This Course can only be played using a subscription. You can play only first 3 chapters for free. Click Here to avail a subscription. VTC presents: Discreet 3ds max 6 software - the latest version of Discreet's award-winning modeling, animation, and rendering solution used by the world's top 3D professional artists and.
9 Autodesk 3ds Max is a comprehensive, professional to help you create 3D designs and animation. Although there have been a lot of new being developed lately, Autodesk 3DS Max still remains a key player within the industy. This latest incarnation significantly improves upon the wire-frame mapping approach of the past. Program features Autodesk 3ds Max allows you to be very precise when mapping your creations. Besides the standard mapping tools, the application now contains all manner of alignment features to ensure that you get pinpoint accuracy when modelling. What’s more, Autodesk 3ds Max now contains more flexible options for Relax, the tool that averages UVs and allows for the automatic relief of texture distortion.
If used in conjunction with another function, Show Edge Distortion, then the mapping of your characters becomes all the easier. There are dozens of other features within Autodesk 3ds Max that will help you produce stunning 3D models without tearing your hair out. The render UVW template function is one that comes immediately to mind, allowing very quick template rendering of your prepared UVs, either in wireframe, filled, mapped or shaded versions. With a raft of skinning and modelling tools, Autodesk 3ds Max gives you very precise control over your models, without having to code or program every co-ordinate, making it a very user-friendly option.
Naturally, the cost of the full version of Autodesk 3ds Max will put off many 3D hobbyists, but for serious animation professionals it’s an application that is to be ignored at your peril. Autodesk 3ds Max is a powerful 3D animation suite aimed at professional users, with hundreds of tools and features. Author's review.
Create amazing worlds in 3ds Max If you can dream it, you can build it in 3ds Max®, the 3D software for modeling, animation, and rendering that allows you to create massive worlds in games and stunning scenes for design visualization. EASY, POWERFUL MODELING Model any person, place, or thing With tools to help shape and define, 3ds Max is modeling software for artists looking to create a range of environments and detailed characters. STUNNING RENDERING Works with major renderers 3ds Max works with most major renderers, such as V-Ray, Iray, and mental ray, to create high-end scenes and striking visuals for design visualization and more. TOP-TIER ANIMATION SOFTWARE Bring realistic scenes to life 3ds Max is used by top-tier animation and design firms to create imaginative characters and realistic scenes in games and architecture.
Well, if you want to become a good, and possibly professional, CG artist you should know that Maya is starting to becoming the norm. Most people that I talk to that do CG use Maya. However, Maya costs more than 3D Studio Max, and you can download an almost fully functional version of Maya off their site ((Sorry, requires Win 2000). It includes a stupid watermark on your renderings with the learning edition. Both 3DSMax and Maya have a huge learning curve.
It's hard to tell you which you'd prefer; you just have to try them both since they are very different programs. Once you learn a 3D program it's a lot easier to pick up another. Blender has a very sucessful modeling interface that scored over Animation Master (($300) in every way. Blender would be easier to learn because the interface isn't clunky, and is more powerful than an easy to learn program such as Animation Master (A:M is a very powerful program for it's price range).
So, if you want to learn CG for free without doing anything illegal, get Blender or get the Maya Personal Learning Edition. It's hard to compare Blender to programs like Maya and 3DSMax because Blender is not clunky, and it's a very different beast altogether. If you want to learn I strongly recommend using Blender. Also read this article (It's a sucess story of the guy that did the previs for Spider-Man 2 using Blender, and how it helped him move on to other programs. Because of what I had learned in Blender I was able to produce my first shot within one day of having to run LightWave for the first time.
Within two weeks I felt completely confident in using LightWave. I credit this to (1.) having learned so much about basic and even advanced 3d from Blender, and (2.) some amazingly fundamental similarities in the two programs, even down to some similar keyboard shortcuts.
In addition, you really need to upgrade your operating system, especially if you intend to move on with CG programs. Yo fudge, Im on ur msn.
Hey i can run some tutorials through with u on CG if u want! Hey Listen to the following about these programs: If u wanna become a GOOD CG artist u must have a varity for example me i have lightwave 8 which is compatible on windows 98, Why not try lightwave 8 instead of 3ds Max, lightwave 8 is a excellent program and is used in many commercial games like max payne, doom 3, halflife 2. Pretty much lightwave 8 is awsome! But maya is another good 3d program that is ok but not good for game models but more for CG effects. Then thers 3ds max 6 i got it not long ago but i sent it back cuz i hated how it didnt run on windows 98 so im currenty going to order 3dsMax 5 but my new computer im getting in 1 month has XP! So then ill upgrade to 3dsmax 6, But for now the best CG programs that i have USED, are Blender 2.34 (Easy to use and great graphic power and good uv mapper) Lightwave8 (professional quality but uv mapping is a hard!) 3dsMax ( good power good render ok UV mapping but a lil of a hog) Maya ( good animation sequncer but a horrible layout) Well i hoped this helps! Blender has a very sucessful modeling interface that scored over Animation Master (($300) in every way.
Blender would be easier to learn because the interface isn't clunky, and is more powerful than an easy to learn program such as Animation Master (A:M is a very powerful program for it's price range). Are you saying blenders modelling capabilities are superior to Animation masters, or that it's all around a more powerfull package?
I *love* blender but honestly, Animation Master *Murders* it when it comes to character animation. Well any kind of animation really, but specifically character animation. There is simply no competition.
Richie Sambora Stranger In This Town Rar Download. Thats ok though, it really puts XSI/Maya/LW/Max to the test in that respect as well (and soundly beats them in many, many areas). AM is something anyone interested in character animation on the cheap should think about. On certain days I wish I had gotten a copy of that instead of motionbuilder.
Just my 2 cents. Cheers, Zarf. AM is something anyone interested in character animation on the cheap should think about. On certain days I wish I had gotten a copy of that instead of motionbuilder. I tried AM once and found it crappy - bad interface (looks like MS WORD with a 3D window), and i've heard that it crashed quite often. (ok i admit i tried it only short, and i didn't like it at all.
I'm sure it's a powerful piece of software, but with zero 'sex appeal') however i tried motion-builder, too, and was amazed by the animation capabilities. It works like real puppets and behaves in a very intuitive way. Well my two cents, too:) @tracer - i'm quite sure there is no LW demo.
There never was one. Maybe they'll make one, as all the major players in the business have a trial/demo/free version (MAYA PLE, XSI EXP, 3dsmax 30-days-demo). I don't recommend LW.
It also has a powerful feature set, but workflow is a pain in the a** sometimes. Those guys still have two separate programs, one for modelling/texturing, one for animation, and this can really break your concentration. Apart from that, even simple things like viewport navigation or object movement seem tedious once you're used to blender..but try it if you can, build up your own mind. It gotta have something, so many ppl out there use it. AM is something anyone interested in character animation on the cheap should think about.
On certain days I wish I had gotten a copy of that instead of motionbuilder. I tried AM once and found it crappy - bad interface (looks like MS WORD with a 3D window), and i've heard that it crashed quite often. (ok i admit i tried it only short, and i didn't like it at all. I'm sure it's a powerful piece of software, but with zero 'sex appeal') however i tried motion-builder, too, and was amazed by the animation capabilities.
It works like real puppets and behaves in a very intuitive way. Well my two cents, too:) @tracer - i'm quite sure there is no LW demo. There never was one. Maybe they'll make one, as all the major players in the business have a trial/demo/free version (MAYA PLE, XSI EXP, 3dsmax 30-days-demo). I don't recommend LW. It also has a powerful feature set, but workflow is a pain in the a** sometimes.
Those guys still have two separate programs, one for modelling/texturing, one for animation, and this can really break your concentration. Apart from that, even simple things like viewport navigation or object movement seem tedious once you're used to blender..but try it if you can, build up your own mind.
It gotta have something, so many ppl out there use it. Theyre is a lightwave demo go onto there site and download the lightwave 7 update this will run in demo mode until patched. I tried AM once and found it crappy - bad interface (looks like MS WORD with a 3D window), and i've heard that it crashed quite often. (ok i admit i tried it only short, and i didn't like it at all. I'm sure it's a powerful piece of software, but with zero 'sex appeal') however i tried motion-builder, too, and was amazed by the animation capabilities.
It works like real puppets and behaves in a very intuitive way. Well my two cents, too:) Your experience with AM depends highly on which version you were using. 8.5 was very stable, 9.0 was supposedly pretty bad, presumably since it was a total rewrite. V11 is supposed to be stable again and has even more advanced features than ever. AM's character animation tools are very well thought out and more importantly, robust as they come. If someone said Hash's character animation facilities can stand toe to toe with the best in the industry, they wouldn't be wrong.
Motionbuilder does a lot of neat tricks, but it's full body ik setup is nothing new. Nichimen/Izware beat them to it over 5 years ago with the skeletal animation system in Mirai, the big brother of Nendo both of which inspired the creation of Wings. Animanium from Sega(!) does this sort of thing too, but it's implementation kind of sucks. I was able to simulate this sort of behavior with blenders constraint system to a certain extent, but it eventually proved to be of limited usefullness. Cheers, Zarf. Are you saying blenders modelling capabilities are superior to Animation masters, or that it's all around a more powerfull package?
The reason that I left Animation Master was because I tried to make certain models that A:M did a terrible job. Some cases you need to have a sharp triangle-shaped surface.
Whenever you did that with A:M the texture map and normal would fold over to create a black spiral crease in the middle of the patch. Sometimes on a smoth surface a 5-point patch could be used to replace a 3 and 4-point patch, but whever I created one or loaded a model with one A:M would crash. Having black lines and other wierd annomalies was unacceptable, and caused notable artifacts in my motion peices. A:M is built mainly for organic modeling, and when I tried to do anything inorganic I had terrible difficulty. A:M is built for character animation.
And yes, it kicks Blender's trash when it comes to animation. When I first started using Blender I was dissapointed that it didn't have raytracing until a few months later a new version took care of that. So far, everything that I liked and used in A:M has been replaced by new feature in Blender. A:M does have some really nice features that Blender doesn't have yet, but those are features that I probably won't use, until I start making full-length movies starring fuzzy creatures.
Hey, XSI rocks so hard, it's not even funny. The animation tools in particular are the best that I've ever used. In my opinion, they're better and more robust than Animation:Master's tools. I always wanted my own seat of XSI because I got to see what Softimage could do on some past projects at Disney. The recent price drop is freaking amazing because it allows me to actually afford that personal seat. Version 4 of XSI - Foundation is VERY full featured: don't let the sub-$500 price tag fool you. In fact, Foundation is the most DEEP 3d package I've ever had the pleasure of using.
Every day, I come across some new thing in the software that makes me say, 'Oh, that's COOL!' Oh, and don't forget that XSI has the tightest MentalRay integration out there.
The most mentioned missing piece in Foundation is a decent fur/hair shader, but I'm betting that a third party will introduce a cheap or free plugin to shore up that shortcoming very soon. Somebody already wrote and posted a free script that gives access to most of the automated rigging features that are only supposed to be available in the more expensive versions of XSI. I've owned a lot of apps, including LW, MAX, A:M, TS, and a little bit of Maya on some past projects. For my personal workflow, XSI kicks ALL their butts. The only two other 'rich' 3D apps (that I have experience with) that I would recommend with any enthusiasm are Messiah:Studio, and Blender, both for varied reasons. Messiah because of the killer animation tools and the powerful renderer, and Blender because of the lightning workflows, efficient memory friendly architecture, and the fact that it's a good stable 'all-around' package that can do most, if not all of what you need in 3D for free.
I also dig Wings3D as an alternative modeler. However, remember that all of this is just subjective opinion. Download and try everything that you can to find. Hey, such a concidence. I model with Wings since long ago, and could be allowed to use in jobs as main modeller.
But I also purchased XSI, mainly for its character animation power. Driver Epson Lq 2500 Xp on this page. Yep, I always wanted a seat of those packages, and the Foundation version allowed it.
I am not digging a lot of it now, as I only checked very well its joint pining workflow, ik etc, and directx animaiton export, even in my x viewers to ensure good work in game engines, and was so amazed how accurately the free x exporter worked. Really wanted to find some time to check the dx import though, as most othe rpackages I have and use (Ultimate Unwrap40$, character fx 15$, Blender with Ben x exporter ) do export anim, bone and weights info in x files, so it must be fun to import an animation also from other packages, though I doubt I'll go in that direction. Yup, it's really, really good, really a lot of depth, too. Is totally new UI for me, and I have used loads of UIs, including Blender. I'm too lazy to see the DVDs, but I'll end up doing so. All learned now is been just playing-guessing with it.
I am in projects where in the stage of modelling and UV mapping, and for now I prefer wings3d and ultimate unwrap for that. When in the stage of animating, I'll use it. I always use what I need and for what I need.IE: was in game jobs but only learned the part of Max I needed.these packages are huge, so I only learn what the boss needs, or the projects asks for;) As for pleasure, if weren't so forced to work in other stuff to try to make bucks, I'd be playing with it all day:) Man, adding pinning objects with a key is just so cool. I don't actually need the automated rigging thing, too used to make stuff by hand in way more spartan proggies like Character Fx. The hair limit thing get me worried, though.besides game hardware and power is growing every minute, and at some point all will be baked or calculated real time, is the fact that I also like doing high end rendering, not only real time 3d graphics.
So, your post was very interesting, as I am not into any XSI comunity (purchased recently, and anyway, I'm too many 3d related forums already) and did not know the possibility of someone doing a cheap hair plugin.as I actually don't miss a bit of all the other features ripped (maybe syflex cloth, but that I can fake it more or less with bone sand physics(or even without them), or I did so in other packages), but I perhaps will with hair. Anyway, I'm trying to help a bit here and there to ppl to use blender for open source or indy comercial games. Somehow, I love the idea of a free package for everyone.:) BTW, I suspect.at some points there seem top be inspiration on XSI for certain Blender features, but i could be wrong. That would only speak really well about Blender.
If you post in this forums if a cheap hair plugin or addon is published, that'd be great to know:). Ok, ill tell u whats better about lightwave,3ds max and maya that blender doesent have! Well blender is great its quite a professional app but maya,lightwave.ect have way better rendering power. More tools that are very usefully like hair and fur tools. It also has extreamly complicated but good uv mapping and way better animating tools! Sorry but blender can keep up with some apps but i have lightwave and alll those and i still do lots of my modeling in blender!
If you are not willing to spend time learning lightwave, maya.ect dont bother then because dont go spending outragous amounts on programs that your not gonna learn/wanna use! But blender is climbing to the top its probably the most powerfull free 3d modeler! The reason that I left Animation Master was because I tried to make certain models that A:M did a terrible job.
Some cases you need to have a sharp triangle-shaped surface. Whenever you did that with A:M the texture map and normal would fold over to create a black spiral crease in the middle of the patch.
Sometimes on a smoth surface a 5-point patch could be used to replace a 3 and 4-point patch, but whever I created one or loaded a model with one A:M would crash. Having black lines and other wierd annomalies was unacceptable, and caused notable artifacts in my motion peices. A:M is built mainly for organic modeling, and when I tried to do anything inorganic I had terrible difficulty.
Your experience is pretty typical I think. It's interesting to note that there are several prominent AM users who only use it for animation, and leave the modelling and rendering to another application. The black spiral crease in a middle of a patch sounds like an anomoly that technically shouldn't occur as long as each CP has a valence of 4 and the splines are connected properly, but I have encountered such oddities as well. However if the model is built properly these distortions should be minor, whilst what you are describing sounds pretty major. Regardless the newer versions don't suffer from this sort of thing if I understand correctly.
Also the 5 pointed patch crash makes me think you were using v8.x, in which case the crash was a probably a problem with the realtime display. If I recall correctly it could be fixed by changing some direct3d settings in the display drivers tab of the application. It's interesting to note that Blenders 'Actions' 'Armatures' and NLA editor were inspired by A:M.
Whether or not that was a good fit could be an interesting topic for debate. Cheers, Zarf. WHY games cost 10 mill???
Lets crunch some numbers. Publishing rights. If its a high profile game with famouse people or characters. Like matrix or xmen. Some companies have to 'bid' for the 'right' to even make that game.
Which at time can easilly run into the millions. 30 seconds in prime time costs prime dollars. Not to mention the salaries of the writers. The announcers. The actors all that MADE that comercial. They get paied too.
Dont forget the price for radio spots. And the employees fees. And magazien adds.
The cost to the mag to allow the advertising. The artists that created the ad. You think all those fancy boxes and CDs make themselvs??? You have to pay for the materials. The programming of the cds. The artists that creat the covor designs. And the trucks that ship them to your stores.
Most games usually ship at least 2 million copies. So that easilly runs you into a few mill dollars. And all the people that actually MAKE the game.
Especially an rpg. And look at the 300+ people it takes to make that game. Ranging from simple art. To designing the manual. To multiplayer programming.
The musical score. And paying any voice actors that might be in the game. Its not back int eh atari days ant more where 3-4 guys can spend a few weeks and toss out an interesting game. Its basically an interactive movie. With alot of the same workers and problems that a 40 million dollar theatrical production takes. And its just not cheap. $6000 a month?
Better at least double that if you want to even approach my current base salary as an engineer. Multiply that by 1.5 to 2 to cover each employee's overhead (insurance, supplies, hardware, software, office space, administration, etc.) and even a small dev team can burn through quite a bit of money in the 1.5 to 2 years that it takes to develop a decent game. However, with the booming mobile market, there's now a new need for tiny 'old-school' development teams. A little company composed of just 3 or 4 people can make a killing in mobile games.
My $0.02 on the subjects at hand. I learned on Blender, and had always heard how much better max was. I was so excited when I finally got a chance to use max in school, and, ultimately, dissapointed.
Three words; 'integerated game engine':D, I also started learning some of the shortcomings other software had compared with Blender, including other game engines. I did a quick demo of the engine for an instructor( just a ball that moved when you pressed the arrow keys) and he asked me where I coded that in. Don't other engines have logic bricks?
Another feature that's important to me; cross platform. Max gets a big fat F on that one. My ultimate goal is to design cross platform games. BTW one of my instructors( who works for a local game company ) told me that Blender was for ameture hacks. Maybe off topic, but I was offended and needed an excuse to vent.:D.