Saying I know nothing about 3D design what should I do to learn? What program should I start with? What should I work up to... What are the difficulties? What should I watch out for? Etc. Thanks.

Luke

Start with Google Sketchup to get a grasp of what you're doing, then buy some of the various 500 $ plus programs available on the market. Also get some kind of book to help you.

If you are serious about doing 3D design I would start with something like Cinema 4D. There are free 3D programs out there that are also pretty good such as Blender.

Blender is amazing... the only bad thing at first glance is the interface, but I've been told once you really start using it, you just wish every application used something similar.

I'm an advocate of most open source applications, so I'm all for promoting Blender, but just to realize the sheer power of this application take a look at this:

http://www.elephantsdream.org/

Get C4D
or poser...

mess about with the functions a bit then try out some tuts...
like you would do to get the hang of photoshop, i suppose.

Thanks for the link. Very amazing indeed.

Yes, I checked it out. It is incredible. Quite a bit of inspiration will be coming from there Thanks!

Im going to try it too
thanx for da link

I've used C4D for all my 3D needs, and it's always worked out great. Made a lot of abstract renders and stuff with it, made some of my own materials and used them, always come out really well, and the TIFF and TARGA images in Photoshop are lossless, look pretty good.

I remember once I imported an image from Lightwave into Photoshop and it lost quite a bit of quality, was ragged around the edges. Happened with three four things I made in Lightwave. Since then just stuck to C4D, there's plenty of support available for it and a lot of tutorials.

try autodesk maya u can download a trial version of maya at autodesk

Thanks! What if I wanted to make 3d games... what do I have to learn

Programming. A lot of it.

C#, Ruby, C++, etc.

C#, C++
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When i used to work on my game Topic X, i used this program:

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax

Very good program for games, animations, television etc...

I also used various game engines (the best is source)

Sketchup is amazing, as well as Blender.
Im also a fan of Macromedia Flash Studio 8.

Flash?? I'm talking about 3d here bud Thanks anyway.

Read a lot of tutorials at pixel2life.com

Both 3DS Max and Blender have already been mentioned. If you master either of these [including modeling, lighting set-up, texture and environment mapping, IK chain creation, dynamics etc], you can do pretty much what you want visually. Of course, you may have to buy additional plug-ins that boost the software's core capabilities, but they are not a must.

Read some books on the subject. Books that give you the basics and create a strong 3D foundation are better than "how-to-do-a-specific-thing" kind of book[s] or tutorial[s].

As far as I know, game development requires programming experience and knowledge of game and/or physics engines like Havok, for instance.

Just for backup, I've been using Blender now for about two months, and I've created some Awesome stuff with it. Personally, I don't think I'll purchase a 3D program until I start a animation studio (which may never happen). Not only can Blender make still pictures, but it can animate. And best of all, it can make amazing interactive games of any kind.

I would highly suggest anyone getting into 3D to use this program!

we'll i have poser, its hard to use if you dont want to spend mutch money on tuts

Actually, Flash, Illustrator and Photoshop CS3 can all do 3D now, although pretty basic [Flash has been able to do it for a while, I think].

Anyway, good programs to start out with are, as mentioned above, the ones like Blender and Sketchup. When you feel you're ready to take the plunge, try out a trial version of each of the big programs you're interested in first, then decide which one you wish to plop down the cash for [As they do not come cheap, lol.]

You're best bet, though, is to use multiple programs. Most can read each others formats, so you could possibly create an object in one, and import it to another program to work on.

Some of the good ones are

Cinema 4D [Good for object creation, animation]
3D Studio Max [3DSMax] [Good for object creation, animation, movie making]
zBrush [Good for facial modeling]
Poser [Just as the name implies, it's good for poses of the human body.]

There's a few others, but I can't think of them .

The 3d capabilities of those programs is severely limited compared to a real modelling program.

Blender has a really unique interface (different from many others.) but nothing beats free!

just answering the question above to anyone whos intersted in 3D Games...

You can actualy start creating your own 3D games in blender (aswell as the usual animation or just 3D images)
I would recomend it to anyone who is serious about making their own games or even just wanting to create 3D moddels
However, there is loads of coding involved (python) so makesure its something you realy want to do as its not easy at first!
which takes me back to a question in the python forum ~link~
where Nexus asks what python can be used for, alot of things but theone i use it for is my Blender projects

so if youre already into webdesign (like me)
and you are interested in creating 3D stuff you gota check it out!

When i was in middle school, I needed to choose an extracuricular class, and I took engineering. For two reasons it was available, and the guy said we'd work on computers LOL.
Well it ended up we mainly used 3d Studio Max. And I loved it. For me it was easy to get into. I took three years of that class. Could have taken a fourth but decided that I'd rather leave school early instead.

Anyways, I think that autodesk makes the best programs, but I'm sure it's just a personal bias, but they DID buy out Maya.

Posting way outta date from the date this post was orginally started.

I'd suggest TruSpace 3.2 (Its a old old, VERY old 3d program, but tons of basic 3d modeling features and FREE)

I mainly use it for 3d object creation and animation. I like it because i'm able to save 3d objects as an X-file. Its not really to good for close up detailing due to the boxy like shapes of your objects but from a distance the models can look pretty decent. I usually use other programs to wrap textures and etc. on the objects, since its somewhat out of date...lol.

It also has some pretty good step-by-step tutorials that shows you how to use some of the features and how to do a few different 3d objects.

http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace...es/default.html

Im using 3DS Max 2009 atm
It has some cool features and you can make everything u want
They changed the material editor into something really complicated but with a few hours of messing around u should be able to make really nice materials.

If you dont want to pay I suggest Blender indeed
Or get 3ds max on a diffrent way xD

any program you. your self can import a model from a terrain generator. and make superman fly around without wasting 9hours finding out how to do it

or make strange 3d games for your site using http://www.render-blade.com/English/

if you are really interested in learining animation then this new opensource community designing software could be of some use to you. it is a 3DMLW based editor called QuantumHog. pretty simple to use and free to downlaod, right now they have relaesed a bet version, but it is worth trying. using this it's almost as easy to make a 3D web applications with it as it is to write an HTML website.

well, i found some really great sites using the 3DMLW tool. does any body knows here the difference between web animation and animation?

many people may go through lots of programs and not like any of them and you may like the one they hate most... but it is all about who uses it.

We have a website for our company. Now we plan to add some animation. Can you please tell me whether 3D animation renders good visual effects?

I am a web designer and I would say 3D rendering is much more difficult and is a better choice. If you have further queries, visit this website http://si-r-usdesign.com/. I have got lot of information from them.

There are several 3D design tools and programs, but it is likely that the architectural design drawing and painting, modeling, 3D animation, you can also use a tablet or other instruments, pills, perhaps many Paint or Photoshop author, text and tables.

This is informative. I want also to know about this that what is the best way for it??

may be its right dear.....

Yaaa, I checked it out. It is looks good

the best way to get into 3d design to observe objects from diffrent views and try to draw them wid diffrent angles

the best way to one foot in front of the other

Maybe you can try Photoshop, it is necessary to make such graphic design!

i'm a web designer so i don't about 3D design