I want to learn everything. So, in that vein, what's the best 3d modeller for creating figures for Poser? I've pretty much exhausted the possibilities of Wings3d, and I'm interested in learning more. (I'm addicted to knowledge.) I don't much care to do animations, either, until I really raise the bar on my computer. Please, bear in mind that I'm asking for the best - not necessarily the easiest, nor the cheapest. If it's outside of my price range, I'll stick it on my wishlist for Christmas. (The advantage of having well-to-do inlaws who I love. ;]) Thanks! RC

The "best" is what you find the easiet to use and handle. Softimage|xsi and Maya are widely considered the "best". So is Lightwave, Rhino, Shade, 3DSMax, Cinema4D, and five or six others -- it will depend, in a great part, on what they are used to and comfortbale with. All of them, ultimately, will let you do the same things. Wings, in fact, does exactly the same thing they do -- but it doesn't have the extra tools that make it faster, and it works in poure box modelling (like maya, although Nendo and mirai -- who used to be the best -- were it's inspirations). There is no figure present today that could not have ben made in wings. OR lightwave. Or Cinema 4D. Or Rhino. That little silly diatribe over, since you've played with box modelling, try a different route -- perhaps Shade or Rhino, since they use a different primary method (bezier curves and Nurbs) for creating the basic forms and then shift.

If you're ONLY interest is modeling, then what exactly are you looking to do that can't be done in Wings?? Every modeling program has about the same features. The only difference is, some specialize in NURBS, and some in Polys/SubD. But to be honest, there isn't one that's better than the other in terms of tools. They all have/do the same kinds of things, it's just a matter of workflow preference. Your best bet is to try the trial or demo versions of as many as you can, and then decide. Don't listen to anyone who tells you... "Well, this movie was done in Maya" or "They used XSI in this movie", because it's all bull. For example, Gollum (LOTR) could have been modeled in Wings just as good as it was in Mirai. Just so happens that the guy doing the job (Bay Raitt) helped develop IZware's Mirai software, and used that for the project of sculpting Gollum's head and expressions. But he used the box-modeling technique, so the same thing could have been done in any other subD modeling software. :-) If you ever think you will want to expand your CG horizons and get into more complex stuff like particle FX, high-end digital compositing and character animation as well, or if you have aspirations of working in the CG/FX biz, then that's a different story. Then you can actually distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of different 3D software much more critically. There's no need to dump 1000's (or hundreds for that matter) of dollars into a full-featured professional 3D application if all you ever want to do is model. I wouldn't look much further than Wings, Silo, or Rhino (for nurbs). GMax is a great modeler too, and it's free. It's basically the exact same thing as 3dsMax, except that it doesn't render, and it doesn't have all the extra features. But mostly all the same modeling tools are there.

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to be doing a lot of exploring in the next few months, I guess. :) RC Who is but an egg.