Pros and cons of Blender ?

Forum
Artists

being an independant worker, i have a limited budget concerning software titles. i have some knowledge with max but i find its price way too for me and the prospect of paying every year or so for the upgrades doesn't really appeal to me. same with maya. now, someone told me to try gmax but i found it quite limited because of the export/import limitations.
so here comes blender. www.blender3d.org . discovered it a few days ago. good thing is the software is free and if you go to the gallery pages, the results are quite impressive. good thing also it works on MacOsX, which is my prefered platform (though i have an old PC too). and there is a big community that creates a good deal of plug ins and extensions ( makeHuman for creating models for example ) . for free that is.
so now, before i spend all my time on this software, i 'd like to know if someone here uses it for actual game production. i mean what good is that software for profesional uses ?

again,

Submitted by bullet21 on Sat, 03/07/04 - 5:04 AM Permalink

One piece of advice, never judge a piece of software by the gallery they pimp. I've never used blender, but why don't you give lightwave a try. It's a lot more industry standard than Blender and is cheaper than maya and max. You can download the discovery edition of the bigpond website, give it a whirl.

I used it for a while but for some reason i just didn't like it as much as max.

Submitted by Makk on Sun, 04/07/04 - 2:24 AM Permalink

Another cheap 3d tool is Wings3d. Never used it before but apperantly its pretty good for low poly work.

Submitted by bullet21 on Sun, 04/07/04 - 2:38 AM Permalink

I used wings, it's based of nendo/mirai the one that Bay Raitt(Kiwi guy who worked on Gollum) uses. I didn't like it cos it was heavily based on the right mouse button, i know it sounds stupid but to bring up any kind of menu you had to right click. It's free though.

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Sun, 04/07/04 - 7:54 AM Permalink

Hello, Gmax anyone? It's max without the bells and whistles for hi poly work, animation etc.

Submitted by bullet21 on Sun, 04/07/04 - 8:41 PM Permalink

He said he has tryed Gmax and didn't like it. Theres also a good program called Truespace which is cheap and effective. All this advice on ther software than blender probably means it aint that great ;P

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Tue, 06/07/04 - 1:40 AM Permalink

Bullet- Bay Raitt isn't Kiwi, he just worked there for a few years, I saw a brief interview with him on The Two Towers Extended and I'm pretty sure he's Yank.

When did he say he's tried Gmax?

Submitted by bullet21 on Tue, 06/07/04 - 2:11 AM Permalink

quote:someone told me to try gmax but i found it quite limited because of the export/import limitations.

That's where![:p]

and about bay raitt no being Kiwi, I stand corrected [:I][:o)]

Submitted by Gordon Ranger on Thu, 08/07/04 - 3:54 AM Permalink

hi again

i tried blender anyway. if you guys like to know the interface is weird and i didn't manage to do something right. i'll prbably ditch the package. but you guys should definetly take a look at the galleries, there is one screen of a castle that looks quite impressive.

thanks for the replies anyway, i'll try wings3D and truespace.

for Gmax, well, i thought about max being some kind of industry standard. maybe i'll work with after all, if i want to work with other artists some day. and i'll use another 3rd-party program to break the limitations upon gmax. like milkshape to convert all the files.

ciao ciao

Forum
Artists

being an independant worker, i have a limited budget concerning software titles. i have some knowledge with max but i find its price way too for me and the prospect of paying every year or so for the upgrades doesn't really appeal to me. same with maya. now, someone told me to try gmax but i found it quite limited because of the export/import limitations.
so here comes blender. www.blender3d.org . discovered it a few days ago. good thing is the software is free and if you go to the gallery pages, the results are quite impressive. good thing also it works on MacOsX, which is my prefered platform (though i have an old PC too). and there is a big community that creates a good deal of plug ins and extensions ( makeHuman for creating models for example ) . for free that is.
so now, before i spend all my time on this software, i 'd like to know if someone here uses it for actual game production. i mean what good is that software for profesional uses ?

again,

Submitted by bullet21 on Sat, 03/07/04 - 5:04 AM Permalink

One piece of advice, never judge a piece of software by the gallery they pimp. I've never used blender, but why don't you give lightwave a try. It's a lot more industry standard than Blender and is cheaper than maya and max. You can download the discovery edition of the bigpond website, give it a whirl.

I used it for a while but for some reason i just didn't like it as much as max.

Submitted by Makk on Sun, 04/07/04 - 2:24 AM Permalink

Another cheap 3d tool is Wings3d. Never used it before but apperantly its pretty good for low poly work.

Submitted by bullet21 on Sun, 04/07/04 - 2:38 AM Permalink

I used wings, it's based of nendo/mirai the one that Bay Raitt(Kiwi guy who worked on Gollum) uses. I didn't like it cos it was heavily based on the right mouse button, i know it sounds stupid but to bring up any kind of menu you had to right click. It's free though.

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Sun, 04/07/04 - 7:54 AM Permalink

Hello, Gmax anyone? It's max without the bells and whistles for hi poly work, animation etc.

Submitted by bullet21 on Sun, 04/07/04 - 8:41 PM Permalink

He said he has tryed Gmax and didn't like it. Theres also a good program called Truespace which is cheap and effective. All this advice on ther software than blender probably means it aint that great ;P

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Tue, 06/07/04 - 1:40 AM Permalink

Bullet- Bay Raitt isn't Kiwi, he just worked there for a few years, I saw a brief interview with him on The Two Towers Extended and I'm pretty sure he's Yank.

When did he say he's tried Gmax?

Submitted by bullet21 on Tue, 06/07/04 - 2:11 AM Permalink

quote:someone told me to try gmax but i found it quite limited because of the export/import limitations.

That's where![:p]

and about bay raitt no being Kiwi, I stand corrected [:I][:o)]

Submitted by Gordon Ranger on Thu, 08/07/04 - 3:54 AM Permalink

hi again

i tried blender anyway. if you guys like to know the interface is weird and i didn't manage to do something right. i'll prbably ditch the package. but you guys should definetly take a look at the galleries, there is one screen of a castle that looks quite impressive.

thanks for the replies anyway, i'll try wings3D and truespace.

for Gmax, well, i thought about max being some kind of industry standard. maybe i'll work with after all, if i want to work with other artists some day. and i'll use another 3rd-party program to break the limitations upon gmax. like milkshape to convert all the files.

ciao ciao