If you wanted to go even farther back in the dark ages, I still have 3D studio r4 from '97 ;-)

As far as the main question, just one tutorial or book isn't going to make you an expert, or even proficient. The best way to learn 3D studio is to practice, read, practice, read, and practice 10 times more.

As far as whether 3d studio max is the best software out there, the answer should be a question asking for what purpose.

Remember that almost all movies with affects were done using custom software and/or custom plugins. To compare what is availible to students and to movie studios isn't fair, even if the software is similar.

Max is the best, there is no explaining what it can do. It is very powerful, if you know how to use it.

Re: TRASH
 

So what? You have to use it for your animation. That prohibits staying away from it. :rolleyes:

That said, it looks good to me, not that I have used anything else.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~
Opinion stated above

It seems like 3dsmax is the most popular for modeling for 3d games and Maya is the most popular for movies. I'm almost positive Pixar uses Maya is some way, heavily modified though. I'm also pretty sure the final fantasy movie was made in maya. And Blizzard uses 3dsmax. I also saw a screenshot of the GTA3 map open in 3dsmax on rockstar's website so I assume they use 3dsmax for everything as well.

Either way, both Maya and 3dsmax are great and very popular. I guess lightwave is fairly popular as well, but anything else you learn chances are when you look for a job the companies won't be using what you learned.

Max5 is real purdy... Hopefully we will get copies of that and this will end this silly debate. We must use max, and max5 is definately better than 4 (in my humble opinion)

Dude....this entire debate on which 3d program is the best is totally moronic. Its entirely based on personal preference and what programs you have used in the past/what you are used to and how well the interface works for you. Try them all out, theyre all decent, but the major players in this are 3dSMAX, Lightwave, and Maya. They all have their Strengths and Weaknesses and none can be claimed to be above the rest. Theyre all tools that one can use to reach one goal, its just the one that fits best in your hand. They are all extremely powerful and they have most of the capabilities of each other.

Web LInk
 

Thought I'd post a link to our local colleges 16 week intensive course for animation. http://www.mmdclab.com/ They use Maya for their course. If you are interested in 3D animation I understand that this is a first rate course with a high rate of placement in the industry. Have fun

Ken

Ok. I think I have enough references now. I found a few other websites by searching and I found the following: www.3dlinks.com, www.3dcafe.com, www.raph.com/3dartists, and www.zoomorphix.com. Thanks for all of your help guys.

I personaly prefer Lightwave. The control panels are simply arranged MUCH better than MAX's and I like Lightwave's animater/renderer a bit more.

i cant wait to learn max
 

:D i cant wait to learn max ... it looks like such a flexible rpogram..

Well, I've finally completed some things. To see some of my work, although I'm still gradually getting better, go to www.turbosquid.com and search for Hailfire in the main screen. There, you'll find some of the things that I've made. You can download them at your will since I made them free for download. Others, however, place a price on their work. Search around and you'll be able to find lots of great examples.

I like your choice of subjects to model :D . You seem to have learned enough to exhaust the possibilites of simple-poly modeling... I'd strongly reccomend you do the MAX 5 tutorials starting on Pg. 47(you can skip this) and Pg. 221... Meshsmooth NURMS models are fun :)

Yeah, I would but, one of the other team members has the 3dsmax5 tutorials. So unfortunately, I can't look at the tutorials just yet.