Software for 3d animation...please advice me

[mchilly]

Hello everyone http://forum.howdesign.com/image/s2.gif I just wanted to know your opinion about the best computer for using animation specially "3D animations". Im looking for something that serves and delivers images and models more quickly, has reliable system, and can support alot of huge animation software ( like photoshop, illustrator, macromedia ) And what kind of memory, ram, processor, amd graphics card should I shoot for? http://forum.howdesign.com/image/s13.gif

[Drazan]

Your top three professional rendering programs are Maya($2,000), 3D Studio Max($3,500), and Lightwave ($500-$1000)

There is Cinema4D, Bryce, Poser, and a few other lessor modeling programs.

photoshop, illustrator and macromedia (flash?) are not going to help much in true 3D animations. Those are typically 2D only. Though there are ways to use an AI path to create a 3D object and you can use 2D to texture a 3D object. But most 3D animation is based on object models that you can then manipulate and give "life" to in the animation stage.

For graphix card, get one that has at least 512 internal memory or your refresh screens are going to take forever.


As far as the computer goes, the biggest you can financially afford still wouldn't be big enough. And I mean that quite litterally. I just priced out some new equipment for this next fiscal and just one computer was over $6k. I do have a buget to work with, but we need a whole new set of work computers. So even at $6k it still is not the best of the best for rendering.

(I've been building computers nearly as long as I've been designing, and programming them even longer.)

Just remember that when you hit render on your new super computer, you won't be able to do anything else to it at all or risk a corupted segment. And trust me after 14 hours of rendering one corrupted segment could mean another whole day rerendering. Or having the computer run out of memory because you just "had" to check email, and interupt the 14 hour render and have to start all over.

Not that I've....ever....had to do that. ;)

I've only recently gotten back into 3D, and use 3D studio max. (I've used Bryce, Poser, and a previous version of Max.) It's a steep learning curve, but the effects are absolutely amazing.

[Navian]

Dont forget in 3d studio max, you get a default of amount of materials (not very many) and yeah you can make your own (which is a pain in the ass), but you can also get additional 3d models, and materials in another package that costs another $900-1000.00 to the origional $3,500 cost.