what is a good 3D software package
eg. 3D studio max but a bit cheaper
i just want to make some simple 3D images
if you want cheap but still okay renderer try Swift 3d…you can get some nice results with it =) i dunno much about this subject…maybe someone else can help
Swift v3 is the best bang for the buck and it integrates with max and LW as your skills get better. www.erain.com Incredible results for the small price.
If you want a good 3D renderer for not too much $$, check out Povray. It’s a free 3D rendering package that has amazing features. Its only rendering, and it doesn’t have interface for modeling and such… but you can find many freeware modelers for it. It has really amazing rendering quality. Comparable to the best renderers out there.
If you want something more complicated, try a program called Blender 3D. It’s a 3D modeling/rendering package originally made for Linux, but you can find Windows and Mac ports of it as well. It’s also freeware, so you get the best bang for your buck.
Good programs for free.
:trout:
With blender you will spend a great deal of time figuring out stuff and the ouput is not that great…There is a book in bookstores for it now I saw it the other day. BUt free is good. BUt for exporting to many formats including flash swift is great and cheap. Also someone point out strata 3d which seems to be cool.
I think the newest swift rocks, the renderd results are great. And it is cheap (compared to 3D studio). I used to have blender too, but I trowed it away because it was not userfriendly…:whistle:
try a hand a trueSpace – if you hurry, you might be able to find either issue #33 or #34 of 3d World magazine still on the shelves, which comes with a FREE copy of trueSpace 3, full version!
After that, upgrading to ts6, the most recent version (though 6.5 is about to come out), is only $340 or so. It’s a good package, and version 6 comes with a flash renderer. I haven’t heard what the quality is like compared to swift3d, but it looks good to me.
Version 3 is ok – though you can’t beat the price. But the 3d World magazine disc comes with a trueSpace 6 demo, which is a pretty accomplished package. It’s not quite up there with 3dsmax or lightwave, but it’s in the same field of competition. The only thing is that trueSpace has a REALLY FUNKY interface that takes a couple of days to get the hang of because it’s so different, but is actually pretty cool once you figure it out. (much easier to figure out then Blender3d, that’s for sure.
