free modeling software?

Pipeline
1

Hi! I am sorry if the question is a BIT off-topic, but is there a modeling-software out there thats models can be converted into .egg and that is free of costs? I am not wealthy enough to pay a big pile of cash for that but I guess I can’t live with a modeling software here :smiley:

So I would be glad if you can give me any hints? I tried 3DsMAX, but it was only a trial so that I am now without the (legal) ability to create a model for free…

Regards, Bigfoot29

2

There’s Blender and a Panda3D plugin, but you can’t export animations using it.

3

Your choices are:

  • Blender. However, we seem to be having a little trouble with the blender X exporter. Be prepared for some tinkering.

  • GMax. It is possible to export an X file from gmax, and use it in panda. However, this also requires a little tinkering.

  • Maya Personal Learning Edition. As I understand it, this is basically full-featured maya, that you can download and use for free, but it has a mildly annoying semitransparent banner in front of the viewport.

4

I don’t think I would recommend Maya PLE, because I’ve heard that maya2egg does not work with it (nor does any auxiliary compiled program or plugin). I don’t know if there’s a model pipeline from Maya PLE to Panda.

David

5

I did not know that.

I’m trying to learn blender right now… but my patience is wearing thin. I’m going to have to do a little bit every day.

6

What about all those other modeling programs? Truespace? Softimage? Lightwave? Does anybody know anything about them?

I’m sure that most of them can export DirectX X files.

7

Oh yeah, what about zmodeler?

8

Wings3d?

9

Wings looks interesting, but it doesn’t support animation. I wonder if that’s a temporary limitation, or a design decision?

10

POssibly a design decision - it could just be for static modelling.

11

Holy hell… blender is also integrated into/with Debian(Sarge)! :open_mouth:

Guess there are many good packets that I will never explore. :smiley:

So thanks for the info… hopefully it will be possible soon to have animations ported :slight_smile:

Here is a good german introduction into (a old version of) blender (from the first view) - guess only few ppl speak german here, but may be with some german links we can get some more german developers to take a look into Panda3D :smiley:

http://www.belug.org/~cw/BlenderTut/BlenderTut.html

Regards, Bigfoot29

12

I guess he is right… its better not to post this here - may be one of the admins can take care of it? In case you get the animations for blender working (being able to export them) it would have helped us more than having a link (or whole content) that is illegal in most of the worlds countries…

So thats why I am still begging on my knees to have somebody to write a working blender exporter :cry:

Well, may be with the next release of Panda3D! :smiley:

Regards, Bigfoot29

13

Guys I use Deep Exploration from Right Hemisphere Software. It costs around $100 but it was worth saving up for. It is not a modeling package per se but it converts between just about every major format out there. You can also use it to alter materials, rename geometry groups (great for articulating models), and I believe it can display and convert keyframe animations.

14

my 2 cents.

I have worked with most of the 3D mesh modellers mentioned (Maya, Maya PLE, 3DS Max v5-9, Blender, Milkshape and a few others) I think the big issue is not “Will Cool3DModel.??? transfer to .egg” it is the lack of standards based file format support. .egg is a pretty good format and does a great job supplying Panda3D with the necessary elements of a 3D Scene.

There are some excellent formats that might do the trick. COLLADA is a notable one.

in another thread I suggested that there be an Unwrap3D exporter. Unwrap3D is a commercial package ($50) so it got a unanimous ‘no’ from the poll i posted.

many packages are making the move to COLLADA, perhaps a COLLADA to .egg would fill in the gap for the ‘rest’ of the world

from the Collada wiki entry:

15

:open_mouth: Wow, old thread.

Not sure if anyone cares anymore, but I’ve heard of a few more modelers that are “free of costs”. I’ve never used them though, so I don’t know much about them. Anim8or It’s “free of costs”, but Windows only.
MetasequoiaLE LE version is “free of costs” normal version is shareware
MarbleCLAY (in beta)
Art of Illusion (GNU GPL)
Misfit Model 3d (GNU GPL)

16

the point is, folks should be able to create models in whichever program they prefer (within certain specs).

While we are not quite there in terms of a good, universal 3D file format. COLLADA really comes close. The Folks at Disney seem to prefer Maya 7.5 (hence these are the .egg converters and plugins that really work)

For people using Blender, Max, Anim8or, Softimage, etc. the prospects of exporting a viable .egg (always wanted to say that :slight_smile: ) are somewhat hindered.

It seems like creating a COLLADA based system would even help Disney to move swiftly between packages (Maya 8, 8.5 9…) by utilizing the AutoDesk provided COLLADA exporter and importing COLLADA files into Panda3D (or converting them to .egg)

17

want to add that the blender exporter (chicken) is really nice. the cvs-version has even support for multiple uv-sets afaik. blender users really cant complain , they have a really nice tool, maybe even better than maya’s :slight_smile: