Easiest Mesh Program

[HoneyBear Lovely]

In your opinion, which is the easiest mesh program to learn?

I've tried Blender - Chic's tutorials and some others, and I get lost because they go sooo quickly. There has to be something easier than Blender.

 

[Rolig Loon]

Not really, and Blender has the great advantage that it's FREE instead of costing you thousands of dollars -- and still being difficult to learn.

[Alyona Su]

It depends hugely on what it is that you want to create. If you're going for mesh clothing you pretty much don;t have a choice but to go with a 3D app. Though if you're building reusable items then there is this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Celzium-01-Inworld-Mesh-Creation-Tool-by-Cel-Edman/3373744 I've been using it and it's great if you're experienced with in-world prims (you can build with a "prim-like" structure and bypass any third=party 3D app.) But if you do have a third-party 3D app, you can pass through that for more fine-tuning.

Edit to add: there is a free version, though it only does the cube. But it's enough to see how it all works. And watch the video tutorials to see how easy it is.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Kweopi]

13 hours ago, HoneyBear Lilliehook said:

There has to be something easier than Blender.

 

actually, there is. Is called Second life viewer Firestorm ( at least is what i use). Here is my 5 steps free course of building , when you have no idea what to do. Disclaimer: works only for furniture, houses, decorations. for clothes you will have to learn something else. Also, step nr 5 is the most important.

[Erwin Solo]

 

I usually rough-out a design in-world, then run it through a prim-to-mesh converter; the one I use converts sculpties too.  I think it's called Mesh Generator.  

Anyway, that gives me a DAE file on my local drive.  Then, I import the DAE file into Blender and use it for scale.  I don't usually edit the DAE file made from prims because the topology is too triangulated; I prefer to build in what are called "quads."  I just put it on another layer for scale reference, and then build in Blender from scratch.  Have a roughed-out design at proper scale is helpful, though.  

For Blender instruction, I like CG Cookie, though they are more expensive than the many good free tutorials on YouTube.  Still, it's worth having coherent instruction.  CG Cookie has a beginning Blender Tutorial for free; highly recommended

[HoneyBear Lovely]

15 hours ago, Kweopi said:

actually, there is. Is called Second life viewer Firestorm ( at least is what i use). Here is my 5 steps free course of building , when you have no idea what to do. Disclaimer: works only for furniture, houses, decorations. for clothes you will have to learn something else. Also, step nr 5 is the most important.

That's certainly easy enough! 

[Chic Aeon]

16 hours ago, Kweopi said:

actually, there is. Is called Second life viewer Firestorm ( at least is what i use). Here is my 5 steps free course of building , when you have no idea what to do. Disclaimer: works only for furniture, houses, decorations. for clothes you will have to learn something else. Also, step nr 5 is the most important.

 

 

To the OP. If you use this method and are just trying to save land impact. No need to "make it mesh" (I will not comment any further on that fallacy LOL)/  All you need to do is change the PRIMS to "convex hull" in the FEATURES TAB. Same land impact. 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Chic Aeon
deleted extra photo

[OptimoMaximo]

On 10/27/2019 at 8:56 PM, HoneyBear Lilliehook said:

In your opinion, which is the easiest mesh program to learn?

3D modeling isn't easy, regardless the software you use. I'm a former Blender user and switched to Maya many years ago, in my opinion Maya is not only better under every and all standpoints, it's also easier to learn than Blender, but it costs a couple hundred bucks in monthly subscriptions (there are free student versions, but of course those can't be used to create commercial products). 

If you wish to make 3D models, don't look for shortcuts: commit to one software and, as Erwin says above, look for tutorials and, i would add, spend a few bucks buying a manual. If you choose Blender, consider buying a basic manual from their books store online, it won't be as expensive as a Maya subscription, and will be a one-time expense instead of monthly. They deliver fast and on-time, plus you give them a contribution to Blender development.

[Hector Roffo]

I would suggest blender, ever since the current version (2.8) came out it became more user friendly, now I am 3ds max user and I am having difficulty unlearning my workflow to transition to blender. But like what was said above pick a program and stick with it eventually it will make sense. Each 3d software has their advantages as disadvantages maya does things better than blender and vice versa. I do hope that this help.  

[Erwin Solo]

11 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

I'm a former Blender user and switched to Maya many years ago, in my opinion Maya is not only better under every and all standpoints, it's also easier to learn than Blender, but it costs a couple hundred bucks in monthly subscriptions (there are free student versions, but of course those can't be used to create commercial products). 

I don't doubt that Maya is better.  I paid a year for Maya LT one year, but I didn't have time to use it much. I'm not a frequent user.  I hear now that you can rent Maya LT by the month through Steam.  

When I was getting up to speed, I found that there were a lot more resources (typically youtube videos) for Second LIfe with Blender than with Maya.  Some who are way up in skill level on Maya still use Blender for specific tasks; for example: 

 

I know its off-topic, but I'd appreciate it if anyone can comment on whether Substance Painter is worth the money for SL, or point me to a thread on the topic. I invested in a Wacom Intuos Pro Digital Graphic Drawing Tablet , Medium, (PTH660).  I'm finding that helpful for painting on mesh in Blender.  Blender is said to be "competent" in painting, but Substance Painter seems to be the best.  I just don't know whether to put out the money. 

[Janet Voxel]

Give blender 2.8 a try, but try some basic tutorials like blender guru’s donut tutorial. It gives you a basic workflow of modeling an object from start to finish. There are other good tutorials where the commentator explains what they are doing and why. Also, look at the comments if you get stuck, sometimes someone else had the same problem you might have had.

Also, try slowing the video down to three-quarter or half speed if it’s going too fast for you.

A lot of using a modeling program is mechanics, that’s why it seems like commentators are moving so fast, they have the mechanics down. That’s going to mean trying things on your own. So once you’ve made your donut, try something else with what you’ve learned. If you don’t have the mechanics down, try another tutorial or make another donut. It’s up to you.

Start looking at things geometrically. So you’re on your own, trying something out. Let’s say you’re trying a standing lamp. What shapes do you see in it? It’s a series of cylinders right? Start with the base.....a little bit later, a few modifiers, a few other functions you have a basic lamp. 
 

There’s more to it of course, but you want to keep at it. It’s ok to stop and come back to something later. Do another tutorial where you learn how to apply materials to objects or something with advanced modeling techniques. It’s not going to be easy. There’s going to be some frustration in there. Just keep at it and try to learn in baby steps.

[OptimoMaximo]

15 hours ago, Erwin Solo said:

I know its off-topic, but I'd appreciate it if anyone can comment on whether Substance Painter is worth the money for SL

It's absolutely worth the money, especially if in couple with Designer to author your own materials. But then, for SL it's more worth if you have access to a supported render engine to perform the bakes. I know there's a "bake lighting layer" feature in Painter, but i tried and it kinda sucks for the general, non-directional, homogeneous type oflighting one would want for SL. Painter bakes lighting from its IBL, and therefore is highly directional, and there are no additional lights to be used (as opposed to Designer that has more lights available, just no bake lighting feature)

15 hours ago, Erwin Solo said:

Some who are way up in skill level on Maya still use Blender for specific tasks; for example: 

And i don't know why, since 2017 i've released my .anim exporter for Maya that, as opposed to Blender+Avastar, doesn't perform a compression under the hood, it does it IF requested by the user.

[arabellajones]

For furniture and similar objects, Wings3D is worth a look. Windows, Apple, or Linux, uses the Erlang programming language, Windows version has it, Linux version needs Erlang to be installed separately. Imports and exports .dae and a lot of other formats. Just making the mesh, UV mapping, and setting up faces and materials. I started using it a long time ago, no good for rigging mesh, but since I do know it well. I've made clothing meshes, done the UV mapping, and then gone to Blender for rigging. When the version of Avastar for Blender 2.8 comes out, I shall try to learn that.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

Substance Is really geared towards PBR. That doesn't mean you can't use it for SL, but that's not what most of the built in content is designed for.

[OptimoMaximo]

4 hours ago, Kyrah Abattoir said:

Substance Is really geared towards PBR. That doesn't mean you can't use it for SL, but that's not what most of the built in content is designed for.

Both Maya and 3dsmax use Arnold that is a pbr renderer and it's supported with specific texture export by both designer and painter, so you get what you see in those 3d apps and bakes are extremely high fidelity to what the original material looked like. Sure enough, to convert those materials to a SL high fidelity counterpart, the provided preset for SL in substance painter is not enough and it's pretty ridiculous, but it is workable.