Hi i have been a fan of 3d art for a while, and graduted in fine art last year. I would love to get involved with it and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to where would be a good place to start going about it- what would be a good package to learn on or be a good buy for a beginner!
Thnx

Depends what you want to do. Do you want to make images of characters (people, animals, toony 3D folks, etc.)? Or are you more interested in futuristic or abstract shapes and planes and such? Do you want to do naturalistic landscapes? Are you interested in building your own models (buildings, flowers, people, trees, whatever) or are you happy to purchase other people's models and arrange them artfully to make a final image? There are different programs for different needs. Tell us what you're interested in doing, and we can make suggestions as to what you might like to try. :-) bonni

Thnx for the reply bonni, im more interested in the landscape aspect of it all with an eye to building my own models. After browsing the galleries Bryce / Vue images appeal most- would this be a realistic place for me to start?

Personally, I'd recommend Vue for doing nice landscapes. It's in a reasonable price range, you can do some very naturalistic scenes with it, it's pretty flexible, and you can import models from other programs if you later decide you'd like to start incorporating animals, people, etc. Bryce is fun and useful for lots of things, but (this is just my opinion; Bryce users may disagree ;-) it's not that great for producing convincing landscapes. Bryce is good for stylized and even abstract stuff, and you can do some cool things with it, but I think Vue beats Bryce hands down for high quality, naturalistic scenery. See what others suggest, though. People have different opinions and these are only mine. ;-) bonni

Variants of this question crop up sooooooo many times. There really should be a reference page (or maybe a newbie forum) for newcomers like Draken_Moor. It could tell them about the cheap/free downloads available, and the pros & cons of them. This site really ought to make much more effort to help newbies, if only in its own interest. Also I'm interested, as an ex-Fine Art grad myself, to see what other FA people make of this scene. If advice is needed, then all I can say is; be prepared for a very steep learning curve, but it's worth the effort. Mick ;)

I'll put in my vote for Vue, I love it & it is reasonably priced. There are plenty of tutorials out there for it as well... I have 3 HUGE binders full of tuts :). As Bonni said it is very flexible...you can import 3ds/obj/lwo & pz3(poser files). There is also a TON of freebies out there for it as well. The most important thing it produces some of the most realistic landscapes IMHO.

There is also Terregan which produces realistic landscapes, but somewhat limited in it's exports/imports. They have a free version & reg. version for around 80.00. By the looks of it, the future for it looks VERY bright. Check out that forum & gallery as well.

Message edited on: 06/04/2004 19:33

Message edited on: 06/04/2004 19:34

Terragen is good for making landscapes, and the free version is quite capable.. However, you can't import objects.. It's easy to get started with.. Vue is an excellent all around package.. It does a lot of things quite well.. MojoWorld is another choice for landscapes. It imports most popular mesh formats.. It's on sale thru the 12th of June for just $99.. The future of MojoWorld is going to be quite exciting.. Bryce is a great program, but unfortunatly, it is in a state of flux right now.. Hopefully Corel will sell it off to someone who wants to start working on it again.(drop the asking price Corel!!).You can buy it really cheap right now. if you want to try a modeling app for free to get your feet wet, try Blender or wings 3D..

NAY! BRYCE IS FOREVER!! :D Bryce is what I started with, and I enjoyed it immensely. And that was years before I ever even heard of this place or knew that there were free downloads and tuts to be had. And of course, as pushinfaders said, it comes at an excellent price right now.

I would recomend Bryce, but you also need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for terrain modelling, photographic textures and postwork.

I'd see if you can grab the demo's of whatever programs take your fancy (be it bryce or Vue or anything else) and having a play with them and see what you prefer. Also, take a trip to the forums here and see what others complain or rave about for the appropriate programs.

Message edited on: 06/06/2004 20:37

Attached Link: www.uisoftware.com

Macintosh users have yet another choice: Artmatic Voyager (and Artmatic Pro) - www.uisoftware.com In combination they make a very powerful package. There's also a forum here devoted to Artmatic. If that wasn't enough, Renderosity Magazine will have some features on Artmatic in the very near future.

Not sure about Vue but your not going to be making models in bryce. I used bryce for years for landscapes. I've seen killer landscapes from both programs. As a max user I'm kind of bias towards the 3d studio. You can do everthing bryce or vue can plus so much more. It cost quite a bit more but it's worth it. It's not really that much harder to learn than bryce.