What good is on this software?

[Blade113]

Hello!

 

I'm new at 3D modeling and I'm trying some different softwares for it. 3D Coat looks good for me, but I wanna ask you why should I prefer this software before for example free Blender?

 

Thanks, Blade.

[AbnRanger]

It has top shelf tools in every single category (Texture Painting, UV Layout/Editing...including Ptex, Retopology/Auto-Retopology, and Sculpting). You could combine 3D Coat & Blender together as a full pipeline. Create all your assets in 3D Coat and then animate/rig/render in Blender. Doesn't need to be one or the other.

[pagankmck]

I use both 3d coat and Blender.  I think 3d coat is more flexible.  I think  retopolgy is easier to learn on 3d coat.  Blender has a steeper learning curve.  However, both programs have short tutorials that can help the learning process along.   I bought thhe educational version first and then upgraded to the professional version. 

[Carlosan]

I use Blender and 3DC for modeling

 

texture painting 3dc, no doubt here

sculpt 3dc, no doubt here

retopology, uv... can use both by prefer 3dc, i found it far superior

to bake materials 3dc

render previz 3dc, final render marmoset

 

A car is better to do it in blender

A table... all the overall shape blender, ornaments 3DC

a character 3dc, cloth or accessories blender

a weapon can use blender or 3dc

buildings or architectural design blender

 

can i ask at which area are you focusing as modeler ?

 

regards

[wave of light]

Where to start or add to what has already been said...

 

I use 3DCoat in the following pipelines:

 

1. Organic modeling - e.g. Ben Grimm (The Thing) from Fantastic Four

 

Using Voxel sculpting for main form and then surface mode for fine detail, you can create your base model, like sculpting with clay. You then retopologise the sculpt to create a mesh of quads and tris and setup your UV maps. Bake the detail from your sculpt onto the mesh and paint colours, spec, depth, etc. export to Lightwave (or Blender) and pose, animate, render.

Results:
 

 

2. Hard surface texture painting - e.g. Lancaster Bomber scene

 

Taking the model from Lightwave, import into 3DCoat to create your UV texture maps. Paint directly onto the mesh and/or export and sync with Photoshop (so you can use Photoshop tools and brushes alongside 3DCoats). Export directly to Lightwave's lwo format, setup scene and render:

 

Results:

 

 

 

And I only use a fraction of the tools, processes within 3DCoat and it's well worth the investment.

 

 

[BeatKitano]

Blender is free, and they're complementary apps. Not really a choice here, use both and pay for one (3dc), or if you want to thanks the blender guys, donate

 

In any case both are good to learn.

[Denis]

I use both blender and 3D Coat. The real advantage of 3D Coat is the learning curve. Although I am not an expert in either, It took about 2.5 years to become comfortable with blender and about 3 months for3DC. The render of the dwarf was done completely in Blender and the Damsel completely with 3DC. The cowboy was done usin both. I think 3DC. is the perfect compliment to Blender.

[Blade113]

I use Blender and 3DC for modeling

 

texture painting 3dc, no doubt here

sculpt 3dc, no doubt here

retopology, uv... can use both by prefer 3dc, i found it far superior

to bake materials 3dc

render previz 3dc, final render marmoset

 

A car is better to do it in blender

A table... all the overall shape blender, ornaments 3DC

a character 3dc, cloth or accessories blender

a weapon can use blender or 3dc

buildings or architectural design blender

 

can i ask at which area are you focusing as modeler ?

 

regards

I want make characters, weapons and maybe sometime buildings or architectural design.

[Carlosan]

for games ?

 

blender + 3dcoat is ok choice

 

->> they're complementary apps

 

blender have sculpt, uvmap, texture paint, bake... for my point of view... 3dcoat is superior

 

blender have hard surface modeling... at this area i find BL is more easy and fast to do some models...

 

if you like to make a profession... think about max or maya (there is a maya LE), are standard in the industry.

 

To learn 3d modeling is time consuming, have a step curve... so think any new knowledge acquired as an inversion... time inversion

 

what you know is what you do, what you do is what you make, and what you make is what you bill for having done

[BeatKitano]

I'm reacting on carlosan comment:

 

While knowing the terminology and the program hierarchy is important, acquiring the basics of 3d modeling is much more significant (the rest is very quick to learn in a new environment).

So starting with max, or maya or blender, it doesn't really matter, what matters is knowing the concept of subdivisions, placement of singular points and poly flow (if you're modeling, it's the same with the concept of uv layout or any other part of a 3d artist and 3d related jobs).

 

That's why most of the time when I see a thread about "What to learn: X or X ?" I either skip it, or simply answer: try then get your own.The rest is nitpicking around concepts and subjective povs.

 

If you plan to work on games, don't think the software you chose WILL be the software you'll use in your job, you're likely to encounter a handful of different apps in different jobs, sometimes even on different workstation in the same company. The time you'll spend to get accustomed to the software is short, as the basics are always the same.

[Carlosan]

I agree with Beat

 

the points are correct, the overall concept are the same in every app

 

just take care about Blender UI, and navigation

 

Blender UI is not the standard, from select with RMB to the infinity and beyond... all navigation UI design in Blender is only found using... Blender

 

nice reading

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Brecht/UI

 

look at the Follow the data entry... its very detailed there

[Blade113]

Thanks for answers. It helped me a lot.