How about Blender? http://www.blender.org/
I've played with it occasionally over a period of several years. I don't have any experience with commercial alternatives, so can't comment on how it compares. But it satisfies your stated requirements, it's free, has got very active user and development communities and has been used to make more than one short film. My main complaint is the ugly and unusual GUI. However, regular users maintain it enhances usability and productivity compared to alternatives. Regards, Rikus -------------------------------------------------- From: "Owen Densmore" <o...@backspaces.net> Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 12:34 AM To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <friam@redfish.com>; "General topics & issues" <disc...@lists.sfcomplex.org> Subject: [FRIAM] 3D Modeling Software I'm looking at 3D modeling software, and would like help deciding on which system to use. A few requirements: - Not too expensive .. $150 fine, but certainly not the pro tools at $1000+ - Has a book or two at least that make it easy to learn - Can import/export standard files so can be used with other programs. - Reasonable feature set: easy to create meshes, texture maps, rendering (Animation/Game Engine not required .. export/import can help there) - Run on both Mac/Windows As usual, wikipedia has some pointers to jog your memory if need be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics_software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_3D_computer_graphics_software Are any of you experienced with a 3D modeling system that you could give a brief review of? -- Owen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
