[frozentundra]

Hello

I am looking for a simple 3d program. I would like to find something that does not have huge learning curve.

Thanks,
FT

[Chuckit]

Doom?

[PurpleGiant]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
Doom?

And to the original poster: Is this for still images or animation? 3D text mostly, or graphics? 'Cartoon' type 3d work, or more design type 3D work?

[Millennium]

I'm afraid you're in for quite a search. Computer-generated 3-D art is not a simple concept, and there is a steep learning curve pretty much inherent to the process.

Maya has a free learning edition (demo only, but it'll do). Maya isn't known for having the greatest interface, but that's not entirely bad; if you can handle it, you can handle anything.

[jamil5454]

One piece of software that is free and greatly productive is Blender. Although it has a somewhat steep learning curve, once you learn it it's extremely efficient. I wish discreet made Gmax for Mac...

[Catfish_Man]

Bryce 5 has by FAR the quickest learning curve of any 3D app I've used.

[kcmac]

For architecture or something like that, SketchUp is the only way to go. Very intuitive and simple. And powerful. You can use it back and forth with AutoCadd and also transfer your work to more complex programs.

http://www.sketchup.com/

[Aramas]

'3D' covers a wide variety of very specialised software. Let us know exactly what you want to do and someone can point you in the right direction.

[theolein]

Eovia makes Carrara and Amapi, which are both excellent programmes, and Eovia has cheaper versions of both. Carrara has a similar interface to both Bryce and Poser (MetaCreations used to own all three) and is fairly straighforward. Amapi is a pure modeller, but an incredibly good one, since it's mostly like using putty in your hands.

Another option is Strata3DCX, which has, IMO at least, one of the most straightforward interfaces of them all.

There's also Lightwave, Maya and Cinema4D, all of which are quasi industry standards (3DMax, a Windows only 3D package, and Softimage, also not available on OSX are probably the most widely used), but have fairly steep learning curves and prices.

All of these cost from $279 for Carrara Standard, upwards. My recommendation for you as a newcomer would be to start with Carrara Standard, as it's fairly powerful and also affordable.

[osxrules]

I have used nearly all the 3d apps for mac and Blender is the best ( www.blender.org ). It has NURBs, polys and subdivision surfaces, UV editing, a full animation suite with non-linear animation tools and even a post-pro sequence editor.

It is 100% free and you won't get better than it without paying. If you have the money, I wouldn't recommend anything less than Maya 6 but that's expensive.

If you don't need animation or the advanced tools, you might want to consider wings ( www.wings3d.com ). It's very popular even amongst high end software users. I personally don't like it because it is only a modeller and it's not intuitive to me.

All 3D apps are hard to begin with, you need to overcome a certain learning curve first. It took me about a year to get over it. I now use Blender all the time. It also has advanced lighting effects like GI and radiosity - all for free!

And it has a built-in game engine. Not to mention python bindings so you can export to loads of different formats via a standard scripting interface. You can even output renderman files.