3D Modelling Software Comparison

Ok so I figured I'd do a post about something other than my Uni life.

So I will compair (in my opinion) a few 3D modelling applications that I have used, listing pros and cons.

Maya:

Made by Autodesk (who will soon own everything) this is the industry standard for movies.

Pros:

-Powerful

-Lots of capabilities

Cons:

-Learning curve is a cliff

-User Interface indecipherable

Cinema4D:

Made by Maxon, this program doesn't get the credit it deserves, it is both versatile and with every update gets more and more features.

Pros:

-Easy to understand Interface

-Pretty decent capabilities

Cons:

-Lacks higher end functions

-Due to obscurity, lacks file support in other applications.

3D Studio Max:

Also owned by Autodesk, this is the industry standard for games.

Pros:

-Good workflow

-User Friendly

Cons:

-Still very confusing User Interface

-Not available on Mac

Blender3D

Open Source from the Blender Foundation, free for all.

Pros:

-Free

-Lots of high end capabilities

Cons:

-User interface unlike any other 3d program in existence

-Another learning cliff

SketchUp

A Google Owned 3D program, also free for the basic version.

Pros:

-Easy as hell to use

-Comes with good starting tutorials

Cons:

-Completely Lacks high end features

-Irritating at times with limitation in creating shapes.

Well I hope someone found this interesting, maybe later I'll do some reviews of other types of 3D applications.

Peace out.

Why the diiiick

So I am total fail at thinking of an idea for my next animation assignment.

I want to do something in 1st person so I can be a bit different, but it needs something more animated in it and to be more than a floating camera.

I'm thinking of doing people getting ready to go scuba diving IE doing a buddy check, which has a lot of potential for lots of external animation, along with being something im familiar with, having scuba dived myself.

Then there is multimedia, i ned to make a website and upload a podcast and a video (other assignments, one of which i have done) and i have to write an essay on something about art and technology then finally a soundscape which will be the sound to my animation, so i dont have toooooooo much to do but i have a fair amount for 3 weeks.....shit

so the moral of this story is if you want to do animation at Uni, have lots of time to do work in, or

DO IT EARLIER YOU LAZY FUCK

FIIINALY

Massive Essay done....not massive actually...1500 words.....big for me though. give me a break im an art student gee

anywho also I submitted my 3 "photorealistic" renders in Maya for another assessment (tis the season)

why not have a looksy? Well you already did considering they're up there, but meh

so what does the internet think?

umm also if they seem thin and cut off, thats only because they are, open them in another tab to view them in full on glory.

More MPI in the new semester...

So now I have to make a 1 minute podcast about some new and up coming technology, so I'm gonna do the sixth Sense technology that was unveiled at TED in 2009, quite an awesome piece of technology. Here is the draft script for my podcast:

These days everyone wants the latest technological marvel. The newest smart phone or the best laptop, your portable electronic devices define you as much as does your clothes or choice of deodorant.

But, when you think about it, going beyond the fashion statement so obviously made by these pieces of plastic, what are we really paying lots….and lots, of money for? What do we get out of it? Connectivity, and information, and the ever more seamless access to the two. Devices are gearing towards more and more intuitive connection between user and device, trying to blur the line between them. A perfect device would be one we don’t even know we are using. Such a thing almost exists. At TED India in 2009, one of the Technology, Entertainment, Design conferences, Pranav Mistry revealed his brainchild known as Sixth Sense Technology. Imagine you’re on holiday in some distant country; you want to take a picture of something? Just make the classic framing gesture with your thumbs and forefingers and it’s done. Want to know what that sign says? The English translation appears beneath it and you’re on your way. You’re in a coffee shop with your travelling companions and want to decide what to do next, so a map of the local area with points of interest appears on the table, you flick through the weather reports, touch a landmark and more information appears before you.

All this and more is possible with Sixth Sense. All you have is a small projector and camera hanging from your neck or on your hat. The camera recognises your gestures and your surroundings, and the projector gives you the information you desire, from your “desktop”, now available anywhere, to anything you can imagine.

sadly i read this out at a fast pace and it went for 1:30 so I have to trim it.

The Big Bad Final Blog Entry...or is it?!

Over the course of my MPI104 subject, i have learnt many things; some new, some old, but all useful in one way or another.

To begin with, the basics:

Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Blogger. Three sites of similar purpose yet different content. Blogger is for uploading and sharing words, prose, and thoughts. Flicker is for exchanging and global viewing of each others images, videos and sights. Finally Delicious is for charing and showing where we have been and where we go on the internet, a world of its own, when seen in a certain light. You might say that Blogger, Flickr and Delicious are a portal for showing what we think, what we see, and what we are respectively.

Then Google, and its manny, many facets, from Gmail to iGoogle, Google docs and maps, books, music, videos, calendars, games, you name it. Another interesting medium which we didn't go into in class is GoogleWave, an interesting realtime message board style system free for all to use at the same time. It is new and will probably be changed in the future, but is none the less interesting in its execution, check it out.

Athene, and with it HTML, CSS, FTP to name a few of the (sometimes confusing IMHO) acronyms. This was not entirely new to me, but it was good to be refreshed with some HTML coding which I had long ago forgotten. CSS is clearly superior to HTML if you know how to use it, and finally learning about simple FTP processes was a blessing, as I have greatly enjoyed making my own website.

And this brings me to iWeb, which I greatly appreciate as one of the most easy to use, straight forward, simple HTML website building program, other than simply using Word.

With small touches on Tecnorati and other online systems, this subject has taught me much and I will no doubt put much of it to use in the future.

MOAR INTERTUBES!!

FTP

WSFPT

Basically it lets you upload files onto a remote internet server; transferring files from one spot to another, using magic.

This allows you to avoid the issues of different Operating systems or file names as both ends of the connection are under different controls and codes......again with magic.

It has a downside of the fact that if anyone is monitoring the transfer, they can read the information being sent, as it is unencrypted.

Sadly I am very tired today so I wont have a large tirade about it all, but I will say I am very excited about using it.

My pic is Encyclopedia Dramaticas' take on the internet....well part of it.

"Symbols are given their power by people. Why, with enough people, blowing up a building could change the world."

CSSSSSSSsssssss............

Yesssssss

CSS is an extremely useful form of web page formatting.

It is basically a way of telling a large amount of web pages how to look, so that when you enter information for a new page on your extensive website, you don't have to re-code the whole thing over again to make it look the same, you merely have to "call" back to your CSS sheet.

This has great advantage over the normal HTML formatting, as you can see.

For instance, this site, blogger, uses CSS so that when you make several blog posts, all their pages look the same, and when you want to edit what they look like, you only have to edit one pice of code to effect the whole lot. you can change fonts, colours and set up to suit your needs.

The short comings of this system is that you cant have one blog post looking different to another, for visual reasons or otherwise.

Accessibility is very important, as it allows the blind or sight impaired to have words read to them, or have fonts larger so that they may read them with greater ease.

Things i have done to my blog with CSS editing:

changed colours and font, also editing margins and the like, giving my page greater (though minimal) space.

Todays picture is what Encyclopedia Dramatica has to say about CSS

"Never compromise, even in the face of armageddon."