Dont know which 1 to invest time in

[Shaninio]

ok first of all Im sorry fit his is in the wrong forum seen as like Im a total newbie.

I have Flash 8 for about 3 days now and I been trying to get use to it, thing is Im kinda more into wanting to learn 3d modelling and animating and stuff, so I was wondering which would you recommend investing alot of time into learning

Flash or 3d modelling/animation?

If 3d then could you please help me with a good program for newbies?

Once again sorry if in wrong board and thanks for any help :)

[DDD]

Almost all of the 3d apps have trials. Try them all and see which you like. And dont dump flash and 3d and flash are playing well together these days
Lightwave www.newtek.com
3d studio max www.discreet.com
xsi www.softimage.com
Cinema 4d http://www.maxon.net/
Modo www.luxology.com
Silo www.nevercenter.com
Strata www.strata.com/
hexagon http://www.daz3d.com/program/hexagon/
rhino http://www.rhino3d.com/
shade http://www.e-frontier.com/article/articleview/1784/1/652?sbss=652

[Shaninio]

Almost all of the 3d apps have trials. Try them all and see which you like. And dont dump flash and 3d and flash are playing well together these days
Lightwave www.newtek.com (http://www.newtek.com)
3d studio max www.discreet.com (http://www.discreet.com)
xsi www.softimage.com (http://www.softimage.com)
Cinema 4d http://www.maxon.net/
Modo www.luxology.com (http://www.luxology.com)
Silo www.nevercenter.com (http://www.nevercenter.com)
Strata www.strata.com/ (http://www.strata.com/)
hexagon http://www.daz3d.com/program/hexagon/
rhino http://www.rhino3d.com/
shade http://www.e-frontier.com/article/articleview/1784/1/652?sbss=652

hmm any recommendations, I dont really wanna download 10 trails :*(
just to check do all those do animation aswell as modelling

[ar]

I actually started off with 3d studio max. Give it a shot. It's an extremely powerful program, and developers come out with lots of extra tools and plugins for it.

GBP

[DDD]

well it is impossible to make a recommendation for what is best for you. I personally use lightwave and love it. Maybe you should do some research and n the different apps and see which works for you best. Try www.cgtalk.com for sme pointers into each app and its strengths and weaknesses. I really wouldnt want a stranger to make a recommendation for me. Better to point me in the right direction of the apps.

Some good things to think about when choosing is:
Tech support
Available training
Plugin developers and sdk support
Features
Industry standards and penetration
Community support (forums)

[Shaninio]

yea Ive seen lightwave and was going to get that but thought Id ask here first, Im checking that forum link you gave me now

[DDD]

If you get Lightwave, you should look at the following plugins .....Fprime, Sasquatch, LWCad, Vert-bevel there are more too, but those are the heavy hitters. Oh and Dynamite Voxel Engine if you do dynamics.

[Shaninio]

hmm well Ive been checking out the links and stuff and was wondering what people thought of Blender, its free and the Wiki page is very helpful, wat are your opinions on Blender?

[Fargate]

hmm well Ive been checking out the links and stuff and was wondering what people thought of Blender, its free and the Wiki page is very helpful, wat are your opinions on Blender?

A word of caution on the Blender Wiki, while it starts out as being a well documented guide, I've found that the quality starts to disintegrate after the first dozen or so pages. This isn't really too suprising as the book is in fact user maintained, and is therefore subject to inconsistencies. So if your a complete newbie at Blender it can start to get confusing when your trying to follow some of the later examples. Just something to keep in mind.

As to the strengths of Blender itself I'll let someone with more experience with the program field that question :).

Fargate :D

[Shaninio]

oo thanks for that, I only checked the first 2 tutorials I think and just assumed they would all be of the same quality, ok then I'll wait for someone whos experienced unless others have suggestions

[iLikePie]

ok seriously, there's no-one who can give you a definitive answer as to which 3d app is best, because there is no one BEST program. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar (and probably not very experienced with 3d to be thinking that....).

any of the 'big' all-in-one apps will give you plenty of options and power, and all have different things that are a bit difficult, but you just have to persevere. And once you learn one, it becomes a lot easier to pick up a different one, so you're not going to 'waste' your time by learning any of them.

but the typical apps people start out with are either 3dsmax, maya, lightwave or cinema4d... that's what i've observed. some of the others are more specialised.

fin.