Ok, been at this for about three years now. I am  happy with my lighting,texturing and composition skills.

Now it's time to learn modelling. My specific goal is to be able to make clothing props for my own characters.

Can anyone recommend what would be a good program for this and why? I understand many tools can do the job, I just want to hear a bit from people that use them for this type of thing.

Thanks.

Virtual Fashion is a good one. But they only have 4 models right now for poser. :)

There is the standard list of free modellers, blender, wings3d , anim8or , etc.

You can get a demo of Lightwave, restricted to 400 points per layer, but thats enough for some  nodels.

Truespace 4 I think they are giving away, www.caligari.com

Or things like Hexagon, Shade, Silo are available.

Most of these have demos , so give a few of them a try , you will find a preferance for the interface makes a big difference.

Best of luck with it .

There are a number of tutorials around , especially for conforming clothing. Its worth having a read of whats involved.

You might want to play around with Clothing Designer from PhilC.
It's still in Beta,  and just works with the P4 kids, but I have fit clothes
I made with it onto other characters in the Cloth Room.

http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/forum/messages.php?forum_id=43&ShowMessage=237945

Could someone point me to some of these Conforming Clothing tutorials? And yes, I will take a look at some of the demos. I also use VUE and VUE 6 is coming out with interfaces like MAX or Maya, so I may want to get one of those. I don't know yet.

Attached Link: http://mystic-nights.com/poser/tutorials/index.html

well, for me modeling was something that took a while before it finally took hold...probably because i am a recreational user. ta-dah!  those are the drums behind lame jokes if all you wanted to do was make clothing then you could get away with using some of the above mentioned. however, i am reading your post differently and am assuming that you will want to do more so you are looking at some of the programs markschum mentioned and then you have maya, max and don't forget z-brush! yes, they all have free 30 day trials! good-luck being able to learn anything more than creating a sphere within that time frame...unless you've had previous experience with 3d modeling. the concepts aren't difficult it's just learning how to make the program do what you want it to.

as to which one? the ones i mentioned are the 3 biggies right now and i believe they all have some student discounts available...but don't quote me on that. max and maya are basically the same and you continue to hear good things about z-brush who's been around for a while now. you can't go wrong with any of them though max and maya will probably give you the most control and flexability. new version of max is due soon here i thinks.

"interfaces like MAX or Maya, so I may want to get one of those."

Those are expensive apps ;)  You didn't mention budget.  I'd suggest a look at Silo if cost is an issue for two reasons:

A -- It's inexpensive at $109.
B -- The topology brush in particular is a strong tool for making clothing for Poser figures.  Check the forums at nevercenter.com for more specifics on the feature.  There 'may' (or maybe not) be copyright issues since you're using the base mesh as your 'template'.  I don't know for sure.  It's never been an issue for me since I don't distribute anything.

I'll toss in a vote for Wings if you want a free modeler.

As far as "Taking a course to learn modelling - for Poser clothes creation" there are some tutorials available for sale here.  I bought one by a vendor whose name escapes me that I was quite happy with.  It's lengthy because, well, there's a lot of work involved making conforming clothing.  Things are simplified considerably (as far as the creation of the piece goes) if you choose to make dynamic clothing.  I believe Phil C also has a tut for sale for making conforming clothing.  I haven't bought that particular product, but everything else I've bought from him has been excellent.

Attached Link: http://206.145.80.239/zbc/showthread.php?t=036912

 I also suggest you try out the demo of Cinema4D 9.5 which includes the “Clothilde Module”.
With Clothilde, after you “stitch” together pieces that will become the clothes, it then functions kind of like a very super advanced Cloth Room on steroids.

SWAMP

You're right, I didn't mention budget. I actually own my softwares. I own Poser 6. I own VUE 5 Infinite. That is the type of budget I have. Now I CAN get student pricing.

The reason I ask about a course is that as helpful as tutorials are, and I am already reading the good ones provided, I want a hands on type of thing. I have tried to learn modelling before and it didn't take.

Like I said, other stuff, I got the hang of, but I want to take a course on modelling to help me really get it.

So cheap or FREE is good IF it has good forum support and a course I can take either in a classroom or online. Thanks again for all this helpful feedback. I am installing a bunch of demos today.

I'll go with Tunesy and recommend Wings3D and Silo (& its topology brush). Silo has good forum support, but is very focused on Silo2 at the moment. Here are a couple of silo specific threads for creating clothing:
http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4491
http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5614

Hexagon is probably pretty good for this sort of thing, but I don't use it - have a look over at daz3d.com and polyloop.net for Hex2 tutorials. Here's a step by step tutorial for Hexagon:
http://www.tigerdesigns-online.com/extras/Dress%20Tutorial.pdf

I don't know what stuff you've got for poser, but someone has already mentioned PhilC so I'll suggest the Poser Tool Box Shrink To Fit as a possible starting point for creating clothing.

...just checked the conforming clothing tut I bought a while ago.  The vendors name is markdc.  Forgot to mention that the tut is a series of videos, so it has a 'hands on' classroom feel.  He uses Max in the videos, but you can use most any modeler.  I also bought his Quick Conform product which is pretty nifty.  Here's the link for the clothes modeling tut:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=16487

Regarding PhilC's tut this is what one review said:  "When I was just beginning to learn about modeling (still am), this CD was instrumental in finding my way through the learning curve. I still have a journey in front of me, but I would recommend this CD to anyone starting their way down the Poser road."  Here's the link to PhilC's clothing tut:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=6297

I've been using Wings3d to model all of my clothing. It's free - which is perfect for anyone's budget.

I recently invested in Z-Brush 2, and I have to say it's the best money I've spent on any software in a long time. At a fraction of the cost of Max or Maya, or simlar programs, and with the previews of its features in the coming 2.5 version, it looks like clothing modeling - for both personal use and redistribution - will be a breeze, from modeling to texturing. Plus, all conforming clothes rigging can be done right inside of poser.

~E.D.

Quote - and with the previews of its features in the coming 2.5 version, it looks like clothing modeling - for both personal use and redistribution - will be a breeze, from modeling to texturing.

Yup, the mesh extraction tool..that is going to be fantastic!

Quote - Yup, the mesh extraction tool..that is going to be fantastic!

I think the mesh extraction, in conjunction with mesh projection, would be a safer bet for clothes modeling intended for redistribution.

The only qualm I have with it is that they've been hyping it since 2004, and still no word on official release. I think I heard somewhere around Oct/Nov, but I can't be certain, as I don't remember where I read it.

~E.D.

I downloaded ZBrush and am giving it a try. I REALLY like it. It seems to be something I can learn well.

Can anyone think of a reason not to go with this? The reason I ask is that I am looking at signing up for their online classroom.

Quote - I downloaded ZBrush and am giving it a try. I REALLY like it. It seems to be something I can learn well.

Can anyone think of a reason not to go with this? The reason I ask is that I am looking at signing up for their online classroom.

ZBrush as it is now is a better tool for post modeling. as there are several drawbacks to its use as a modeler. primarily for clothing the big drawback is that you can have only one live mesh in the scene at a time, so using a base figure as a clothing dummy to build around is impossible(this will change with 2.5). also there is no way to control the mesh flow or amount of mesh enough to create an efficiant mesh, which means it will be difficult to get both a lot of detail and lower polycount in the same mesh(this will also change with 2.5) Ultimately I think ZBrush will eventually be a decent tool for clothing creation but in its current incarnation its better for doing high poly models and displacement and not so good for clothing.

/sigh ok. Which of the others should I try?