Hi there people... need some help from experienced elders :P

[Khronos]

U can say i am kind of new in the art of graphics... i have 3-4 months since i started to learn photoshop... and i know how to get along with it and not getting lost in photoshop... anyway the conclusion is that i am not a newbie but not that good to be an expert... let`s get to the subject

I recently had the idea to start lo work and learn the art of 3D graphics but i can`t decide with wich program to start... so i am asking the experts what 3d program should i choose? Maya? 3Ds MAX? Cinema4D? and others...

Best regards,
KhronoS.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english :P

[Doodad]

All of the programs you mentioned are quite expensive, and if you're still on the learning curve and not studying it in school somewhere, I think it would be a bit of a waste.

Why not try something like Blender 3D www.blender3d.org? It's opensource and multi-platform and has a great deal of functionality for you to play around with - and the principles you learn applies to other packages too - though the implementation of it may vary. There's a fair amount of tutorials and an active community (www.elysiun.com) with people doing some amazing stuff with it.

Here's something I modelled - now I'm not showing it as an impressive example, because that it certainly isn't. All it shows it that even beginners, such as myself, can create something fairly acceptable after a few weeks of playing around with it - and it really doesn't look that bad! (Or maybe it does??)

[Joy Foraker]

Doodad - I'm impressed with your work. I don't know anything about 3d but this program looks very interesting and I like the price. So........

I dl blenders but can't find all the tools mentioned in the tutorials. I got the basic scene and views, etc. But, for example where is Circle. I looked all over. Is there a screen that shows all tools? somewhere?

Thanks
Joy

[Doodad]

Hi Joy,

For more details on how to work the program, there is a wealth of information located here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro -- you should have a look through the Interface section before getting down and dirty with the tutorials.
Also, you can find the manual here:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Manual

For the mesh type circle, you'd just click on "Add --> Mesh --> Circle" (alternatively just press on the spacebar and the context menu with "Add" will appear) and then select the number of vertices your mesh circle should have. There are also curves (Bezier or NURBS) that you could actually create a "circle" with, but it all depends on what you aim to do with this circle.