I took a course for 3dsMax a while back, and found it to be a waste of money (the course). Once I was shown how to do certain things, I kicked myself for not having gone through the manual more carefully. Most things were VERY easy to understand in my opinion, and all I really needed to do was go through a few of the tutorials that came with the software to get a basic understanding of how it works.

Between the enormous library of step-by-step tutorials available for Max and other apps online for free, the multitudes of instructional books that are out there at your local book store that teach you the software at your own pace, and the plethora of forum resources out there, all you really need to learn "complex" software is time, and some willingness to practice. That goes for any software.

People who open Adobe Photoshop for the first time, for instance, are no doubt going to be overwhelmed. As with many 2D programs, most 3D apps have the ability to use scripting to automate mundane tasks, pre-built items to create things faster, and tons of tutorials to help you get started. In general, I don't understand why there seems to be more complaining about the complexity of "high end" 3D apps than there is for 2D apps, when learning 2D apps can be just as complex for newcomers. Is it because people coming into 3D have some pre-conceived notion that it's a medium where the computer is supposed to do all the work?

I've been to 2D forums, and people there seem much more willing to accept a more manual approach to their applications than many 3D artists do. It can't be workflow issues, because I've watched guys who work in 3D create things EXTREMELY fast (it's usually the renderer that hold them back). In general, it's a MUCH faster medium than 2D ever was... particularly when dealing with animation. So why does there seem to be more people with less patience in 3D? And, most notably, it seems to be a sentiment which generates particularly from the POSER community more than any other, which is ironic, because more Poser users have a background in 2D it seems.

Message edited on: 12/27/2004 02:24

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.