Easy 3d Modeling Software For Mac
Here's the deal, I've tried numerous times over the span of 4 years to just open up Blender and not burst into tears crying as I uninstall it but I've never been able to budge. I always cried from the horribly messy and complicatedness of the program. With that I've been looking into Cheetah3D, the issue is that I don't have a Mac so that's out.
As I type this right now however, I have the student version of Maya installing (well trial if you count the fact that I get an error every time I try to get a serial code). With all that in mind, what's the best 3D modelling program you can recommend me that does modelling, animation and pretty much everything I would NEED for a game yet still manages to be simple? Please don't say Sculptris or any other program that doesn't have skeletal systems and animations. It sounds to me like you're trying to run before you walk. Blender is a little hard to get into, sure, but the very basics of it aren't really that hard. Go through some tutorials (BlenderCookie, BlenderGuru) and just follow along step-by-step. Then after watching the video, do it again without watching.
Refer to the video as needed when you can't remember things. Then, if you can stomach it, do it a third time, again without the video. Then move on to another tutorial. This will get your mind to actually remember the things you're doing, rather than just flowing through and not sticking. I'd also recommend focusing on just 1 simple thing at first. Don't try to learn simple modeling, sculpting, human modeling, nurbs, animation, and texturing all at once.
Start with just the simple modeling until you're comfortable with it. Then move on to texturing. That will allow you to make simple objects and actually get some pride in what you're doing. Later, move on to more complex topics like sculpting and baking high-poly to low-poly. Carrara 8.5 Pro, Hexagon 2, Silo, Cinema 4D, Modo, Lightwave3d, 3DS Max, Maya, Milkshape3D, Fragmotion, Ultimate Unwrap3D Pro.
Check them all out. Basically if you pick for example Silo and your charcter model after tutorials galore, 2 months of dedication to the art of 3D, ends up looking like a wardrobe, switching package or thinking that the most expensive package will make a difference then don't bother. Save yourself the time and the money. There are other solutions out there e.g. Or you could buy template base models and work off them. Hope that helps. Give Mirye Software's a shot.
SketchUp is 3D modeling software that's easy to learn and incredibly fun to use. Download SketchUp today for free and get started drawing in 3D.
It is a full, commercial product, with Pro, Standard and Basic versions. But there is also a FREE Shade 3D for Unity version. Shade 3D for Unity has modeling, animation and some texturing tools.
What's especially nice too is you can grab the script in the Asset Store here, which allows you to interactively open models in Shade 3D for Unity, animate / modify, and then see them in action in your project. It is available for Mac OS X and Windows. There's also a sale going on now for Shade 3D Basic for only $49 (51% off) via Mirye Store.
Click to expand.obviously everyone is different, i've also used almost every single other 3d software, and if you care to know the best two for modeling in my opinion are blender and modo, but thats not the point i was trying to make, the thing is, blender is very simple interface wise and even simpler for modeling where most of what you use is mapped to shortcuts, i'm pretty sure a lot of people will prefer any other workflow and thats okay but, the point i was trying to make is. If he can't dedicate a few hours learning a few shortcuts to model something simple do you really believe he will do any better in any other (probably more complex) 3d software? In today's age where there are tons of great starting tutorials to every software he still can't get through blender in 4 years, in my opinion he lacks will.
Thats all i'm saying, i'm not trying to put one piece of software over another, every single one of them has strengths and weaknesses. Click to expand.I disagree. 3D software by both its origins and also its complexity has defied some of the standardizing we've seen in other software applications - many originated before there were Windows or Apple user interface guidelines. Along with trying to innovate the underlying technology, the same vendors have tried to come up with ways to build a GUI around those features. Blender has both a gift and curse of fanboys who gush over it without actually explaining why its so great, or explaining why its better than some other tool for a specific task. The first thing you should do is do a better needs assessment. If you are a lone developer with Unity 3D and you are also going to do your own modeling (and hey, don't forget texture tools too!), narrow down your search of applications based on producing rigged animated models compatible with Unity 3D.
Decide what your budget is for tools. Don't just pick Blender because its free - because your time is not free - a free app that isn't productive to you costs you money. Grab 3-5 products that fit your criteria and spend up to an hour with each; its likely you'll need less time than that to actually eliminate some from consideration.
Not a bad advice at all to start with Sculptris. But please keep in mind that you cannot use the result of Sculptris directly in Unity. Too poly heavy. You need to build a low poly version at one point. This is usually done by so called Retopology. Another possible workflow is to build your low poly character before sculpting, use it as the base character for sculpting, and reuse it then for baking.
I personally would directly start to learn polygon modeling. You can use a low poly character without sculpting. And it's here where you learn about topology.
But you cannot use a sculpt mesh without corresponding low poly mesh. Scuptris is a really nice intro to sculpting, and since you already have the student edition of Maya, that's a no brainer. Once upon a time I may have discouraged newbies from starting with Maya, but it's a very different package now to what it was ten years ago.
Mechanically it's the same, but it has a terrific user base and pool of learning material. My only advice is. Maya complete (vs Maya LT) is a big package with some very powerful (complex) tools. Try to avoid the fancy FX stuff as you can get lost quickly. Start by focussing on poly modelling, topology and UV mapping (a great experience in Maya 2015) and watch lots and lots of tutorials and training videos and hang out in forums to get the most out of the learning process and other users' input. Personally, I highly and respectfully disagree with most of the posts here. I've worked in the archiviz and animation industry, I've used Maya, 3ds Max and a little bit of Cinema4D in the past, for modelling, I'd say 3ds Max is a good software, however, for beginners, you simply can't beat C4D imho, of course there are other packages, intended to be 'easier' (Sketchup is an example) but they all lack something important that won't allow you to achieve a professional quality in all disciplines without an immense effort.
From my experience, beginners love booleans and bevels, which allows them to make complex models easily and quickly. Last time I've checked, Max had the best boolean tools in industry and C4D the best bevel tools, the boolean tools from Maya are simply all glitched and practically unusable, unless they fixed that later, Maya is totally focused on animation and rendering, it's awesome for that (that realtime viewport rendering stuff is simply fantastic and there are complex physics and stuff) but it's not that good for modelling and recently it's full of bugs (at least the versions I tried). I definitely wouldn't go for Maya unless I were working in the animation industry and grossing substantially from it. I never checked XSI but I remember a big hype in the gaming industry some years ago (for modelling), so it might be good, can't guarantee it's worth after Autodesk bought it though. Modo seems to be a quite good modeller also.
Last time I checked some tools were broken but that was a LOT of time ago. Don 't have Money: Blender You might try other 3D packages, however my pro-tip is: Take one that supports V-ray (and bakes to texture) if you want to have realistic architectural renderings. V-ray is simply quintessential for that purpose. It can't be beaten in terms or productivity and quality. Blender does have a V-ray exporter.it's not actually a plugin so if your scene is complex there's a delay after you click 'render' because it has to export the whole shebang, but it's valid though. Of course having the bestest renderer is not that important for games.just a heads-up so you won't regret in the future.
Most professional archiviz artists use V-ray, the unbiased renderers are somewhat popular also. I'd stay away from MentalRay nowadays, it used to be quite popular in the past and it's still used nowadays, but it's much slower than V-ray and the quality is noticeably worse (even on professional renderings (just take a look at the gallery on cgarchitect.com and you'll see that the mentalray renderings looks like CG more obviously than V-ray). Again: V-ray is only important for baking realistic textures on architectural stuff.
I hope this wall of text could help. Hot damn this thread may be a couple of weeks old or so but it feels REALLY old. I ended up going with a Sculptris / Blender workflow considering you cant use student licenses for commercial stuff. If a game goes well enough (low chance) I'll consider upgrading to more professional stuff. To be quite honest though, I cant see myself sticking with Sculptris for very long. I'll probably use it for final touch ups but box modelling seems so much more flexible, if that makes sense.
Also I cant draw for crap so I cant imagine I'll be able to sculpt very well either (I'll work on improving my drawing though, concept art seems important). Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys but I gotta make do with what I have at the moment. Maybe if I get a Mac in the future I'll look at Cheetah3D but I'm more than happy with the workflow I'm working on ATM. Besides, once upon a time I thought Unity was the most complex thing in the world. Put my mind to it and I got the hang of it. Hopefully the same happens with 3D. Hot damn this thread may be a couple of weeks old or so but it feels REALLY old.
I ended up going with a Sculptris / Blender workflow considering you cant use student licenses for commercial stuff. If a game goes well enough (low chance) I'll consider upgrading to more professional stuff. To be quite honest though, I cant see myself sticking with Sculptris for very long. I'll probably use it for final touch ups but box modelling seems so much more flexible, if that makes sense.
Also I cant draw for crap so I cant imagine I'll be able to sculpt very well either (I'll work on improving my drawing though, concept art seems important). Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys but I gotta make do with what I have at the moment. Maybe if I get a Mac in the future I'll look at Cheetah3D but I'm more than happy with the workflow I'm working on ATM. Besides, once upon a time I thought Unity was the most complex thing in the world. Put my mind to it and I got the hang of it. Hopefully the same happens with 3D. Click to expand.I never really sculpted seriously in Blender, but last time I tried, that dynamic mesh stuff was 'decent', if that evolved I don't see why one would use Sculptris to date.
I forgot to mention that C4D has a version with decent sculpting also, which doesn't compare to the cheapo sculpting feature of Max, so, for organic modelling that's a huge plus for C4D because in Max you would need an external tool to do that. Personally I really love 3Dcoat, of course something like ZBrush seems to be more powerful but I can't stand the workflow of ZBrush.
The way 3Dcoat works is very different from any other sculpting package because it (can) work with voxels, meaning that you're actually 'sculpting' the stuff, like 'adding' matter to it, which is very different from ZBrush for example in which you're actually just manipulating vertexes. The downside is that 3Dcoat needs a damn powerful computer to run properly, like 16GB of ram to do anything decent and a high-end VGA, but once you have that it's simply fantastic. For games, box modelling is quite useful also, however, it's mostly useful for low-poly stuff, for better graphics the technique used nowadays is creating a very high-poly model (sculpted in most cases) and mapping the details to a lower-poly model in bump/displacement(parallax for rt) maps. Afaik Blender does that fantastically with the multires modifier, and for that kind of stuff, for a character for example, you hardly have to bake more than a simple AO pass, so Blender is by far the best tool for the job considering the cost. If Blender does the job for you, just stick with it. Once you get used to the workflow and the keys you won't be able to find any package that provides more productivity. Seriously, I'm yet to find a 'serious' caveat of using Blender for game development.
It has all the features I could possibly want for: -modelling -basic sculpting -uv mapping (incl. Decent auto unwrapping) -render baking (incl. Vray and cycles) -rigging -animation -basic texture painting -basic fluid and smoke -physics baking (bullet - awesome) (incl. Rigid and softbodies) -multi resolution stuff Personally, I would get 3Dcoat for more serious sculpting and stick with Blender for life. It's very capable of delivering professional quality stuff.
The next step would be to hire a professional artist to do the stuff because of course one person simply can't produce professional contents in all areas efficiently. That's why there's a bunch of 'getalife' artists out there for us to hire hehehe. Because Blender sculpting is still not where Sculptris is. And it is unperformant. It goes down to a crawl already at poly counts where sculpting usually starts.
This counts unfortunately not just for sculpting. There's always a commercial tool that does the job better. This doesn't make Blender a bad solution really. Because, as you pointed out, you get your job done. But there is better stuff. 3D Coat is a good recommendation. It does sculpting.
It does retopology. It does unwrapping. It does painting. You can do a whole character just in 3D Coat. You may nevertheless need something for polygon modeling. And 3D Coat is of course not free. Click to expand.It seems the sculpting thing is progressing slowly then.
Yes, I agree that there are specialized tools that does the job better, however, Blender does a little bit of everything, and most of them in a decent way, it's a 'complete' package, it does even image tracking and composing, of course none of these features are comparable to specialized softwares for each of these areas, but we're talking about 5-figures here and years of training to use all the commercial packages which generally are simply a pain to line in a decent workflow. Blender is a great package for the 'generalist', it provides all the tools and features, with different levels of usability and quality, but the good part is that once you get used to it it's quite staightforward to learn them all, for example, 'G' grabs a vertex on 3d for modelling, on 2d for uv mapping, on animation timeline for keys and grabs stuff like nodes and other 'grabable' things, so, it has these 'universal' hotkeys and after you get used to them, it's quite straightforward.
About 3Dcoat, of course it's not 'free' but it's cheap enough and has decent upgrading policy and overall it's a 'poor-friendly' app, as opposite to Autodesk stuff that pretend to be pocket-friendly but in the end you have to break the bank. Even small fixes are being postponed to other major versions in order to pretty much force the user to upgrade, I gave up on 3ds Max after seeing the disappointing feature list for Max 2014, I mean, an 'usable viewport' is a new feature? That's stupid and a total disrespect with the consumer imho. Autodesk products may be the best for their specific areas (although Mudbox is a pile of sheesh imho) but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. For companies it's okay, but for individuals you have to be pooping out money to be happy with their solutions.
Overall I agree with you. I just want to make clear though that it's possible to achieve professional quality using Blender. If you find Blender is too hard you should try DAZ Studio first, it's free (for now), it's not a modelling tool though, but you will learn from it basic knowledge about 3D, like vertex, polygon, texture, material, lighting, frame, animation etc. And you can get nice 2D render images which you can turn them to sprites for 2D games. Then, you can switch to something higher like Blender (harder to learn but free) or 3dsMax (easier to learn and more powerful but fee) - 3dsMax is into game a lil more than Maya (but Max is a lil weaker) from my point of view, Maya is more into cool animation video clips.
Since you're making game so i think 3dsMax is best suit for you. Then you run. If you find Blender is too hard you should try DAZ Studio first, it's free (for now), it's not a modelling tool though, but you will learn from it basic knowledge about 3D, like vertex, polygon, texture, material, lighting, frame, animation etc. And you can get nice 2D render images which you can turn them to sprites for 2D games. Then, you can switch to something higher like Blender (harder to learn but free) or 3dsMax (easier to learn and more powerful but fee) - 3dsMax is into game a lil more than Maya (but Max is a lil weaker) from my point of view, Maya is more into cool animation video clips.
Since you're making game so i think 3dsMax is best suit for you. Then you run. Click to expand.I'm not a professional modeler, just a hobbiest. However, I used 3DS Max for several years.
I really liked the modelling tools for doing polygonal modelling. I tried switching to Blender and couldn't do it.
Then, Blender updated their UI and made it much more friendly and I made the leap. There are only a couple of things about Blender that I found difficult. The first was 'unlearning' some of the things I learned in 3DS Max because Blender's toolset is different. The second was the user interface which was still different.
Once I figured out how the viewports worked it was a piece of cake so the only real restrictions are at the user level (how well you can model, which for me isn't well but enough to get my way around). I did play with Daz Studio but it seemed to me like much less of a tool and more of a way for Daz to sell more stuff so I didn't find it terribly useful.
I got much more use out of looking at models on sites like Blendswap to see how they were constructed. In that regard, Blender also makes retopo pretty easy. I like to sculpt out some shapes in Blender or Sculptris just for fun, then retopologize them in Blender itself. The grease pencil works well for drawing some basic topo lines and then the snap feature allows you to start creating new geometry and 'snap' it to the surface of your sculpt so you can retain shape and get the exact topology you want. Click to expand.I got sucked in by Daz with it's extremely pretty models and promise of FREE software and productivity.
However, when I dug in and found out the truth, I very disappointingly left without even bothering to download the program. This FREE software really comes at a COST, as the license REQUIRED to use anything made with DAZ in a commercial project, even if you opt for the INDIE license (less than $100,000.00 income per year) they want $500.00. Five Hundred Dollars is not very INDIE friendly as far as I am concerned.
Why should I bother even playing around with it if I can't USE any of it? Which is quite disappointing to me being an artist that is trying to learn how to develop a game with NO experience in 3D (or C etc.
Programming) at all. Like the OP, I will just have to suffer through trying to make the best of learning Blender for now. I can't see dropping money into programs like DAZ unless you are already EARNING money off of your works.
Easy 3d Modeling Software Mac
That's just MY opinion though. Oh, but the thought of opening Blender again is making me want to go hide under the bed.
I spent awhile playing with the tools. I was able to import my own mesh and that's about it.
I really couldn't figure out how to do anything else. There was a 'content' pane on the left with a giant context sensitive tooltip that kept telling me to select items from the left. However it was always empty. Nothing, no content.
At a tertiary glance it seemed to me that my options were to import my own ready made content or buy some from the Daz store. I could not figure out how to do more than create primitives in the editor.
I'm sure the toolset works fine for some people, but the interface is so dumbed down that the feature just get lost. I may give it another chance but it's on the backburner for awhile as I can be far more productive with Blender. Dustin the point is Pjde said Blender too is hard for him to start with, so I suggest an easier tool like DazStudio which is free and he can learn the basic from it, like what are vertex, polygon, uv, texture, material, how camera, animations work etc. Then with the basic knowledge he gains he can continue his long strip into 3d world with learning Blender or 3ds Max. So Dustin no matter how wonderful you find Blender is it has nothing to do with this (I myself agree with you Blender is an amazing tool it even has sculpting features which the expensive 3ds Max doesn't offer).
Top 10 Architectural Design Software for Budding Architects February 5, 2013, If you are a professional architect or an architecture student that is looking for ways to make your work in designing much easier, there are architectural design software that can meet all your needs. You can use these software to help you in your projects and even in starting to design your future home. These software can help you in making a 2D or 3D designs and mostly have automatic feature to make designing easier. They come in many types that suit the designer’s needs. There are even software that can be used by beginners and those who have little experience in architectural designs and some have sophisticated features that require an experienced architect to operate and understand the software. In this top 10 list, we feature the best architectural software that is easy to use and understand for all aspiring designers and students that are only beginning to explore the designing world.
Microstation There are many people that use this software because of its stability when it comes to the platform that they can work on unlike other software. They also find it easier to use. There are some problems with using this software, it is its compatibility and it may cause some workflow problems to the user. Some of the images that are from an AutoCAD can’t be viewed in Microstation. This results in seeking help from an architect to do the bindings or do the necessary changes on your own. SketchUp After Google purchased the rights of this software, it software is now becoming popular and known to users.
This software allows the user to quickly and easily make 3D building designs. Though the features that it has may be as sophisticated as you can find in other software, its price is reasonable especially if you don’t need a sophisticated software in the first place. This software is a great deal for students that are looking for software that can generate 3 dimensional designs in short amount of time and for people is just starting on their architectural careers. Revit Architecture This is a software is built for building information modeling or BIM, which is the key for a sustainable design. The changes that you will make will be automatically coordinated throughout the project that you are working in.
This will help you in making a consisted and complete project. The features are easy to understand to help you start a complete, consistent and error free designs. You can you this software in Windows Vista and XP.
Softplan This is easy to use software that you can use on all your designing needs. It also support building information modeling that gives a complete documentation, 3 dimensional designing capabilities, list of materials and real time cost estimate repots. The changes you will do on your design will automatically coordinated throughout the project that you are working on. This is the best choice when you are working on residential and commercial designs. Autodesk Revit This software works in ways that can that architects and designer needs.
By doing so, this can make it easier for designers to make high quality designs that are accurate. This design software also support the building information modeling workflows which means that you can also get and analyze each concept, meet all your goals throughout the design, documentation and the overall construction of the project. This is a standalone application and is the best solution if you are looking for functionality.
It also comes in different editions that have specific features that can meet all your design needs. Also Read: 5. Vectorworks Architecture It may not be as simple to use as the other software, but through its complicity the designer can produce extraordinary results and generate exceptional projects. The long and sometimes frustrating hours that you will have in learning will all be worth it, especially when you can already make fast and unique designs after some time. This software also supports building information modeling.
It is actually an easy to use application when you get used to it. It is the software that is suitable for those with experience and those who want to have the best results. It is not recommended for first timers in architectural design. AutoCAD Architecture AutoCAD Architecture is a version AutoCAD that is created especially for architects. It has features that allow architects to do a more efficient drafting, creating designs and documents that are familiar to them. They have the same platform as AutoCAD that will make it easier for experienced architects to understand. There is a free trial version that you can try before you purchase this product.
This AutoCAD package is tailor-made for an architect that is enough reason to get this software. Punch Software This self-entitled America’s#1 Home & Landscape De sign Software is an application that combine NexGen power with the stunning realistic photographic quality from LightWorks that will allow the architect or designer to generate realistic and great residential designs on their own or for their clients. They have packages that can meet the architects’ needs when it comes to design. The software is compatible with Windows and though it is pricy, it can always produce the great results. Chief Architect This is professional design software that can help generate 3 dimensional designs.
It has automated tools that can make home design and remodeling easy. This is the software that most architects prefer to use in 2D or 3D architectural design because it is easy to use and can still give the results that they want. ArchiCAD This is an all-in-one software that you can use in 2D and 3D projects. It can also be used by first time designers and architecture students. It is user friendly that first time designers and architects can easily maximize the software’s potentials. It also has almost all the features the other applications have, but they can never top the efficiency of this software.
20 Responses. John Omar hey 10th number(top) software is best or number 1 (last)??.
Jake Johnson I am lost for words after seeing this list. I would not put half of them on my top 25.
Most of those softwares are almost a joke. Rhino, Maya, 3DS Max and The Adobe Suite should have been the top 4.
This was obviously written by an aging architect or an out of touch Student. Abnoynoy Can you make construction drawings with the software you mentioned?. Yuri Lee Exactly. What he mentioned are more equipped for animation. juancalcala Wow! What an inaccurate list of programs. Not only are the grammatical mistakes and lack of cohesive sentences annoying; the list of programs is terribly inaccurate.
Here are my top ten based on relevancy: 1.) AutoCAD (still the No. 1 program used in arch.
Firms whether you like it or not), 2.) Revit, 3.) SketchUp, 4.) Adobe Suite, 5.) 3DS Max, 6.) Rhino, 7.) ArchiCAD any other program after these plays an insignificant role in the architectural design industry. JVeisz I appreciate your comments and obvious knowledge of available soft ware. Are you aware of any architectural sketch/trace software similar to Architectural Studio v3 that was offered Autodesk until 2004?.
gytis dramblewolfskis but autocad is soo horrible for architects maby for some other kind of peaple who work with werry different stuff its good but for architect horrible software. Revit i believe is one of best for architect. Sketchup better than autocad but still not really architect stuff.
Nothing can mess with Microstation V8i but you have no idea! )). Hi Couldn’t agree more! As I was reading this I had to think who got paid off to make this list. Nandan Kella This guy must be used to drag and drop type of things! 🙂.
ceanyb 1. Chief Architect 3. AutoCAD Architecture and/or Revit Architecture 4.
VectorWorks 5. Allplan (a little different interface from the above, but useful & used in DE, for the engineering module) 7. Punch Software these are true architectural softwares, not adobe and 3dsmax, rhino, or (S)ketchUp. Abnoynoy SketchUp is. bruce Let me introduce Vizterra to fill your list. It’s an easy to use design software.
Have a look if you’d like to 🙂 Cheers!. parriginhomedesign Chief Architect is where it needs to be. It is a great program. The program allows you to show uncertain clients exactly what their house will look like within the matter of seconds.
That is the program of my choice and that is what my business runs on. An unbelievable generating function are at solid proportion so as to the quantity of visits one can believe on the net web page, because of this increasing the complete gross sales.
Pay a visit to with regard to more generating guide. tftillman I have Chief architect and I find it to be very un-intuitive and difficult. I, and others, cannot print some layouts, for example, after following the instructions exactly. No flat roof design. Just the layout tutorial is shallow and hard to understand. Be sure with the trial before you buy it.
Morgan Brand I dunno about all of them, but I’ve used Chief Architect in the past for small house drawings, like private houses and etc., but found many weaknesses when it comes to more complex projects. That’s why I wouldn’t include among top I to 10. Now I use Arcon Evo architectural design software. Very intuitive and most importantly flexible software that allows to change features and create specific design. Gotta it from Pretty well stuff. Support is very good. Just call them, no charges.
florian Archicard is always the best and easiet software to use believe me, i have experience. Josh Sanabria If you want a more updated architecture design tool resource check out Bryck Stack. fish45234 People will refer you a lot for the architectural design app but i will refer you just one. The AutoCAD Architecture design software is the better one. You can work here easily and swiftly.