3dsmax. $3,000(US)+.

Hmmmm.......

Think I'll stick with free and open source.

Just noticed that their site doesn't seem to have a forum. Too bad.

POV-Ray - The Persistence of Vision RaytracerFreeware multi-platform ray-tracing package. Include software download, 'hall of fame' images, FAQs, documentation and resources.

http://www.povray.org/

Their Hall of Fame
http://hof.povray.org/

I used to have a RayTracing contest site bookmarked...can't locate it right now.
haha...Found It!
http://www.irtc.org/

Maya.....$6,999.00

Nevermind...

I downloaded one of those programs once, harder than Chinese arithmetic to learn!

Ok , think I finally got it....Geeze . And I actually downloaded it to be sure this time... I have 6.1 but this should be very close. It's a nice program, Vue is Top dog, but this would be a great starting point for anyone..

Bryce 5.5 (3d Landscape design software)

Free

Download here- http://www.download.com/Bryce/3000-6677_4-10696717.html

Gallery- http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/gallery?

Also the correct place to get your free serial # is- http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/breg55?

You have to register with them, but they have cool Sh*t so its not too bad, then log in on above link and your #'s there...Have fun.



I don't know Mikey,If I can figure it out...I'm pretty sure anyone can.

see Mikey, Thats not too bad.....

already got 'blender' 3D software, dont know how to use it downoading 'bryce 5.5' but server is crawling at 54 KB/s should be neerer 500 KB/s

Looks like Bryce would be for landscapes and then another program would be used to create buildings, people, etc?

But for skin, clothes, etc. are those then made in Photoshop and applied to the models?

As you can see I know nothing about this stuff. Never really looked into it after I tried POV Raytrace back in the early days.

Most people and clothing, buildings are made in 3ds max, then applied in Poser...If you have Poser there are tons of free models out there you can use.... http://www.daz3d.com/ has the most... also you can import 3ds, lightwave,cinema4d models in poser then add them to any background you want, or Import them to poser, render them and export them in current pg shader (photoshop format).Open in Ps and do whatever you want to em...
Bryce will also import poser models so you can add them to your newly created scene..very cool

anyone else looking at bryce, i found some basic start up tutorials,
http://www.petersharpe.com/Tutorials.htm

wow! very best bryce tutorials, was a paid course but now free, even the thickest newb would get a great start with thiese tut's.
my first project failed but i'm thicker than thick, i'll have to go back a few pages and start again
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/BryceTuts/BryceTutSet.html

I've done some stuff in blender, tutorials and stuff.
I chose blender cause it was free, and the size was dial up friendly.

hahahahahahah ! what oscar said !