Point me to a good starter program

[Lil Chillbil]

I am just looking to get into sudo/3-d graphic design with logos and things. and would like a free program for mac/pc that is dumbed down enough like imovie was when I was first getting into film and like iphoto was when I was first getting into photos.


anything you guys would recomend

 

[12dylan34]

I am just looking to get into sudo/3-d graphic design with logos and things. and would like a free program for mac/pc that is dumbed down enough like imovie was when I was first getting into film and like iphoto was when I was first getting into photos.


anything you guys would recomend

Blender is free, but it's not that easy to use or learn.

Cinema 4D is not free, but there's a 3 month free trial (though you can't save), but it's really intuitive and easy to learn.

Neither one of those are really "training wheels" programs like you asked for, but I don't know of a training wheels program that works similarly to the pro level stuff.

Out of those two, I would highly recommend Cinema 4D. It's generally regarded as the "designer's 3D program," and is the standard for motion graphic design. I went from knowing nothing about Cinema 4D to using it at a professional level (at least enough to get a job as a motion designer) in a little under 3 years. If you choose to take that route, GreyscaleGorilla is a great site to learn Cinema 4D.

 

[fig]

Blender is the most capable free app out there, you can do a whole lot with it but it's certainly not a quick program to pick up.

You might check out Wings3D (polygon modeler) or Sculptris (3d sculpting app), mentioned in the thread here) for general 3d dabbling.

http://www.wings3d.com/

http://pixologic.com/sculptris/