ZBRUSH!!!!!!! for abstract. It's easy to learn and it's like sculpting. Any other 3D program will take years to learn, Maya, XSI, Max, etc. Zbrush, hands down. You get a free download and you can learn the controls in under a week. It's considered a 2.5D program because you can switch between 2D and 3D. It's easier than photoshop.
--For one of the other posters- if you F up in Zbrush just hit Ctrl+Z and you go back to your last move. Depending on how much memory got you can have hundreds of redos(Ctrl=Z)
My avatar(under my name) is the 1st charecter I made in Zbrush 4 years ago... It took about a week to create.
Last edited by hangman057; 09-17-2010 at 01:25 AM.
"Blender" an open source freebie that is the greatest intro into 3d modeling imo, clues you in on most of the jargon and technique used in 3d. 3d modeling is a humongous undertaking. I have recently added 3ds max 2011 from Autodesk (used for effects in the movie 2012) to my arsenal and let me tell you beside an initial outlay of over $3k for the program this thing is a beast! I would estimate if you spread out all the dialog boxes of this baby they would cover at least a city box.
6 weeks with this thing and I haven't even scratched the surface of what this thing offers. Be careful of this undertaking. Takes a gigantic learning curve even with xper. in digital graphics.