Which software please ???

Hola,

This is my first contribution to the Forum and it
starts right away with my problems.

But I hope that you find my newbee adventures
halfway amusing so that you are willing to read it.

I spent many hours, indeed nearly 4 weeks now,
in search for the right software, with no result so far.

First I installed 123D from Autodesk. It works fine
but it is not fully useful for my planned "endproducts".

It followed Sketch-Up from Google. My impression
was that it may be is good for engineers and architects,
but I plan to work with organic, round forms.

I tried "Proteon" from Tactum Corporation. It
was not starting on my PC. Then I installed Blender,
it works very stable but I could find only very
outmoded manuals for it, which had few or no
similarities with the downloaded version 2.61
Blender however was not removed from my PC.

I installed another monster: Autodesks "Mudbox 2012",
this took many hours, it has 400 MB, only to see
on the start of it: "Mudbox requires a CPU that
supports SSE3." Grrr! Again: Removed the software.

And Z-Corporation-s promised trial-download never
arrived. I mailed their support 2 times to ask why no
download-mail came in. The team around Sculptris
has never answered my 2 mails. I do not know why.

Beside: I am a little scared by these big software
monsters, since what I would love to do is little
sculptures, 40 centimeter high and 25 centimeter
in diameter (width). Light, coloured figures quite
similar to the paintings of Joan Miro, - so to say.

What should I try, can you recommend to me?
Mudbox or Claywork sounds good in my ears.
A kind of digital claywork, I think, could eventually
be better for me than superlarge animation software
packages for game-developers or the cinema-people.

Right?

Maybe not. I really have to learn a lot, I know it.

But since I will invest so many hours, weeks and
even months in the future - this early decision is so
important that I do ask you for your help instead
of wasting the time with maybe the wrong software.

I would very much appreciate your comment.

With the kindest regards from Portugal and a hope
for an answer from an experienced user out there

I remain

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to Shapeways!

Sculptris is a good piece of software for organic modelling. To get your download link you will need to enter your details and proper email address, they send the link out in an email - it may be that your emai got stuck in a spam filter. I'll PM you with a link that might work.

Paul

Blender still does well. Even the tuts from outdated versions will teach you the basics. Once you have them down, you just need to learn the 2.61 interface.
I have seen great models here even created with the 2.49 version. The later versions, with add-ons allow more possibilities.

Paul,

thank you very much for your help.
My email-address (privacyharbor)
is leading all incoming email into
something they call snap-box. So
it is unlikely that the mail with the
software-download-link was lost
in that system. Yes, they (ZCorp)
write it themselves that one should
look into ones own spam-box. But
there could be nothing and there
was nothing.

Worse is that they did not answer
my mail. Indeed, two days later I
sent a second mail to them which
remained unanswered as well.

I did thought by myself that this
might be the right thing. So I will
try again to get Sculptris with another
mail address.

May I stay in contact with you?

Have a nice weekend,

Regards, Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Check your Shapeways PM's (link on upper right on any forum page) - I sent you a link that should work for downloading Sculptris direct. It seems that the link sent in their email is a generic link and not coded to any particular download request.

Paul

Fredd,

thank you for your interest. Maybe a technically
more outwitted brain like mine could learn Blender
from an PDF-Manual that explains in its first
chapter from Menus (screenshots) that have
nothing to do with the appearance of Blender
2.61. I tried it two times but my capacity to abstract
from technical advises is not that of an engineer.

To say it frankly: You could cave me into a prison
cell and leave me with this PDF and a PC with
Blender on it and explain "You are free once you
can shape your organic forms with Blender,
based on this PDF-Manual". - It would be a life
sentence for me. Ok? Do not take it personal.

With kind regards,
Thomas

i really think that sculptris is the way you should go... i have been a user since before it was owned by one of those big companies...

if you are interested in learning blender, which i am a big advocate of, you should try you tube... just do a search on there and i know that you will be satisfied... there is even a sculpting module to blender that might satisfy your requirements...

chris

Hola Christopher,

oh yes, Sculptris is the perfect software for me.
However, until 2 days ago I could not download
a trial-version of it since my emails were not
answered by Pixologic. But I received Help.

My question for the right software is closed now.
This topic can be closed, it is resolved.

I do not need to search any longer. I am VERY happy.

BIG Thanks to all the people here at Shapeways for
helping me up to go myself. Thank you, thank you!

Thomas