Making 3d animation -edited title-

[coopa]

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How did you guys get started doing 3d animation?

I have the patiance and would love to make some 3d moveis on the computer.
--EDIT--
or stills or just models but no animation...

thanks alot.

-coopercoe

 

[Bluga]

Well you can start by either picking up a book or go to classes.

To be a competent programmer, you will need at least 4 years of coding experiences. There're so much in programming that you just can't learn them in a single day. But the basic fundamental ideas are the same.

If you are doing CAD, you don't really need to know programming much. You'll just need to learn how to use CAD tool. Programmers write CAD software for you to use it.

 

[Bojo]

Here is my advice on the 3D query.

Dont go there. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands that you want to wast and also a lot of money to wast on software and hardware.

From the sounds of it you are not very young. Nor I would guess artisticly inclined. These things a 3D beginner needs. becuase it will take a lot of time to get good and if your not a good artist your work will probably always suck.

You will not be able to do any kind of decent 3D movie by yourself even if you worked at it for 5-10 years. Sorry but thats being realistic.

Yes if you just want a hobby then I guess it could be fun but in the end you will just be frustrated I think.

Of course I was assuming that you were quite old and not an artist. If you are not then go for it. Go to some short courses and read books. TIP: Buy either 3D studio max or Maya. They are the best and are going to be the forerunners in the future. And do BUY the software. You will learn it ten times quicker with the manuals and tutes that come with the packages.


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Reply lame factor (1-10) = 0

 

[Excaliber2013]

Ok first you do not need to be young or artistically inclined...having an art background helps alot but it's not required. But I agree that it will take alot of effort and time....and be prepared to take alot of aspirin

Second, since he's just starting I would not even attempt to buy 3dstudioMax or any of the high-end apps. Go with something like Hash's Animation Master or even Blender since those are far easier to learn. (*edit*....I think you can still get an older version of Truespace for free....don't quote me on that though....ask Ben Skywalker on that) It'll be suicide to jump onto the high-end without at least knowing something about them or taking courses at your local college.

Bojo, please try to be easy on coopa....yes it is hard work and effort but it's worth it in the long run.


Good luck Coopa......

 

[coopa]

i am much more interested in CAD than programming (when i said that i just meant learning how it works and some basic stuff)

Bojo:
I am 15 years old i have some artistic tallent, and do well in my art classes at school. my favorite hobby is photography and that has alot to do with art. (vizualizing things)
As for making 3d movies- im not talking about full length featured here. i mean maybe 2 min of animation.

I am looking at this as a hobby. (maybe if i like it i will take it further)I think that next semester at school i might work "engenering" into my scheadule, which is all about cad and pics.

I have started to play around with some freeware learning tuetorials that are very basic. they are called DOGA. got them off cnet dloads. i think it is intersting and will be time consuming.

 

[Bojo]

Hehe! Ok I was totally wrong about you "stats" coopa sorry


Firstly it's a good thing Excaliber2013 is around. He/she makes an excellent point about starting with "low end" 3D software. It'll be easier to learn but most importantly it'll be much much cheaper to buy. I keep talking about buying the software because I know there is a big temptation with warez these days to just get it for free, (yeah I been there) but I promise you with 3D you will just be shooting yourself in the foot in the long run if you go the warez rout.

I hear really good things about Hash's Animation Master, It's supposedly really quite powerful and easy to use. I think it's only 200-300 american dollars which should be feasible for you to buy, (just sell your bed or something )


I did not know about DOGA software, but I'm downloading it 'cause I'm interested to see if it's helpfull at all. It certainly sounds pretty good for someone in your position to learn the basics.

I don't know if you are aware of this but just in case; there is a big difference between "CAD" software and 3D design software. I know it sounds silly because CAD just means computer aided design but in the 3D industry CAD is commonly used to describe engineering 3D software like AutoCAD etc. These programs are very different to 3D animation and design software like Animation Master, Maya etc. You sound like you need use the animation computer 3D packages not the CAD ones.

So seriously this is what I suggest you do. Learn the basics with DOGA. Buy Animation Master and a decent 3D card for your computer (not a pro 3D card cause they're $1000 upwards but do get a card that supports openGL, a "gaming" card should be fine if you dont already have one) and use the books that come with AM to learn. Then you might want to buy some more books on 3D in general or some books more specific to AM. Then I guess you could go to some courses at university when your older but they're usually a bunch 'o crap (some might be good though). Short courses are a better option I think.


Reading my post it sounds like I could just be boring you to death, I dont really know if it is any help at all but I'm just trying to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made and to get you off with a good start.

There are of course heaps of forums on the net to help you with specific problems that will crop up, but if I were you I'd try to spend as little time stuffing around on the net as possible and just learn the basics like animation, modeling and texturing without getting involved with super-advanced stuff and wasting time with "special" plug-ins and useless crap like that.


Fairly good site: www.3dsource.com

Hmmmmm oh well let me know what you think. I might go check out this DOGA ! (weird name)

 

[Excaliber2013]

Lemme just add that you can get a Geforce MX for about $100-110(possibly more/less) and get very good performance(near-$1000 professional card performance).

Also you can try 3DCafe.....good site for tutorials, textures, links, etc...

 

[coopa]

Thanks Guys

Bojo:
i started to figure out, after doing some searches, that CAD and 3d animation are WAY different.
I dont really have the cash right now to buy the full version of the software. hash's AM 2001 is over $200. (especailly since i dont evan know that i will like it.) cheap software would be good. and i wont stoop as low as warez.
As for the DOGA program dont bother dloading it. the first one is just taking premade objects and putting them together on a 3d plane to make larger pics and then having that entire object move on a plane. The second one is more advanced. It lets u design multi joint objects. i havent gotten to #2 because it wont let you render the movies untill you buy the full version. I am going to try to use it. its kinda confusing. I havent tried level 3- i dont know if its out.
And ps - that post didnt bore me at all - thanks for the info.

Excaliber2013- thanks alot for the tip. I have an ok graphics card but i have been planning to pick up a geforce for a while now. I think that i will also need more than 128mgs ram for rendering the frames? thats not much of a problem either.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Did I hear my name?(How's it going Angel)

The best place to start, IMHO, is with a low end application, possible one of the many MetaCreation offerings. These will help you learn the basics of 3D modeling and also give you a better grasp on what you want to do with 3D. You mention animation which I won't try to talk you out of in any way, but you may decide that you like focusing on model creation or stills more, whichever way you decide you want to go starting with a low end, which tends to mean lower cost, application will help give you a basis to decide which way you want to go(higher end apps tend to be aimed more towards a particular audience).

When deciding on which application to get, in the real world cost is a major factor. You mention that $200 is a bit high, and in all honesty many plug ins cost quite a bit more then that. In the sub $200 price range you are looking mainly at Simply3D type applications if you want the latest version, but going with older versions of more powerful software may be a better bet for you(that is how I almost always buy things, even if I want the latest it tends to be much cheaper to buy the older version and pay the upgrade price).

A good way to go about this might be to have someon with an e*ay account place a bid for some older software for you. I just ran through a few searches and found Infini-D 3.1 going for less then $20, that was a $500-$600 application when new if memory serves. And if I recall correctly, Infini-D was one of the better, if not the best, low end 3D solution available at the time. Also available right now is version 4.5, but that is in the ~$200 range.

Another option could be RayDream Studio, another popular application, also Bryce, Canoma and Poser come to mind. These may not be as good as some of the less popular alternatives, but odds are that you will be able to find more help for any problems that you run into using one of these.

As far as how much you can do with them, I think you will find that you are able to do quite a bit, and it will take you some time before you start complaining about missing features. Up until not too long ago I was happy overall with Caligari's trueSpace for my uses, even though I had used significantly more powerful software, I just didn't see the advantages(at least not enough to warrant the costs), and I've been doing this for many years now.

Talent is not required, you can teach yourself to become quite good without any natural talent, though it does help quite a bit(Excaliber2013 has some amazing talent, a he!! of a lot more then me for d@mn sure). You mention that you alread do well in art, the next step is to learn how to work in 3D. For this, it is much easier to start with an application that deals with the more basic elements. Learning something like Maya, SoftImage or even 3DStudioMax is difficult enough for someone who has been working with 3D for years, let alone someone new to the field.

Computer power- You don't have enough, but neither do I 3D visualization is one area that "fast enough" does not exist. Will your system be able to do it? Yes. Will you be happy with the speed? Highly unlikely. You will learn that "good enough" and "a lot better" are normal terms, fast enough is a pipe dream I have three different machines I'm using right now, building a fourth, and three out of those will be used mainly for rendering and nothing else(LAN). The slowest of those is a PII 266 which is plenty "fast enough" for the average computer user, a complete dog for 3D vis. The suggestion for a GeForce is a very good one, it made my system a *lot* faster working with models, particularly ones with high levels of geometric complexity. Fast enough? Of course not, but it allows me to work with higher levels of geometry at acceptable speeds, a five to ten fold increase over my TNT with Athlon 550, no joke.

Sorry for getting long winded, in short I would check out e*ay or another auction site and look for older, used versions of software to get a decent package at a decent price point. $1000 in 3D is a drop in the bucket.

 

[coopa]

Ben - that makes alot of sense, thanks for the reply.
I didnt evan think to check eb@y, under $50 is deffinately feasable right now. and the geforce is good for gaming too...

When you talk about model creation and stills are you talking 3d pics that dont move? like a poster of Toy Story? (if they just made that without the movie that is)

Also - what is designing skins for models in games called ? i dont know if this has anything really to do with the 3d animation (actaully it kinda does doesent it) but that would be an interesting starting point.

 

[BenSkywalker]

"When you talk about model creation and stills are you talking 3d pics that dont move? like a poster of Toy Story? (if they just made that without the movie that is)"

Stills are the best way to start IMHO. It just means that you create scenes. Not just for things like posters, a great deal of advertisements use them, web sites, heck you can make yourself a desktop if you create a still you really like.

Model creation is building a model. One of the great things about 3D is you can recycle your models. After you build a very complex scene, you can save each individual model to use later if you have the need. Focusing on an individual model and doing the best you can with it will help you out considerably with animation. For stills it isn't *as* important due to the fact that only what the camera is looking at is important.

"Also - what is designing skins for models in games called ? i dont know if this has anything really to do with the 3d animation (actaully it kinda does doesent it) but that would be an interesting starting point."

Uhhh, I always called it designing skins for models in games(honestly). This is pretty much an entirely 2D process, you can do this with either Photoshop or another decent image editing application and your typical mod building tools. It is just a matter of replacing the default texture maps with the new ones you design. It is a good idea to have Photoshop or a comparable 2D package for 3D. If you can't go for Photoshop 6.0, you can just as easily pick up an older version of Photoshop or perhaps even Photopaint or Corel Draw(If you pick up Draw8 cheap, it even comes with a scaled down version of RayDream called Dream3D 8 as long as you get the full version, and that should be quite cheap as they are out to version 10 now).

"I didnt evan think to check eb@y, under $50 is deffinately feasable right now. and the geforce is good for gaming too.."

Yes on both The older, or even current non GeForce based pro cards absolutely svck @ss for gaming, very nice to have an all in one 3D board

 

[coopa]

SO
since i have photoshop 5.0 i am going to get some applications that will alow me to edit the texture maps for quake 3. i think that is a good starting point. I have already created 3 models with some freeware mentioned above (DoGA), but i didnt make them from scratch, i used premade parts. When i get the real software (infini-D since you say its good) i will be able to make models and then put on textures from photoshop? then render a viewpoint i like with a pose i like and that will be my still image?

am i correct in this?

 

[coopa]

my last question.... ^^

 

[Bojo]

Yes.

 

[coopa]

thanks bojo. also thanks for the pm reply ben.