It's been about a week and a half since I was led to the DTG page which advertised for a tech who is versed in the nuances of the Unreal Engine. Since then, I've downloaded and installed Blender, a free open-source alternative to the mega-expensive 3DSMax. Although I have commitments that will tie me to 3DCrafter for at least the next nine months, I've been spending 60-90 minutes a day working in Blender. And since I'm a sink-or-swim kind of guy, I've decided to forego the customary block-house or simple signal that seems to be obligatory when learning a new set of building tools.
I'd like to post a few comparisons of my experience with the switch, using my current favorite (meh) modeling program, 3DC.
What Blender does better:
- Price : it's free and has the same tools whether you are rendering a nut-and-bolt or the human brain. 3DCrafter, $79.
- Stability : no crashes or startup issues yet. 3DC crashes once per edit session (it ate one of my locomotives this week and spat out a 0kb file), loses my license key every third or fourth session and reverts to the cripple-ware version, and it takes five or more minutes to load a complex scene. I actually keep Blender up in another window so I can work with it while waiting.
- Support : there is no end to tutorials, videos, official docs, and books that are available covering every function of Blender. 3DC has limited documentation, and the current version is end-of-life - nothing has been heard from the program creator in about two years.
- Tools : The tools I use 90% of the time in modeling, Extrude, Scale, Face, Chamfer (Bevel), are all easier to use than their 3DC counterpart. Another huge plus is that Boolean Extraction (making holes and openings) seems to work. This was a complete waste of time in 3DC, with the best option being building a hole face-by-face around a cylinder, then deleting the cylinder.
What Blender stinks at:
- User Interface : moving aroud the Scene with a mouse wheel and Shift, or via the numeric key pad is clunky, awkward, and a giant step backwards as far as graphical interfaces go. I spend a great deal of time just trying to get my position right so I can zoom close enough to an object to do my work. 3DC is a simple mouse click on a gizmo and move easily about the scene.
- UVUnwrapping/Texturing : It took fifteen minutes to learn to extrude a complete wheelset, and another fifteen to actually do it. It took the better part of three work sessions to get a simple drawing on a block to use as a template. If this doesn't pan out better in the future, it will take longer to unwrap the model than to build it!
I would say that if you have used 3DC in the past, the switch to Blender won't be too painful. As a matter of fact, it might be a better switch if you don't know anything about modeling programs. Moving back and forth between 3DC and Blender really screws with my head when it comes to the different ways of moving around the scene. Anyway, my first effort in Blender looks pretty good, and should show that it doesn't take much time at all to get up and building with the program. But there is still much to learn...
