Hi all,
This is not another “which one should I use” but rather I’d like to tell you which I chose and why and see if you agree or disagree.
I’d LIKE to use Cheetah3D, it’s pretty and very user friendly. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with 3D modeling but was able to sit down and start doing stuff.
Blender, is not so pretty but seems to have a TON more features.
I’m heavily leaning toward Blender mainly because, from what I’ve read, it’s a lot easier to get stuff (with minimal tweaking) into Unity. By stuff I mean models, animations, etc…
Plus I gotta’ say I like the idea of cross platform software… oh, and free is good too.
Please let me know if I’m wrong, I’m trying to collect as much info as possible before investing too much time in learning one or the other.
I’m basically looking for something that’s going to give me the best workflow in the long run (after learning the software) between modeling and importing into my game.
Blender does have more features than Cheetah. No doubt about it.
Both are well integrated with Unity.
I have had only one problem working between Unity and Cheetah and vice versa, and it was an extremely obscure issue that I doubt anyone else would ever likely encounter.
Here’s the thread: http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=78436
I keep Blender on my hard drive in case I want to do something that is impossible to pull off with Cheetah. So far I have never needed to use it for a Unity project.
Due to Blender’s painful user interface, I can only recommend it to two types of users: (1) Someone who must use a free modeler. (2) Someone who must have Blender’s robust feature set.
So as you can see, I disagree with your reasoning. I would like to know what you need to do that Cheetah can not do. Or what import problems have come up in the pipeline between Cheetah and Unity. Perhaps I have over looked something and it would benefit me to know what I am missing out on.
Try 'em both, use the one you like. Use the search button and you’ll find an endless list of threads on this topic.
FWIW I quite like Blender’s interface. Very utilitarian, functional and easy to use. I spent probably over $10K in 3D software (Max, Maya, Modo, Carrara, etc.), but choose to use Blender 'cause it just works. If you’ve got a hankering for “pretty” UI’s, give Hexagon or Carrara a go. Worthless for game development IMHO, but they’ve got very pretty UI’s.
Thanks for the reply.
I wish I could post a link to the posts I read about the import for Blender being better than for Cheetah… I’ve read through so many posts in the last few days that there’s no way I could find it again.
It’s possible this information may have been outdated.
I do understand that most of the advanced features in Blender I will never use for asset development for a game.
I don’t have a huge budget, but I’d happily pay the $150 for Cheetah if I can get as good “compatibility” between it and Unity as I can get with Blender.
Thanks bigkahuna, I’ve read a TON of those threads over the past few days and, unfortunately, they didn’t help in the decision.
Like I said I did try both and with Cheetah I was able to sit down and start building simple models, not so with Blender. It’s not so much a pretty GUI, it’s just the GUI in Cheetah seems more “user friendly” (for lack of a better term).
That’s why I wanted to find out from the approach of getting everything into Unity. If they’re both about equal I’ll probably go with Cheetah, if Blender is better I’ll go with that.
I have NO issues with learning Blender if I’ll have less hassle in the long run getting stuff in to Unity, but again, if they’re both equal I probably won’t take the extra time that would be needed for the steeper learning curve.
you should consider, that - as far as i know (not using cheetah… yet) - cheetah does not support any kind of displacement painting (painting hires details onto lores mesh). if you plan to go for the ultra modern normalmappedtodeath (but imho ugly) look, you’ll gonna need that.
but well, as blender is free, you could still use cheeta and then export your model just for normal map generation.
Bite the bullet and go with ONE of them, but keep an open mind. You’ll use a whole bunch of different tools before you’re done for one reason or another. Just think of all the experience you could have had if you hadn’t spent so much time researching. And by “you” I mean everyone who goes through this process.
Just sayin’.
In my experience learning different tools helps you see the problem from different perspectives and give you a deeper understanding of what you are doing. That is, as long as the tools are reasonable good ones (both Cheetah and Blender are clearly in that category.)
Just keep an open mind, too. Just because a tool is working for what you are doing it’s good to keep tabs on other tools and you’ll start to see the advantages and disadvantages of other tools more clearly.
I’m liking blender because after you get accustomed to the interface many tasks are extremely efficient. On top of that, it is a hot project right now and it’s trying to compete at a professional level.
They’re probably pretty close to even as far as compatibility with Unity goes. UT has done a pretty good job of fixing issues in this area as they pop up.
If you’re brand new to 3D modeling and Cheetah seems to work for you, then that’s the way I’d go. I started off with Carrara Pro for the same reason, then eventually outgrew it and switched to Blender. The transition seemed painful at first, I wanted to learn it but everything about it seemed backwards to any other 3D app I had used. Then one fateful day, out of sheer stubbornness I decided to build a game with the Blender Game Engine. I spent about 2 or 3 days digging through the interface, asking questions on the BlenderArtists forums, and googling for help. By day three something just “clicked” and everything just seemed easier. When “got to have” features appeared in other apps I went out and either bought it or tried it, struggled with it for a day or two and eventually gave up only to return to Blender. Just about anything you can do in any other 3D app, you can do in Blender. There are a few other Blender artists here, many like GusM, who are much more talented than myself and create works that rival anything out there.
To be perfectly honest, I’m tired of hearing how ugly or user unfriendly the Blender interface is. I’ve tried them all and I have yet to find a UI that gives me as much flexibility as Blender does. If you don’t like how Blender looks, change it! I liked the color scheme used by Silo 3D, so I changed my Blender to match. I can have any variety of windows and viewports at any time giving my UI infinite control. Just about everything, from windows to shortcuts can be changed in Blender. I’ve yet to find another 3D app that gives me as much control over my UI as Blender.
Good points. I am also a bit tired of answering allways the same questions, and being forced to speak not so well of a tool I really don’t dislike…
In positive: Blender is all you will ever need for games, and for a lot more things. It has EXCELENT modelling, texturing and animation tools, and then much more. It is multiplatform and will do an excelent job in teams where some people uses Macs but some others don´t. It has the quickest development process out there and it shows. And his userbase, tutorials and dedicated sites and forums are really huge and allways growing. And as allready told, it has one of the more intuitive, productive and usefull UI you can get in 3D tools, of course once you learn how to use it. Even if it is not just like all the others, and even if you don´t like it. Are you looking for a familiar interface or for a really good 3D aplication?
These books should cover the bulk of the features present in the v2.4.x builds of Blender, short of the most recent enhancements. (Most of the other books on Blender are woefully outdated and only cover up to the version 2.2.x builds.)
That’s why I started this thread, because I saw a lot of people frustrated with “answering” the same questions, but the information I was looking for had never really been answered in a useful manner.
There are tons of posts on features in Blender or Cheetah vs other apps, but that’s not what I was looking for.
I appreciate most of the information in this thread as they have actually been very helpful!
The threads I’ve read over the past few weeks kept going back to the generic answer of “pick which one you like better” response.
Unfortunately that doesn’t really help as I’m trying to think long term and, as I don’t have the experience yet, I was trying to find out if I would regret using one over the other (strictly for use with Unity) from people that do have the experience.
I really don’t care about the interface and that was my point of this thread.
I was able to sit down and start building with Cheetah, but want to make sure it’s going to be the best choice in the long run, if not, then I’ll focus on Blender.
I am simply trying to find out which would give me a better workflow with Unity.
I don’t have a problem with the Blender interface but the fact is that it is very different than any other 3D app I’ve used and there will be a steeper learning curve because of it.
Thanks to all who’ve posted, I think I’ve gotten what I need from this thread.
It sounds like Cheetah and Blender are about equal in terms of importing things into Unity and, because Blender is free, cross platform and seems to have a better feature set, I’m probably going to focus on that app.
I should have said this in the other blender vs Cheetah thread:
Cheetah is really good if you’re coming off a Maya habit. Starting from cold, you’d be good to go with either, provided you have some patience. But if you’ve learned Maya, Cheetah is “similar” but obviously less advanced. And thats why I cant stand blender personally because I need to refer to the help files in order to rotate the view, and so on. But as a survivor of Maya training, Cheetah is like a straight shooting colt.45.
I do not now if any one else has done this but i find that using cheetah3d with blender works great. in my most resent work i have not been able to get the quantity of detail in cheetah that i can get with blenders sculpting tool, so i build the base mesh with cheetah because its a lot easer to use for making the shape i want and then i export it to blender and give it all the detail i need as well a making a normal map for when i put the model in unity. then i put it back in cheetah for animation and texturing.
This works great for me.
the exporting back and forth get really annoying.
this is just my opinion.
hope this helps.
That makes sense; I find Cheetah (although it’s very nice) harder to use than Blender, but I never learned Maya. I love Blender’s interface now, but you’ve got to learn the keymappings, it does hurt to drive it using only the mouse.
I own Cheetah and really appreciate its ease of use. Not that I find it as intuitive as I would wish, but you don’t need much time to feel comfortable in its environment.
As for Blender, it has really fascinating features that are attracting me more and more, and some of them are surprisingly fast to learn for a basic use. Example : the sculpt mode. I often put my 5 years old daughter in front of Blender with a Wacom tablet, and she has a lot of fun sculpting characters in symmetry mode, starting with a simple subdivised sphere. Here’s what she managed to do recently :
But to be honest, it’s not always that easy. Look at this hilarious example, it’s a tutorial (among a very good series, btw) where the author gets lost himself at the end :
Just to suggest how highly individual it is when one pronounces a 3D app intuitive to learn or not:
Contrary to the experience Targos had, I came from Maya and found Cheetah just as impenetrable as Blender, at first.
The cool aspect of both of these products is that the creators attempted to approach the complex problem of a 3D app interface from a fresh perspective rather than simply imitate what had already been done.
The overall effect is that the Maya interface seems crufty and archaic in comparison to both. That’s an impressive outcome considering the respective pedigrees.
You’ll get the same answers always, but it’s because they’re both really friggin’ nice apps for their own reasons. And both fully Unity-friendly.
I found Cheetah 3d to be the single most approachable and instantly gratifying 3d app I’ve ever tried. The price is fantastic and I’d swear it was made for Unity had I not been around prior to version 4.
Blender is the poster child for Open Source programs. It’s free. Updates are free. It runs on a Linux box, it runs on a Mac, it runs on a PC.
It does everything. The only investment is a bit of time. Oddly enough, the “toughest” interface to get used to is the easiest to work with when you do.
Buy Cheetah3D. Download Blender. Cheetah will likely get you quicker results, while Blender will be an immensely gratifying free app that will be there when you learn of features those “big” 3d apps have that Cheetah doesn’t.
