3D Modleing Software

[SanitysEdge]

Anyone know of a 3d modeling program, shuch as maya, that is a lot like UnrealEd? Or something that can export unrealed levels (or something?) as maya files?

[DeeperShade]

No. In short. Unrealed isn't a 3d modelling app. It's a Mapping tool. A 3d Modelling App wont export unrealed levels. It wont even understand them unless you export them from unrealed into a format the 3DMApp can comprehend

3D Apps:
3D Studio Max
Maya
Lightwave
Softimage
Milkshape (free i believe)

[Parser]

Originally Posted by Eden

No. In short. Unrealed isn't a 3d modelling app. It's a Mapping tool. A 3d Modelling App wont export unrealed levels. It wont even understand them unless you export them from unrealed into a format the 3DMApp can comprehend

3D Apps:
3D Studio Max
Maya
Lightwave
Softimage
Milkshape (free i believe)

Milkshape ain't free, but it's damn good for a product that isn't bloated. The new non-beta version 7 now includes a ton-load more of plugins, and I've happily been using it for 2 years. I can recommend it if you don't expect it to be as good as Max or Maya, but it has a more UnrealEd-like interface.

Ok, I'll shut my gob now.

[SanitysEdge]

I know unrealed is a level editor, im just know how to use it. So I was wondering it there was any 3d modeleing software that has a 2d shape editor and stuff.

[DeeperShade]

2d shape editor?
Er..

We call them splines in the 3d world.
Remember that you are used to Mapping software. Switching to 3D apps isn't going to be a walk in the park

[zynthetic]

gmax...?

Use the Ed for bsp and 3d app for brushes/meshes/prefabs.

[ilkman]

The diffrence between unrealed and any 3d app will be major in most cases. Technical diffrences, terminology diffrences, application process differences etc.

And now for some good apps. First off i say skrew maya. It sucks. Annoying to use, terrible layout, missing essentials, Subd's suck in maya, scale tool cant scale globally, etc. This is all my opinion of course.

Best Modeling app: Lightwave. A plus to this is that unrealed can import lightwave .obj models.

Best all around modeling app that most people use: 3ds max. Its a good program. I havnt used it enough to be able to judge it.

Best 3d app period: Softimage XSI. This goes without saying. Ive taken classes in both maya and softimage and i can say that i will avoid maya like the plague if i can help it in favor of this program. The problem here is that this isnt exactly the cheapest program out there.

Free apps:
www.wings3d.com <-- Free Free Free! Plus its open source so you can modify, program, and tinker to your hearts delight.

http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/ <-- basically a free version of 3dsmax for games. Its toned down from 3dsmax so its not the same thing. I dont know how it can be used for unreal as i have not tried using it for unreal.

Those are some of the packages that im familiar with.
You can check out what others are out there here: http://www.dperry.com/industry/software.htm

Hope this helps.

[Papapishu]

Blender!
That's the best there is
It's totally free.
It takes less than 4 Mb harddrive space.
It is available for Windows, Mac and Unices.
It is easy as hell to learn.
It's even easier to work with.
It has features advanced enough to make your own Toy Story film, yet they are simple and organized and unified in a way that makes 3D studio look like a nightmare.
It has the sweetest, most intuitive GUI you could ask for.
It's very unified, for example "G" always means "Move" wherever you are in the GUI.
It's just as good or better than Maya.
It has a built-in game-engine (physics engine + scripting) so you can make OpenGL-games on-the-fly, if you want.
Broad community for help.
There's loads of tutorials too (start with Education->Quickstart)

http://www.blender3d.org/

You know you want it...

(If you could fall in love with a program, then this is it...)

[DeeperShade]

Tried it, didn't like it

[Papapishu]

Too bad.
When?

In blender you can do 2D shape editors with NURBS or Bezier splines.
They can ofcourse be extruded, spinned, converted, etc.

[DeeperShade]

Er, i cant remember what i did last week dude, I cant be expect to remember when I tried a program :x

I guess im just a Softimage/3DSMax whore. ^_^

[Underscore]

I use Blender, but I haven't tried any other programs except Maya, which I didn't like. I wouldn't say Blender is intuitive though, at least not until you learn it. I wouldn't use any other program now, it's excellent.

Especially the new unofficial version, which now has a built-in raytracer .

[Fluid]

I used to use Blender, but its way of screwing up DXF exports convinced me to switch to Milkshape.

[Papapishu]

Take, for example, when you select one vertex, the color of the line to the other vertices fades from yellow to black, which intitively tells me that the selection doesn't go to the next vertex, and still it looks better.
And the way the GUI is set up, you can change it to look however you wish.
Personally, i prefer a big 3D window where I change view with Numpad 0,1,3 and 7, an animation window to the right that I can drag out when I need it, and the config in the bottom, which is another thing.
In 3DS, you had to keep track of billions of little windows going everywhere. In blender, all you need is collected.
In 3DS, you spent your time trying to manage the modifiers, In Blender, you edit 3D models.
A unified key system if also intuitive.
As Blender does the "Left hand on keyboard, right hand on mouse" waltz, I don't have to think for long when I need a special function.
I need to move/scale/rotate an object? A vertex? A curve? An animation detail? An armature bone? It's all the same shortcut wherever I'm working.

It's easy to learn.
Look at me, I fixed it in half an hour.
Compared to 3DS, which it took me weeks of use to get to the same point, Blender is by far a worthier carrier of the title "intuitive".

[Underscore]

intuitive

\In*tu"i*tive\, a. [Cf. F. intuitif.] 1. Seeing clearly; as, an intuitive view; intuitive vision.

2. Knowing, or perceiving, by intuition; capable of knowing without deduction or reasoning.

I agree with every point you make there, Blender is by far the easiest to use. But it's still not intuitive, since you still need to read a tutorial to grasp the basics. Otherwise it's almost impossible to use, especially if you're used to other 3D editors. Older (pre 2.25) versions of Blender didn't have a menu equivalent for most keystroke commands - meaning that unless you knew what key to press to accomplish something, you couldn't find out without looking up documentation. There was almost no chance of a new user figuring out everything by themselves.

In newer versions, since the GUI upgrade, almost all keystroke commands have a menu equivalent, so it's much easier to learn by intuition.

However, I strongly agree with what you said - when you learn to use Blender's interface it offers unbeatable speed and ease of use .

[Papapishu]

Then it beats me why they use the term "Intuitive" to describe Windows...