I need a very easy 3D modeller for my games. I need to make animated models, but I don't want something cluttered and confusing like Maya or 3D Studio Max. I'm mainly a programmer and don't have anything advanced in mind. I don't need 4 dimensional textures or anything crazy like that. Something that I can learn and make animated models in a few minutes. Any ideas??

There's Blender, which is very good, but maybe you should check out Anim8tor. http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html

I've used Blender, but never Anim8tor. Maybe someone else can get more in depth about it.

Normaly I would say there isn't such thing, but you might want to check ZBrush ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZBrush ). Only problem is that, as far as I know, ZBrush is for building complex, full of poligons images, and can't animate them (you would have to export them).

In resume: There isn't such a tool for doing what you want. ZBrush is easy, but can't (can it? I never used it, only saw on TV) do what you want. The others can, but aren't easy.

Only as far as I know tought.

EDIT: I've never seen animat8r before, but it looks promissing.

ZBrush CANNOT take the place of a normal 3D modelling program. Technically and functionally it cannot function in that capacity.
Free modellers/animators are pretty much limited to Blender or Wings3D combined with Anim8or.

Softimage|XSI Mod Tool.

Now, why is that in bold? People simply don't know it exists. Everybody knows about Blender, MS3D, Wings3D, Anim8or, gmax, Maya PLE, whatever. That stuff's been out there for a long time, people have heard about it, etc.

What people don't realize is that there's a largely uncrippled, professional grade modeling tool out there to use for free. The full version of this sucker was used for Half Life 2, and the baseline edition of that only runs $500 if you start to get serious. Even if not, Mod Tool is free, and it can export to a format called dotXSI. This is a relatively simple ASCII format that is easy to parse and load. But it gets better, because you don't have to parse it yourself. Softimage provides, for free, a library called the FTK that will load the dotXSI file for you. You can do preprocessing work with it, converting to your own format, or use it directly in your code. It makes mesh loading seriously easy.

I spent years getting pissed off at the free tools. Useless export modes or no export modes, limitations or lack of flexibility, or just plain SHITTY interfaces. I put the time in to learn most of them, too. I can do modeling in Max, Blender, MS3D, Wings3D -- I may be a coder but I've spent a damned lot of time with these tools. Softimage is amazing. The UI is straightforward (after you have 15-20 mins to get the basic feel for how it's laid out), but everything is hotkeyed, so as a more advanced user you can switch to a Blender-like workflow powered by the keyboard. I only discovered XSI recently myself, but damnit I plan to evangelize. It's an answer to hobbyists' prayers.

Wow!! That sounds kick ass. I'm gonna give it a try. Too bad it's gonna take me 6 hours to download it though. But thanks for telling me all this stuff, otherwise I would've just quit the download. You sound like an advertiser telling me all this, but it does really seem like a good modeller.

XSI looks great. Thanks for the link, Promit. :) I will definately have to check it out.

Are you sure the free version of SoftImage can export to dotXSI? I was under the impression it only saves to a unique file format, just like gmax, and exports to certain games that are made compatible with it. And the limitations page seems to indicate it as well.

Also the 7,500 triangle limit on exported models and the watermark on every window could be awkward...

Quote: Original post by PlayerX
Are you sure the free version of SoftImage can export to dotXSI? I was under the impression it only saves to a unique file format, just like gmax, and exports to certain games that are made compatible with it. And the limitations page seems to indicate it as well.

Also the 7,500 triangle limit on exported models and the watermark on every window could be awkward...

I've been using dotXSI for a couple days. It limits your dotXSI files to 7.5K polys (but not the whole scene, so you can export in a couple pieces for larger scenes), but really if you're pushing those limits, it's probably time to step out of the free zone. The watermark is fairly unobtrusive, I've found. It's for modeling, after all -- it's a lot less useful to render stills with.

OMG!!! This is even more confusing than MAX and Maya combined!!! And it took me 11 hours to download!

I asked for something SIMPLE.

I watched a video tutorial on how to texture and I STILL don't understand!!!

Why do I have to use a schematic when I just want to put a picture on a box???


ARGH. I guess I'm gonna have to use this piece of excrement since I already downloaded it.