Links to 3D Sites

[Gord.T]

Refraction Index of Various Substances for 3D modelers

http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Tec...IndexList.html

and while I'm here may as well add viscosity tables for fluids.

http://www.vp-scientific.com/Viscosity_Tables.htm

[Gord.T]

Some very good C4D tutorials from maxon. Hard to locate these at the site.

http://www.maxoncomputer.com/tutorial_search.asp

[Jockomo]

The major 3d Packages and links to their demos

Autodesk - 3D Studio Max - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...&siteID=123112
(Strengths: Architectural Visualization, game asset creation)

Autodesk - Maya -
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=9432085
(Strengths: Character Animation, great for cinema type work)

Cinema 4D - Maxon
http://www.maxoncomputer.com/download_demo.asp
(Strengths: great for cinema work, excellent integration with after effects)

Lightwave 3d - NewTek
(well, I'd provide a link, but they don't seem to think you need a demo)
(Strengths: well rounded package, least expensive, good for low budget and quick turnaround)

Blender - Open Source
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
(Strengths: Free. (did I mention Free?)) This package gets better and better all the time.
If you are just starting out I'd suggest trying this before making a huge investment.

XSI - Softimage
http://www.softimage.com/downloads/X...l/default.aspx


Other packages worth mentioning:

Modo - Luxology
http://www.luxology.com/trymodo/
Excellent modeling package. These guys originally created Lightwave but Left NewTek to create a new company to concentrate on this program.

Z-Brush - Pixologic
http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/trial/
3D Sculpting

RealFlow - NextLimit
http://www.realflow.com/n_try.php
Fluid Dynamics

Sorry if I missed anything, but there's a list of the major players off the top of my head.

[Ironman]

www.3dbuzz.com

This is nice website for newbies. Its a free e-college IMO

[Gord.T]

Brushed metal texturing...
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_educat.../aniso_ref.htm

.............

More texture resources...
http://www.cgtextures.com/

http://goodtextures.com/index.php

...................

Texturing for Dummies...

http://www.leighvanderbyl.com/pdf/texturing.pdf

[Gord.T]

Some free 3D models from Nasa. Most will need retexturing unless they are used as scientific type of animations.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/index.html

[Gord.T]

Some great metal texturing tutorials:

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/sp...tal-crate.html

http://cg.tutsplus.com/articles/news...etal-textures/

[DeterminedFilmmaker]

Thanks Really good list that will really help me. I'm studying 3D at the moment and I'm sometimes struggling so these resources are handy.

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

nobody have really give websites about maya. Maya cost a lot of money, does anyone think that I should learn Blender instead of shelling out money for Maya?

[Gord.T]

Maya is a pretty high end program. Very powerfull and bloated with probably more features than you'll ever use in any given year for any given job.

Blender is free and capable but isn't as capable in the broad spectrum of things. It may very well be fine for you.

To get the very most out of Maya you should probably enjoy writing code, or have some programming experience, because in the end you'll need to write your own shaders or routines, or depend on a lot of other people to write them for you.

I personally find Maya a working mans program. In that Maya gives you the bed work and then you write custom code to bring it to the level you want for your specific needs. It's very versatile that way.
And I don't claim to be an expert by any means. Just my opinion.

Out of the box, you still have a steep learning curve, imo.

Again, it depends on your needs.