Spec me the best 3D modeller/renderer!

Professionals use a few, the big 3 however are:

Autodesk 3D Studio Max
Autodesk Maya
Avid SoftImage XSI

Those are the big 3, certainly the ones used in the gaming and movie industry. I myself use 3D Studio Max as I find it has the most useful interface, but they all have good and bad points.

I believe Maya will be merging with 3DSMax for 3DSMax10, so I would go with 3D Studio Max, mainly down to interface reasons, I find SoftImage horrendous, though I find SoftImage the best for animation, certainly with the addition of slider bars which make lip-syncing a lot easier, however I don't like the way you have to texture in SoftImage. Horses for courses I guess.

As for renderers, those programs have them built in, but there are seperate ones which are highly regarded, again, a big 3 if you will:

Brazil
Maxwell
vRay

Personally I use Mental Ray in 3D Studio Max, I find I can get pretty much what I need from that as I don't do photorealism or intricately detailed rendering, which is what the 3rd party renderers are known for. You will find out more information regarding the renderers on Wikipedia, but you won't need them to begin with (nor may you need them later).

If you need any help throw me an e-mail or contact me on MSN (would prefer e-mail though). E-mail is the same as my MSN address.
 
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Depends what you're doing.

If you're looking at working with game models then Maya is definitely the one to go for.
 
Zefan said:
Depends what you're doing.

If you're looking at working with game models then Maya is definitely the one to go for.
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Not necessarily, Bizarre Creations (of PGR4 and The Club) have just been informed they are moving from Maya to 3D Studio Max 10 in the future.

I'd definitely be looking into going with Max, I think it's a lot more user friendly. Between them there isn't much in it really. Maya is only really used by games companies professionally because it's more friendly towards in-house pre-programmed defaults etc.. such as lighting settings.
 
Another vote for 3D studio max here. And i agree with NokkonWud in that Softimage's interface is not very nice at all, but its probably due to me being a lot more used to Studio max. In the past ive used; Lightwave, 3D studio max, Maya, Softimage XSI and quite a few other little ones, and I by far love 3D studio max the most. It might be worth getting demos of the main packages and give them all a quick spin to see which interfaces feel most natural to you. In the end, they are all extremely capable packages(and extremely complex), it all boils down to which you feel most comfortable with. As for Renderers, I tend to use MentalRay, Brazil and my personal favourite; Final Render Stage1.
 
I use XSI but have dabelled in MAX and can't stand it. Its all about personal preferance and to a degree what you learn first. MAX is more widely used so if you're after a job its the way to go, I just don't get on with it!
 
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