Good Program for Starship creation/animation + other newb questions!

Super Trooper

Super Trooper

Well-known member
Hey guys. I've never posted in this forum before. Heck, I've never really read it as I've never had much interest in 3D animation.

Lately though, I've had a few ideas for some shorts, maybe even a fan film or two based on some of my favorite scifi series.

I know absolutely zilch about this sort of thing, so talk to me like I'm an infant. :)

The main thing I want to do is, as stated in the thread title, design starships and have them, you know, fly. I'll probably need planets and stars as well.

Here is the sort of thing I'm looking to do:

These grabs are from Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine.


babylon4.jpg


shadows.jpg


USS_Defiant.jpg


star-trek-voyager.jpg


Now, what sort of program would you reccommend that I get that would allow me to achieve this. I know It's not going to look that professional but I at least want something that looks decent.

I preferably would like something that doesn't have too steep of a learning curve and doesn't break my bank. :thumbup:

Also, I can't draw for the life of me. Is this something that's going to hold me back in creating this. I guess I'm trying to ask, am I wasting my time and money trying to learn 3D animation?

Lastly, would I use any of these programs in conjunction with something like After Effects and Photoshop. I don't own either of these two programs and am wondering if they will be required as well, or maybe if I can even achieve my goal with only these programs.

Sorry for all the stupid questions. Thanks in advance guys.

Teach me.:beer:
 
The good news is that there are a number of programs that can do this kind of thing very well, and as far as learning curve doing this sort of thing is easier than character animation which involves several steps you won't need (skinning, rigging, for example).

You need a program that does the following:

modeling: to create the spaceshp models
texturing and rendering: likely need a paint program to help with this - but it doesn't have to be photoshop, free or inexpensive alternatives are available
animation: what good is a space ship that doesn't go anywhere?

There are programs that do all of these and some that just do one or two of the tasks. Ones that can do modeling, animation, texturing and rendering are as follows:

blender - free! and quite capable
xsi foundation - around $500 very good program
lightwave - a bit more cost wise, but can often get it bundled with extra goodies
cinema 4D - I think might also be sub $1000 range and I've heard good things about it

There are a number of others, but they might be getting into your "break the bank range"

such as: 3ds Max, Maya, Houdini

I'm sure I've missed some, but this should give you a basic idea. I would suggest starting with blender as it is free and the basics you would learn with that will apply to another program should you move on at some point.

It does help to have a compositing program such as after effects, but isn't absolutely necessary and I believe there are some free alternatives to that as well.
 
Man, just give it a go, its only as hard as you make it out to be, once you get over the concept of 3d space, after a while if you have an artistic eye things will flow.

Give it a go you have nothing to lose
 
Babylon 5 was done in Lightwave.

Voyager was done in Lightwave.

The 3d for DS9 was done in Lightwave.

Enterprise was done in Lightwave.

Firefly was done in Lightwave.

The new BSG is done in Lightwave.

Why not use Lightwave?

'3D Arsenal' from Newtek includes an older version of Lightwave, it is less expensive and may be a good way for you to feel it out...

http://www.newtek.com/3DA/

Btw, I'm pretty sure the Defiant image you posted is of the motion control model.
 
Is there a reason why all this scifi work was done in Lightwave and not Maya or Max? Just wondering if there's a workflow reason or just artistic preference...
 
I don't no the reason why it can not be done in max or maya.

But you know if you want to do spaceships they are pretty easy things to animate because they are just fixed objects (unlike characters) so you just model them and texture them and thats it (lighting such as turbo boosters and light phasers are best done in post)
 
Unless you have a need for a specific 3D program why not give Blender a shot? It's free, quite capable and will do everything you need and more. The important thing is to learn how to think in 3D and how to think about modeling. After that learning the differences between tools is elementary.

I'd say download a few demos and Blender and try them all out. People tend to worry too much about which package to go with when in reality unless you need a very specific feature or integration with specific external software they will all be capable of producing pro results. The limiting factor will almost certainly be artistic talent 99% of the time (when beginning anyway).
 
Yeah, except if you're gonna invest the huge amount of time to learn a 3d package, I think it makes more sense to use one you can get work with. Not knocking blender, but it just seems the bulk of work is in Maya and Max.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
Is there a reason why all this scifi work was done in Lightwave and not Maya or Max? Just wondering if there's a workflow reason or just artistic preference...
Click to expand...


Back in the day Lightwave had the best out of box renderer, simpler modeling tools and simpler animation tools. Other programs like Maya or Softimage would require a third party render engine (Mental Ray for Maya, for instance) to get great results, and were so expensive, lots of effects houses simply couldn't afford them. And Cinema 4D was still in its infancy. Max at that time, just sucked.

Now, it's pretty much the opposite. Lightwave still hasn't really addressed its horribly slow render engine (though it still is the best out of box, with C4D running a close second), and it two or three generations behind where it should be with modeling tools (version 9 was the first time in lightwave you could do any type of edge modeling), and had further setbacks when many of its people left the company and created Modo as an alternative modler. And the price of other 3D software has dropped dramatically, Max has come quite a long way in the last 6 years, and now C4D is a powerhouse.

There are sill quite a few effects houses that do all their modeling, animating, texturing in another 3D app and use Lightwave to render, and even use Lightwave for its dynamics (though I can't fathom why).

So where other 3D companies have gone more mainstream, Lightwave has lagged further and further behind. Now most people who started on Lightwave have switched to Softimage, or modeling programs like Silo, Modo, even Wings3D, and use other programs like Z-brush for more advanced detail work.
 
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