25 Freeware 3D Modellers
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d-modelling-applications-you-should-not-miss/
It's a petty impressive list! I'm probably going to try one or two of them...
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Comments
Wow, surprised Truespace 7.6 is on there.
Truespace has been free for a long time, pretty much ever since Microsoft bought them. It also hasn't been updated since 2008 or before. It was a contender to Ray Dream Designer, the precursor to Carrara.
Do not know which ones to try but this is a comprehensive list :) Thanks for sharing wancow.
Too bad caligari.com DNS records point to nowhere since long time... :blank:
I downloaded free Truespace software and resources from www.caligari.com just before site went down.
Thanks for sharing that link, so sad that the trend seems to be that software needs to have terrible UI's LOL.
I'm actually getting used to Wings3D. The main hurdle for me is navigating the scene. Clicking on the middle mouse button sets the mouse to rotate around the scene. Holding it down is pan. Right click to get out of rotating... trying to get used to that, it's very different...
And the modeling commands are all on right click... interesting...
But I just tested importing and exporting Genesis. Wings3d handles that well and exports to the same scale factor. I imported the mesh back into DAZ Studio at DAZ Studio scale and it worked perfect (checked with a fresh Genesis to be sure).
Try saving that same new mesh to the library and loading it back in. I say that cause DS can import and export at whatever scale you want BUT when it comes to rigging models and exporting a CR2, the model NEEDS to have been imported at Poser scale and ALL rigging done at that same Poser scale. If not, when you load the model in via the CR2, DS WILL load it in at Poser scale and it will be too big and the rigging will NOT work. I dont know if that same applies to DS only content. I have made this mistake a few times before. Its very anoying! Trust me.
Matty, I'm not quite understanding what you're trying to tell us. Are you talking about when we've created a new figure and exported from DAZ to Cr2?
when you create something in a modeler and bring it in to DS for rigging, you need to make sure that the scale you import as matches the scale that the original program uses. For Poser content, you need to import and rig at Poser scale. now I have not made any DS only content so I dont know if it imports at DS scale or still at Poser scale. You should do a few tests with your modeler between it and DS and saving the model out as DS content so you can load it from the library to see if all matches up.
Matty, what I'll do if I'm going to use a prop, and this is probably the simplest solution, is export it from DAZ after I've scaled it to OBJ. That way I know it'll come into DS as I want it to be. I always export from DS to DAZ Studio scale and import at the same scale. I know nothing about DS3, but one of the very nicest things about DS4+ was the import filter has a lot of scale options that take into account that different platforms use different scale factors.
I always want my models to come in at 100% scale when I call them up, no matter if I created them or downloaded them.
Having Hexagon actually makes life easy, as any item I have loaded it will tell me exactly how big it is in XYZ values. That also helps to place items on the ground as half the value of the Y will be where it needs to be in the scene. It'll be interesting to see if Wings3D has that kind of accuracy.
Basically, I import it to DS and then turn around and export it at Poser scale, then reimport it at Poser scale...then start rigging it.
Interesting. The thing is, I really like keeping my geometries a consistent scale which was chosen by DAZ/Hex at 1 unit = 1 cm. In my mind it makes everything so much easier to deal with. If and when I get a new Rhino liscense, that's the scale I will use (I soooooooo miss Rhino!). One of the many cool things about that software is that it allows you to define unit scale and where it defaults to. (I wish those guys at McNeel would come up with a polygon modeller, it would be spectacularly good if they ever decide to do so...)
For DS only content I just use the DS scale...it's for content to be used in both that I use the Poser scale. Poser scale is the 'common denominator' between them, so in the long run it makes it easier to use it. Basically, I think of it this way, unless I'm making DS4.5 specific content, what I'm really making is Poser content, whether or not I'm actually making the materials for Poser. If it's going to end up as a cr2 or pp2, use Poser scale.
It's just one extra step involved...when making content to be usable in both programs.
In my personal option Wings3D is a great program, it helps that its free. I like it more than any of the others I've used (Maya, 3DS Max, Lightwave, Blender). I'm a little surprised it not on the above list, but seeing how Blender is at the top I can see why they ignored Wings3D (Blinder and Wings have a similar relationship to Poser and D|S)
@ wancow,
I don't know if it will help but you can adjust the camera controls in Wings3D to mimic a few other programs. Go to Edit > Preferences > Camera > Camera Mode.
Don't mean this in a confrontational way, but Wings has no comparison to Blender. It's more like comparing notepad to MS Word. That's not to say it's not a useful tool, but it's usefulness is specifically it's simplicity, which by definition means it lacks a lot of things available in other more complex tools.
You are correct, Wings3D is merely a 3D modeling app, whereas Blinder is a full 3D suit.
Anyone who has learned to use Blender has my respect, I was unable to make heads or tails of it on any of the three attempts I made to learn it.
Me neither. I'm rather fond of the pipeline approach myself, a dedicated modeller, a dedicated rendering tool... DAZ Studio as the... studio... (note, DS isn't on that list either, I didn't realize W3D wasn't till it was mentioned.)
But, you know, Rhino3D is merely a modeller... I cut my modelling teeth on the Rhino open beta test. I wouldn't put Blinder anywhere near Rhino. Whereas Blinder might have a good fan base, you don't see the kind of modelling coming out of Blinder that you do out of Rhino. The same with ZBrush. That is basically a modeller/texture tool. Anyone going to say Blinder has anything on ZBrush?
Zbrush stands alone in the sculpting world -- nothing can touch it. But don't discount Blender for creating top-notch work. There isn't another 3D application (Zbrush and mudbox don't fall into this category), free or otherwise, that can match Blender's built in sculpting tools. With version 2.66, they added dynamic topology sculpting, hair rendering in cycles, vertex beveling, rigid body simulation, and more.
Plus it has an auto-rigging tool, a skin modifier for creating armatures and base figures, camera tracking, and the list goes on. If you don't need all those things, it's still one of the best basic modeling programs I've ever used, and I've used them all.
If you haven't tried Blender, you're shorting yourself.
Blender is becoming a jack of all trades and a master of those trades as well. This is my 2ndtime trying to learn it but it seems like there is a lot more development going on and far more resources to teach you than on my 1st time when it was at 2.4
Sure it's great to learn a dedicated modeler, to dedicated uv, to dedicated rendering engine but I prefer having everything under the same roof, it makes it far less complicated for me and Blender does that.
that may explain why I always had problems with scale in Poser...if I imported it in to DS and used daz scale I used to get problems in Poser but didn't get the same problems in DS. It used to drive me crazy.
Really? http://www.luxology.com/
Really? http://www.luxology.com/
Modo does have some nice sculpting tools, but no dynamic topology as of yet -- edge to Blender.
I remember back in 1999 when I went to Siggraph and met Ton Rosendaal. One of the things I asked him was about support of the Wavefront OBJ format, which it did not have at the time and which was already a huge exchange format. I'll never forget his answer: why would you work outside of Blender? That 'tude turned me off to the software.
So far as sculpting, that's a very specialized art form. If I were sculpting digitally, I'd go to zBrush where you can add Displacement/Normal/Bump mapping while sculpting. That's just a personal preference, I know.
But a lot of these applications that are on this list can be integrated into a pipeline.
The question I have for you is this: how well does Blender fit into a pipeline? When you've got mutiple artists working with multiple applications and feeding into a single render engine, how well will blender fit in?
Absolutely! When you append say, a character and it's rig, you can animate it to your heart's content without altering the model, so if someone is in charge of the mesh, and another person is in charge of the animation, they won't destroy each other's work. Plus, Blender has the ability to work with multiple scenes with instances of objects linked to those scenes (short tutorial here: http://vimeo.com/15854634).
The very fact that Blender has been used to make the short movies Sintel, Tears of Steel, Big Buck Bunny, and several others is a testament to its ability to hold together a team.
As for using different applications, it works as well as any other high-end piece of software in being able to use/share assets: The Blender developers added MDD support so it can share animation data with Lightwave or any other program that supports the format (it can import LWS and LWO files directly). There are a host of formats that Blender can import: Collada, OBJ, Direct X, 3DS, Ogre, Unreal psk, etc. etc. etc. The only major format that it doesn't import (yet) is FBX due to Blender being open source and the red tape associated with FBX being owned by AutoDesk, but it can export FBX (go figure).
Yeah, that's because AutoDesk doesn't mind things being put into its formats...it's getting them out of it in a non-AutoDesk app that has the red tape attached.