I Need a Good Modeling Program for Beginners

#1 There may be other free modelling packages, but Blender is the only one I have ever heard of.

On the low end money scale there's MilkShape which I think is around $20-$25.

Leaving the free/almost free behind, there's XSI Foundation which goes for around $500. Then you're up to the higher cost Max/Maya in the $3k plus range.

I've never used MilkShape, but blender isn't "too" bad once you've gotten used to the different way of working. Have a look around and you should be able to find a few sites that do Blender tutorial videos that are worth watching, there's also a couple of sites that have a few videos that are Torque specific.

If you have a little cash though, give the XSI trial a go. I was pretty impressed by what the foundation version is capable of. I just couldn't warrant spending what equates to 500 GBP when I'd only be using it for creating temp programmer art; at least, not just yet ;)

Shame the current exchange rate hasn't affected the price, 250 GBP would be a more attractive price even for programmer art use.

EDIT: For some reason the site keeps eating everything after a pound sign.

#2 Deled has a free version. The pro version is quite reasonalby priced as well. It is quite easy to learn.

#3 There's another free 3d package floating around the GG pages - a work in progress I think - anyone remember the name?

#4 Bite the bullet and get milkshape. It's got a reasonably active message board to answer questions on their website and a lot of beginner/lowpoly tutorials are written in milkshape. It's what I'm using right now- I can tell you it does have some limitations, but those probably won't become apparent until you are proficent with it. Not nearly a steep a learning curve as Blender though. :)

#5 I'd stick with blender. It does 100 times more than milkshape and is free. I've used a lot of 3D apps and I wish I started with blender (but they didnt have it back then). I started with Lightwave on Amiga 2000, then Softimage and 3DMax on the pc and their great but if you don't have the money then you will be glad you started with blender. I only used the higher end stuff because my workplace had them. The learning curve is going to be the same with all of them IMO, once you learn the tools. 3D is time consuming no matter which app you choose. Milkshape doesn't do rendering and you can't make real animations (movie quality) and it costs money.

#6 I'd have to say (programmer here, so get your salt grain ready) that Blender is much better than Milkshape. I used Milkshape to make some reasonably complex (for a non-modeler) models and doing *anything* is the hugest pain in the bum ever. Want to move something? Make sure you first select the type of thing to move, then the move tool. Also, don't bother moving anything if you have any nodes or bones in your scene, because it resets their axes for no good reason. Even moving or rotating other nodes. Blender may have a large learning curve, but it has good docs, lots of scripts, and is really full featured. Once you learn the keybinds, it's 1000x easier to use than Milkshape, which fights you constantly for doing even the simplest of things.

#7 I like Milkshape. I find it much easier to use than blender.

#8 Finding a free/low cost modelor isn't the problem, your work pipeline is the problem. Blender and Milkshape are the way to go when talking torque since they have native export capability, Blender is actually quite an advanced piece of software with a great community and all the good stuff. Milkshape is pretty low-end, dull, and basic - an entry level user will find it's limits soon. Now that the XSI Exporter is available I would go with XSI as a professional tool, I myself am an XSI user and I'm actually selling my training videos from Digital Tutors on eBay right now at around $20 a piece, they're not selling at all so when the bidding ends and you're interested tell me which ones you'd like per Email and we'll talk it over, I own every video in the DT Selection except the one for the walking cycle animation and the Interior design ones.

Go on ebay and do a quick search for digital tutors XSI extreme bundle and you wont have any trouble finding it im sure but professional training - I got you covered for a good price. (Usually they go for around $45 retail as opposed to my $20 ;] )

Oh and yes, I'm trying to get rid of em'. xD

Cheers,
-Kevin

#9 Milkshape. It comes with a free trial. If you've bought any of the torque things it's well worth the money to buy it. it's 20 or 30 dollers. It's fairly easy to use. I learned how to make 3D models with it. When I got it I had no experiences and I can make a decent model.

#10 George,
Your asking the wrong question. You should asking:
"I Need a Good Modeling Program to Begin With"

Every modeling program is going to have a learning curve. Some are steeper than others. If you tried Blender and "didn't like it" then you are really wasting your time asking for a "good modeling program". You already found the best free one out there (in my opinion it is THE best one free or not). It is also one the best ones to learn on. Why? Because it has more users than any other free modeler. The shear number of tutorials and websites dedicated to Blender means you have those as resources for learning the program. There may be other programs that easier to use, but they WILL limit what you can create. With Blender there are no such limitations.

Once you learn a certain set of keystrokes in Blender you will become uber efficient. For instance: the letter 's' will scale a model, a set of vertexes, a UV map, etc. How hard is that? One letter to scale no matter what context. The interface is also designed to keep your right hand on the mouse and your left hand on the keyboard. Not convenient for lefties, but once learned will make you very efficient.

So my suggestion is you learn to like Blender. It will pay off.

#11 Actually frank. I think He should START with a free trial of milkshape to learn on since it's a simple program, and THEN he can decide if he wants to keep the basic proram because it gets his job done.(what's a person who can't model at all going to need a fancy superduper modeling program for?) or if he wants to move on to blender. Hey, he could have both if he wanted. It all depends on what your using it for.

#12 I learnt to model using milkshape, and IMHO it is a great tool to start with as it teaches the user how to model almost poly by poly.

It is slow to use, but you can get a solid foundation with it.

But a faster work flow blender is a must!...the UI is different but once you get over the learning curve its amazing.

If you made a model in MS3D that took an hour to make, you could model the same object in Blender in 5-10 mins. No Joke...

Hope that helps :)

#13 Hello ; Try the PLE Version of Maya or Cinema 4D is powerful

#14 You cannot use plugins with the PLE version of Maya, I believe. But it will give you a good sense of the workflow of Maya to see if it gels with yours.

#15 I'm trying to make the switch between milkshape and blender, but blender is extremely complicated and I'm fiding it a litle hard.

#16 Hello,

Does anyone know Blender really, really well?

I mean, is the current version (2.45 I believe)
capable of building a whole 3D world plus
some 3D objects to place in it, so that those
could then be playable with TGE/A ?

Thanks,
Ronnie

#17 You would have to implement the opcode resource, AFAIK. I do not know how mature the .map exporter is for Blender, but you would have to adapt your modeling process to make correct geometry for export anyway. I would suggest Blender and Constructor/Quark in conjunction as both are good at what they do.

#18 A month ago i would have said "Go Milkshape~!". I used MS as my first modeling tool and it's really nice to use and get a feel of what's going on. Now that i know and understand what a mesh is and that i need to animate it to bring it to life, i started to look around for something more powerfull and i stumbled across Blender. I'm still new to blender but i find it gleefully easy to pick a flat plane, subdivide it with 3 clicks and then start to select verts or faces to extrude for a quick field or town to demonstrate something.

My only problem? I don't know what an IPO curve is lol. Just spend time looking over tutorials until you find a suitable one. What used to take me 1hour really did take me 10mins in Blender as well. I have a ship i made a while ago to prove it. Get Azures and download a few tutorials by keywording "model" or "models" and you'll find something by J.Williamson - Making a Low Poly Model. Once you get the feel and understand what is what you will Blend circles around Milkshape3d.

#19 Look buy,3d worldstudio.this is what i use more than anything and it can build a city very fast and texture it and export it to .map.

#20 You have to have the right frame of mind to work with blender, I've heard a lot of people say they can use it very easily. Others like me can try it and try it and never use it without being frustrated, it's UI is different then most.

Gamespace has an extremely simple to use interface and has a free dts exporter. It has a free version you can try out too, but save often it has problems sometimes where a misclick will make it crash.

Softimage XSI has a modders version which is free and can export into hl2 and XNA game studio, but if your just looking to learn how to make meshes you can play around with it and one day up to their $500 personal edition.

The biggest thing is to find a 3d tool that has an interface/style that you can work well with, everyone's different which is why I say Blender can be a hit or miss depending on who's using it. With Blender after spending hours upon hours I couldn't get a good looking mesh, but in gamespace and Softimage between keyboard shortcuts and the handy windows I can have detailed meshes up in no time.