3D Made Easy - by oji zerobyte

OK the title sound a bit cheesy. I'll think of a clever one in the next post.

Meanwhile....
I'm trying to do a 3D primer for beginners. Just for fun and simply because i want to muahaha. And I'll be going to discuss bits & pieces, tips & tricks, tutorials, muscle-show or whatnots in multiple postings starting ....now.

Intro
I know a lot of would-be 3D artist or designer wanting to do 3D gets put-off by the complexity in 3D apps. Well, it IS complex. IMO (in my opinion), 3D is the highest form of digital artistry one can try to achieve - atleast technically. But then again, 3D can form your imaginations & dreams in a very realistic (or surrealistic) sense . So, that signifies complexity needed both in the applications AND usage.

Anyhow, all you need to get started is:

1 - a computer good enough to run things smoothly, obviously.
A good gaming PC would suffice. Bare minimum you need Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, 1GB RAM, and an Nvidia or Ati gaming video card. That's it. Ofcourse it could help TONS if you have latest rig like Intel Core2Quad, 4GB fast RAM, Geforce 9xxxx series GT 512DDR3, Raptor 10K hard disk...ok I'll stop. You get the picture.

2 - a 3D package of your choice.
Despite the myth that noobies believed, ALL the major apps are equal in ability - 3ds max, Maya, XSI, Lightwave - "the big 4", you can't go wrong with any of them. Secondary apps like Cinema4D, Carrara, modo, blender (free) are catching up fast and pretty good too.

3 - Dedication, Time and Coffee (or equivalent).
No lie here, you need a lot of Dedication, Time, and Coffee for learning 3D. Atleast a steady supply of either one for 3 months would suffice to get you on the right track.

Once you've sorted above 3 points, you're good to go, which prompts me to end this part and start thinking of a cleverer Title for next post.

Until then.....*sips coffee*

PS: the image at top of page was an old test render I did while testing out Brazil R/S new version at that time (1.2). Rendered with 3ds max + Brazil R/S v1.2 renderer. Spiffy isn't it? Well you can do it too if you drink enough coffee :)