What is the best free modeling program?

[megaknight]

I have no money, but I do want to make my own game. what modeling program should i use?

[JA53N]

Blender is the most popular free one.

[GRoss]

Yeh Blender is really good - having used Maya before I can say that you can do the same things in Blender, as you can in Maya.... mostly

[Twinfun2]

I've seen another post about the compatibility between Blender and UDK. Is the compatibility being improved at all? Any plans? I love Blender...don't wanna betray it for the likes of 3ds Max! xD

[charfei70]

I think the compatibility works fine, just as long as u use the right exporter.

[RT-Visualization]

I think that right now the best choice for a free 3d modeling ( and not only modeling ) program is Blender...it takes a while to start to work with it, but once you understand its logic become quite simple...the new release is ready to download with lots of improvement, and don't forget that you have the ability to sculp highres meshes and extract the normal maps, something damn useful in game development!

[Twinfun2]

Do you have any useful resources on how modeling skeletal meshes for UDK from Blender would be done?

Google has gotten me nowhere so far...

EDIT: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VideoTutorials.html

Would those videos (Skeletal Mesh Pipeline) be ample information? Or is their anything else I should be worried about...

[bowman151]

Quick question, is it better to use an outside program, such as Blender, to make character models and meshes or just use what is included in the UDK?
Also, would character models from Houdini Apprentice be able to be imported into UDK?

[RT-Visualization]

Quick question, is it better to use an outside program, such as Blender, to make character models and meshes or just use what is included in the UDK?
Also, would character models from Houdini Apprentice be able to be imported into UDK?

Well, I think that is quite impossible to make a characted with UDK, simply because you can model with UDK, but you don't have the tools to make a proper modeling with it, so is better if you use an external application...
As far as I know you can import .ASE and .Dae into UDK...
In my case, since I can't export lots of objects at once in .ASE I usually export everything in .Dae at once ( for static meshes ), but I need to use .ASE ( with ActorX exporter ) to get animations.
Sorry but I can't help much with Houdini :(

[bowman151]

Thanks for letting me know. I will look into using the Blender program. I asked about the Houdini program because it is the 3D program I use for my Multimedia major.

[charfei70]

I don't think u can use Houdini apprentice, as I think that's only for noncommercial use.

[wagdog]

Do you have any useful resources on how modeling skeletal meshes for UDK from Blender would be done?


http://wagner-usa.net/udk/blender_to_udk_simple.html

is a small tutorial I wrote to move a simple mesh from blender -> the udk.

[Twinfun2]

http://wagner-usa.net/udk/blender_to_udk_simple.html

is a small tutorial I wrote to move a simple mesh from blender -> the udk.

Sweet! Thanks bro. I'll get to reading through it once I have my plans lined up. How stable, or, better said, is there any features missing from the ASE exporter?

[Bunnykinx]

you should get the free version of maya.

[BigDaz]

Or the free version of Softimage (XSI), called Modtool.
It has an exporter for Unreal.

[nvisiongameco]

Blender3d for sure! The learning curve is epic steep, but you will learn it!

[Kyodan]

The newest version of Blender (2.5 alpha) has a complete UI overhaul. My favorite feature amongst other things has to be the custom keybindings. I've gone and rebound most of the keys to make navigating in Blender just like Maya (since that's what I'm familiar with). Aside from a few things that are missing and/or I haven't figured out, Blender is slowly becoming a favorite of mine.

[wagdog]

Sweet! Thanks bro. I'll get to reading through it once I have my plans lined up. How stable, or, better said, is there any features missing from the ASE exporter?

Honestly, I don't know.

I would like to see Epic support blender directly if possible, with either a blender plug-in or UDK support of .blend.

With UDK being free to use now, I think it's only natural that the #1 3D modeling program be supported.

[Vald]

I have no money, but I do want to make my own game. what modeling program should i use?

You want to make your own game but don't know what modeling program to use...

If I was you I'd stick to learning how to model OR programming and not both. Choose the art or the code way.

(by the way Google is your friend ;) )


With UDK being free to use now, I think it's only natural that the #1 3D modeling program be supported.

Since when did Blender became number 1 modeling program? Last time I checked it's orientated for novice beginners.

[Bobreg]

The newest version of Blender (2.5 alpha) has a complete UI overhaul.

It's also incomplete and a bit funky yet. I'd stick with the older version Blender 2.49b. It's quite stable and works with UDK. Only trouble I'm having is smoothing but I might be too picky and inexperienced.

[Lost Haven]

I have to say blender , would be your best choose . The second choose is wings 3d , that is the second most popular one , I am not sure on their exports , if they support udk .

Blender has some neat features , like displacement , sculpt and a good uv mapper .