Hardware wise I personally would be holding back as AMD v2 Bulldozers are due sometime this year, they are already running late but the 8 cores will come in handy for the rendering side of things and as far as i know Intel have some frozen 6 cores waiting to see how good the new AMD's are going to be, but they are on the i7's. Simple rule of thumb follows ...

Modelling = RAM + CPU Ghz
Animation = RAM + HDD + CPU
Rendering = RAM + CPU Ghz & cores + optional GPU Ghz

OS to me has to be Windows purely for choice of software to run on it
Adobe Premier for video editing or After effects for special effects
Poly modelling that has everything you need and loads of plugins for anything missing has to be 3DS Max but that will probably destroy your budget in one fowl swoop unless you go for an older version which will have less features, version 5 and 8 are considered by many to be the better versions regarding memory handling and stability of modelling and rendering.

Freelancing still needs professional software and that sadly costs professional prices too. Pick your projects wisely and you may get by with lower end software like Blender 2.49b to be honest is the best version of Blender and is still available, and the UI is far more user friendly than its current incarnation which i have to agree with you is not intuitive or easy to get your head around, as if they have decided to try and do an Autodesk instead of a MoI.

Speaking of MoI - Don't forget it's speed will save you time and still create decent poly mesh exports (Depends on what you are modelling and resolutions ).

Hope that helps a little, but your budget is tight for going pro.

Martin

I think Sony Vegas can get me by for the little video editing I do. And that's so cheap it's really of no concern.

I use 3D max in my day job. I like it but, yes it will bust the budget.

So my real concern comes down to where to spend money on 3D software that costs $1000 or less and the rest on hardware. I forgot to mention I need to import DWG files some how.

I think I know the answers I'll get on what to use. But I have just used 3D max for so long I'm not current on what's out there now.

Hi Shaun - Decide what market you are going to chase, product vis, freelance design, architectural etc, then break it down further to see if there is a niche you can lever your way into. Once you have that made up in your mind , then work out the hardware and software. If you are doing special effects and full blown commercial animation then you will need something like Max, fly-bys and pans and zooms etc there is lots of choice, including Rhino which will do DWG very nicely with being pals with Autodesk, and then a licence for Vray or Brazil (I have tried NXT and i don't like it), but there is basic animation in Rhino now.

Martin

ZBrush somewhere in the 3D tools box :)

Hi Shaun,

> So my real concern comes down to where to spend money on 3D software that costs $1000 or
> less and the rest on hardware. I forgot to mention I need to import DWG files some how.

The DWG import makes it quite a bit more complex, often times that particular thing is not a focus area for animation and poly modeling software. If you wanted something that definitely included that you could be looking at just Autodesk stuff.

Maybe something low cost like ViaCAD could work as a translator for that DWG part along with something else though.

From what you described for general poly modeling, rendering, and animation I'd guess maybe Modo or Cinema4D might fit.

- Michael

Modo is $995 and does most things out of the box. There are a few things missing compared with Max (Particles, proper hair, etc) but not much. Depends what you are going to use it for. Modo imports MoI objects perfectly.

WOW! For the heck of it I downloaded Blender 2.6. I have not seen Blender for some time and based all my assumptions on old information. The new interface is much nicer. It still does things in a bit of an odd way, but even after just an afternoon of messing around I think I could get use to it.

Even the internal renderer isn't that bad. It's better than Max's internal renderer. I tried Yafaray as well and so far so good. Don't know if this will be a "pro" option but I think I could crank out some paying jobs with it after a little learning.

The main problem with Blender is that unlike all other renderers that I am aware of it does not have the ability to import vertex normals along with polygonal data, which is a big problem when trying to render CAD data.

See here for some previous discussions on this:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5083.6
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4515.3
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4272.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4409.79

-Michael

I wouldn't class Blender's renderers in the same league as Mental Ray, which comes with Max.

It depends, Mental Ray is very good at reflecting and refracting. But anti-aliasing/sampling is pretty poor compared to other renderers. IMHO

For example if you have small details like whispy lines or cracks modeled into something you really have to crank the samples up so they don’t flicker during an animation.

Other renderers sample differently so it isn’t an issue. It all depends on what you’re doing.