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Old 16th January 2009, 04:38 PM   #1
greymalkin
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Default Which software to use?

I am just new to 3d modeling and am trying to learn some of the vocabulary. Please excuse my incorrect use of any terms. My objective is to make models of people and animals and be able to unwrap them like you do in Pepakura(only for PCs) and then cut them out and glue them together to make paper models. I have been looking at many, many applications for the past 2 weeks and see that some programs only model, some render, some unfold/unwrap like Pepakura, some only paint zBrush? some cost $5,000 or $3,995. Presentlly I have downloaded and played with and looked at tutorials for Blender, Silo, Hexagon, AC3D. I use an Intel iMac. All I know for sure is I don't want to make real boxy models, but believe smoothing takes care of some of that. I have been doing all the different tutorials and feel it is time to make a decision. So far, Blender looks great but is complicated, Hexagon doesn't do a lot for me, I like Silo and AC3D. Things like Maya and thousand dollar things are not a consideration. What program do you think would be best for making paper models? Some will be of people from the MIddle Ages and have a lot of detail. Thank you for any help. greymalkin
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Old 18th January 2009, 02:49 PM   #2
Ham
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Default Re: Which software to use?

I don't see anything for the Mac that unfolds models the way Pepakura does.
Tried that software but it didn't run under Crossover emulation.

If you have Windows with BootCamp or Parallels installed on your Mac
then thats an option, I guess.

AC3D is certainly capable of making those models, but you'll still
need some way of unfolding them and from the looks of things,
that kind of art is only happening on the PC.
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Old 18th January 2009, 03:41 PM   #3
greymalkin
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Default Re: Which software to use?

Thanks for your reply! I will be partitioning my hard drive with Boot Camp so I can use Pepakura on Windows XP for unfolding. Basically, I don't want to spend my time learning an application that has all the buttons and labels for people doing animation, games, movies, and such when all I want to do is make a model, render and texture or paint my model and then unfold it and make the model in paper. Blender seems to do so many things that I don't need to learn. Is uv mapping the same thing as unwrapping or unfolding? Thank you so much for your help. I think I will use AC3D or Silo. Any suggestions are still greatly appreciated!
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Old 18th January 2009, 04:28 PM   #4
Ham
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Default Re: Which software to use?

UV mapping isn't the same as your unfolding.
The Unfolding technique allows the model to be put back together with paper.
Your UV coordinates are your texture image mapped to the polygons of the 3D Model.

The unfolding app will transfer the UV coordinate to the correct sections of your cut outs.

UV mapping is a strange beast, but AC3D makes it pretty painless.

You could imagine UV maps in this way, a magazine is a 3D model,
and each image and section of text in the magazine is a different pair of triangles
or 'frames' with a UV coordinate applied.

I think thats a good analogy.

Another good analogy might be a person is a 3D model and
"Where do you want your tattoo?" is what the texture coordinate editor is asking you. :-)

Good luck.
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