3d moddeler

[Vietcong]

whear whold i get a program to make 3d models for units, i whold like a second uu for all civs

 

[dalek master]

I heard they cost thousands of dollars

 

[croxis]

I believe 3d max would work. There is a free version of it for game modding. You could also use Blender, steep learning curve but also free

 

[WildWeazel]

Studio Max is "the" program to use, and it is very expensive. But apparently converters are being made for free programs, like croxis said.

 

[bhiita]

Well, the only difference in gmax and regular max is that it has no native renderer and is limited with particals among other things.... it's sole intended purpose is to make, animate and then export stuff to games... I'm betting that this will be the main 'free' program that you'd want to learn. but untill the SDK or some other utility is released from firaxis we really will not know for sure which progrma will be best. The only programs thus far are maya and the full version of 3dmax. 3dmax being the only program mentioned in the cfc chat log. That said... to even come close to the quality of the civ4 units, getting the custom units to blend into the game well.... you'll have to hone your animation skills to some degree... unlike civ3 where you have only the 8 directions to worry about, these are ment to more lifelike and realisticly randomly animated. We have our work cut out for us this time but the possibilities are stagering, boggles my mind how well this game was done

 

[Matt_G]

I found this site about 10 months ago, it's a great place for learning 3D modeling and C++. Jason Busby is a great teacher from everything I have heard.
I just thought I would throw this out there for you guys.
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

EDIT: I also meant to mention that you should check out the Video Training section. There are several worthwhile free VTM's on many subjects. For instance the one's on Photoshop were especially helpful to a newb like me.

Since I know someone will ask this, I'll just say right now that I am not affiliated with this site in any shape, way or form.

 

[WildWeazel]

I wonder if it's possible to model units in CATIA...

<-- is an aerospace engineering major who will have access to very fancy programs

 

[The Great Apple]

I'm not quite sure how GMax works, but IIRC, it would only work if Firaxis bought a licence off the guys who make it. As GMax is no longer supported by them, I doubt they are still selling licences.

This is just my interpretation of what I read on a different site, and may well be nonsence.

BTW - I also have access to fancy engineering programs... hmmm

 

[PointlesS]

there's maya ple (personal lerning edition) which is still being updated and works fairly well...the only problem is that there's a watermark on it that impossible to removed...but thankfully there is no watermark on exported models...they used 3ds max for the game creation..but I'm sure someone could write a maya exporter

also there's milkshape...a completely free program that can export to a wide variety of file formats...

 

[Matt_G]

Yeah, I have heard that Milkshape is pretty decent. Blender is freakin awesome. I have seen some amazing things done with Blender, but the learning curve is extremely steep.
Check out the Airman by Landis, which was/is being done in Blender.

 

[Megatherion]

Not to forget OpenFX (which can be obtained at www.openfx.org).
Some nice units for CivIII where made with this utility.