Hi all!

I do lots of diffrent types of game content, here are a few diffrent applications I use ...

Most of the software I use now-a-days is free stuff 8)

I have done professional work in the past, and have come to realize that some of the main stream applications are really Huge and overbloated for my needs.... some of the titles include:

3d studio max (WAY OVER RATED!Over Priced) if you must spend money on a 3d application get XSI insted..

Adobe Photoshop (the most pirated piece of software in existance)Its BIG it bloated, it has every 2d artist tool known to GOD and man. I have only known a couple of industries that could actualy benifit useing photoshop over paintshop pro. The only time I recomend this package is for students who wish to be employed... most comercal places require photoshop knowlage. for the hobiest it is a MAJOR overkill.Learn GIMP and spend the money on Zbrush 8)

Game space (just a docked version of truespace that has a couple of game plugins... (BIG RIPPOFF waatch out kids!!!)) i got suckered into this one pretty bad! If you go and get Milkshape you will be able to import into more game engines for 40$ vs 250$ for gamespace, gamespace comes with a VERRY out dated version of milkshape... use wings to make it, and blender or milkshape to import it.

OK here is the Free stuff have FUN!!

FREE:
GIMP, can do almost anything with this little application. I use this exclusively now as my 2d solution!.. linux,MAC,freeBSD,Solaris, and windows versions available...
http://www.gimp.org/

Blender, create,animate,render,post process video and sound... blender is a nice all around 3d application. and it is getting better every day :) for comercial work you may also conciter getting XSI.
http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Home.2.0.html

Yafray (use with Blender or Wings 3d) AWESOME glass effects!!
http://www.yafray.org/

Wings 3d open GL rendering system/POVray/Aqusis/etc///
www.wings3d.com
(anyone who tells you to go buy SILO before trying wings first has his head up his ass... try wings !! better,faster,more stable,more tools, More comunity support,IRC channel,has automatic UV mapping!!! and FREE!!


NON-free (Use Google, I dont do free advertizing for propriatory software)


Zbrush 2 (awesome worth the $$$), Zbrush is the ultimare 2d-3d painting tool... should be in every CG artists toolbox!
You can do everything from lighting effects to full on 3d charictor creation! great for makeing trees and masked stuff too!!


Texturemaker Just like the name says... makes seamless textures... (also a must for every CG artist)

paint shop Pro (Use GIMP first!!!) great price and almost all the bells and whistles that adobe photoshop has. I got PSP7 years ago before I learned about GIMP... it is not an adobe photo shop replacement, but will do everything a common peron needs..

SILO- yea yea... the only reaon I al listing SILO is for the topography brush, you can take a groosly over subdevided model, and hand draw a low poly skin over it for your game models.... I do concept monsters and stuff in Zbrush... I use models that re over 1000 POLYS so it is like molding clay... then after iget monster made I pop it in SILO to make my low poly skin.... most of the time I just start with a low poly model I make in wings... i dont use silo much anymore... has been uninstalled for over 6 months now. and I dont miss it!

XSI.... for under 600$ you can have a complete movie/game animation package... verry cool, and the price is right...
they have a free version you can try too 8)..

well everything said here is just my opinion...

many artists have diffrent opinions, it is like the prefrence of a paint brush really... the main thing is that you can use it and are commfortable...

I am only listing this stuff for the Ultra noobie to try out, experianced artists already have their favorite tools 8)

Soon i am going to make a Soldat map with scenes rendered from Blender and Zbrush.... I will also render the items in the room like barrels and crates with the same lighting setup, so it looks like it is part of the actual scene!


Feel free to post your favorite art software that you use for Soldat here :)

I love playing with free new software 8)

BTW!!!

Blender will make masked thing for you!! press the RGBA button to render the alpha channel! and save as .PNG or .TGA...

will save you hours of traceing things!! just open the TGA/PNG file in GIMP, make a texture the same size useing 0red,0blue,255green....
cut from the original and paste onto the solid green texture, and save with a .bmp extension...

Thats it!! that little trick has saved me HOurs and hoURS of cutting and pasteing....

you can render the alpha channel in in wings3d too... .tga version only in stable version, the Unstable version has .PNG support also but might crash your system... (save a lot! set autosave for every5 minuets and have the SAVE INCREMENTAL files box ticked in prefrencec))

have fun!

^double post.

good suggestions though. gimp looks nice, the only thing is, i already have photoshop :P

you can own gimp too :) its free :)

Gimp has some things photo shop dose not (like a fractle zoomer and a .SVG editor hidden in the filters )

there are some neat plugins for gimp too... like GAP for editing AVI movies with a floating point thingie :)

wish i had enough money for photoshop 8)

i use gimp too (about 1 year) and i love those scripts and most of all it's easier to learn than photoshop
but it has one prob.-don't use it for pixel art...

What do you mean? Just use the pencil and make sure it's opaque. Still, I also agree; Paint's the pixel art master prog. B-)

:-P

i meant when u have pencil selected and press shift for a line that line is to small for u to see if its right(x=2, y=1 = teh perfect)

to hell with xsi. you need a master's degree to use it :P photoshop's easy fun to use and yes, has everything you can (Please refrain from swearing)ing think of. who needs 3ds max when you have milkshape? milky uber alles.

LOL,

yea the mighty milkshape :)

I use Wings 3d for most of my modeling now... I just use Milkshape to port content into game engines, like unreal 2003-2004, Halflife 1 and quake 2/3 based games...

there are a few game engines you can use blender scripts for... but for all around 3d file conversion Milkshape Rocks 8)..


when i fist started to model I got milkshape... I shutter een now thinking of makeing a 3d charictor in miolkshape:)

I use Wings and Zbrush 2 for most stuff now.... mainly wings because it runs so well on my 64 bit Kanotix system... it is totaly compiled for 64bit .. it even has SMP abilitys now.. totaly rocks... Huge models are no problem anymore..

anyways :)

have a nice day all :)