Blender vs 3DS Max vs Maya vs ZBrush

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6 comments, last by SillyCow 2 years, 3 months ago

First of all, do any of these programs require the ability to draw manually on paper? How much if needed? Does it require math?

I'm unfamiliar with this topic, that's why I asked.

I want to learn 3D object, character etc. modeling from scratch, I am looking for courses for this, but there are a ton of programs. The cost of the program does not matter.

I'm studying at university and after studying well in one of these programs for 1 year and improving myself, I want to serve on certain sites and earn additional income while studying. I mean, for example, if someone tells me to do the following, I do it, as if paying money. You know, this is used a lot, especially in the game industry. Which program do you think I should master so that I can work in a company for this kind of additional income job and in case of being unemployed in the future?

They usually recommend Maya as it is used in most professional films, but let me ask here as well.

Blender, on the other hand, is a fun and comfortable program that is constantly evolving, but for a professional job, they call it 3DS Max or Maya.

Please ! Can you recommend me program ? ?

My computer is Ryzen 5 2600.

RX 570.

16GB of RAM.

I think it's pretty much enough.

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Oguzkaan said:
First of all, do any of these programs require the ability to draw manually on paper? How much if needed? Does it require math?

If you don't know the answer to those questions, then maybe you ask the wrong question all together.
Usually you try such programs because you have prior artistic intentions, interests, talent and experience. Then you see if you like to work on purely virtual art with computers, or if you prefer to stick at real pencil and paper, wood and knife, etc.

Still, here's my 2 cents on it:
Does it require math?
No, but those programs are MUCH harder and complex than 2D stuff like Photoshop or Illustrator. When i started to use 3Ds Max i already had prior programming experience on 3D transformations and knowledge about various meshing methods (triangles, subdivision surfaces, parametric surfaces). You can learn all this while learning the program, but there is no way around of knowing such topics, which build on some math.

do any of these programs require the ability to draw manually on paper?
Less of it. When i was a kid, i wanted to become comics artist. But at some point i concluded my skill is not good enough. I could not get anatomy right for difficult poses.
Then, later i found i can do character modeling quite well. This is because on computers you can tweak and change until it is right. So you need less artistic skill, but you still need the eye to judge what's right or wrong.
There also is a big difference between character modeling and technical stuff (I include logo designs, advertisement animations, data visualizations etc. to the technical side). Little drawing skill is needed for the latter. But for characters i think it's some yes.

Reading further i see you're not a beginner like i have assumed initially.

Oguzkaan said:
Please ! Can you recommend me program ?

I can tell what i have worked with, and which strengths and weaknesses various software had for me personally. The differences are very big.

3Ds Max: Alround tool. Very good for technical modeling. Not so good for organic modeling.

Softimage XSI (no longer exists, may have been merged into 3Ds Max meanwhile): Very good for character animation. Good IK rig. Intuitive GUI exposing data structures.

Luxology Modo: Very good for organic modeling, easy to use.

Blender: Many features, but UI is very special. I can't befriend it, because i was used to those other tools before.

In practice you may need indeed multiple tools to be most efficient. But that's expensive. IDK about free versions for students, but they should exist.
To avoid cost problems and being overburdened from too many stuff, i'd recommend Blender.

Oguzkaan said:
I think it's pretty much enough.

Yep.

@undefined Thank you very much for your reply :)

I have no experience in these works.(like 2d or 3d)

Do I need to start from 2d in order to do 3d?

So if I start directly from 3d, will I have a hard time?

I will take a course on youtube and udemy for 1 year. I spend 70% of my day on the computer, so I have a lot of time for practice.

My math is a bit of a problem. Maybe I can fix the geometry, but I can't do complicated subjects such as logarithm, equation, derivative and integral.

There is another issue that I can't decide on. After gaining experience, I want to earn a little extra income by drawing things that people want on the internet and sending them to them or by selling the things I have drawn. Is it reasonable to design 3d objects for this?

If I learn to draw characters later, will it be useful for me if I learn how to design 3D objects and items for now?

Are the technical things you mentioned (I include logo designs, advertisement animations, data visualizations etc.) and 3d objects designed with different applications and different trainings? So if I take 3d education, will I not have learned them?

As I mentioned, which program should I choose to draw and sell the products that people want?

The fee issue is not a problem. I just want to choose one of the programs that companies use most all over the world because maybe I will start working in the future.

sorry for my english i get help from google translate

Most 3D art is done using 2D art as reference. Most professional 3D art in big studios is done using 2D art drawn by a separate 2D concept artist, but it still uses 2D art. Now, you could use photographic references, or partner with a 2D artist, or even try to create 3D models without any reference at all. All possibilities. But ultimately you're much better off as an artist if you learn to draw 2D art yourself, at least at a basic level, because prototyping ideas in 2D is just a lot quicker than doing the same in 3D.

Oguzkaan said:
Do I need to start from 2d in order to do 3d? So if I start directly from 3d, will I have a hard time?

Depends on you. Personally i did 2D before 3D. And 3D needs 2D in form of textures, so some experience with Photoshop or similar is necessary for most cases.
Surely, my experience with vector 2D programs like Illustrator did help me to get started. But you can just try on your own before taking any courses to find out.

Oguzkaan said:
My math is a bit of a problem. Maybe I can fix the geometry, but I can't do complicated subjects such as logarithm, equation, derivative and integral.

I can relate, because i did not learn much math in schools. So to learn programming, i also had to learn math, which was the harder part.
But it is no necessary for content creation. So i would surely not worry on your side. It just helps to understand how such programs may work internally, so you can make assumptions like ‘I'm sure the program can do this or that, now i only need to figure out how to tell it what i want’, or ‘What i want will not work, because i know our math and algorithms stuff just can't model this well.’

In some cases you can profit from some programming / math directly. Almost all DCC programs support scripting, which is useful to automate tedious work.
It's also often important for animation, where you may write a little script so some bone points towards a target point, or things like that.
Advanced and useful, but not essential.

Oguzkaan said:
If I learn to draw characters later, will it be useful for me if I learn how to design 3D objects and items for now?

I would say characters is entirely it's own thing. Where i worked as artist (music / TV industry, 4-5 gfx artists), i was the only one who could draw characters or anything on paper. The other guys had no such talent or experience, but still could do their job of designing album covers or marketing material.
If you want to learn character design, and you are studying already, then i guess it's maybe too late and you are already too old (post teenage?). If you did some drawings as a kid already with some passion, then a basis is there.
The main challenges here are not related to software. You need to know how the human body is build and its proportions, which muscles do what and where they are, how to express facial emotions.
Then there are various art styles like realism, anime, comics, etc. You may excel at one of these, but fail at the others, which is normal.

If you never did any of this yet, i would not bet on it. Try it if you are interested, but focus on other design work, which there is plenty of.

Oguzkaan said:
Are the technical things you mentioned (I include logo designs, advertisement animations, data visualizations etc.) and 3d objects designed with different applications and different trainings? So if I take 3d education, will I not have learned them?

I was at some art school, but there was nothing about computers yet back then.
We did learn some things like general rules of composition, regarding colors or shapes, how to put some frame around your work to present it, practiced drawing or painting, things like that.
But then when i started working i just did what the other guys there did before me and learned from them. I also adopted their mistakes initially, and only after years i realized this and started to improve from my own experience.
I don't think that my education did help me so much for work. I think you always need to learn on your own for the most part. They won't tell you how to be inspired, or how to be creative. They can only teach you how to use the tools and some general rules.
The best advise i ever got about design actually came from my stepdad, who said: ‘Design without a function is bad design.’ This really nails it i think, and it's always applicable.

But coming back to the question, yes - different tasks require different tools. But which tool is the right one depends also on yourself and your habits / preferences.
Some schools are general and skim over many tools quickly, others specialize on just a few in detail. Some provide mostly technical background, others may teach you general art. (Not sure if the latter can be learned or if it's a matter of given talent.)

Oguzkaan said:
As I mentioned, which program should I choose to draw and sell the products that people want?

Different people have different products.
Thus you can and should choose what YOU want to create and have talent for, then after mastering this you can offer your work to the group of people having a need for this.
I mean, it always ends up with creating the content your customer wants, respecting his wishes on changes even if you think this will make it worse.
But initially, to show something off in your portfolio, you can do entirely what you want.

What is this, by example? You need to answer this for yourself first, then you can tell us and i could make some vague proposal on software, in case i have experience on that subject.
But even then it's personal. Many people do their character modeling in 3Ds Max for example, although i say it's a bad tool for this purpose.

a light breeze said:
Most 3D art is done using 2D art as reference.

I would even say 3D art also uses references much more in general.
E.g. to model a character, you likely start by importing some generic human 3D model and you use this as template.
This makes it a lot easier. It's cheating, but it also helps to work around restrictions of planer projection to a flat screen. You can not touch your art, even looking at it from a different angle can become a problem with computers.
With drawing, you can't do this so easily. You could use rotoscopy, but usually you have to draw your stuff correctly out of nothing, which requires very high artistic skill.
With computers, technical skill matters much more in relation, which can be learned more easily.

Take a tutorial. It is the best to get acquainted with this stuff.
Complete the tutorial in a week, and you will know more.

If you think you can get access to 3DS or Maya for free then learn those. (not talking about trial license)
If your friends or co-eds are using 3DS/Maya also learn that, so that you have someone to talk to.

Otherwise learn blender: The free online community is much better than 3DS/Maya. Granted Blender is not as a good of a problem (in my opinion). However, the community is much much bigger and more accessible.

The official 3DS manual is much better, but blender will have better youtube videos telling you how to do stuff. Also, it's completely free.

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