Hi guys,
I am not an artist and certainly, cannot afford one for my projects. 
I am slowly learning 3D modeling (in Blender) but nothing impressive or even practical for my projects so far!
Is there a 3D modelling program thatâs so easy even programmers can learn it and create something simple for prototyping in mere minutes?
Thanks! 
There are simpler 3D modelling applications, but that obviously comes at the price of less functionality. A simpler interface wonât suddenly turn you into a great 3D artist. If anything, it will limit your ability to create the things you want to create. It isnât too difficult to learn Blender, just stick with it for a while and you can easily create prototypes within a few minutes. Your inexperience as an artist is holding you back, not the software you are using. Learn to model the same way you learned to code: failing over and over and over again until you finally succeed.
Interestingly, I was recently thinking about whether thereâs a 3d program that allows an equivalent of sketching in 2d.
Iâm not aware of a program like that. Everything (including sketchup) has a learning curve and is not simple.
So I think youâll have to pick a software, stick with it and get used to working in it. Then youâll be able to create quick prototypes.
I would say that Blender fits the bill. It takes time to learn 3d in general, and it takes time to learn software in generalâŚI donât know anything that can change that. I would say though that if you want to make quick shapes just for prototyping, Blender is capable. You can just add a cube, go to edit mode, delete or shape the verts, add spheres and other shapes, transform them as needed, and then you can do a sort of quick UV and paint simple colors directly in texture paint mode. The result wonât be pretty, and likely wonât be something you would want in a final game, but for prototyping you can get what you need pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, blender is geared towards polygonal modeling and sucks at CSG. And (I think) CSG is what people would want for quick prototyping.
It may be able to sculpt something in it quickly, though.
So Iâm not sure if it could be the âsoftware for rapid protypingâ. Sure, workflow is lighting fast, but for ârapid prototypingâ, iâd want it to be faster by factor of 5 or 10.
It is true that Blender isnât much for CSG(though it does have the boolean modifier and CAN do it, albeit 2 things at a time only). But if something is really just for a quicky prototype, I donât think it matters much if the geometry is actually merged, and worse, CSG/Booleans have a tendency to not create very good topology where things connect and you end up having to clean up, and that goes totally against the whole âprototypingâ thing being discussed.
SculptingâŚBlender can do it, either just using sculpting techniques to modify polys, or similar to other software where it actually adds needed polys to be able to smoothly sculpt. The primary issue here is you use the one that adds polys is how quick and easy it is to go overboard, making your results unusable in a game without modification/retopology, which once again, goes against the whole âprototypingâ thing being discussed.
About it being the âsoftware for rapid prototypingââŚIâm with you on that. The technique Iâm suggesting as far as just creating primitives etc⌠could easily be done in other programs, though I donât think anything except for ZBrush letâs you paint directly on the model within the same program like Blender does(not sure on the fact that Blender is exclusive here though).
Honestly, I donât think such software actually exists at this point. If it does Iâd like to find it though.
Iâm fairly familiar with blender, and blenderâs boolean modifier is, honestly, horrible. There WAS some addon that added bunch of hotkeys (I think it was called BoolTool) that felt like a step in the right direction, but it still wasnât âitâ. The modifier also fails fairly often.
For the purposes of rapid protoyping topology doesnât matter.
Once again, for quick prototyping âusabilityâ doesnât really matter. âusabilityâ belongs to ârefinementâ phase.
Dyntopo sculpting in blender is pretty much the closest thing the program has to 2d sketching. You can fairly quickly flesh out a decent shape in dyntopo mode. The problems start when you need to punch a hole in something, or merge/join two extruded surfaces (say, start with a sphere and try to turn it into a donut without ever leaving sculpting mode). Sometimes it feels like there has to be some sort of voxel mode for this.
I tried it many times for prototyping characters, honestly it just doesnât work. The problem is that blender is geared towards mesh modeling and primitives arenât parametric. So, while you get to enter bunch of parameters when you create primitive, as soon as you press âenterâ, it is converted into mesh, and then youâll be polygonally editing it. And once you move the initial cube somewhere, rotate it bunch of times, maintaining the sane shape becomes hard.
So, for example, while making an ultra low-poly character youâd think you could quickly place the shapes to flew out characterâs sillhouette/proportions, in reality it is always only causes trouble, and the only approach that actually works is old fashioned poly modeling with face extrusions/etc. So right now I tend to just directly go into mirror modifier mode and start slicing/extruding the initial box to make what I want. When I do it, it always feels like there should be a faster way of doing it.
Same here.
I am learning blender and yes its HARD very very hard, well it gets easier the more you use it but believe me the things you can do with it is incredible.
Like everything else in life to make something special requires hard work. Luckily for me I am natural at 3D but totally suck at 2D
Though I suspect its really the power of blender that is making things so easy. You donât even have to care about lighting and shading etc its all done automatic with clicking a button
Sometimes I use Blenderâs Skin modifier to create rapid character base-meshes.
Works pretty good for me. But it has definitely a learning curve to get used to it.
Years ago I tried out Cinema 4D and it was noticeably easier to learn than Blender. Doesnât matter if its more for motion graphics it does everything for 3D modeling and far easier than Blender. I didnât take anywhere this long to learn basic stuff in C4D as I am currently doing in Blender.
But alas the cost of blender is $0 and C4D is $3500
Heh, I do too. But I do it infrequently, so I never remember the node scaling hotkey and it has a very non intuitive name. But once i get going with it really is a quick way to build.
I started with blender. Iâm primarily a 2d artist. I figured I would start with blender because it was free the switch over maya/max eventually. But Iâve been using it so long that when I did need to use maya, it felt so awkward. So I would just do everything in blender then import in to maya toward the end. I can use others, just not nearly as fast. Iâve kinda resolved to doing it that way now.
I feel your pain. thatâs why I built one ;).
probuilder the unity plugin
This sums my own experience pretty much up.
Maya has itâs own merits. But for me, itâs really slow for modeling compared to Blender.
But I started with Blender too and know what to do there. And Iâm simply used to the key-centric workflow, which isnât everyones cup of teaâŚ
Tried it several times, usually I ended up having trouble in areas where mesh branches off, so I kinda gave up on using it.
Yes, It can be tricky sometimes. Itâs really not perfect.
You can try to play with the branch smoothing and mark/clear some vertices as loose. That often helps to get rid off funky stuff.
Iâd recommend giving Anim8or a try although it is nothing like Sketching in 3D it is the 3D modeling program I have used the most. Long before I started using Blender.
Even now when I dabble in 3D I still prefer Anim8or knocking out stuff quickly.
But honestly quick prototyping in 3D⌠thatâs easy and readily available inside Unity⌠cubes.
I think these are some of the Indie games that used Anim8or to create the graphics. Certainly nothing amazing compared to what most folks want around here but I think it could be a faster workflow at least for new people.
However, others have used it to createâŚ
And here are a couple videos showing it in use
Seeing this stuff again almost makes me think I should go back to using Anim8or to create my graphics. So much easier.
Try one of the CSG assets for Unity. Sabre CSG is now open source but Realtime CSG supports exporting to FBX.
I use Modo, so have a look at that too. Itâs got a lot of cool features, and itâs fairly easy to use. Plus, itâs nowhere near as expensive as Maya.