Hello Guys, Please Help me

[sasi4frnz]

Hi Guys,
I am a very basic beginner in the 3D art world and animation, and game programming. I even do not know photoshop etc. But I'm very very interested in 3D designing and animation, game programming.
I've decided its the time to start it off finally. so, please tell me what to learn first, which softwares to get, what to do etc.

Waiting for your replies,
thanks

[liquidbear]

well you can get many good programs for free like blender for your 3d aspect
Gimp for textures
and there are many different game engines out there i would recomend dx studio just from my own background using it.

another good way to start in games try modding other pc games add a few things to maps or make your own map

and dont think cause there free there not good u can get extremely nice results out of them.

[Nukie]

Yep, blender is a pretty good 3D program. And The Gimp is a realy good supstitution for Photoshop. Thing is, I cant work with either of them, but since you are starting out you might like them.

If you are willing to pay, I recommend buying Cinema 4D. I find this a very good 3D program for beginners, since the learning curve isnt that steap, and there is lots of help to be found about it on the internet. It will cost you $ 995,- though.

I cannot realy give you any help on game engines and stuff, since I'm no programmer at all. But I think the choice of the game engine realy depends on what you want.

[MrHarle]

Having completely self taught myself i'll give you a quick run down of what i did:

firstly downloaded the maya personal learning edition from autodesk (i'm not sure if you can still get this but if you're serious about 3d i'd recommend shooting for the moon and starting with maya - i've been going backwards and relearning 3ds recently and, although it does have some nice features, it's nowhere near as powerful/easy to use once you know what you're doing.)

i was lucky enough to have a version of photoshop already but i've used gimp too and the free software is very good.

bought the digital tutors mega bundle (not cheap but very good quality tutorials covering all aspects of 3d)

bought various sybex and autodesk training books - videos are easier to follow as you work through the tutorials but having books on hand for easy reference is a must too.

Spent many many hours trying different methods of working, tutorials, projects etc. many of which didnt work or never got finished to a very high standard but dont get discouraged if you stick with it you'll get there. the speed modelling challenges on this site are very good ways of keeping yourself focused on work and modelling things you woudlnt normally try.

if you get stuck on anything most subjects have had tutorials written about them somewhere on the web and people are always willing to help.

a word of warning though - i've been learning for the last two years in my spare time (10-20 hours a week) and i've only just got to a position where i can think about applying for work in the 3d industry so it's a long a difficult journey - dont expect to be making amazing images straight away!

another good idea if you're interested in being a 3d artist is to focus on traditional art skills - drawing painting conposition colour etc. as these are the things that set a great artist apart from a good one. i dont know too much about programming though i'm afraid.

once you've got a few skills under your belt it might be a good idea to join a modding group as a way of working with other people, focusing your skills and work and gaining some useful experience to put on your cv. i joined one for a time but couldnt commit the time required in the end - definitely a good experience though.

hope this helps!

[sasi4frnz]

guys,
thank you very much for the responses. I Loved your support and help. I'll look forward to start it off with blender
CHEERS!

[liquidbear]

omg how could i forget lol Zbrush(or mudbox) its a must have and a copy of a crazybump for games is very needed speeds up the process no end ..... hmmmmmm down load x normals as well to see ur model and to create normals and all that its easy to use as well u be happy to find lol