Carrara or Blender?

[Upon Infinity]

It would be easier for me if that page wasn't there actually.

Sounds like someone's been a bad boy...  lol

[EdBardet]

I've downloaded Blender and done a bit of working with it. The newest UI is a quadrillion times better than the old one, and while a bit difficult to learn, I believe can be mastered. One thing I am beginning to appreciate is the selection of mode which brings different tool into play.

Most of my modeling is ship and/or mechanical in nature so I use TurboCad and want to bring the resultant objects into TG for scenic placement.
Ed

[Upon Infinity]

Maya/Max should be free for you for 3 years (and then available for a greatly reduced price after) if you ever went to school, at a school that is registered with autodesk, which is most schools. Or if you have kids.

Im inclined more to Carrara based on what I have seen. But one turn off for me is the gallery at their webpage. Blender looks a lot better in terms of what people do with it. On the other hand, I think they use the gallery to promote their other products so it may not be a good example of what can be done.

Maya is not free / was not free/ will never be free.  I think of myself as a student of life, does that count?

Yes, the gallery for Carrara looks like in-game graphics from 5 years ago, although the promotional video was pretty cool.  I still think it would be fun to play with, but most of its features are unnecessary to my current work.  Right now, it's looking like it's going to be 3D Coat to buy, and maybe I'll dip into Blender to check out some other 3D aspects like animation and such.  So far, Blender is looking like the UI version of POV-Ray.  I'll probably follow 3D Coat with the Animation version of Terragen, then see where we go from there.

[TheBadger]

You mean not free for you, or anyone? Because lots of us have free legal copies. INcluding people who have not been in school for some time. If you need help finding the page,  PM me.

My ideal would be MODO with MUD, or MAri when MAri is OSX ready... For High quality modeling only.
But I have MUD and Maya, because they were free, even though I have been out of school for a while now.

Anyway,
Modo is your best bet if modeling is your focus. You really cant use a sculpter for anything without also having a modeling package. Buying 3D coat and using blender does not make much sense to me at all. Better to get MODO and use PS for painting.

Modo is on sale until christmas for 60% off.

A sculpter is not a modeler. YOu will not have much fun with your sculpts without a modeler working along side.
And while TG can handle raw sculpts (to a certain point (very memory intensive)), its only ideal if the sculpt will be very close to the camera. Otherwise, there is almost no reason to import a raw sculpt.

If you buy 3D coat, but don't have a dependable Modeler to use with it, I think you will find that you waisted your money.

http://3d-coat.com/tutorial/free-tutorial/connection-with-other-apps/

[Kadri]

You are right too Michael .

I for one will buy 3dCoat because of its re-topology,UV features and sculpting mostly.
Because i already have a modeler that does have a great modeler plugin .
See how he makes that scene in 1 hour with LWCad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ln4TP8z-c
But i had Lightwave already and this plugin ( 299 $) brings the old Lightwave modeler at the level of the best modelers around and probably much better too.
But for sculpting you have to look to others like 3DCoat or zbrush.

So it depends.For Archviz Lightwave and LWcad is a great combination for example...

This is the reason why some users use more then one software after a while.
There is no software that is the best in all.

[TheBadger]

Hi Kardi,

I like Lightwave from what I have seen.
I really like what I saw of the lightwave sculptor! It looked VERY VERY impressive. https://www.lightwave3d.com/chronosculpt/
But my impression is just from the video in this case. I did not compare chronosculpt to mud, Mari, Z, line by line.

Yes I think for modeling its just as you say, Kadri. It is a good solution.

[Kadri]

Please look at the LWcad video link i gave above too Michael.
Lightwave Modeler with and without that plugin is so much different.
I have it but still had no time to use it much unfortunately.

[Upon Infinity]

You mean not free for you, or anyone? Because lots of us have free legal copies. INcluding people who have not been in school for some time. If you need help finding the page,  PM me.

My ideal would be MODO with MUD, or MAri when MAri is OSX ready... For High quality modeling only.
But I have MUD and Maya, because they were free, even though I have been out of school for a while now.

Anyway,
Modo is your best bet if modeling is your focus. You really cant use a sculpter for anything without also having a modeling package. Buying 3D coat and using blender does not make much sense to me at all. Better to get MODO and use PS for painting.

Modo is on sale until christmas for 60% off.

A sculpter is not a modeler. YOu will not have much fun with your sculpts without a modeler working along side.
And while TG can handle raw sculpts (to a certain point (very memory intensive)), its only ideal if the sculpt will be very close to the camera. Otherwise, there is almost no reason to import a raw sculpt.

If you buy 3D coat, but don't have a dependable Modeler to use with it, I think you will find that you waisted your money.

http://3d-coat.com/tutorial/free-tutorial/connection-with-other-apps/

I have no doubt people can get free copies of Maya.  Just as I have no doubt I will not be one of them.  Congratulations on being among the favoured, but I am not.  I will make use of whatever modelling tools I can from Hexagon, Wings, and Blender, and that will have to be enough.  At least for now.

Besides which, I can't even get 3D Coat to work on my machine, so I may not purchase it at all.  You might think it is pointless to have without a good modeller, but it is equally pointless to spend $1000 min. to have a good modeller that offers nothing over and above what I can already do with freeware.

[TheBadger]

but it is equally pointless to spend $1000 min. to have a good modeller that offers nothing over and above what I can already do with freeware.

True.
If in fact they are equal. Some here think wings is better than just about any paid app. I don't know. It very well could be.

Congratulations on being among the favoured

Thanks! It a first for me. Cant say I feel like life is better for it. But Illl take it.

I guess this just comes down to if the free stuff does what you need, and or, if learning those free softs will benefit you in the long run Vs. learning soft more in use in the industry, or if that even matters. For me it matters. But in modeling at least, the basic skills are all the same. Its just nice to have tools that work is all.

[Upon Infinity]

I'm curious as to why no one mentioned Silo in this thread...

[jaf]

I'm curious as to why no one mentioned Silo in this thread...

Is Silo still being developed or even supported?  I used it for a few years -- nice program -- and then the developers began ignoring it.  They archived their forum at Nevercenter in 2012 and the "new" forum at CGTalk is rather dead.

Read this thread here: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=175&s=93d5a3ca74206cc4d9fbc1359836545d&t=1142018

[Upon Infinity]

I'm curious as to why no one mentioned Silo in this thread...

Is Silo still being developed or even supported?  I used it for a few years -- nice program -- and then the developers began ignoring it.  They archived their forum at Nevercenter in 2012 and the "new" forum at CGTalk is rather dead.

Read this thread here: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=175&s=93d5a3ca74206cc4d9fbc1359836545d&t=1142018

I didn't know that.  I only just heard about it.  But just because its not supported doesn't mean it stops working as a modeller.  I'm coming from Hexagon so if you want to talk about dead software... It comes in at the price point I mentioned and it is a pure modeller, so I was surprised it didn't come up.

[rcallicotte]

If it were me, and I've spent over a decade looking for the magic software (teehee), I would get 3D Coat while it's on sale and learn Blender.

Here's a good example of what can be done with Blender - http://www.blenderpedia.com/index.php/products, plus the many movies made with Blender are a good advertisement and some of the Blender training via Jonathan Williamson (and many others) can teach you things you never thought possible. Literally, I've tried dozens of tutorials from many packages, but I've learned more about 3D modeling software from the Blender crowd than just about all of the others put together.

If you can get educational software prices, you might consider Modo or Lightwave.  Otherwise, 3D Coat and Blender make a dynamic pair.

[Upon Infinity]

If you can get educational software prices, you might consider Modo or Lightwave.  Otherwise, 3D Coat and Blender make a dynamic pair.

Yeah, it's definitely looking like 3D Coat.  I can use hexagon to do basic stuff until I learn Blender.  As it is, 3D Coat is going to take me a solid 4 weeks, I'm guessing, to be confident with it.  It's a fascinating piece of software, although a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.  That's the great thing about Terragen; it has options for beginners until you grasp how the nodes work.  But yes, the sale price is too good to let slip for the value it will provide.

If you don't mind, if you are a frequent user of 3D Coat, I may PM you for advice on certain things?  After 4 days, I finally managed to start importing textured objects into Terragen, so I'm confident I can handle most of the things that will come my way, but it does help to know there is someone around with experience.

Thanks to all who replied.  I found this a very useful thread.

[rcallicotte]

I don't want to underestimate another piece of software, which has been a great deal and is very easy (once you get its interface) - zBrush. Version 5.0 is in the future ether and might well be 64-bit. Nevertheless, zBrush handles about anything and the many tools it has are innovative.

If you can get educational software prices, you might consider Modo or Lightwave.  Otherwise, 3D Coat and Blender make a dynamic pair.

Yeah, it's definitely looking like 3D Coat.  I can use hexagon to do basic stuff until I learn Blender.  As it is, 3D Coat is going to take me a solid 4 weeks, I'm guessing, to be confident with it.  It's a fascinating piece of software, although a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.  That's the great thing about Terragen; it has options for beginners until you grasp how the nodes work.  But yes, the sale price is too good to let slip for the value it will provide.

If you don't mind, if you are a frequent user of 3D Coat, I may PM you for advice on certain things?  After 4 days, I finally managed to start importing textured objects into Terragen, so I'm confident I can handle most of the things that will come my way, but it does help to know there is someone around with experience.

Thanks to all who replied.  I found this a very useful thread.