CGI For Beginners

[longside1]

Hi Guys,

I'm interested in having a play with CGI but to be honest don't have a clue where to start!

Could someone please advise what the industry standard software is where I can find some good resources / tutorials for starting out?

Many thanks!

[Doug Nelson]

I moved your post to our Synthetic Imaging forum, which could also be a good resource for you.

[longside1]

Originally Posted by Doug Nelson

I moved your post to our Synthetic Imaging forum, which could also be a good resource for you.

Thanks Doug, I completely overlooked the Synthetic Imaging Forum!

[creativeretouch]

I would try Blender - it is an open source software and as you are able to find a lot of tutorials it is good for learning ...

[longside1]

Originally Posted by creativeretouch

I would try Blender - it is an open source software and as you are able to find a lot of tutorials it is good for learning ...

Many thanks, I'll have a look.

[shift studio]

I like an OSX app called Cheetah3D. It's pretty full-featured for it's price. It's not industry-standard, but supports the industry standard formats. It's very inexpensive (relatively) and is actively supported and developed.

Hope this helps.

-- shift studio.

[Repairman]

I recently took a look 3 day StudioMax overview course which is a very powerful 3d tool. It's expensive and you have to pay an annual license fee which covers you for updates and bug fixes. It's lousy user interface betrays it's PC origins. It'll work on a Mac with Bootcamp but I'd rather allocate a PC to the task. I had a quick look at Cinema4d which is popular for studios using Macs. Not quite as powerful as StudioMax but has more than enough oomph for most jobs (I'm talking from a retouchers POV). You could look at Modo which costs a third of the other two and has enough tools for most tasks. Look on YouTube and the vendors websites and you will see loads of samples and tutorials. Once they get their acts together the 3d bods will have a tool that will do away with a lot of original product photography - it's just a p in the a to learn but not as tough as you may think!
R

[longside1]

Originally Posted by Repairman

I recently took a look 3 day StudioMax overview course which is a very powerful 3d tool. It's expensive and you have to pay an annual license fee which covers you for updates and bug fixes. It's lousy user interface betrays it's PC origins. It'll work on a Mac with Bootcamp but I'd rather allocate a PC to the task. I had a quick look at Cinema4d which is popular for studios using Macs. Not quite as powerful as StudioMax but has more than enough oomph for most jobs (I'm talking from a retouchers POV). You could look at Modo which costs a third of the other two and has enough tools for most tasks. Look on YouTube and the vendors websites and you will see loads of samples and tutorials. Once they get their acts together the 3d bods will have a tool that will do away with a lot of original product photography - it's just a p in the a to learn but not as tough as you may think!
R

Thanks repairman, will deff have a look at Studio Max. Cheers

[pellepiano]

What is your budget? 3d software range from $100 to no limits ...

[longside1]

I'm pleased to say that money is no objective as the firm I work for will be buying the software (within rerason!)

[creativeretouch]

In this case I would go for Maya or Modo ... And I would choose good external renderer - I suppose you will be looking for photo image quality like LuxRender, Indigo, Octane or Maxwell which has good exporting plugin for Photoshop ...

But you need a strong computer as well with enough RAM & GPU for some of them.

[ShogunSho]

Another software that is also worth considering is Newtek's LightWave. The industry standard and popularity is quite high. If I remembered correctly the movie Spiderman with Tobey Mcgwire used this software for most of the CGs.


As someone mentioned above, Cinema 4D is worthwhile in retoucher's POV.

I'm practicing on that as well. From what I've heard and read, this software has magnificent capability and importantly the learning curve is quite easy to get through compare to complex 3D software like Maya, StudioMax, etc.

You might want to google and find " Benedict Campbell " he used mainly Cinema 4D.

[pellepiano]

Originally Posted by longside1

I'm pleased to say that money is no objective as the firm I work for will be buying the software (within rerason!)

Sounds great =)
3d Studio Max has the most free models out there from what I have seen. I use the cheap but nice Cheetah 3d, and use .3ds models a lot.

[mbphotos]

We use 3DS Max with VRay (and various plugins). It is superb for many things, but quite expensive (as pointed out). We use it primarily because of industry standards (my business does a lot of 3D renderings for architects/engineers).

Starting from scratch, I'd probably go with Cinema4D. It can do anything Max can do and costs a fraction. Also, many motion graphics folk use it for their 3D, making the resources that would be helpful to photography available (check out www.mograph.net).

Good luck. It takes a TON of time to be good, years and years, really. Also check out the Gnomon Workshop for great DVDs.

[Vernon]

Cinema 4D has a great native since about version 10 export capability whereby the export is generated in layers, including the alpha layer, all out to Photoshop PSD.