vfx

[Regal Productions LLC]

Just seen some demo reels online, I'm a FC editor and I figured maybe I might get my hands in on some 3d, anyone tell me some decent programs to use?

[Cassius]

Blender. It's free. I don't recommend spending a lot until you see if it really interests you or not.

[Regal Productions LLC]

It does intrest me any really god programs out there that I should buy?

[Mattykins]

Maya is pretty much the big boy out there. Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max, lightwave, and there are others that do well. It's all really the same thing. Just different UIs.

Depends on what you want to do with it though. Particles? Dynamics? Cloth? Hair? Just modeling?

[muonwave]

Most of them allow you to download a PLE (Personal Learning Edition). That's probably a good idea if you're interested in UI layout, functionality and whether or not the menu items generally make sense to you or not. They are usually crippled in some way though. Blender is very non-intuitive, especially to those not already well-versed in how these applications work, and I don't think it can do match-moves (but I'm probably wrong - could be I just haven't figured out how). Vue 7.5 (e-on) seems nice.

I'd found it easiest to just check out one product and examine their lists all the other competitor products out there that they're compatible with - makes a good starting list for like-products & applications, just like you're looking for (and the price-scale is all over the map).

Mattykins is right - they're all pretty much the same. At the end of the day, you'll probably make a choice depending on the price you're willing to pay, maintenance and support you expect (think, how often it gets upgraded and what problems others report on their forums with the OS/system you're running under and any other apps you have to be working with), and UI.

I've been doing my own price-&-research lately, and I'm finding that just about all of them list the same functionalities. While some rename some of those same functions with fancier names, they're pretty much the same functionalities/algorithms found in every other product.

[Derrick_SA]

muonwave summed it up pretty well. they're all pretty much on par, each their own strengths and weaknesses.

just to add to that, if you're gonna wanna get a job then your're gonna have to go with maya.

for the commercial software, lightwave is known to be a good allrounder, from start to render, and you buy it once and there you go, most of the other have some form of subscription system going on, so on the longer run turns out more expensive.

Blender has a very good fluids simulation going on as far as I understand,

Lightwave also has a great deal at the moment buying Lightwave 9.6 and getting Lightwave Core free (the next version that could launch by the end of the year, but will probably be Q1 next year).

- Derrick

[djembeplay]

You should make sure to check out Cinema 4D - I've been using it for some time now and find it has everything I need in one program (granted I'm using the additional modules as well).

[El Director]

Blender is great, besides the free price, once you learn it, it's very easy. I've used it to do a transformers bit for the MTV movie awards in 2008. It supports alpha channels for compositing with your live action in your NLE, or you can do the composite in blender itself. And yes, you can do match moves using another bit of freeware called Voodoo. Voodoo will generate camera data from a series of images and create a python script that can be used in Blender and applied to the virtual camera. Good stuff. Ultimately, I think it depneds on how mainstream you want to be. I like being indendent, so I use Vegas and Blender, since I don't have to worry about sharing work with anyone. If you're doing a lot of collaboration, or you want to use what the industry uses, you should really look into Maya.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Just seen some demo reels online, I'm a FC editor and I figured maybe I might get my hands in on some 3d, anyone tell me some decent programs to use?

For the lower end packages, there are:

Blender -- Free... and with various tutorials, and time one can do some interesting stuff.

Carrara -- modest ~200 or so, sold on the www.daz3d.com site, often 'bundled', or if you sign up for their 'premium' account, modest price, there are some pretty hefty discounts on the software

Poser -- modest ~200 or so, animate humanoid type models...

-------------------------------------

I've been looking at Blender for quite awhile... like years, but only in the last few months have I really taken the time to 'get into it'... I think it is more powerful than any of the low end 3-d package that I've seen.

Right now I'm working on 'cloth' simulations and I don't think any of the low end packages have that at all... but then they may... but they are not in my budget... I was poised to buy the commercial version of 'voodoo' a match move generator, but The Wife started buying typewriter props for a project, and she hasn't stopped...

[El Director]

I didn't know there was a commercial version of Voodoo. I dl'd directly from the site and didn't have to pay. Is there a difference?

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I didn't know there was a commercial version of Voodoo. I dl'd directly from the site and didn't have to pay. Is there a difference?

Voodoo is availabe free for Windows and Linux... for us Mac users those nefarious huns have a Mac Tax for 99 euros for a single user license, but it can also be purchased for Linux and Windows...
I don't know what the detailed differences are, but I tend not to use Linux or Windows in my image processing work flow... (I use Linux prodominantly in my day job and only set systems up for console shell access... and for the most part don't have a high performance CPU to run a lot of imaging apps... Windows... I use Windows 2000 on an aging 'home made' system... just use it for work mail and browsing...)

http://www.scenespector.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=25

The free Linux or Windows Voodoo:

http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/docs/manual.html