3D Programs

[Moocher41]

Just a question to the experts out there. What's the best program for 3d modeling/drawing/rendering? Have been looking recently and have come across the names 3DMax,Autodesk,Maya. Being such a noob to the art form I will claim total ignorance on this subject. I know that it can be costly,so I'm already braced for the hit.Thanks for any replies.:D

[Phil]

Maya and 3ds max 8 are multi-thousand dollar program. Maya probably being the pricier of the 2 (I've heard 5000 dollars?) Gmax is also by the makers of 3ds max and used to be free. It definately shouldn't be as much as 3ds max. Milkshape is also a very good program, costing only 30 dollars (Around that.) There are also many free programs that with time could create very good models, but just don't have the thousands of advanced options that the programs that have to be bought have. I find wings3d to be easy and free. It's a much different interface to every other 3d modelling program.

Here's some links:
www.autodesk.com/3dsmax
www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft
www.wings3d.com

I don't know the site for maya.

[marnetmar]

Moving to the Custom Scenery forum.

[Moocher41]

Thanks for the reply and the forum move.Was'nt sure where to post in the first place.:up:

[JaySL]

Some weeks ago while surfin' the net I came across with a new commercial 3D Program called Carrara 5 Pro. It's available for Win/Mac platforms but unfortunately I don't remember if there's a demo you can download. I remember it can export .3ds files and several others, so I guess it would be cool to check it out and see what we can do with it.

[marnetmar]

Here's a couple more pretty good freebie 3D modeling programs you might want to check out:

Caligari trueSpace 3.2 (http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html)

GameSpace Lite (http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/gsl/gsL.asp)