Need to use some sort of modeller, one with a variety of export formats.

Thought I'd start with blender... zoiks its hard going, I'm much more at
home with scriptable stuff like Povray but I want something that will
handle collisions and object interaction etc.

Is Blender a good choice, its a big investment of time so if it gets a good
thumbs up from folks I'll put in the effort otherwise if it a big no no
I'll look at some others.

Rob

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It's a good program, but very complex to use.  I've been trying to learn
it off and on for a couple of years now (more off than on as it happens)
and once you get the hang of it, it's not very difficult to use.

I use a combination of Blender, Wings3D, and Moray myself.  And the
occasional bit of raw SDL.

Jim

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"i_need_a_unique_name" <ine### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.45c10512ec74c28ec3e0e7940@news.povray.org...
> Need to use some sort of modeller, one with a variety of export formats.
>
> Thought I'd start with blender... zoiks its hard going, I'm much more at
> home with scriptable stuff like Povray but I want something that will
> handle collisions and object interaction etc.
>
> Is Blender a good choice, its a big investment of time so if it gets a 
> good
> thumbs up from folks I'll put in the effort otherwise if it a big no no
> I'll look at some others.
>

Blender certainly is an excellent program, except for the very steep 
learning curve at the beginning. Like Jim, I have been looking at it on and 
off (more off than on) over the last 5 years at least, which tells something 
I believe about the program (if not about the user). Personally, I 
appreciate a modeller if it yields visible results within the first fifteen 
minutes of first use. That's my benchmark.

So, what do I use? Moray, Wings3D, Silo 1.4 (beta 2.0) which I prefer to 
Wings3D, recently I have started experimenting with Bishop3D which is in 
beta stage and looks very promising.

Out of curiosity, I keep links on:
3DCanvas:  http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm
Curvy3D: http://www.curvy3d.com/index.html
dMesh: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/4500/
jPatch: http://www.jpatch.com/
K3DSurf: 
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=25049&vote=good&tan=54850719
OpenFX: http://openfx.org/
Gelato: http://www.nvidia.com/page/gz_home.html

But I have no experience with those modellers.

Hope this helps,

Thomas

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"i_need_a_unique_name" <ine### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Need to use some sort of modeller, one with a variety of export formats.
>
> Thought I'd start with blender... zoiks its hard going, I'm much more at
> home with scriptable stuff like Povray but I want something that will
> handle collisions and object interaction etc.
>
> Is Blender a good choice, its a big investment of time so if it gets a good
> thumbs up from folks I'll put in the effort otherwise if it a big no no
> I'll look at some others.
>
> Rob

I use Blender. Yes, its tough at first, but then it gets to be a lot of fun.
It really has a ton of features too. Do some tutorials, that will help you
get used to it.
As for handling collisions and object interaction, not exactly sure what you
mean. I just use it for modelling. You could always ask at the Blender
forums:  http://blenderartists.org/forum/

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Thanks foks, I think I'll keep hammering away at it.

re-collisions/interactions things like ensuring that many moving objects
don't pass through each other, or when a hand pushes an object that object
moves. Looking at the menus in Blender I suspect it can handle that sort of
thing.

Anyway I haven't heard a bad thing about Blender (other than the learning
curve) so its worth persevering with I guess...

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"i_need_a_unique_name" <ine### [at] gmailcom> schreef in bericht 
news:web.45c70514a34c4ac0ac77a5930@news.povray.org...
> Anyway I haven't heard a bad thing about Blender (other than the learning
> curve) so its worth persevering with I guess...
>

It's an excellent program indeed!

Perseverance is what I lack.... :-)

Thomas

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On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 14:23:47 +0100, "Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlDOTnet> wrote:

>It's an excellent program indeed!
>
>Perseverance is what I lack.... :-)

Me too.  I tried using it for a few days, but just couldn't get the workflow down.  I
fell back on
Wings3d again.  Wings3d lacks allot of the functionality of Blender, but because it
has a simple,
coherent workflow, I can use it to knock out a subdiv model really quickly.  I may
have to try
Blender again sometime...


Kyle

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"Kyle" <hob### [at] gatenet> schreef in bericht 
news:hgfis2h31antd8t15bb65gi465ge583kqe@4ax.com...
>>
>>Perseverance is what I lack.... :-)
>
> Me too.  I tried using it for a few days, but just couldn't get the 
> workflow down.  I fell back on
> Wings3d again.  Wings3d lacks allot of the functionality of Blender, but 
> because it has a simple,
> coherent workflow, I can use it to knock out a subdiv model really 
> quickly.  I may have to try
> Blender again sometime...
>

Yes indeed, and I have so many things I want to do (at the same time, of 
course) that Blender stays more or less permanently in the background.
At this moment, Poser is very much in the foreground of my activities...

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot wrote:
> Perseverance is what I lack.... :-)


I've got plenty of perseverance; I just lack time!

...Chambers

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On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 16:05:41 +0100, "Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlDOTnet> wrote:

>Yes indeed, and I have so many things I want to do (at the same time, of 
>course) that Blender stays more or less permanently in the background.

After reading the news of Blender releasing version 2.43, I have decided to give it
another go.  I'm working through some tutorials each evening, spending only about an
hour at it each time to try and
avoid frustration.  So far, so good.  

I'm really compelled by the power that I may soon yield.  Mua-ha-ha



Kyle

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