3D starter guide

Yepkoo

Yepkoo
Staff member
Before starting 3D, if I need to give a brief information about 2D, although it seems to have the same features as 3D, its programs and working style are different.

Of course, you can run 2D and 3D at the same time, but you need to put more time and effort for this.

Now, I will explain which programs are needed to enter 3D, what program does what, what are the functions of these programs, what kind of hardware is required for these programs, one by one.

I want to divide the 3D world into 3 groups.

1- 3D content creator
2- 3D animator
3- Game maker

What is 3D?
It means showing the length, width and depth of a 3D object at the same time.
For example, a chair.
If you open it in photoshop it will look 2D because there is only width and length.

But when you look at it with the 3D program, you can see the width and length of the chair as well as its depth, think of it like looking at a real chair with your eyes.

The content producer, our #1 option, falls into this category.

Content producers produce 3D models. For example, they can produce chairs, tables, TVs, cars and everything that is or is not in this universe in 3D.
Game makers, animation producers, film, TV and many industries can use them in their own projects.

3D animators, our number 2 option, are sectors such as movies, TV, and they use these 3D models made by content producers.

Game producers, our 3rd option, also use 3D models produced by content producers, but producing a game can be longer and more difficult than video production. While there are only animations and movements offered by the producer in video production, the user is given the opportunity to manage these items in games. For example, you only watch a human movement in the video, you can determine that human movement in the game.

Now let's come to the programs necessary to produce content.
3D MODELING PROGRAMS


A- Blender


It's completely free software, instead of outrageous prices like Blender alternatives.
There is almost no 3D modeling that you can't do with Blender.

The only downside is that in the 3D world, it doesn't matter much if you want to get into a job, no matter how well you know, because it doesn't enter the Industrial standards.

But if you are going to sell your own models, it is definitely my first suggestion.
In addition, blender has its own market, where you can buy the products you need or sell your own models.

B- 3DS MAX (3D Studio Max)

It is an industrial standard product.
It is used in almost all major technological productions (Movie, TV Series, Game, etc.).
The price is about $2000 more per year.

C- Cinema 4D

It is an industrial standard product.
This product is used in many large technological productions (Film, TV Series, Game, etc.).
Its price is about $1000 per year.

The above programs allow you to make 3D models.
Of course, there are other programs, but these are the programs that are important.

If you are thinking of producing and selling your own content, I would definitely recommend starting with the free Blender.

3D SCULPTURE PROGRAMS

Sculpting programs may also be required.

Programs working with the sculpture model came out later.
They can generally be used with or separately from the above programs.

What are Sculpting programs?
Think of Blender as a vector drawing, you are making a model with lines.
In sculpture programs, imagine that you are working on a dough.

For example, you made a door with Blender, then you transferred your door model to a sculpture program and made the reliefs of your door.

Well, isn't there already a Sculpting feature in 3D modeling programs?

Of course, although sculpting programs are not normally needed, these programs provide you with an easier and unlimited way of working compared to Blender or other modeling programs, since they only focus on this work.
In other words, for a professional work, you may need to learn a Sculpting program as well as 3D modeling programs.

Now I will suggest 2 programs.
I'm not telling you the difference between the programs so that you don't get confused.
I don't think this is a big deal, it totally depends on your budget.
You can easily produce a model you want to make with the programs I have listed, with the same result.

A- Zbrush
It is a program developed by Pixologic company.
You can sculpt and paint.

Its price is around $350 per year for corporate or individual users.
If you are an individual or a small business, you can get an average of $900 for a lifetime license.

B- 3DCoat
It is a program developed by Pilgway as an alternative to Zbursh for easier use.
You can sculpt and paint.
The price does not matter corporate or individual, you can get a lifetime license with an average of $ 500.

By the way, lifetime licenses are usually for the current version. For example, you bought the 2021 program and if you want to upgrade to this version when the 2022 program comes out, you may have to pay the upgrade fee determined by the company.

It has a library of free materials and coloring materials.
What I call free, it gives you 120 credits every month and you get the materials you want into your account with it.


3D PAINTING AND COATING CREATION PROGRAMS

You have modeled a chair, but this work is still raw, has no coating on it and is white/grayish and does not look realistic.
Or you have created a floor, you want to make a laminate flooring on this floor.
You have built a building, but you want it to look like an old building.
In short, it is the process of coating all objects according to the purpose you will use.

In this, we use material and painting programs.

A- Substance 3D Designer
It is a material making program.
Since Adobe bought the Substance programs sold on Steam, it started to sell it with a subscription model.
But we are lucky that it did not remove the lifetime licenses sold on steam and we can buy it here at a very affordable price.

Material is a way of creating an overlay by combining several images (we call them UV maps, they have names like normal, etc.).

B- Substance 3D Painter
It is a 3D object painting program and it is actually the most used program.
We can call it Photoshop of 3D objects.
Again, it is a program purchased by Adobe and you can use it by purchasing it for a lifetime at an affordable price on Steam.
Here you can paint your object according to your taste and create its coating with brushes.

Well, let's come again, is there a need for coating programs?
Blender and other 3D modeling programs also have them.
But you may still need to learn, as these utilities will really speed up your work tremendously.

C- Substance 3D Sampler
It is an application dedicated to transforming real-life images into 3d assets.
Whether you want to create beautiful materials or custom ambient lights (IBL), Sampler is the place to get it done in seconds.
Again, it is a program purchased by Adobe and you can use it by purchasing it for a lifetime at an affordable price on Steam.

UTILITIES

A- Maya
Maya is an animation and character generation program.
You can model a character and animate your character as you wish.
It costs about $2000 per year, but for individual users you can purchase for about $500 per year.

B- Marvelous Designer
Your online tailor program.
Actually, you can make dresses with all 3D programs, but this program has an advantage because it speeds up dress making too much.
The price is $40 per month and $280 per year. Frankly, I prefer to buy ready-made dresses from stores.

C- Photoshop
Whether it's 2D or 3D, it should always be at hand.
Although these models are 3D works, we may need to edit the overlays on them.

Now let's come to our 2nd group, 3D animators.

Animations are video productions that you present to the end user using these contents.
These can be Advertising videos, Cartoons, Promotions, Movies, TV Series, Youtube, TV, that is, all kinds of video production sectors that you can think of. Some programs may be required to create and prepare videos.


A- Unreal Engine

It is a completely free game engine.

But don't mind what I call a game engine, you can even prepare an advertisement video, movie, cartoon with this program apart from the game.
In fact, some parts of the latest Matrix movie were made with UE.
You can do it in very good games.
You do not need programming languages such as C++ when using this program.
It has a feature that we call Blueprint, graphically all its own.

It has its own market.
It gives 5-6 free products every month. Usually between the 1st and 10th of the month, these items change and you should definitely add them to your library.
Apart from this, it also provides hundreds of free content in the Free category on its market.

Of course, it has a huge free library like Quixel.

You should pay attention to the fact that you have been given a license to render (export for final use) the products that are provided for free on Quixel and Unreal Marketplace, by using Unreal or Epic Games only with the Unreal program.
There is no problem in Rendering the free products it gives every month and the products belonging to other vendors with a different program.

B- Character Creator
It is a Character creation program of Reallusion company.

Think like Maya, but in this you can build a character very quickly.
However, while the copyright of all products you create with 3D, Maya and Sculpture programs belongs to you, you cannot sell the characters you create with this program directly, you can use them commercially for Video, Game, Picture, all video and picture processes.
Is it necessary? It makes your job easier if you need very fast character creation.
Otherwise, you can create characters with 3D Modeling programs such as Blender or sculpting programs such as 3DCoat.
It has plug-ins for automatic export to programs such as Unreal Engine. In other words, you can use your character in the game engine by transferring a character you created here to Unreal Engine quickly and easily thanks to the plugin.

Although the price is about $399, there are discounts, black friday etc., coupons etc. If you follow, you can get a cheaper price.

C- iClone
It is an animation preparation program belonging to Reallusion company.

You can create animations for characters and some content very quickly.
It has plug-ins for automatic export to programs such as Unreal Engine.

However, while the copyright of the animations you create with 3D Programs and Maya belongs to you, you cannot sell the animations you create with this program directly, but you can use them commercially for all video and picture processes such as Video, Game, Picture

Is it necessary? It will make your job easier if you need very fast animation creation themselves.
Otherwise, you can create animations with 3D Modeling programs such as Blender.

Although the price is around $599, it has discounts, black friday etc., coupons etc. If you follow, you can get a cheaper price.

Also, if you buy it as Character Creator + iClone, the combined cost of the two is about $699.
Again, discounts, coupons, etc. can be obtained at a more affordable price with follow-up.

In addition, Reallusion company has its own market, where you can buy products such as content, hair, clothes.
In addition, you can sell the content you produce with these programs directly in RL's own market.

This part means selling the important product itself, if you didn't produce it yourself, it belongs to someone else and you only have the right to use it.
So you bought an outfit, you can use this outfit in videos, games, etc. You can use it commercially in products where the consumer does not have direct access to them. But you cannot sell the product itself. If you have produced your own content with programs such as blender, marvelous designer, 3DCoat, Zbursh, you can sell them and all copyrights belong to you.

Extra needs
a- If you are going to produce an animated video, you may need a good video editing program.
b-
You may want to include music in your content, but all music is copyrighted. If you are going to prepare videos to use only on youtube, you can easily use the sounds of Youtube Studio.

If you are going to use it externally (Game etc.), you can buy music and sounds in bulk very cheaply by following Fanatical, Humblebundle and Groupess sites. Also, sound and music are sold on Unreal Engine's marketplace. You need to pay attention to read the licenses of the products you buy, the license should give you unlimited commercial use permission (Royalty Free license) and should not set a limit or attribution obligation for this.

Finally, you may need to use one or more programs to produce content.

For example, you can prepare all your content (Model Creation, Sculpting, Coating and/or Painting) with Blender, or you can use all programs in conjunction with each other to speed up your other processes.
I'm going to try to explain how the process goes, assuming you are using all the programs now.

Blender (I Prepared My Model) > 3DCoat (I did the operations that required sculpting) > Substance Painter (I painted my model) > Marvelous Designer (If the work I created is a character, I made a dress work) > Blender (I made the final arrangements of the product, which is ready with everything, and exported it.)
 
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