pop my ride

December 19, 2006 7:21 PM

I want to teach myself 3d modeling and am looking for the easiest package to learn that is closest to Adobe Illustrator.

I want to teach myself 3d modeling. I'm proficient in Adobe Illustrator and traditional drawing however I would like to add that z axis to my work.

I've tried Z Brush, Cinema 4d, Strata, Poser and Sketchup. All of these work sort of well, but there comes this learning curve that is beyond my means. I've got a book for Cinema 4d but its written in so much odd jargon that it loses me

I've considered giving Maya and 3ds Max a try however for some reason they frighten me.

Lastly, please GOD do know I'm not trying to do a shameless plug for my artwork but only trying to give an example, I'm trying to make this (link) into, say, something like Pixar's look. Also, I'm limited to books in my area so online tutorials are a plus.

So does anyone have any ideas?

posted by Hands of Manos to media & arts (8 answers total)

Maya has the cleanest interface of any modeling program I've tested (strictly an amateur). Have you downloaded the free evaluation copy? It's daunting, but it's incorporating twice as many dimensions as Illustrator (depth and time).
posted by lekvar at 8:14 PM on December 19, 2006

Maya is excellent. I haven't used the others you mentioned, but it's easy to learn and I've heard it's among the most intuitive of the 3d modeling programs.

Blender is free, and I've heard it's quite good, but it's also pretty non-intuitive (IME, YMMV).
posted by spaceman_spiff at 8:18 PM on December 19, 2006

This is like the third time I've made this recommendation in AskMe, but check out Silo (http://nevercenter.com/). It's a cheap ($109 w/ free upgrade to 2.0) and awesome organic modeller. Version 2.0 (now in public beta) includes displacement painting similar to that found in zbrush. Once the developers get the bugs worked out it will be an incredible upgrade. It's just a modeler though -- there's no rendering built in.

Maya is truly awesome, but it's a beast. It's also $2000 in its cheapest form. I'd recommend that you check out Modo (www.luxology.com) first. I'm not a huge fan of the modelling workflow (others love it), but the renderer is amazing (the realtime preview is a thing of beauty) and sooo much easier to get great results out of than Mental Ray (the high quality, tweaky renderer shared by Maya, 3ds Max, and Xsi). It also has built in 3d texture painting and some really nice UV tools.

If you're on a PC I'd also recommend that you check out XSI (www.softimage.com). The base package is $500 and has the advantage (among many others) of not being owned by Autodesk.
posted by crumbly at 9:11 PM on December 19, 2006

If you have never used a 3D modeling package before, then I recommend paying nothing at all, and downloading the free version of Maya. While I am not an artist, I do use Maya every day at work, and I love the interface. I have previously used 3D Max and 3D studio (that's ageing me) and much prefer Maya's interface. Don't be overwhelmed by it. Its like a giant toolbox with 1000 different specialist tools, 900 of which you may never need, according to your particular speciality. There are free online Maya tutorials you can use, and books you can buy if you want. If you find you enjoy modeling, and want to further your skill, you will find that most modeling packages have a lot in common, and its not really that hard to switch.
posted by Joh at 10:20 PM on December 19, 2006

Blender and/or Wings 3D is my recommendation.
posted by rycee at 11:24 PM on December 19, 2006

Yeah, uhh... download the "evaluation" copy of Maya, and "acquire" some Lynda.com training series, you'll have the basics down in an hour or two...

It's actually very simple to import Illustrator files as paths in Maya and extrude them against another curve you have already defined, for example. I think you'd be surprised how easy it is to translate the drawing that you linked into a full model that could be quickly rigged.

Don't be overwhelmed by it. Its like a giant toolbox with 1000 different specialist tools, 900 of which you may never need, according to your particular speciality.

Good advice. It's a lot more daunting than any Adobe app I've used extensively; one of the key differences in the minutia involved in the order of selections you make, with what tool, using what modifiers. You'll get it down.
posted by prostyle at 6:25 AM on December 20, 2006

Well, should you decide to try Maya, I would recommend the tutorial book Learning AutoDesk Maya. I'm not sure how comprehensive the current edition is (I haven't kept up with the Jones's and am only familiar with Maya 6), but when I jumped into the Maya interface the Learning Maya 6 edition of the book was very helpful in familiarizing me with the interface, and the creation of basic forms.

That said, the Maya interface is not similar to Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator one has the familiar Adobe toolbars and works on a 2D art-board surface. In Maya one has a great many toolbars, and windows, and window toolbars, &c., and works on a flat 3D plane. Though the Maya interface and workspace are completely customizable.

Also, should you have the time and about $100 bucks (median guesstiment), you could always take a 3D animation course at a community college.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 6:39 AM on December 20, 2006

Searching for "easy" is going backfire on you.

I cannot stress enough - unlike graphic/photo editing software, the time that you will invest in learning a 3d software suite is significant enough that it is just not worth your time to learn anything but a full-strength industry-standard software suite (ie maya or max via their free personal-use versions).

The big packages scale down (ie you can be quite productive even while not understanding most of it), while the smaller/easier packages won't scale up (ie you'll have a use for a certain function, or plug-in, or tutorial, and it just won't exist).
Don't waste your time at the low end or chasing the rainbow of "easy" - that's being penny-wise pound-foolish and comes back to bite you, your time is an invest it, invest it somewhere where it can go somewhere. It might have already bit you - if you had put the time you've already spent on Z Brush, Cinema 4d, Strata, Poser and Sketchup, into one of the industry-standard goliaths instead, you'd probably already be past the confused/daunted phase, able to create stuff, and now be ready to expand into more advanced stuff.

Pick an industry-standard goliath, nothing less. In 3d software, the cost of using anything less is too high.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:55 AM on December 20, 2006