Blender VS 3DS Max

[klambert]

This is a bit of a rant sooooo here we go ...

With my free student subscription for 3DS Max likely to expire when I leave uni in June - July, I thought it maybe worthwhile learning Blender, as I don't fancy paying £1700 for a years Autodesk subscription.
Yesterday I had a brief go with Blender, I'd downloaded a model from one of the free CAD sites which only came in the .blend format, and needed to prepare for it importing into Unreal Engine. This is a 5 minute operation in max, attach all the meshes, perhaps delete a few faces and jobs a good un.
But for some reason joining meshes in Blender needs a degree in rocket science. What a nightmare! Nothing is intuitive, you see a 3D mesh on the screen; if you want to select it, common sense would be to left click on it. But no, you have to do some ridiculous keyboard hotkey jiggery pokery simply to engage the selection mode, and then moving the selected object is a completely different ball game, want to move rather than orbit the camera to the new place you're moving the object? Good luck. The GUI on my copy of Blender looks completely different to most of the tutorials I've looked, at adding an interesting 'challenge' to what is already a very frustrating program. This is surely a program designed by programmers rather than 3D modellers. Having a go with both Revit and Maya were a learning curve but this is something else!

Any tutorial recommendations would be helpful, as there's a whole swathe of bad tutorials on Youtube and finding the right one is a task in its own right and the Blender wiki pages have been taken down.

I've been 3D modelling for around 8 years, first with Gmax and then 3DS Max and I honestly have no idea how some of the very talented content creators we have here, do battle with this most arcane of programs. Never have I known a program with such a ludicrous interface.

[demobbed]

I think you should be ok for a while yet. The wife's 3DS MAX student license was due to expire when she graduated in 2018 and it's still going strong. It's the university's responsibility to inform Autodesk that you are no longer a student and most have a tendency to forget.

[finn09]

Hi klambert have you tried Paul Hobbs website 44090 Digital Models. There's a few PDF files on building models I've used them and they're really helpful.

finn09

[SnakeLight64]

Hi Klambert,

I honestly learned Blender back with 2.79 which was default with right-click to select objects, I can tell you I went through the stages of anger, depression and denial, maybe rage at 1 point, the learning curve is ridiculous but once you get it, it's awesome.

With Blender 2.8 on the other hand...Wow, it has truly made me make better content, not sure if it's the software or if it's my skills has improved but nevertheless.
However, Blender is very user friendly with how you can change the controls and keyboard shortcuts, so you can have the same keyboard layout as other modelling programs, if i'm correct.
Blender 2.8 has now gone for simple controls, where you left-click to select and you right click to get more options, you also have radial options which pop open when you select the shortcuts.

If you really want to learn more about Blender I can honestly say to give BlenderGuru a watch. He has a amazing tutorial to walk you through how Blender works and you also get to create your very own Donut! He is also how I managed to get through the learning curve of Blender fairly fast.

Blender 2.8 tutorial playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... EBt--xLB6U

He did have a 2.79 tutorial but I think he has taken it down, but definitely have a look around on his YT page.

Cheers,

Reece

[klambert]

Only taken me a month and half to respond!

Thanks for the responses from all. I did read them as soon as they popped up. They were all very constructive and it gave plenty of food for thought.

The only issue with Paul Hobb's tutorials is you do require a modicum of knowledge of the program itself before you attempt them, the Blender Guru tutorials look very good, well structured and clear.
I was just frustrated, as I've learnt one way to 3D model for around 8 years and the prospect of completely rethinking 8 years worth of experience wasn't a particularly inviting one, but you have to move with the times.

[chrisaw]

What I've been looking for is some kind of conversion course. e.g for X max operation use Y in blender. Even just for the corresponding terminology would be helpful.

Blender 8.xx does look like a huge change in Blender's direction. I looked at the Blender foundation convention a few years ago when the idea of a more mainstream user interface was discussed. it looked to me like a bunch of nerds were determined it should not be updated. I believe the change of heart has been because of an injection of cash.

Chris.