which 3d software

[gobley]

I think that the fact that you've seen some exquisite interior renders from C4D speaks really highly of the artists and the renderer. But if you take a look at cgcars.com you can see that there are many great artists who use 3DSMax for car work. I work on a Mac and I wish that 3DS had a Mac version because the best stuff I've seen is on Max.

I think a couple reasons why Max does so well for cars are:

-NURBS modelling allows artist to make a smooth, low-res cage and then convert to poly for quick, accurate workflow.
-Options for a number of photo-real render engines (mental ray, V-ray, renderman).

Again, I don't use MAx, I don't love it's UI. So if anyone wants to contradict or back up what I wrote, feel free.

[BluesmanI]

Don't get me wrong, but I'm a little confused about what you wrote.


I think a couple reasons why Max does so well for cars are:


Shouldn't it be "Maya does so well..."?

Because of this ->

-NURBS modelling allows artist to make a smooth, low-res cage and then convert to poly for quick, accurate workflow.
-Options for a number of photo-real render engines (mental ray, V-ray, renderman).


NURBS are really a pain in the butt in 3dsMax.
Btw, isn't the workflow to have a low-res poly which is then converted to a higher-res version (e.g. sub-d)

cheers
Blues

[Santucci]

Nurbs can be good for cars, but I've always preferred polymodeling. I dunno, but NURBs make my blood pressure jump no matter what program I'm using, so maybe I shouldn't advise. lol

I personally love Max's poly modeling, but if you want nurbs go to Maya. Of all the programs I've used, I think Max has the nicest polymodeling.

As for interiors and such, *shrugs* to me modeling one inorganic is the same as another inorganic. I think Max is just better for polymodeling. I haven't used Max since 4.0 and I still fondly remember it compared to the Maya 8.5 I'm using now. lol It's been a long time since I rendered in Max, but I'm sure it's just as good as Maya by now.

[BluesmanI]

Well, it's not that bad. I guess it's always a good thing to start with NURBS - better said the defining splines. If - what normally is done - you work with blueprints, you can easily draw the defining edges as splines and connect those to get a geometry patch. This rough shape can then be used to convert to e.g. polygon geometry where the final details are set.

[gobley]

All I know is I've seen a lot of way nice car models/renders that were built in Max. Like I said, I don't use the program myself, so I don't know the workflow for sure. But check out cgcars.com and guarantee you will find some good starting points.

[CGzero]

Modeling

I don't really get why to choose 3ds Max unless you have 3500 laying around. Don't get me wrong max is great for many reasons, but I would recoment these depending on what you want to do.

Blender 3d <- its free and you can do most of the stuff the big programs can. Good start to get your feet wet.
Luxology Modo <- about 900$ well rounded package and easily one of the best for modeling.
XSI <- v7 is about to come out and omg it looks awesome. Great modeler / animation / rendering, the down side is its a little tougher to find resources for it.
Maya <- the base package is cheaper then max (2grand) and is one of the most used 3d programs in the world but to get to its true power you would benifit from learning MEL scripting.
Zbrush 3 <- Best for quick organic 3d modeling. I think this program works best combined with any of the above programs.

good luck.

[gobley]

I don't really get why to choose 3ds Max unless you have 3500 laying around. Don't get me wrong max is great for many reasons, but I would recoment these depending on what you want to do.

Blender 3d <- its free and you can do most of the stuff the big programs can. Good start to get your feet wet.
Luxology Modo <- about 900$ well rounded package and easily one of the best for modeling.
Zbrush 3 <- Best for quick organic 3d modeling. I think this program works best combined with any of the above programs.


The reason I recommended Max is because the OP said he wanted to learn to model cars. Yeah it's expensive, but it is a super app for body work.

I've used Blender for a long time, and don't get me wrong it's a great free app, but it is not really suited to modeling professional, good-looking cars. It doesn't have the toolset necessary.

Modo is my current app of choice. I spend a couple hours a day in modo. Smooth car bodies are definitely possible in modo, but it takes lots of work to get it right. The ideal workflow for modeling a car body is to build a low-rez cage from curves, then create poly patches and weld everything into one solid body, then make your cuts and detail. While modo is capable of this, the curves tools in modo can be very difficult to work with on this kind level, and they are prone to crashing the app. (trust me, I've lost hours of work due to this problem.)

Zbrush 3, while an amazing app, is, as stated above, an organic modeler. I've never seen 3d as real as something that's been worked by a master Zbrush artist. But it's almost always character modeling. I don't think zbrush (I haven't used 3, only v.2) has the kind of tools and workflow to easily create flowing bodylines and smooth curves that god car modeling requires.

Seriously, check out cgcars.com if you don't believe me. Many, if not most of the good ones there were made in 3dsmax, and I don't think that it's a coincidence...

edit: Check out this tutorial for a better description of the method i was trying to explain - http://www.wide3d.no/tutorials/Car_nurms_01.htm

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