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3D Programming and 3D Modeling Questions

This summer I plan to try and learn how to do make some 3D models. I'm not wanting to make a Doom III, but I want to learn how to make objects, models, and people in 3D. I'd like to make this a personal project and maybe even make enough to create a 3D world of my entire home.

I'm looking for guides, books, etc. that will teach me how to go about doing all this.

TIA
 
We have lots of modders at GR.net and tutorials for modding. Drop by the forums to see if see whats going on. Remember that GR was built using custom plug-ins for 3d Studio Max, but the turorials will help you get started. Jester has wrote some good tutes on modeling too. Link in sig below.
 
I've just download Maya Personal Learning Edition from Alias|WaveFront's website. I have almost zero experience in 3D modelling and I find it quite intuitive. Does Maya model organic objects better?
 
From what I have been led to believe, Maya is foremost an animation program, while Discreet's 3D Studio Max is the premiere modeling program... Hope this helps someone....
--IC2
 
If you'd just like to try your hand at 3d modeling, you can always get a free program like wings3d or go and download a demo version of any of the major modelling packages. The program I learned on is Newtek's Lightwave. It is a powerful modelling/rendering/animation package that is available for a decent price considering what it's capable of.

You might have better luck with 3D Studio Max though, as it is very popular and has many, many tutorials avaibable on the net.
 
There are so many resources out there for 3d stuff right now
check out highend3d.com, they have some tutorials and a gallery of user work
Some 3d programs you might want to look at are Maya, Lightware, 3ds max, or Studio Tools
Programming wise you could try using POV-Ray (free), or doing some work with OpenGL
 
I second the recomendation for POV-ray. It takes more work to generate the same composition in POVray than the popular commercial titles, but it's free, more direct, and is generally friendlier in it's hardware requirements.
 
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