I am totally new to 3d so please excuse my ignorance.
Is it possible to take a picture of an object.. say for instance.. a car... load that into a 3D programme to turn it into a 3D object for rendering, altering etc?  If so, which 3d programes do i need to be looking at?  Maybe Cheetah for Mac?

Any direction would be good
Stefi xxx

There are special 3D scanners that can scan real life (3D  ) objects, but these are extremely expensive, and used in the creation of movies like Lord of the Rings.
3D applications are different. You can create objects (or buy them, like for Poser) with the help of meshes, a mesh being a number of points in 3D space (your monitor plus imaginary depth) that are corner points of triangles, quadrangles or even n-gons (more angles). These you can "rig", meaning that you can, for example, make an arm move, animate, add textures and render. Rendering means creating a still, pixel-based image of your mesh. A sequence of these images can become an animation.

So in short: no, you cannot scan a picture of a car to become a 3D object, but if you have the application and the money, you can buy 3D cars that you can pose and render.

Mmmm thank you Gongyla... i guess the only question left o ask is.. which is the best 3d app for projects like cars.  Not neccsarily interested in animation.

Anyone know anything about Cheetah for the Mac?  Or do i have to go high-end?

The best? I guess it's always best by starting with something like Wings3D for example.

http://www.wings3d.com  

if you like it, you can either get something from chez DAZ like Bryce or Hexagon, or, depending on what you want to invest, go "high end". 

I personally use Cinema4D because it's the easiest ( www. maxon.de ) of the higher end packages. For what you want to do, you can start with the basic module. But even that is an investment of over 800Euros.

ahhhh decisions decisions.. i think i'll wait see how i get on with Poser7 first... if i get some good results, and they inspire me... i will for sure go further.

Thanks again
Stefi xxx

Actually, there is!  Look up ImageModeler by RealViz.  You take a set of photos and, with some work, can get a 3D model of the object(s) textured from the photos.  This area of 3D is called photogrammetry.

ohh cool.. i must check it out thank you :)
Stefi xxx

Quote - Actually, there is!  Look up ImageModeler by RealViz.  You take a set of photos and, with some work, can get a 3D model of the object(s) textured from the photos.  This area of 3D is called photogrammetry.

I tried cheetah, but I prefer carrara. however, I tried cheetah 2.x, hence 3.6 may be alot better.

Hmmmm i said Cheetah because its a nice cheapy to begin on i guess:)

Blender is free also,Gimp a free 2D app.

I use C4D and BP

Links to a few app's.

http://www.atomic-3d.com/RK_Link/RK_Link_1A_3D_Software.htm

RorrKonn
http://www.Atomic-3D.com