Hello modelers, Heres a list of all free modelers i know.... If u find any one new please post in this thread cos i want to update my list as well:) cheers loggie HAMA PATCH - An animationmaster-like modeler - http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/6625/soft10.html WINGS3D - IMO the best poly modeler among free and paid ones- www.wings3d.com METASEQUOIA - Didnt use it much but it seemed cool - http://www21.ocn.ne.jp/~mizno/main_e.html ANIM8OR - complete software with a good modeler- http://www.anim8or.com/ AMAPI - terrific NURBS modeler!!!! - http://bakhter.com/html/main/amapi4.html MARBLECLAY - Never touched it but seems cool- http://member.nifty.ne.jp/escargot/MCLInfo.html NENDO - son of MIRAI - www.izware.com ZTOOLS - looks interesting- http://www.ztools.50megs.com/ STRATA BASE - strata studio PROs free version - http://strata.com/ BLENDER - the well-known BLENDER - http://www.blender3d.com/ LOQ AIROU - wicked interface, funky design- http://www.quelsolaar.com/

I think you have to buy Nendo? I think there's a demo version though. Art of Illusion - modeller, renderer and animator at; www.artofillusion.org Milkshape at; www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/ There are also free versions of Lightwave, Maya and 3ds max.

yeah the nendo link is a dead stick Loganarts just get a "be back soon" message. cheers stu

Rumours are rife that a new version of Mirai/Nendo is coming, and the website is being updated for the event. Who knows, neither is available for Mac and Mirai costs about $6000 so I don't care lol! ;o)

Attached Link: http://www.openfx.org/news/index.php

i actually have this one, and think it is very good....huge download, though. it even has a subpatch plugin, these days.

Attached Link: http://www.openfx.org/news/index.php

i actually have this one, and think it is very good....huge download, though. it even has a subpatch plugin, these days.

i believe there is a link to the old demo nendo in the wings forum, as well.

dang, have to check my database when I get back to work, but I think I have all of these..I've got a honkin' big list of utilities, sites, etc., over in 3d links..;)

Attached Link: Caligari Truespace 3.2

Those "free" thingies from Maya, Lightwave and so on are only for educational use. You can't produce anything useful for other apps with it, cause it saves only in a very special native format and all your renders come out with a visible watermark on the pic. And Milkshape is not a freeware thing - it's shareware and runs only 30 days and then the save function is disabled and you have to buy it. Caligari offers an old version of Truespace 3.2 for free here too: http://www.activeworlds.com/products/truespace.asp It is a fully working version with no save/render restrictions. I have a few more for special tasks: DoGa - is a Japanese based modeler, mostly for space stuff but you can do other things with it too. The L1 version is free but the next two L2 and L3 are shareware to buy. You can export your models in DXF format: http://www.doga.co.jp/english/ 3D Canvas from amabilis - the free version exports to POV and RIB format: http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm LeoCAD - for building those brick models most of us played with once about a time... http://www.leocad.org/index.htm MLCad - another one of those... http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/e_main.htm PlantStudio - for flowers and other plants. Former a commercial product now free: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/index.htm

Slight correction Bryde, I can't speak for Maya or Max freebies but Lightwave discovery edition will save to all the usual file formats including .obj and lwo. There is a restriction on the size of the mesh (400 ponts per layer) though. You can't save scenes but you can save lights. It will use most free plugins and you can save materials. You can't use it for commercial purposes and the renders are watermarked, they're not too bad though. Basically you're getting Lightwave for free, it's a hell of a way to learn to model, texture render and animate with one of the best apps around.

Thanks BazC, for the clearing up on LW. I don't know what affect this 400 points per layer will have on a model building, though. As for MayaLE there are several restrictions besides the one of non-commercial use. It would be too much to list them all here but you can read about them on the Maya site: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/ple/faq.shtml I got Max mixed with SoftImage:XSI EXP 3.0 which offers a learning edition of its modeler. The limitations are litsted here http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/faq/ Actually I didn't even see a Learning Edition of Studio Max on Discreet's website. I thought I've read about it and the restrictions some place, though. Come to think of, I neither found anything about the Lightwave Discovery Editon on the Newtek site too! Where is the download link hidden and the FAQ about the restrictions? I do remember that a few magazines had the program on their monthly cover CDs, though. Maybe that's where the Max LE was to get too.

I've only seen LW Discovery on CD in various UK magazines..if there's a download site..;) I'm not sure how far 400 points would go, a lot of my Wings' stuff runs more than that. As for Doga..I abuse the @#$% out of it, it's just too easy..;)

Discovery edition has to be ordered from Newtek (they'll post it eventually, mine took 8 months!) or get it fom a mag cover CD. I've heard though that if you download the update (7.5?) it wiil actually run as the discovery edition. Can't swear to that though! True, 400 ponts don't go very far!, but if you work on layers you can build much bigger models than that, of course they have to be saved as .lwo so you couldn't get them into another app. It gets a little awkward when your models head is on 6 seperate layers but it is usable!

Attached Link: GMAX

GMAX is a free modeler. You can't really use it with non-gmax related software though and it lacks a render option...I don't mean the renderer isn't good, I mean it's not there at all.

Attached Link: http://www.annsartgallery.com/freeprop.html

TS 3.2 and a bunch of others here.

Have almost all of the above. I'm sure Lightwave will come around on the mags again, I just managed to..hmm..I just checked my CD's, and I have Digit's Lightwave 7.5 demo..wonder if that's the same as the Discovery?
..btw.. lwo format works fine in Bryce, I've exported from Terragen into Bryce as lwo, only caveats were it just transported a 'sheet', instead of a solid, and if you increase the size too much, the polygons become real noticeable..;)

Someone made a plugin for GMax which exports to m3d (quakeIII) format, then you use Deep Exploration to translate it to 3ds. Discreet didn't like the idea, though, but it was quickly pointed out that it technically didn't violate the eula because it doesn't involve tampering with the software itself and besides, there was no rule that said you couldn't make plugins so they added a thing to the EULA that you aren't allowed to write plug-ins for it. But the plug in is still around (I forget where- you have to do a google search for it). With the plugin, you essentially have a working, usable - albeit watered down somewhat- free version of Max.

Attached Link: HOw can u convert .max to md3? Forum message

I just love Google. I searched and found this forum with the informations about the PopNFresh MD3 exporter and the NPherno's Plugin Exporter. Looks like those are the plugins needed for GMax...