3D - 2

3d modelling/animation programs?

well.. I'm making a movie.. but it requires a little bit of cgi. For the most part, i've never worked with 3d programs.. most of my movies have just used compositing and stock footage and stuff. frankly.. 3d animation scares the shit out of me.. but I really need to do one little thing really bad.. so.... what's the easiest 3d modelling/animation program around.. and where can i find some basic tutorials. (also, i'm really good at endorphin.. but i'm not sure if that makes a difference)

Public Comments

1. In my opinion, the best products to use for creating 3d models are Maya and 3d Studio Max. Both of these products can be found on the Autodesk company site (http://www.autodesk.com/maya/ and http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax/ ). However, both of these products are very expensive ( > $3000 USD) and can be quite hard to use. I would recommend starting with one of the following high-quality free programs that are available. Try Google's SketchUp program (http://sketchup.google.com/) for an easy to use and well supported starting point. If you want a more powerful program with more options, try Blender (http://www.blender.org/). This program gives you a lot more to work with, but is also harder to learn. I believe they have a 'greenscreen' plugin that you could do your compositing natively with. If you decide to use it, make sure to try some of the tutorials on their site!