Topic awaiting preservation: simple 3d

I'm writing a game and I need some graphics for it. So far i've been drawing them pixel by pixel but that is time consuming. Is there a program where I can make simple objects (simple people like stickmen and zombies, maybe a metal pipe, a box, a barrel) and I will want some animations (like walking). Is there an easy way to do this, and to be able to output the animations from multiple rotations?

I have pov-ray but I don't think that's good for animations like a walking person. I also have blender but I don't know how to use it. I've tried tutorials, but I think I'm better at coding and drawing then modeling.

Any other ideas I could try?

evilclown01

3D Studio Max (My fave) or Lightwave...


Harmonizing new illusions...
ICQ: 67751342

Can I get these programs legally for free, or do the trials disable something important like saving?

What's different between 3dsmax and Lightwave?(I haven't tried either)

evilclown01

best way to go is gmax, completely free and fully supported. Plus great tutorials so you have no excuse on not know how to use it. Only hitch is, saving as a paticualr file can be hard, no render, and you will have to be able to make materials or skins, to give the objects texture. BTW, gmax is a stripped down version of 3dsmax 4

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Theres no renderer because GMAX is for making video game models.. (just what he is trying to do) the rendering is done by the games engine.

From your post, it sounds like you need the animation frames for characters, NPCs, etc. Gmax will give you the models, but you'll need to code your own real time renderer and import them, which is a big step away from animation frames.

What I'd suggest is to really put some time and effor into blender. It's got a decent modeler and renderer and should give you what you need to get those frames. Once you get comfortable with that, Das has a pretty good thread around here about rendering in passes and editing in photoshop. It's great stuff.

Blender's pretty powerful once you get into it. I have a thread around here with some renders I did in blender and they came out alright.

The thing is, whatever app you decide on, you'll have to put a lot of time into it to get anywhere no matter how friendly the gui is. I know, you'd rather code than model, and I can definitely understand that. But if you're the only person working on this game then you need to put the time in.

Trust me. I started my own game two years ago and it's still only 10% finished.

My advice: stick with blender. once you get past the horrendous interface, I think you'll be happy with the results.

It sounds like blender will be the best choice because I am not using models in the game.

Silence, what are or where you writing your game in? I'm using SDL and c++. The only problem is in windows I can compile it, but it's not linking.

evilclown01

what's SDL?
do you work with openGL?

http://www.libsdl.org/

I haven't tried openGL yet. I know you can use openGL from SDL.

Is openGL used for 2d, or just 3d?

evilclown01

Well, I haven't used SDL or OpenGL yet as I'm going straight DirectX for this one so I wouldn't know why it's not linking.

And, of course, I'm using C++ and Visual Studio. For compiling, I'd go with borland.

You know, if you can, you should get some assembler under your belt and code the video libraries yourself. However, DirectX is a good thing to get into as it's pretty much the standard right now, although it has its shortcomings.

Anyway, good luck.

About how long would it take to learn gmax good enough to do something like a stickman that can walk?(couple days or weeks?) because I think I might end up using models in my game.

evilclown01