I started using Blender recently and I find everything really hard to follow. I have zero experience with 3D modelling/animation so I picked up Tony Mullen’s “Introducing Character Animation With Blender”, but even with this I feel completely stumped. This is a well written book but it’s proving to me that Blender just isn’t for me.
I (obviously) have no aspirations to be a great 3D artist, just to be able to create simple characters/buildings for my Unity projects. Blender looks an awesome tool but for such a “casual” user I think I’m getting way over my head (not to mention I’m simultaneously trying to learn Unity!!).
From reading on the message boards here, Cheetah3D seems like an affordable (ie: less than 500$) software that also is relatively intuitive.
I do have a quick question about Cheetah, however…
I remember reading in an early review of the program that it didn’t have real hair particles. Is this still the case? If so, is it hard to make furry creatures with Cheetah? (For example: designing an actual cheetah?!)
These things are always a little bit in the “eye of the beholder”, but I had exactly the same experience. I bought two books on Blender and could never quite get the hang of the interface.
I use Cheetah 3D for everything now, and I swear by it. It’s awesome. I also grabbed the intro videos they sell on their site. Between the videos and the forums, I’ve done everything I’ve tried so far (everything but really complex animation, really).
I found Max to be the most intuitive modeling/animation tool I’ve used, but I don’t have access to that for my indie projects, and Cheetah is a great tool.
Or try Wings3D ( http://www.wings3d.com/ ). Wings3D is an excellent modeling tool with a super simple interface.
The first couple of times I tried to learn Blender I didn’t ever think I’d learn it. It wasn’t until I had a project that I had to use Blender for and I just stuck with it for a couple days (and posted questions on the Blender User’s forum every couple of hours) that I finally started to figure it out. After that it was pretty easy (and I didn’t follow any tutorials or books). Now I wouldn’t use anything else.
But I can understand that getting over the initial hurdles is a bit difficult, especially if you don’t have any prior 3d modeling experience.
You might also want to look at Carrara, Hexagon and Sketchup. Not the best apps for game content development IMO, but their user interfaces are more graphical and might be easier to get started with.
No books on Cheetah that I am aware of. If you find one, let me know!
I thought the videos were worth every penny… Very detailed. I still go back to them sometimes for reference… The series is broken up into multiple videos so its easy to find relevant lessons.
Cool, thanks guys. I think I’m gunna purchase a Cheetah3D license. I’m really digging the interface/ease of use.
That said, I’m a little worried by the lack of realistic (ie: proper proportions) character models in the Cheetah gallery.
There’s a lot of cool Pixar-ish characters on the official site’s Gallery page and C3D’s message boards, but none that are just simple, non-cartoony.
This is the kinda stuff I want to be doing with Cheetah so I kinda want to make sure this is even possible with it! I’m not talking photorealistic or anything, just proportional! Think…this:
Don’t worry too much about what you see in the gallery. If Cheetah3D can do polygon modelling then you can do high quality stuff with it. People looking to get jobs in the industry tend to use pricier packages because they become more attractive with the big studios that way, so Cheetah3D’s gallery naturally won’t look as impressive as say, a gallery for 3D Studio Max work.
I’ve been using Maya and 3dsmax for years, and when I tried Blender I was dumbfounded at how complex the interface was, so you are not alone! When looking at one of the training videos, it was almost 10-12 steps to get a triangle to move from left to right, but to each his own.
That said, I can’t recommend Wings3D enough for modeling (it had concepts years before a lot of major packages), but it unfortunately doesn’t do any animation.
Cheetah 3d is a program I was able to start with and get something done by the interface itself.
Blender 3d is a superior program, but it does take some learning. Cheetah is strong enough for most game modeling and works great with Unity. The UI, IMO, is as straightforward as it gets, and pleasant to work with. I can’t recommend it enough.
The payoff in learning Blender is worth it, however, do not write it off just yet.
You may find you want a bit more than Cheetah offers at some point, and Blender will be there.
There are some great books finally coming out that document the more recent 2.4.x builds of Blender. Many of which were authored by members of Blender’s development staff:
