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Snapai In reply to timsplosion [2015-01-11 16:08:06 +0000 UTC]

The base mesh could be exported in a format that Maya can handle - pretty sure Blender can handle OBJ. Stuff like the hair particle system and crease data for the subdivision surface on the mesh wouldn't carry over tho. I'm going to eventually rig, texture, and animate this character in Blender, and that's probably the best use of models like this.

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timsplosion In reply to Snapai [2015-01-11 17:58:28 +0000 UTC]

Fair enough. How much is Blender? The uni I'm at only has Maya or 3DS Max, I think.

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Snapai In reply to timsplosion [2015-01-11 21:05:53 +0000 UTC]

Oh, and here's the previous year's showreel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XZGul…

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Snapai In reply to timsplosion [2015-01-11 21:02:41 +0000 UTC]

Blender is free! It's one of the largest open source projects on the internet - and odds are really good you've seen work done in it before. Since it was developed independently from the commercial market, it has a few conventions that differ from other 3D programs (the biggest one being that by default it selects with the right mousebutton - you can change that in the prefs tho')

It can be used to do toony animation like Big Buck Bunny or Caminandes: Gran Dillama - or realistic footage-matched stuff like Tears of Steel
Sintel is a big favorite of mine too (tho so sad!)

Those are all in-house shorts that Blender Foundation has produced to continue to fund development as well as to continually put their software through real world scenarios to make sure it remains current and useful, but if you look at their latest demo you can see a lot of other studios' work with the software.

From what I hear, it's the most popular software for 3D for mobile game art (since indie devs don't necessarily have the cash to buy Maya), as well as for SFM models, SecondLife mesh-based avatars, and so on. Even ran across a "minecraft animator" on Youtube who was using it for his machinima.

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timsplosion In reply to Snapai [2015-01-12 01:44:09 +0000 UTC]

Sounds pretty damn awesome! If I don't manage to find a Flash animation job after I graduate, I might have a go at making something with this then. 

Just to double check, you animate in Blender as well as modelling, right? If not, what program does that use?

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Snapai In reply to timsplosion [2015-01-12 05:40:47 +0000 UTC]

I will be animating in Blender, but I need to tackle the rigging first. Blender's Rigify plugin is pretty good for human characters, but for my needs I'm gonna need to build my own rigs.

And yes, Blender handles animation. It even handles nonlinear video editing, if that's your thing.

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timsplosion In reply to Snapai [2015-01-15 10:02:08 +0000 UTC]

Cool. I'm definitely gonna need to give this a go if I don't get 2D work somewhere after uni.

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Snapai In reply to timsplosion [2015-01-15 21:50:19 +0000 UTC]

As long as you've used each program, most of the principles of modeling, rigging, animation, etc are the same in each. Try them all!

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