Milkshape or Blender?
by ChanWan · in Artist Corner · 05/09/2005 (12:19 am) · 12 replies
I will be a TGE user soon after my graduation one month later. I am glad to discover TGE as a fantastic game engine. But I have to make a decision now. I want to choose a 3D modelling and animation tool. Due to limited budget and a 3-month observation, I will only consider Milkshape and Blender.
I wanna ask which one is a more flexible tool for making models for TGE? Learning is not a problem for me. If the tool is good, I am sure that I will try my best to learn it. My consideration is about the flexibilty, and the quality of the outcome.
Could you mind telling me your expeience of using these two tools? What do you think about their possibilities and limitations? Which one is more suitable for YOU (Not ME, I know) and reasons? Thank you very much!
(Actually, I have quite familiar with Anim8or. What a pity that there is no exportor for it)
I wanna ask which one is a more flexible tool for making models for TGE? Learning is not a problem for me. If the tool is good, I am sure that I will try my best to learn it. My consideration is about the flexibilty, and the quality of the outcome.
Could you mind telling me your expeience of using these two tools? What do you think about their possibilities and limitations? Which one is more suitable for YOU (Not ME, I know) and reasons? Thank you very much!
(Actually, I have quite familiar with Anim8or. What a pity that there is no exportor for it)
#2
05/09/2005 (6:07 am)
I would suggest Milkshape... The (Milkshape) exporter currently supports more features for Torque.
#3
Blender has a more difficult to learn interface but is lighting fast to work in and very powerful. The blender exporter is not as powerful as the milkshape one though which is a shame. If it was expanded blender + torque would be an ideal combination.
05/09/2005 (6:51 am)
I started with milkshape and then moved on to blender. Milkshape has a very clunky interface and can be difficult to work in. It also handles animation badly and corrupts them quite easily.Blender has a more difficult to learn interface but is lighting fast to work in and very powerful. The blender exporter is not as powerful as the milkshape one though which is a shame. If it was expanded blender + torque would be an ideal combination.
#4
05/09/2005 (6:56 am)
I found Milkshape to be essential for learning basic 3d modelling. Now, I'm using Blender for subdivision surfaces, and I'm looking into other tools (i.e. Silo, Gamespace, XSI)
#5
As to the difficulty of the interface, make sure to follow the tutorials, especially if you've never modeled before, the Blender interface is completely different than all the other tools out there, it is designed from the ground-up to maximize work-flow and speed, where as all the others I have worked with, appear to be designed simply to conform the users expectations of an interace. But with blender once you get it, you are off and with a little forethought and planning you can model damn near anything, in 1/2 - 1/3 the time of the other tools.
05/09/2005 (7:22 am)
Blender all the way man, I have found nothing that could be done in Milkshape, that couldn't be done faster and better in Blender.As to the difficulty of the interface, make sure to follow the tutorials, especially if you've never modeled before, the Blender interface is completely different than all the other tools out there, it is designed from the ground-up to maximize work-flow and speed, where as all the others I have worked with, appear to be designed simply to conform the users expectations of an interace. But with blender once you get it, you are off and with a little forethought and planning you can model damn near anything, in 1/2 - 1/3 the time of the other tools.
#6
05/10/2005 (6:33 am)
You guys got me thinking about looking into blender. in the dts exporter matrix, in reference to blender, the footnote says "Only supports skinning to armatures, not meshes linked directly to individual bones." what does this mean? 
#7
Milkshape may have a 'klunky' feel to it's UI, I'd investigate hotkeys and shortcuts and their Manager closely[it's a plugin]; they'll do a lot of commands straight from the keyboard. Animation has it's limitations[don't truely like the math used for interpolations[tweens], but you can work some things with individual Node keyframing...
05/10/2005 (7:29 am)
You will probably not be able to produce 'robotic' or segmented style objects[without a certain amount of voodoo....]. It seems you get perhaps a single mesh[weighted] per armature?? I don't work Blender, I utilize Milkshape in specific capacities; as it's exporter is very full of features and it does a okay handshake with GameSpace. I am not certain how Blender 'plays with others'...Milkshape may have a 'klunky' feel to it's UI, I'd investigate hotkeys and shortcuts and their Manager closely[it's a plugin]; they'll do a lot of commands straight from the keyboard. Animation has it's limitations[don't truely like the math used for interpolations[tweens], but you can work some things with individual Node keyframing...
#8
05/10/2005 (10:02 am)
Not problem at all for Blender to build, use and export to Torque some segmented models like a robot. In Blender you can link a mesh to an armature by 3 methods, but if you plan to use it for Torque you must use the skinning one. But you can allways have segmented and closed shapes into the same mesh, skinned to a skeleton and acting without any deformation. Just be sure that every volume is fully included in one group and driven by just one bone, so it will not be any deformation, just rotations and translations.
#9
06/04/2005 (9:14 am)
Ah crap, I bought Milkshape thinking it was an upgrade from Blender! Ugh! ERGH!
#10
This is true, but it would be wise to note that this is more engine-intensive than the other way. This way, it has to calculate the positions of every vertex for every frame based on the animation, because it doesn't "know" that you have it setup mechanically. If you were to use a program where you can link each mesh to a bone, the engine would only have to think about the one rotation per object, which would be faster.
My current vote goes to Wings3D for modeling -->export to obj -->import, skin and animate in Blender -->export to DTS. Haven't tried milkshape, but I have heard that it has some really funky things going on that make it a pain to use for more advanced techniques.
06/06/2005 (11:14 am)
Quote:n Blender you can link a mesh to an armature by 3 methods, but if you plan to use it for Torque you must use the skinning one. But you can allways have segmented and closed shapes into the same mesh, skinned to a skeleton and acting without any deformation.
This is true, but it would be wise to note that this is more engine-intensive than the other way. This way, it has to calculate the positions of every vertex for every frame based on the animation, because it doesn't "know" that you have it setup mechanically. If you were to use a program where you can link each mesh to a bone, the engine would only have to think about the one rotation per object, which would be faster.
My current vote goes to Wings3D for modeling -->export to obj -->import, skin and animate in Blender -->export to DTS. Haven't tried milkshape, but I have heard that it has some really funky things going on that make it a pain to use for more advanced techniques.
#11
Edit: Spelling
06/06/2005 (12:38 pm)
I started with Milkshape and it was great and all, but I recently tried the new tutorial on gamedev.net on Blender. I have to say, the difference is like night and day. Blender is just so much more effective to model in. Milkshape is like your first car, Blender is that shiny first new car, and then somewhere down the road Max/Maya is that sports car you can afford right before you die. ;)Edit: Spelling
#12
Plus I can develop on linux, and any time spent on linux away from windows is good time! :)
06/06/2005 (1:10 pm)
I totally agree. Blender is so good that when I first used it, I kept thinking there had to be a catch. Well its a year later and Im still waiting to find the catch.Plus I can develop on linux, and any time spent on linux away from windows is good time! :)
Andrew Kerr
As for Blender v Milkshape - I am no expert, just starting to learn, but my understanding is that Blender is far more versatile than Milkshape, but with a less pleasant UI.