What's the best way to go about making the actual 3d figure and not just importing other peoples work? I've been importing a grayscale image into bryce and exporting it as a wavefront, but there has to be a better way.

Can you be more specific what kind of figure ? A human, a creature, a robot, a thing, maybe a piece of conforming clothes ?

get a modeling porgram such as TrueSpace, there are many many programs out there to model in, and many more personal preferinces as to which is the best program to work in. my advice is to look for the demose of some modelers and dl to try them out. get the one that makes the most sence to you. Rosaty has a number of forums dedicated to 3d modeling programs. They would be a good place to start. hope this helps Laters vel

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We have been using AutoCAD for our modeling, but I want to tell you, modeling takes strict dedication, alot of knowledge and learning the software well, you can't just pick one up and off you go....my advice is first go to the Modeling forum and ask specific questions regarding modeling, then tips on the best software that has to do with your kind of modeling, for instance we do mostly mechanical models (not organic) and AutoCAD works well with these kinds, harder for organic, so if you wanted to do organic models like humans, plants, trees, animals etc. I would stay away from AutoCAD. But on the other hand Zbrush is great with organic but not so great with mechanical. So, see what I mean, what is your preference, ask over at the Modeling forum and you will find great advice from our special people there. Sharen

You'll need a good 3d app such as TS as Velen mentioned, or Max, LW, C4d, Maya etc, but what you need the most is a lot of patience, there are folks who take years perfecting a figure, but i'd say you'd be looking at months minimum if your experienced at modeling...if your not experienced i'd say use some poser figures or download others and change them around to suit your use coz starting by building a figure (human or otherwise if your going into detail) could well put you off 3d for life ;o)....Steve

go to the amapi forum, and download the free full functioning amapi 4.15. the interface is confusing, but, it lit the lightbulb for me. then, try some of the demo versions. i use rhino, i love it. it's easy to get the hang of. also, the rhino forum is very helpful. the download is fully functional and gives you 25 saves. try the others, as well...i like rhino because it is easy, and there is alot of support for it here, and at poserpros and rdna.

To Snoopy: Any kind of 3d figure. I want to eventually be able to create my own kind of creatures. To everyone else: Thanks for all the program tips. I've been trying to find a program and now I've got a list. I'll look into seeing which one has the best help books and probably go with that one. I've been trying to design objects in Bryce with the edit object window and importing my own grayscale images. The problem was, I was unable to group objects to export as a wavefront for other program use. I made a real simple column with bryce and poser.

if you want to create creatures, you will probably want to go with nurbs....like amapi, and rhino. the rhino forum here is GREAT, and mcneel and assoc. have lots of tutorials...so does our own rhino forum.

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com/

Get a modeling progarm and start to build some simple props. Gradually your skills will improve and you can build more complex and organic types of models. Once you've gotten to the point of wanting to make them "Poser Ready" there are some decent tutorials for that, but you need to gain basic modeling skills first. The easiest modeler I've ever used is Wings3D. It's open source and complely free. Try it out. jon

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In the Vue d'Esprit Forum a number of us has posted a fairly large number of free resources including free 3d Modeling programs (link provided). Lightwave has just come out with their discovery edition and will fully save models up to 400 points they will mail you the CD if you apply at their site or you can pick it up along with other great demos in the 3D World Magazine.

Attached Link: http://www.figure2productions.com/EI_HeadTut/EI_TutIntro.html

here's a good way...

I am using MAX but it's not exactly a cheap buy. However the makers of 3D Studio MAX are also offering a light Version called G-max, last time I checked it was available as a free download. Same goes for Amapi, you can download it for free. Hope this helps =)

I downloaded the Wings program, it works pretty well. The only thing I want to know is how can I add dots (vertices is probably a better term) to the object so I can move it around more? The sphere works the best so far, I made this with it and I put it all together in bryce 4.

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Not bad. Did you download the User Manaul? There are a few tutorials in it that might help you get going. In short, you can add detail by selecting to edges and then doing a Connect. You can also select an edge and then press one of the main keyboard number keys to cut that edge into that number of smaller edges. There are lots of other ways to add detail, but these two ought to get you started. A new version of Wings has come out since I posted the user manual, so it is slightly out of date, but should still be 99% usable. You can find in via the included link. jon

Alright, thanks a lot. I havent gotten to the manual at all yet, I just started playing around with a sphere. I'll try and add some more vertices to make some nicer stuff.

I don't have the program necessary to read it, so I'll wait for the pdf or doc to come out. I'll keep checking the wings web site.

There are two links there, one for PDF, one for Open Office. Just nab the PDF version. jon

oh, I didnt get to far... I saw it was a long post, and I had to get off the net, last thing I read was someone couldn't open it and wanted it in a pdf file. Well, I feel dumb now! Thanks, I'm checking it out.