Buying 3d Applications for persnal use

[N1ghteyes]

Ok I have been looking at getting myself a 3D application. Mainly 3D max due to this site!

How do I go about buying it?

firstly I am a student in my last semester of none art related course, so i could buy the 13 month pack thing for £80. But I would idealy like to have a perment licence.

So 3 questions, 2 of which are a bit dodgy :S (looked at the rules as none of these are asking for warez i think its alright)

1) Where an I buy 3D max none student licence and how much?
2) Is it possible to keep renstalling the demo indefinatly?
3) Do most people just torrent it so the can learn the program?

Lastly a question on blender.

How easy would it to be to follow a 3d-palace 3d-max tutorial in blender.

Thanks

Nighteyes

p.s. If question 2 and 3 are a bit dodgy just tell me and I will delete them.

[olblue]

They are not really dodgy as its a question and not a request - there is a lot of piracy in 3d applications and its not something palace supports or endorses in any way though - regarding your first question though Discussions on piracy are not tollerated except to say, no we do not approve.

Go to Autodesk - 2D and 3D Design Software for the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Manufacturing, and Entertainment Industries and there will be a student purchase for 3ds Max on their site - you will need probably a letter from your tutor or similar - its been a while though so I cant remember off the top of my head. Usually it costs $100 and you can use it for whatever you like as long as it is personal and learning based.

[N1ghteyes]

Thank you olblue.

You can get sudent software from http://www.journeyedeurope.com/

I have bought pro-enigneer from they with just a scan in of my student card. I am pretty sure I can by anything I wnt from there with just my student card.

Do you know were you cn get a none-acedemic version of the software?

Thanks

[ragupasta]

This is a reseller locator feature here, use it to find one close to your postcode.

Autodesk - Reseller Center - Locate a Reseller

[N1ghteyes]

Thank you ragupasta.

I am aware of that tool, Have been going though the websites so far not found an online site that gives a price.

Was kind of hoping someone could recommend a website in the uk.

Probably should have said that in the first place..


WoW just found one website

Buy 3ds Max 2009 3D Software from Escape Studios

commercial license is £3000 ish.... omg!!!

is there nothing in between student and commerial?

[N1ghteyes]

Well I think I have found the answers to question 1 and 3.

1) costs a bomb ~ £3000
2) not sure
3) Everyone not a student, get given it by work or loaded has torrented it.

I am not really into downloading things illegally, not cause I thin its wrong just that I know how easy it is catch people. And I dont wanna get caught cause some stupid law says it is illegal

So that leaves blender! So my final question is how helpfull do you think 3D-palace 3D-max tutorials are for blender users?

Thanks for all the help

[InProgress]

To help you with your last question, every tutorial, be it for Max, Maya, C4D, Blender, etc can be done in another application if the user has basic knowledge of what the tools do in the application of his choice.

[Mach Crit]

I personally did the CRUX weapon tutorial with Blender and it turned out quite nicely. Of course, I have been using blender for over a year and I can translate since I am used to the interface and I just see what he is doing and apply the same with whatever blender has that is the closest. You can see my WIP in the WIP forum under CRUX Weapon.

[TwiiK]

Unlike tutorials from sites like Gnomon which, mostly, show profesional workflows involving 4-5 applications the tutorials I've done here on 3d-palace are pure modeling tutorials which I think can be done in any application as long as you have a basic understanding of the tools at hand.

If you're using 3ds max you can just follow along, but if you're using for instance blender you need to know where the different tools are, but when you know that I'm pretty sure you can do any tutorial on this site with ease and get more or less the full value of the tutorial.

Also, a certain tool may not be present in the application you use, but there will always be another way of achieving the exact same thing.

Also, there are perpetual licensed student versions of 3ds max avaiable as far as I know. They usually only cost about 10% of the full price, but a little bit more than the 13 month student version.

Btw, I've been learning some blender lately and there's no doubt in my mind that blender will surpass 3ds max in nearly all aspects of 3d in a couple of years. What 3ds max has going for it at the moment in my mind are the plugins. Blender is evolving at an extremely fast rate while max barely changes from year to year.

[sandmanninja]

Get the Education version of 3ds, if you plan on using 3ds in the real world.
It's pretty damn cheap and the ONLY limitation is that you're not allowed to make money off the renders from it.
As far as I know, there is no watermarks from the Student version.

I'm still in the school of thought where you should learn the app that you hope to use in the real world.
Do you plan on using Blender in the real world?
I can google "3ds jobs" and get quite a few hits.
I cannot say the same for Blender.

Blender is a good app - I actually bought the paper edition of their manual just to show support for them. (~$40)
And yes, the overall process concept is the same, but (I feel) it is NOT the same as actual experience using the program and it's interface.

I know photoshop really well. I do not know Gimp at all. I therefore do not put Gimp on my resume.
If you make great models, render them, put them in your portfolio, get an interview and then tell them, "I did not use Max - I used Blender" they will have to compare your years of Blender experience against someone who has 3ds Max experience.

You have to consider workflow also. If you have experience with 3ds, then they can drop you in the midst of their workflow.

"Bob, we're going to put you in Texturing. Fred works with Barney and they do Concept/Pre-Vis and Modelling. When they get something, you start getting it textured. Ralph over there will start getting it rigged. Then George will start laying out the Animation."

But if you have to LEARN the interface and the particulars of a different program other than Blender, than you don't fit their pipeline. You can to learn the program as well as learn how to work in a team environment, how files are stored on their network, how to get the textures from the server to your workstation, etc etc etc

But that's just me.