 3DS, I can’t even guess why those 2 products are still independant.
Softimage : An interesting one, as I can read on different sites that several small game studios use it (Dead or Alive series, latest Metal Gear, for instance). Plus game-oriented mods, plus a growing quantity of pro gamedevs begging for this tool to their game studio. But as it’s growing, I can’t find very much infos about its concrete efficiency. And once again, I can’t find a decent shipping service for it in France.
Modo : A huge database of users are claiming this modeler beats every actual solution, but unfortunately, it doesn’t support advanced animation tools yet. I would be able to buy a separate character animation tool for this one, if somebody could recommand me one that doesn’t exceed 1000 €.
Cinema 4D : This one’s interesting too, but I can’t find enough pro comments to make my mind about it. Plus the fact that its FBX exporter seems unstable.
Blender : I can’t stand its interface. I don’t want to spend as much time into learning curve as in game dev.
Cheetah 3D : doesn’t seem very serious to me.
That’s all I know for now.
Any advanced artist, with an already significant gamedev experience, could gimme an advice ?
Since you state that this 3D tool is for personal use, why not work with Softimage’s mod tool? It has all the features of the full application and is free. When you are ready to pursue commercial work, you can buy the retail version. Or you can determine (for no cost) that the Softimage workflow isn’t right for you.
I have also been looking for a low cost solution to learn 3D modeling. Max/XSI is just way to expensive (and while you can use the XSI Mod tool for commercial products, you can only do that for XNA XBox 360). Maya is about half the cost of Max but still just a little to high. Cinema is a bit of a mix bag. I here good things and bad things but I don’t like the way they charge for plugins. I would have to agree that the interface for blender seem terrible.
Modo seems like the most promising of the bunch. Very solid modeling tools. Animation is not there yet (still hopeful that 401 will bring at least basic FK/IK/Bones since you don’t need the most advance animation tools for games but not counting on it).
As for a separate animation tool, the only one with a reason cost in Messiah with is 400 but I have no idea how good it is.
Your best bet seems Blender, wait for the next update and it will allow custom interface layouts, shortcut-keys etc.
Any of the others will require just as much learning if not more, Since your asking the question which one is best for you, maybe you should try them all out and decide for yourself.
It’s the same with paint brushes, you pick the one you need for the job, there is no universal best paint brush.
Although I have been using Maya everyday for quite some time now, I lately find myself using Silo for most of my modeling. I have a license to Modo as well, but I prefer to model in Silo any day of the week. And since Modo’s sculpting and painting tools aren’t very good (compared to zbrush or mudbox), I often wonder why I bought it in the first place.
I also bought a license to Cheetah when I first started out and I think it is an excellent package for hobbyists. I wouldn’t personally use it anymore because I have come to love the power of Maya’s Hypershade material editor and Mental Ray renderer.
Max and XSI are both really good as well, but they are too expensive for my needs. Maya Complete is a little cheaper, although I am looking to change my pipeline because I don’t want (cant afford) to pay for the next Maya version. Hopefully the upcoming Modo 401 release will have better animation, because it is a really affordable solution for freelancers and I really like the company who makes Modo. I will learn to love Modo if they introduce character animation soon.
Long story short… I prefer Silo for modeling, Zbrush for sculpting, Maya for everything else (hopefully Modo 401 will replace Maya for me) . Oh, and Headus UV Layout for all my UV needs.
If you can afford maya, then I would go for this. But don’t forget that in order to learn properly, you also need to buy some tutorial dvds and/or books. This can easily sum up to a few hundred bucks more.
All 3D tools have a rather steep learning curve. When you have mastered one tough, switching to another is not such a big deal. So the best would be you try them all out for yourself seriously. Then decide.
Just out of my personal experience: I am right now learnign blender, there are superb free tutorial videos at blenderunderground. For me the interface was also the reason why I did not go into blender earlier, but then I just went trough these videos and I can tell you that the interface is actually quite well designed. You just can’t see this if you just start to tinker around with blender. But believe me, after some hours with these videos, everything is quite logic, at least not more complicated than for exampel in maya. For character anim, there are good books and dvds available at blender.org, and as said, 2.5 will have a better interface anyway. To make it short: Give blender a spin, just work trough these tuts I mentioned, and then see if you still don’t like it
If you get Modo 302 now, you’ll be entitled to a free 401 upgrade. Luxology is boasting about really good COLLADA support. I suspect that the new COLLADA plugin will support advanced import and export for animations, since they have a dedicated developer working on it. 302 had a basic COLLADA exporter, so I’m guessing the new one does animation.
The thing that sold me on Modo was the GBs of training videos that it comes will and all the training material available on the site. And that the interface didn’t look like Blender.
I am a pro artist making my life with Blender for years now. I also purchased an expensive 3D app. at the begginning, as a proof of my own seriousness (lol). I took my first look at Blender when it was not even Open Source, and also disliked very much the UI at first. But sometime after that, when it was first released as OS, I gave it a second and deeper look and I realized it was a very powerfull and well designed tool. Nowadays I know for sure I don´t need any other tool for my game work, and I seriously doubt you can get better results for games with any other 3D tool than with current Blender.
You will spend about the same time learning Blender than any other symilar tool (maya, Max, LW…). And you will be able to build exactly the same models and animations, with the same perfect integration with Unity.
Let yourself know some more about Blender before you decide to invest in expensive app. It is worth every hour of learning.
Well, without the awful interface, there would be one more irrational thing that disturbs me with Blender … :roll:
It’s the way objects are manipulated. There some lack of flexibility in the way you can simply rotate an object, for example. Seems like clutchy for me …
Plus the way vertices are represented, don’t feel as much precision as in 3DS, for example.
In fact, all in Blender feels like there’s lack of precision to me.
The way tools are organised, too, feels like you have to cross hundred of miles with your mouse before reaching the right tool.
Anyway, if you like best 3Dmax, take a last look at this: a customized Blender UI file specially built by the well known Max user Daniel Lara (currently a very active Blender user too) for Maya and 3DMax users:
Maybe this pannels organization fits better with you…
As for the other issues you mention: for rotations try using the transform widgets, they are very simylar to standars. And you can setup the vertices apearence at the user preferences window. Just remember, once you set it all up like you like best, use Control + U to save it as your default.
Why are there only a very few pro gamedevs using it or talking about it, when we browse the net ?
I’m looking at its interface right now, it’s very nice, clear and eye-candish. Renderings seem ok, too.
Rigging doesn’t look more complicated as in other softwares …
Because it is a vicious circle…all the game studios use Max/Maya, so all the schools teach Max/Maya. It doesn’t seem to matter how good a software is, Max/Maya will always be the most popular. I learned Maya because thats what they taught at Gnomon. I think many people use Max/Maya just because it looks best on the resume.
If you are modelling a simple object (a character or the like) that’s ok, import the model, search the texture and drop on the model.
But, what if you have a complex escene with hundreds of objects (namely a level map)? Am i supposed to search and drop any texture on its model?!
Anyway, i’m a noob in both Unity and Blender, so i’m maybe missing something… is it the way it seems?
That’s actually not the case…if you have your textures in your project first and use those to UV map objects in Blender, then the model will be automatically have those textures applied when imported into Unity.
