Searching for the right 3D app...

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I'm interested in getting into 3D. This will be a new world for me. I've discovered a slew of 3D apps out there:



Maya, Amapi, Blender, CINEMA 4D, Electric Image, LightWave 3D, modo, PiXELS3D, Shade 7, Silo, SketchUp, Strata 3D and ZBrush... Whaaaa!!! I'm overwhelmed.



I'm leaning towards CINEMA 4D, LightWave 3D, modo, Shade 7 or Strata 3D.



Before I make the investment in both time and money I would like to be sure I get into the right 3D app. My intention is to learn 3D to design furniture as well as designing some mechanical stuff I have twirling in my head. I also have interest in using 3D to design a car I have in mind as well as some animations.



Your expertise on the subject is much appreciated.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Cinema 4D is absolutely beautiful in my opinion, since it's intuitive, has an innofensive interface, has tons of very straightforward yet advanced animating features, and has all of its animation, modelling, and rendering under a single GUI, unlike say Electric Image, where you have 3 DIFFERENT APPS for those functions.



    I was way too intimidated by Maya, but I sprung to Cinema 4D. If Apple made a 3D product, it would feel like C4D.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    pbg4 dudepbg4 dude Posts: 1,611member
    Well, Blender doesn't cost anything so you could always start there for a minimal investment. There is a thriving online community and you could pick up the printed manual for about $35-40 which isn't much to spend, especially if you're considering picking up a Lightwave or C4D seat.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    phutylephutyle Posts: 19member
    i use Eovia Carrara 4, which I think is great. Modelling, animation and rendering all in one. There's a Pro and a Standard version. It's the successor to Ray Dream studio and infini-D, the old MetaCreations apps.



    Eovia have a trial version you can download.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    ipeonipeon Posts: 1,122member
    Thanks for your help.



    Placebo, I agree with you about Cinema 4D. I've downloaded the following demos Maya, Amapi, Blender, CINEMA 4D, modo, Neon, PiXELS3D, Shade 7, Silo, SketchUp and ZBrush...



    CINEMA 4D and modo have the best UI, modo being my favorite, unfortunately it doesn't do animation. LightWave looks like it has a nice UI as well, however I do not have a demo for that. I didn't know that Electric Image has 3 DIFFERENT APPS for animation, modeling, and rendering. That's the kind of info I'm looking for. Forget about Electric Image in that case.



    Now, CINEMA 4D R9 sells for $695 and CINEMA 4D R9 XL Bundle for $1895. Will CINEMA 4D R9 do animation, modeling, and rendering or do I need to get CINEMA 4D R9 XL Bundle in order to do all of that?



    PBG4 Dude, I've played around with Blender. Definitely appealing in that it's free, however it's UI is alien to me.



    Phutyle, I hadn't looked at Eovia Carrara 4. I will download a demo to check it out. How do you like it's UI? Does it do all under the same app?
  • Reply 5 of 8
    pbg4 dudepbg4 dude Posts: 1,611member
    Lightwave uses two different programs, Modeler and Layout. So if you're looking for a program to do everything under one roof so to speak, Lightwave is probably out of the running.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    phutylephutyle Posts: 19member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iPeon

    Phutyle, I hadn't looked at Eovia Carrara 4. I will download a demo to check it out. How do you like it's UI? Does it do all under the same app?



    Yeah, Carrara does it all in one app. You click bettween different icons to switch between screens (Assemble, Model, Texture, etc). Timeline and Keyframes for animation are down the bottom of the Assemble screen.



    The UI takes a bit of geting used to, as it's about as non-standard as i've seen. It completly takes over the screen, a bit like Bryce, but it has internal windows and dockable pallets. It works well with a dual monitor setup, though.



    The reason I got it was that I was looking for a general 3D modelling app, with terrain creation, that could output to Shockwave 3D's W3D format (and that didn't cost an arma and a leg) for my MA project. It fit the bill on all fronts.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    pbg4 dudepbg4 dude Posts: 1,611member
    Is Carrarra more stable than Ray Dream Studio? I bought RDS5 when it came out and even with the updates it would always crash on me, always. I believe Antoine is still running Eovia (made plugins for RDS before being brought into MetaCreations just before they decided to sell off most of their software). Before I upgrade my ancient copy of RDS to Carrarra I'd like some assurance that it's stable enough to actually work with without the program crashing every 10 minutes.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    phutylephutyle Posts: 19member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PBG4 Dude

    Is Carrarra more stable than Ray Dream Studio?



    It hasn't crashed on me yet ;-)



    I never used Ray Dream Studio, so I don't know about it's stability. I used to use infini-D years ago, and that was one of the reasons I chose Carrara this time round.



    I'm using it for general model and terrain development for a Shockwave 3D project. It's been very reliable for me so far. I haven't used it for any animation or rendering yet, so I can't comment of those sides of the app.



    But I've certainly had no stability issues.
Sign In or Register to comment.