Hello,

since i´ve read that there are better tools for modelling than the MED, i ask myself which tool to use. It should be a freeware solution, so 3dsmax isn´t a possibility. I´ve read a lot about blender, but there are also tools like wings3d or anim8or and because i´m not so happy about trying them all i wonder wether some of you could recommend one.
And how´s about animating? Herbby i thought of using the MED because i´ve found the bone animation quite comfortable, but Blender offers the same possibilities. SO i´m really wondering which tool to choose...

Best greetings, Thracian

i think med is pretty good. blender i would not recomend fore newbies. it's very confuse.
greetings
sam

wings for modelling (it' almost a free silo and much easier to learn than the heavyweight packages) and if you want smooth animations with IPO curves, you cannot circumvenit blender. or buy lw/c4d, but you wanted a free solution.

i do not recomment milkshape, it may look easier, but in the end it's too limited for hq content.

anim8tor has too limited export possibilities.

you can use the free XSI mod tool, it can export to x (direct import to MED), it's the editor the hl2 models were animated in, but it's hard to learn. but it's really worth the effort if you think about the hl2 anim quality.
http://www.softimage.com/community/xsi_mod_tool/default.aspx

OK, thanks, i give wings a try, but blender still interests me. it´s quite a difficcult decision since i don´t want to learn a tool i won´t need after a few weeks. The XSI modtool looks real interestin, but i fear it´s to limited since it´ mainly used for modding.
Are there any really good tutorials out there for character modelling with blender and wings? and not too heavyweight....

blender's by far my favourite tool, and ventilator's exporter works brilliantly and exports animations (bones or vertex) and skin.

the n00b to pro tutorial on their website will get u sorted quite quickly, especially if you've modelled before with other stuff. i went through a few, and then just looked up all the ones i didn't figure out on my own.

just my two cents

julz

Future version of 3DGS will allow for FBX import. Wings3D exports/imports this format, so I think its use will skyrocket once 3DGS supports it officially.

you cannot animate in wings3d, so you have to look into some other tool as well.

the XSI tool's only limit lies in the rendering resolution, all other things are fully functional. either use blender or this xsi tool, there's nothing better you could get for free or for cheap.

After all i thin i should learn to model with blender since it seems to be "the" tool - on the other side i will take a look at wings as well, but since Blender seems to be much more popular.

But i´ve one question about the exporter: JulzMighty mentioned an ventilator´s exporter, but i can´t find this on the web - google only showed me this page

ventilator's blender exporter it's really quite a valuable contribution, so i'll stick the link in my signature so it's always there.

julz