Hi I'm a 2D artist familiar with illustrator, photoshop, etc. I'm interested in experimenting a bit with 3D to expand my skill set, but I really have no idea where to start.

I don't want to fork out the big $$$ for expensive, complicated software just yet, so just wondering where other people in this position have started?

Blender 3D is the way to go all the way. It's free and you can get pixar quality results from it. It has great tutorials (we have a bunch of links for them in the blender section on this site) and a huge community. Get it for free at www.blender.org Also there is a free version of google sketch up that is super easy to learn not to many export options for it unless you buy the paid version but for buildings and other objects it is great....(and you can find a tutorial on the internet on how to fool it to let you export in OBJ format into blender) Anyway I think these are the two best choices if you're on a budget.

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I smell dead people.

Hey thanks so much for the advice mate I downloaded Blender and had a look at it over the weekend. It's quite overwhelming that's for sure. I think it would take a long time to really master it! I went through a tutorial on how to make a gingerbread man... Here is the result:

I also rigged him up and got him to do a basic walk cycle. Doesn't look like much... but I'm pretty happy for a first try with 3D. I'm keen to see what else I can do with this program! Thanks again for the tip.

Looks pretty good for a first model. It took me about a month to learn how to model my first character took me a month. Now I've been at it for about a year I can model the character in about 10 hours and depending on the rig I use get it all working in about 3 days. A full scene with back ground, materials, bump mapping, rigging, and lighting will still take me about 2-3 weeks and rigging is always a challenge. Hope you stick with it. Here's some picks of the model I've been working on the last week or so.

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I smell dead people.

Here's a head shot

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I smell dead people.

That looks awesome mate! Very cool! I have so much more respect for 3D artists now after giving it a go myself (and I already had lots of respect for them!)

Here is my first real attempt at modeling something which I just finished last night. The gingerbread man doesn't really count because I just followed a tutorial...

 

Mantastic001:

That looks awesome mate! Very cool! I have so much more respect for 3D artists now after giving it a go myself (and I already had lots of respect for them!)

Here is my first real attempt at modeling something which I just finished last night. The gingerbread man doesn't really count because I just followed a tutorial...

 

 

Wow, thats fantastic for your first model.

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