Hey,

I'm thinking of getting into 3D modelling/animation, and now I'm trying to figure out which program would be best for me (a free program). Sorry if you get this question a lot, but I couldn't seem to find anything descriptive online or in the Sticky posts.

I've tried Blender, but I can't seem to stand it. The UI is a mess and everything seems extremely over-complicated and hard to use. Maybe it's just me...?

Is there a program out there that's free, flexible, and user-friendly? I'm not experienced with modelling or anything similar, so a program that has some documentation or a community behind it would be great. Also, any good tutorials would be nice.

Thanks!

well, id start of using Google sketch-up i guess, I myself prefer blender, yea its a bit complicated when you start but when you start to understand it It gets the job done. I do however have this link I found a while back.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d-modelling-applications-you-should-not-miss/

hope its okay to post an external link.

Which version of Blender did you try? I used to hate its interface with passion, but from 2.5 and on the program has a completely new interface which is (IMHO) just as good/better as the one of professional packages such as Maya or 3D Studio Max. I wouldn't go back to those. But maybe it's just that I'm just getting used to Blender since I've been using it seriously for almost 5 months now.

Which version of Blender did you try? I used to hate its interface with passion, but from 2.5 and on the program has a completely new interface which is (IMHO) just as good/better as the one of professional packages such as Maya or 3D Studio Max. I wouldn't go back to those. But maybe it's just that I'm just getting used to Blender since I've been using it seriously for almost 5 months now.

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, I think I've been using 2.49 or 2.48..what a coincidence, right?

I guess I'll uninstall it and install the latest version to see how that works out. Do you know of any nice tutorials that explain the essentials to modelling and such? Is the built-in manual good or should I look for something else?

Do you know of any nice tutorials that explain the essentials to modelling and such? Is the built-in manual good or should I look for something else?

I followed a lot of tutorials from sites like 3dtotal.com. While they might not have direct Blender-specific tutorials, they have a lot of modeling technique guides, which is what you're really looking for. The "learn Blender" part is just learning what tools Blender provides to do the same things other packages do.