At 7/7/08 10:51 AM, Boke wrote:
I've been wanting to get into some 3D stuff to bring into my Flash applications but there are so many I'm having a tough time deciding which one would be best for me to study. Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Papervision , Swift 3D, can anyone give me some help?
It really depends on what you have access to and what you want to use it for.
Papervision and Away 3d are 3d rendering of models inside flash. This means it actually loads the models and textures in flash and then you can manipulate and view it as you please. The later revisions of Papervision (and I'm assuming Away 3d) allow for importing animations too.
However, doing this requires a lot of coding skill (actionscript) to get it to run and load etc.
Papervision (and I'm also assuming away 3d) can import models from 3d's Max and Maya.
All the other programs, to integrate them into flash you'll have to render out the scene and then import each image or the final movie. Some programs allow you to import them as a vector file making them lower filesizes (Swift 3D was designed for this, and there is a way to export it for Maya but I can't vouch for the other programs).
Cinema 4D, Maya and 3D's Max are all on the same level. If you don't have a University with the programs on, getting the proper version of them can be expensive but the quality of final production (and a lot of work and learning) is special effects quality.
Swift 3D is designed to be integrated in flash. What it does is export all the images as a flash vector (making it a low filesize) and then you can import them onto the timeline. Swift 3D is a decent program and comes at a lower cost.
Blender is a free program, and does have decent quality (not as in depth as the professional packages like Max, Maya or 4D) but for free, it's superb.
Those are all your choices, good luck.