An introduction to 3D on the Mac, Part I: models & textures

December 15th, 2009

The landscape of CG applications is vast and very confusing to 3D graphics newbies. These apps span the gamut from free modelers to beefy, Python-scriptable animation packages, standalone renderers and a lot of little programs that glue them all together into a complex and intimidating workflow. People looking to get into game development know that ZBrush is popular, but Mudbox looks good, too, so they’re at a loss over which to learn. Program X looks like it does everything, but does it? What’s “ambient occlusion” and why would I ever need it? These questions and more will complicate life for the aspiring 3D newb.

3D magazines provide helpful tutorials, but since every application is also a potential advertiser, they tend to avoid saying that one package is best for a particular task, or that program X really sucks at particle animation, and so on. This two-part series will cover these differences while discussing specific workflows where these packages are used in areas like character modeling, motion graphics for TV or photorealistic rendering for architectural visualization. By the end of this first article, you should have an idea of how to approach modeling, sculpting, and texturing to achieve professional-looking results; the second article will focus on animation and rendering. You will still have lots of questions at the end, but 3D is inherently complex so there’s not much getting around that. Think of this article as an introduction to the very basics.

Since this is a very broad approach, I have to limit the scope a bit. Attempting to review all the 3D programs on all platforms would be too ambitious. I do have a very good knowledge of where most 3D packages excel and which fall flat for certain aspects but we’ll be covering them within the context of a 3D workflow. Often, it may look like I’m recommending very expensive packages, but I will try to make clear the benefits of pro options while mentioning the base feature set you should look for in a 3D program. I’ve made my own choices that fit my work, but I’m not going to insist those choices are right for everyone.