I am looking to see if there are any inexpensive modeling/animation (meaning including both) programs for Window that work well with unity? I know blender is a free one but the user interface is horrible to use (at least to me). It seems for windows you have blender for free and then the next cheapest one with modeling/animation would be Lightwave which is about 1K. Something like Cheetah 3D would be great but of course that is only on the Mac.
i prefer blender but how about truespace?
You know everyone that looks at Blender the first time says the same thing. But once you have used it for a little while you will find it to be a great and fast tool.
Also there are a ton of new user tutorials.
Links
http://blenderunderground.com/
Here are just a few
Another vote for Blender here. Definitely worth the investment in time to learn to use and it works nicely with Unity. Plus it’s supported by a great community. FWIW, the next major update to Blender will include some major UI changes. Personally, I like it just the way it is, but the changes will likely attract more people who would be turned off by the GUI.
Another vote for Blender.
Once you get into a groove with the hotkeys, it IS very fast to work with.
At one time I would have recommended Softimage XSI, but of course Autodesk couldn’t just leave a killer product like XSI Foundation for $495 out in the market, now, could they?
:evil:
Yeah, yeah, I know that Avid/Softimage killed Foundation BEFORE the Autodesk buyout, but I think it’s pretty suspicious timing that it was only a couple of months beforehand.
Call me a conspiracy nut, but I think that the buyout deal was in the works for some time, and that as part of that deal, Avid had to take the heat for killing Foundation so Autodesk wouldn’t have to dirty their hands doing it themselves.
:evil:
I wondering how the hell Autodesk was able to buyout Maya and XSI, they now sell 3 products that compete with each other (Maya, 3DS Max, and XSI).
Blender rocks…
This website has a wonderful low poly character modelling tutorial. I learned everything from that.
I am a big fan of wings lately, great for low poly work.
I bought a copy of Cheetah3D myself. It is perfect for my needs. It has low learning curve and easy to use user interface. And the price is very reasonable.
Edit: Ooops, no more mac only 
Just remember it does not matter what tool you use as in the end you will have many in your box to choose from and you will likely use them all.
you can try modo demo i think is less expensive than lightwave
For the Mac, there’s always Cheetah3D… It’s a lot easier to learn than Blender, and it does most of the needed functions for 3D modeling and animation.
Wings3D is a pretty awesome modeling tool and it’s nice to see that development seems to be back on track after being dormant for a while. When I first started with Blender and couldn’t get my head around its modeling tools I picked up Wings. Wings is -very- easy to learn and become productive with. Plus Wings and Blender play together pretty well.
But Blender has really skyrocketed in features over the past few years, and to be honest, if you invest a few days of dedicated effort I’m sure you can learn it. That’s about how long it took me.
BTW, if you WERE on a Mac, I too might recommend Cheetah3D, especially with the good Unity integration, easier learning curve, and their current special price of $99, with a free upgrade to 5.0 when it ships.
Too bad Houdini Apprentice HD has .FBX export disabled.
Now THAT would make for a heck of a cross-platform modeling and animation system for Unity, and at only $99 too!
But no, it has export to Torque instead. :roll:
I use Silo 2. Silo 1.4 was the best modeller I ever bought. Silo 2 is even better.
It’s the closest modeller I could find that mimicks 3D Studio Max.
For animation I use either FragMotion, PaceMaker (PaceMaker comes with physics animation) and for model conversion and unwrapping models I use Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro.
Ultimate Unwrap 3D - UV Mapping Software - Unwrap3D
http://www.nevercenter.com/ - Silo3D 2
Почему сайт кыздар.нет закрыли Pacemaker (now Free)
http://fragmosoft.com/ Fragmotion.
Low cost tools that do the job needed. No need for £$1000 worth of software or one app that costs a mortgage. 
Blender is the Way. But don’t approach it like mouse/icon driven app, you’ve got to learn the key shortcuts with your left hand, while navigating 3d space with your right. Once you understand how to switch modes and functions with these shortcuts, Blender becomes a beautiful experience, but trying to just mouse your way through it is painful.
that is kinda like me trying to play a FPS without a mouse. The mouse the 3D would is, the mouse if perfect to moving around in it for me. I will wait until the next version which someone said the interface is going to be improved.
The interface for using a program is just as important as the program itself to me, one of the main reason I really like Unity, without Unity’s editor that way it is, I would probably not be buying it
The thing you need to realize about the Blender GUI is it is completely customizable and it will be even more so in the 2.5 release.
You can even design it to look like 3Ds or a traditional interface if you like.
What I am saying is you can lay out the GUI just how you like it and save it as default.
I even have mine designed with 7 custom screens based on what I am doing.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Interface/Screens
That’s all well and good, but it isn’t much help for someone just picking up the application. This same argument gets made about Maya and it doesn’t work, either. In order to arrange the UI in a way that suits you, you have to learn the program first to figure out how it works, then tally up the functions you use most and the ones you never touch so you can put everything where you want it. At this point, you know the program well enough that doing a huge UI customization is probably a waste of time.
If you don’t like the way Blender works, changing the way it looks isn’t going to help. It’s an incredible tool, especially for the price you pay, don’t get me wrong. However, it doesn’t even come close the usability of a simpler tool like Cheetah.
You are so right, but remember the original question.
Note this is a windows user and I have heard every bias quote on this 3D program or that program which is ok but everyone has the same issue when they first start they try not to spend too much money until they are hooked like those of us will save and spend whatever it takes to make our dreams come true.