So Hexagon it is...
whispers65
Posts: 952
Ok a couple of things:
1) I'm trying to learn modeling. I've watched a series on what everything is and does but for me nothing really sinks in until I actually do it so I prefer project based learning if possible. Watching and understanding is by far different than doing and executing for me.
2) I'm sure Hexagon will work fine for what I want to do which is mainly buildings, rooms, bathrooms, furniture, etc. Clothes would be nice eventually but it's not remotely near the top of this list if it is even on the list at all. But I have found several clothing tutorials which I like.
3) I know there are lots of programs out there for modeling but I have access to Hexagon and Silo. I'd rather exhaust the possibilities with these rather than trying to go for the "best" programs (which I can't afford anyway) and get no where which is what I have been doing for a year now. I can't say this last year has been wasted. My goal was to learn Studio as much as I can and I think I'm doing a good job of that.
Ok with that said. Really a perfect project for me would be to model an apartment or something like that with furniture, fixtures, etc. And I have actually seen 2. One is a freebie on Youtube and another is paid but looks like in Euros so not sure about that one. The problem is that they are both in 3ds Max so I'm not sure if I could "transfer" the knowledge over. With other programs like programming for instance, I can definitely transfer between the two without knowing either one. I can figure everything out. With this modeling stuff, I'm just scared plain and simple. I get intimidated because it is "art" and I've always been told that I'm no good at it. But I know I can do this if I can get some good basic tutorials and some courage lol.
Even with the simple stuff (simple to me) like creating a wall, I get hung up on. I mean a wall is a wall right? Take a box and flatten it? I'm not sure if that is the way but I get also caught up in scale. It is real world scale or is the scale different for characters such as V4/M4/Genesis, etc. How do I know how big to make it? I get lost in all of that because I don't know the answers yet.
For my studio projects, I buy a lot of places like rooms, houses, apartments, showers, pools, bedrooms, buildings, etc. These are the things I like. But yesterday I was working with a bedroom and turning it into a bedroom/office type thing and along one wall was two windows that I wanted to get rid of. I'm sure there are easy ways to do this. I was thinking surely I could just make a wall and change out the textures. I tried that approach and it didn't work lol.
Anyway thanks for listening. I'm looking out for tuts. I do have one for a bed. It doesn't get into scaling much other than eyeballing it with V4. And I do have a few for clothes but my head just isn't into it.
I know there are a lot of tuts out there and I have looked at quite a few listings but just not finding something of interest. I know the whole purpose of the tut is to learn the program but having something that'd interest me would do wonders with the attention span and the intimidation.
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Comments
If you asked me that same question 7 or 8 years ago, I would have definitely recommended Hexagon. If you're going to invest time into a steep learning curve, choose a program with a future. As good as Hexagon is, it has not evolved since Daz acquired it. Some bugs have been fixed but I don't foresee any future development. Given your budget, I'd consider Blender.
Don't be afraid to make everything perfect. Dive in. Make mistakes. Learn from those mistakes and make your next model better.
Speaking of which, don't learn on a big project. Do a lot of smaller, simpler projects that can be completed in a few hours. It will be more rewarding. If your goal is to model a bathroom, start with a tissue box, then move on to a towel holder or a faucet handle. Then graduate to a whole toilet. And if the toilet looks like crap, nobody will know because you don't have to show it to anyone. Just like drawing, make lots of sketches, experiment, try new things.
As for tutorials, a lot can be transferred from one program to another. To learn a new program, stick to program-specific tutorials. But once you're familiar with the tools, you'll see how you can apply the techniques from one tutorial to another program. Sometimes you'll find that the program you use is missing a feature and you'll have to find a workaround. That's part of the learning curve.
If you're looking for Hexagon specific tutorials, try http://www.polyloop.net/forumdisplay.php/60-Tutoriaux-Hexagon (it is managed by one of the original authors of Hexagon. Some tutorials are in French, some in English, but you can usually follow the pictures.)
You might try the free version of Sketchup as well. Its fairly simple to use.
http://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make
I have not played with it in a while (not since Trimble acquired it from Google) but there used to be lots of free plugins available:
http://sketchucation.com/resources/plugin-store-download
As I recall the free version was limited in importing/exporting to common 3d formats, but you could get a free plugin to that would do it.
EDIT
Trimble changed the licensing. Unfortunately the free version cannot be used for commercial work.
Thanks to you both for the input.. I'll decide on something.
BTW, I did try Blender. It gave me a headache lol. There's a pretty steep learning curve just on the interface alone.
Hex comes with lots of models to use - so that's a good place to start .
Manual come with lots of videos to watch - over a 100 .
I'm not going to be able help much with the modeling part. I'm still learning and figuring things out myself. I like Hexagon, but I'm finding the charming quirks it has to be troublesome.
Tell everyone who ever told you that you are "no good at art" to jump in a lake. You have the desire to learn, clear ideas of what you would like to create, and you can get good with practice.
Thanks Chris. I always forget SketchUp. I haven't played with it much since the @last days. It's unfortunate the Pro version is priced so high and the free license does not allow commercial use (which will probably be widely ignored).
You may also be interested in Voidworld, it is free and can be used for commercial work. (Voidworld was recently (February) renamed as NVIL and became a need for purchased license).
You can download Voidworld(Free) from:- http://voidworld.cmcproductions.co.uk/index.php?topic=1320.0
Voidworld is no longer updated, but it as only been 8 months since its final release, and gives you access to hundreds of modeling tools/functions. The default UI is certainly not the greatest, but you can change that, as there are radial menus/hotkeys/user buttons (or combination) that can be used with, or instead of, the default UI.
I can't find system requirements on their site. Is this Windows only?
Looks like it is Windows only, the rar files for both VoidWorld and Nvil contain exes and dlls. I did not see any downloads for different OS
I know how you're feeling: at the moment, I'm also going the Hexagon/Blender/Sculptris/GIMP route. My personal fantasy combination of software would be 3ds Max, ZBrush, and Photoshop, but a license for Max is something like $3,000 (I'm not a student or work in industry, so no discount); a ZBrush license is something like $700; and Photoshop was something like $500 to $600, the last time I checked. I might swing ZBrush or Photoshop if I saved up a bit, but at the moment, I can't put a dent in Max's price tag. Hopefully someday I can turn this hobby into something that will actually pay for itself.
As far as Hexgon tutorials go, I would say the best are the ones from CGDreams and GeekAtPlay, and GeekAtPlay has put all of their previously for-sale tutorials up on YouTube (I put the links to them here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/298/). Good luck...
If Blender is too much, have you looked into Wings 3D? It looks pretty simple and straightforward and has a familiar 'right-click' interface, unlike Blender. Of course, it's free, so it won't cost anything to download and try it. Is it any good? I don't know. I got too used to Blender, and now all the other programs seem weird to me. ;)
I havent tried wngs. The last couple of days I worked through some tuts in Hex but I am willing to try with Blender. I just want something I can stick with awhile and I forgot I do have a sub with cgcookie so going to play with blender again this weekend and I am interested in animation so it may end up the best of both wotlds.
Blender....great free prog with great community support, lurning curve will cause ED, Hair Loss, and Cussing fits.
Wings3d...Seems like a nice free prog i personally could never get used to it.
Theres always Anim8or i used this program for many years before becoming a hexhead.
Hexagon free version found here always crashes on me.
I rolled back to the 2.5 version i bought and its usually trouble free.
All the free apps here cause my old machine to hang and freeze and crash
those respective apps.
But all the versions of the free apps i bought license to work great with very little
of problems i experience with DS4 pro Bryce 7 pro Hexagon 2.5 something.
Not complaining Daz, after all my old p4 is about 14 yrs old,lol.
Nine years ago I bought a Dell Inspiron with a 3GHz P4. At that time I thought that computer was the End-all-be-all of computing. lol. There's an old test scene for Blender that I tried out on it before it crashed and burned. It took about 5 minutes to do a render (this was before Cycles, of course). The same exact scene on my 2.4GHZ i7 (4 cores+hyperthreading) takes about 15 seconds.
That said, I don't think processor speed is nearly as important as RAM these days.
The thing with Blender is that the default 3d viewport settings are stupid. I mean, I like to use the 3d cursor, but it doesn't deserve the priority it is given with the default left mouse click. You can change that, of course, since the keyboard and mouse/tablet settings are entirely user configurable. Trouble is, most newbies to the program don't know that, don't know the potential features, and so get frustrated with the stupid defaults.
You know I really don't mind crashes so much. At work we are known as the kings and queens of work-arounds so if I can figure something out then so be it. That's not to say that after I've worked on a scene for an hour, I'm giddy with it crashing and losing everything but I try to go with the motto save quick, save often so downtime is a minimum. Studio crashes on me constantly lol.
On Blender, I was looking at tutorial but it wasn't a step-by-step type thing which I really needed once I saw the interface. It took me 45 mins to load a pic as a guide lol. It took my sister 2 hours but she has never used any type of 3d app of any kind before. It's just the interface is well let's say an adventure all its own. But to me it's like anything else. Everything is alien at first until you get used to it.
I think Blender will work good for me. My sister and I have a bet to have an animation done by next year. It can be short but it has to be an animation and everything in it we create ourselves - characters, settings, textures, blah, blah. Now that my nephew is largely through with his cancer stuff I'll see how she feels about it. The cancer definitely took the main stage for a quite a while.
On Hexagon, I am working on clothing tutorials by Fugazi1968. What I really want to do is buildings, houses, apartments, bathrooms, etc. stuff like that but finding tutorials hasn't been easy. I can find a couple of full apartment tutorials for 3ds Max (I think that is what it is called) but don't know enough about any modeling software to translate.
Oh well. At any rate, I don't have to work this weekend so it'll either be a weekend where I accomplish much or little if I can't get motivated. I plan on doing nothing. I'm tired. My nephew got out of the hospital last Friday and has been recouping this week. It's been draining to say the least.
I have Hexagon and used it a little bit. Nice software, free Is fun. Anyway, for modeling i use Moi 3d, nurbs modeler. Very easy to use compare to Hex.
Hex could be better with some updates but that never happen.
Hex is the modeling that Carrara need. Daz could do a nice Version 3 but like Bryce, When Daz acquired it, was fixed bugs then stayed at 2.5 for too many years.
If Daz would improve every software they have, it would be great, might even get more people.
because of lack of update I decided to keep hex shelved. If Moi 3d is not enough, I use Cinema 4D Prime. Basic version but does what it need to do., Yes I kept money to at least get a nice piece of software.
But even with that, I use carrara because it offers more for less and Hex could be the same, it is not heavy like the other well known but its cheaper and still can do alot.
Don't forget, it is how you use the software and not the other way around. Just look at Blender or stuff showing on this web site, Daz. I have seen renders make carrara that are amazing and modeling too.