Creating new content

Tarath · Post by **Tarath** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:58 am

I'm a complete newbie to the artist side of things. and was wondering if I could get some help getting started in the right direction.

From skimming through here it sounds like most use 3ds max. Is there a free program out there that is at all comparable that I could use?

Also is there any good tutorial or documnetation that explains exactly how you go through each step to create a object like a bidped and export it to ogre?

I watched the tutorial on the 3ds Max exporter which helped a fair amount but I'm still hoping for a free program to use instead of 3ds Max.

I tried searched the forums and didn't notice an answer ot this question but if there was one and I missed it I apologize.

Thanks,

Tarat

Post by **DWORD** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:32 am

Tarath wrote:From skimming through here it sounds like most use 3ds max. Is there a free program out there that is at all comparable that I could use?

blender is a very good free alternative. I can't help you with the biped, though.

batonrye · Post by **batonrye** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:48 am

There are lots of good free 3d modeling programs - IMHO they don't quite match commercial programs like 3ds max or Maya in quality and power, but are free. My advice is to look at a few, pick one, and learn to use it well. In knowing one program very well you will be much more productive than having basic knowledge of several.

Look on the downloads->tools page and you will find a list of exporters for many modeling programs, including the free modelers Blender, AC3D, Milkshape, and Wings3D. You can find all sorts of tutorials for these programs searching online. Blender looks like the most commonly used, and perhaps highest quality.

As far as which have the best exporter support (it sounds like you want to export bone and animation data) I'm not too sure, I haven't had experience with most of these programs/exporters.

All the biped is in 3ds max is a set of customized and preset bones in the shape of a humanoid. You could just set up your own bones manually in that shape in, say, Blender and link them to your mesh for animation and export.

Post by **haffax** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:26 am

AC3D and Milkshape aren't free. Blender and Wings3d are. Blender has the widest Ogre support. 3 tools directly related to Ogre are available plus nfz' ATI normal map creator interface.
See the wiki page for more informations: http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/Tools:_Blender

Tutorials on Blender can be found on the Blender homepage ( http://www.blender3d.org )and the sites linked from it. The instructions that come with the Blender exporter are very thorough.

Rixeh · Post by **Rixeh** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:44 am

If you're looking for a cheap but pretty powerful commercial package (for around 500 US), XSI Foundation is the way to go. XSI is one of the "highend" softwares, up there with Maya & Max. It used to be virtually unknown because of it's crazy pricetag, only film houses like Pixar/Dreamworks would buy it.

XSI is the king of polygon and Subdivision Surfaces modeling. Period. Nothing can touch it.

The downside of Foundation is it does pretty much only that -- modeling. You get mental ray v3.3 as a renderer (and it's integrated directly into the software, not tacked on like you find in Max/Maya). You get some basic skeleton guides for character animation. (This really isn't a huge deal, because the guides are just a crutch IMO until you learn how to draw your own rig). And you get some very basic dynamics. XSI's dynamics is pretty bad in alot of areas, and Foundation has NO rigid-body dynamics. FYI though, this is perfectly fine for game modeling, because all you need is the mesh.

I'm not really an XSI fanboi though, I'm all about Maya.

But if you want to spring for the comparatively low price, foundation rocks.

Tarath · Post by **Tarath** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:47 am

Thanks for all the help and responses guys. I got blender and worked through a few tutorials and I think at least for now it will serve to get me started. I may decided to spring for the 500$ one at some point.

batonrye · Post by **batonrye** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:59 pm

AC3D and Milkshape aren't free

haha whoops... i remember playing around with milkshape a long time ago and thought i remember it was a free tool, but, indeed, it is shareware. I don't know why i though ac3d was free though...

I'm kind of curious about XSI now.. maybe i'll try out their demo. I tried a maya trail a while ago, and I did like it - it was very intuitave - but not enough to abandon my 3ds max 4 edu. license.

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Creating new content

Creating new content

Re: Creating new content

Thanks :)