Learning 3D modelling

[SilkSkull]

What is a good beginner software for 3D modelling? I love the late 90's to early 2000's style 3D art and I would love to try making it but everything within 3D modelling seems so complicated.

[sig]

I've heard good things about Blender and it's basically the most widely used (free) 3D modelling tool. Though in my experience it's pretty hard to get a grip on using it, but there's definitely more than enough guides online to help you with that.

[Guest]

I've heard good things about Blender and it's basically the most widely used (free) 3D modelling tool. Though in my experience it's pretty hard to get a grip on using it, but there's definitely more than enough guides online to help you with that.

Seconded. Blender is free, so it's the best place to start. I've seen some amazing things made with it... but not by me. I learned 3dsmax and Maya in college. I wasn't great at either, but I made a couple cool looking things. But when I tried Blender I couldn't get to grips with the interface. With the expensive commercial software, I think you're mostly paying for UI/UX. It's just a lot more user friendly.

[prwlnglthr]

I've actually gotten pretty comfortable with Blender nowadays! The UI is absolutely unintuitive at first and I had tried many times prior, following tutorials step by step, and never gotten it. It's just my personal way of learning, but what got me to really start picking it up is excitement over making something--not just a simple model like the classic donut but smth that I was invested in.

For me, it was sculpting a model of a fave char in my own style. I have ADHD so it's v hard for me to focus on a slow, methodical tutorial, but I found some v quick, snappy ones on YT that introduced me to the basic process of sculpting a head. As I went, I'd run into problems that I would then Google/read the documentation and work them out; it really helped me learn all sorts of simple but unstated "principles" (like local vs global axes, cleaning up vertices and how to avoid duplicating them in the first place). In one day, I had a sculpted head; six months later and I'm getting comfortable with poly modeling and working with shaders and nodes.

So honestly? Over any software, I think it's just a matter of figuring out how you learn and finding smth that you're motivated enough to make that you won't be discouraged by the hurdles and hiccups as you learn.

[Icey!]

Blender is the standard, no questions needed. There also exists a "Free" Proprietary and Windows only alternative called Paint 3D which is easy to use but I would recommend switching to Blender once you got the hang of it.

The answer above is a pretty good read.

[Melooon]

While I totally agree that Blender is the best modern way to do 3D modelling, I figured Id drop in an alternative idea!

If you're really into 90s style 3D modelling, you can totally use 90s 3D modelling software - it'll be clunky, but also much simpler, the core concepts are the same as in modern software - and the results will be very genuine!

1994 - 3D Studio for DOS - can run in DOSBox just fine!
https://winworldpc.com/product/3d-studi:ha:4

2002 - 3D Studio Max 5 - might run on modern windows?? (or use an XP VM) - its included in this compilation disk of software.
https://archive.org/details/dvdrom-twilight-076

Both can render still frames which can be converted to movies - and both can export 3D models that can be used in modern software like Unity for games ^^

Even if you end up learning Blender, it can be fun to mess around with old programs too