Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on October 17, 2007 at 5:03am

I work with 2D art for textures, mattes etc. I prefer to use my work as targa files, smaller files no lossie compression etc. I tend to use my own 2D software, which I wrote to use with Photoshop.
I'm looking at 3D software but can't decide between Blender or the new Google software. Maya etc is an ideal which I may reach in the coming years.
Ken

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Scott Hsu-Storaker on October 17, 2007 at 4:26pm

This is not going to be the last time I get up on my soapbox about this, but here it goes. Blender. I love it. I've used it for years. I have found it to be incredibly flexible on teams where people use different computers with different operating systems and different modelling programs. It's free. It uses python, so developers usually can stick an exporter for a new engine pretty quickly.

I could go on.

Scott

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on October 18, 2007 at 4:31am

Scott
Thanks for that, I've been finding people on the www who really like Blender, outweighs those that don't. So have bought the getting started book and have downloaded numerous lessons. Now I have to find some of the illusive stuff called time;-)
My initial aim is to build stuff to import into Second Life, so I can wrap artwork around it, 2D art on 3D objects can be good fun finding what works and what doesn't.
In case you're on SL I have a big exhibition starting today at 1st Floor, Main Space, Siddhi Hum, 33, 64, 23 or you can IM Taxus Gustafson and I can send a slurl link to you.
Ken

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jack Ryker on October 18, 2007 at 5:04pm

I really like 3ds max. Its a complete 3d simulator. It even exports to VRML automatically
and there are many free plug-ins to export to x3d, shockwave3d etc. 3d max can
import all the major 3d files. 3d max can model anything with any detail and has
been used in feature films. It's very expensive however.

I really like blender and have seen excellent webb3d built with this. It is also Open Source.
It also exports to web3d files.

Then there are the web3d products from Parallel Graphics. For beginners, the Internet
Space Builder has no comparison. You build in a 3d vrml space, so its as instinctual as it gets today.
It is also very very affordable.

Also, none of these require a computer other than what is standard today. But if you had a strong computer,
I am sure the software can take advantage of it.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Root on October 18, 2007 at 6:11pm

I use Silo for modeling pretty much exclusively, and I use Maya to do things that Silo can't.

I had a look at blender and I'm no fan of the interface; but I guess if it's free and you can't afford something more sensible there's an appeal there.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dan Johnson on October 19, 2007 at 9:12pm

Hey Brian, Just took a look at Silo... Looks pretty nice from what I can see on the web site. Reasonably priced too. I'll download the demo tonight and take it for a test drive. Thought the other folks here might be interested in the link so here it is! So nice to see Mac OS-X support too!

Silo download page

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on October 20, 2007 at 4:26am

I downloaded Wings 3D and Sculpty Painter yesterday to try them out. For now I need something to make things for Second Life, then when I've got my brain used to the 3D technology I'll move up the chain. Eventually I look towards a 3D website with photo perfect 3D backgrounds etc, and very high quality items for virtual worlds.
Ken

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dan Johnson on October 20, 2007 at 7:17am

One of my favorite tools for creating environments, buildings, and textures is Bryce. It's been owned by several different companies of the years but it seems to be getting better and better. It now runs on Intel based Macs and comes with a remote rendering capability so you can render complex scenes on multiple machines. It's available for the PC too. Since it's been around so long, you can find Bryce compatible content at a wide range of web sites. Bryce can also import models from other tools. It's pretty inexpensive too.... I've had my eye on Poser 7 for a while but the price has held me back. The Poser demo looks pretty sweet though. It would be cool if Poser like tools could be used to create avatars for virtual worlds!

Bryce 6 Link

Poser 7 Link

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by drOffset on October 20, 2007 at 1:17pm

I love Maya, probably since it was the first thing I learned. While it's pretty expensive and there's a bit of a learning curve, no program I've tried since has felt right for me.

My two cents :)

Also, regarding file formats, I'm starting to do some blog posts about what 3D formats are in use by the various virtual worlds out there. Feel free to comment on the posts and tell me your experiences with them.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on October 22, 2007 at 6:47am

I tend to use targa files in SL, they're smaller than jpegs, no lossie tendency like jpegs. Plus they have an extra alpha channel which many people find useful for creating a transparent background, it's how tattoos are made in SL as well as veil like mesh outers fro womens dresses and hats. More importantly though, with the SL system targas are stable ans when you use large numbers of art or photographic images, say in a gallery, the targas reduce lag.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jack Ryker on October 26, 2007 at 2:54pm

I've always wondered how all those extra file formats in photoshop were used. I wonder if targa works
in VRML/x3D browsers? However, the advantage of jpegs in photoshop is the Save For Web function.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dan Johnson on October 22, 2007 at 6:05pm

Unity Multiplatform Game Development IDE
I had the pleasure of testing this applicaiton last night. It is nothing short of incredible. While it is sold as a game development system it could also be used for developing new virtual worlds. If you are into modeling, take a few hours to dig deep into this tool suite. I was able to compile a new vitual world in about 45 minutes. I encourage you to check out the live web demos using the links below.

Let me know what you think after you've taken the app for a test drive!

Dan

Unity Live Web Demos

Main Unity 3D web site

Unity Forums Link

Unity Gallery

▶ Reply to This

• 1
• 2