But I digress, I’m here to talk about 3D editing programs, two in particular though. I consider them to be the most main stream and if I were to review all of the 3D programs out there then I would be here far longer than I’d planned, though some may be mentioned in passing.

Ok, firstly, I’m going to talk about 3DS Max (3DS Max 8/9 in particular). Now I’ve had some bad experiences with this program, mainly because it’s so difficult to understand and the majority of tutorials seem to rely on you knowing what the hell they’re talking about, rather than explaining it to you.

I have to start with the UI as it’s the first thing you’ll notice when/if you open up Max. For want of a better word, it’s cluttered, don’t get me wrong, I applaud Autodesk for cramming so much stuff onto one screen but surely there’s a simpler way. Use tabs or something for Pete’s sake. To be honest, the UI in Max 9 is slightly better than in Max 8 but only because they’ve removed a set of buttons that were only useful if you’d been working with the program for years. To a newbie it’s just more confusion.

In my experience lots of people tend to harp on about how ‘powerful’ Max is as an editing tool. It is powerful, bloody powerful in fact, but no matter how powerful something is, if it’s confusing or difficult to use then none of that power is actually accessed. It just sits there doing nothing remotely awe inspiring. Another thing I’ve found, particularly with my dabbling in the modding community, is that many requests for modellers/animators have the addition of “3DS Max Experience required”. Unfortunately, no-one, especially in the mod community, seems to have realised that 3DS Max 8 costs over £2000. Way more money than many modders have. Basically, some people are asking for the nigh on impossible, unless you work for a company who uses Max or have obtained it through less legal means then it’s bloody hard to get the experience.

If you actually know how to operate Max effectively, which generally requires going on a course of some kind, then you can be modelling and animating in about 10 minutes. If you don’t know then you’ll probably try it out for a few minutes before deciding that it’s too much confusion and hassle before buggering off and doing something else.

Right, onto another 3D program, this one is for all of those people who want experience in 3D modelling but don’t want to fork out enough money for a small car. The program happens to be called Blender, just Google it for the official website, I’m not doing everything for you. I’ve had a good years experience with Blender and have found the community and tutorials to be very helpful and easy. This is probably due to Blender being FOSS (Free Open-Source Software).

When you travel about the internet you’ll certainly find people who claim that FOSS programs are not properly developed and have terrible technical support. This might be the case with some small and recently released FOSS but it’s not the case with Blender. Then again, when was the last time you used Microsoft’s Tech Support? I certainly haven’t recently, due to it’s poor development and general badness. Anyway, this isn’t a review of Microsoft, if it was I’d have exploded by now.

Blenders UI feels a little friendlier than Max’s, mostly because it’s far less cluttered and it doesn’t feel like you’re peeking through a tiny hole in your screen just to see a cube. The fact that Blender splits up alot of it’s interface into different “tabs”, for want of a better description, means that they can actually fit more stuff into the program and make the tools more versatile. The sections within sections can be a little confusing at times but as long as you know what you’re generally looking for then you should be able to find it.

The tools are quite powerful, despite the large amount of them, and there is always one for the job. I’ve found that Blender tends to be overlooked by many recruiters, probably because it’s not in the limelight as much as Max is.

Ok, I’ve been trying to review Blender in the same way as I reviewed Max but it’s actually extremely hard to not compare them, so I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway.

Max is more cluttered and feels less refined than Blender, though some of Blenders tools are in odd places or even non-existent, though this is rare. Both are almost equal in power though Max is only slightly more powerful, probably due to being produced by people who are paid. But then, if that’s the only difference then why should you use Max? or why should you use Blender for that matter? I think it comes down to your preference, if you like paying for stupidly expensive software (XP and Vista I’m looking at you) then get Max. It’s more mainstream but far more daunting and confusing than Blender. On the other hand, if you like free things and are all for easy-use then get Blender.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t really reached a conclusion with this review. Then again, I’m glad I haven’t, as to do so would mean I’ve made a decision which is probably wrong in one way or the other. Now, I happen to use both of the aforementioned programs and find that they both have their advantages and dis-advantages, many of which gladden and dishearten me, in that order. I think I’ve found that Blender is a far simpler program, it doesn’t force everything to you at once, like Max, it allows you to find what you want when you want it. However, Max gives you all the options at once, which is more complicated, but can be very good at doing what you want.

I think the best way to sum up this review is like this: 3DS Max is like city-life, all busy and fast, whereas Blender is like country-life, quiet and slow. In the end I can’t tell you which one to use, it’s up to you, but I hope you’ve found most of this review useful in helping you reach your decision.

Enjoy.

P.M.