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Greetings folks,

So both my wife and I want to try our hands at designing 3d models for printing, but we don't know what software is the easiest to use for learning as well as has the best support for advancing skills ("easy to learn, hard to master" comes to mind,). We don't have a printer as of yet, but a friend of mine at the FLGS is willing to print for us as long as we provide the resin. My wife is mostly interested in trying her hand at monsters, and larger representations at characters from books. For me: it's all about AoS and 40k proxies.

So what say you, oh wise and learned 3d printing community, what should we try to learn to use first?

Thanks in advance!

Free:
- Blender. it's a lot better to use than it used to be, there's ample tutorials and growing community. You can get industry level sculpts from it, but it'll take a couple extra steps to do so.
-meshmixer, which is more for frankensteining existing 3D meshes together, but has some sculpting capacity.
-zbrush core mini (which I have not used) but is a stripped down version of Zbrush and has more support than the discontinued Sculptris.


Paid:
- Zbrush, entertainment industry software, has monthly pay options or buy-once license for $900, sometimes you can get discounts for it.
Has a lot of bells and whistles and is what a lot of mainstream sculptors use these days. I advise watching tutorials, as it is not entirely intuitive to use at first.

- Autodesk Maya, another entertainment industry standard, though this is more hard surface stuff.

There are others, but these are the most common.

Blender, in my experience, is a user interface disaster. Way too many levers in way too many bizarre places, utterly frustrating, basically starting from a skill level of 0 I found blender just sapped my will to try.

Meshmixer is 1000% where I would start out. Shamelessly steal peoples' work using free databases like Thingiverse and tweak and sculpt and chop and screw to your heart's content in Meshmixer.

just be prepared to do a lot of 'triangle reduce' commands to keep your STL files from being sixteen billion gigabytes at the end of the day.

I agree somewhat with the_scotsman. I've started out on Blender, it being free and me being too poor for Z-Brush's $900 fee. Blender is a bit clunky here and there, and it doesn't exactly hold your hand when it comes to designing.

BUT. Blender has the advantage of being supported by a huge community on Stack Exchange, which I've found to be immeasurably helpful in getting going. 90% of my problems have been solved by a google of 'How do I [....] blender' and up pops a whole bunch of similar questions with (usually) just what I'm looking for. Or, just asking for help for what I'm stuck on. So far, I haven't observed quite the same level of community with Z-Brush (likely because I don't use it, but also possibly because many amateurs can't afford it).

Blender is good because you can do both soft-surface sculpting (aka organics, textiles etc.) and hard-surface modelling - armour, weaponry, vehicles. I'll not say it's easy to jump into, but a bit of perseverance and googling go a LONG way in getting to grips with it. Another benefit is that Blender is consistently being updated as an open-source program, and benefits from a whole range of add-ons (both community and official) to fill in gaps where certain functionalities are lacking.

The add-on you want the most is the 3D Tools add-on (Found in Edit>Preferences>Add-ons>Search: 3D Print-Toolbox. This add-on will provide options to run checks on your models to see if they are optimised for 3D printing. Not sure if the other software has a siilar function, but if you go for blender as a zero-cost start point, you'll want this straight away (and it'll stop your friend getting irritated with sculpts that are unsuitable for printing ).

Anyway, that's just a bit of perspective on my experience. I'm about 2 months into Blender (basically still clueless) - but I've still managed to knock out a printable design, and more in the works

Yeah, I also agree with the_scotsman - I tried Blender, only to stop a bit frustrated. I now use Meshmixer for the little bit of tweaking I do to existing stl files.

Also, do not discount the stupidly simple 3D Builder. I use this A LOT for separating, splitting, stretching, pulling, and the like. It also can quickly make repairs, reduce faces (complexity), etc.

 MDSW wrote:
Yeah, I also agree with the_scotsman - I tried Blender, only to stop a bit frustrated. I now use Meshmixer for the little bit of tweaking I do to existing stl files.

Also, do not discount the stupidly simple 3D Builder. I use this A LOT for separating, splitting, stretching, pulling, and the like. It also can quickly make repairs, reduce faces (complexity), etc.

^ generally I use a mix of this and meshmixer. I'm not looking to win any awards with my 3d design, I just want to diagonally slice the bottom of an imperator titan head so it sits flat, put a crater around its base, stick orky gunz out of every eyeball, and sculpt some damage and wires sticking out the back of the neck to make my own custom Bossbunka.

Probably a valid point there too - you have to assess what you're wanting out of it. I'm sculpting/modelling things from scratch, because I want to print what I imagine and much of what I want isn't being listed on many 3D print marketplaces. But if you want to learn some skills so you can remix other designs, or just moderately tweak them, then there may be other software which has a much less dense workflow and more accessible functionality.

Blender is often the Go too for most people because it is free. But free does not mean you will save money especially if your goal is to make a career out of 3D modelling beyond being a hobbyist. Starting with Blender can and will slow down your development as a professional. Whereas Zbrush is industry standard and you have access to the Zbrush classroom hundreds of hours of ready-made video tutorials in a step-by-step process by industry giants such as Michael Pavlovich

Free isn't always free as in if your time is worth money you will save money, in the long run, learning ZBrush it is easier to pick up and learn and is more suited for sculpting/modelling then blender.

Blender being animation software with a modelling suite tacked on.

It should be noted that most professionals at some point learn more than one software. I use three Zbrush, Blender and Marvelous Designer for cloth physic.

Some professionals will use four or more programs.

Other options include Solid Works for Cad-based software. I do not recommend Solid works or cad based software to sculpt miniatures alone.

All of the above software is better suited with an understanding of art fundamentals. And someone should start with that first.

Sculpting miniatures is an art form on it's own that requires insane amounts of study and trial and error to get correct.

Your best bet is to learn Zbrush first, after about six months to a year of study pick up the blender and study in parallel.

I offer lessons that speed up the progress of making miniatures and have a course specifically designed to help people start out. Including information that is not readily available or easy to find that will dramatically decrease the learning curve if you're interested and have had a few people complete the lessons and are happy with the results.

The only real currency we have is our time, so try not to waste it. Less time scratching your head equals more time for success, gainful employment, free time to do other things.

Below is a breakdown of the lessons that I offer for people starting out.

Module 1.

Lesson One- Interface settings, UI Zbrush, intro to sculpting.
Lesson Two- Sculpting brushes, intro to hard surface modelling.
Lesson Three- Modern Lego(how to merge multiple models to create a whole)
Lesson Four- How to lower polygon count for 3D printing quickly, and exporting for 3D printing. Understanding Topology.
Lesson Five - Lesson 5. How to overlay a 2D image to sculpt from. Dynamic Clothing.

Module 2.

Lesson One-Interface, UI of Blender.
Lesson two- Sculpting brushes in Blender, setting up a scene.
Lesson Three- How to import and export blender files for printing.
Lesson Four- How to use a slicer program Chi tu box to properly 3D print, mesh integrity, and duplication.
Lesson Five Update- How to size a 28mm base for your model and print. in-depth Q&A, additional resources.


"Well, I have already finishing module 1 and in my opinion it is a investment worth your time and your dough.

Being an absolute noob to 3D software and a total zero regarding artistic skills was a concern for me because I was worried I wouldn't be able to understand the mechanics innvolved and I would find 3D sculpting way too complex.

But actually it is not that difficult and the pace and focus of personalised lesson allow you to quickly learn and understand the basics. 3D software is mostly WYSIWYG and menus are not that different from your regular office suite, so you learn clicking buttons and seeing what happens. Lack of drawing skills is no problem neither because actually most work is made using fool-proof templates and adding your modifications, trial and error esentially

Evidently, mastering 3D is no done overnight and the module is not intended for that, is more like an affordable and easy gateway for you to understand how 3D tools work, what are the logical rules and parameters for 3D design and esentially provide you with a simple but solid foundation if you want to further develop your skills on your own. As any other skill, practice made perfection and once you have the basics it is up to you to see how far you go.

Thus, all in all, my experience has been good and I would reccomend the modules for anybody who has ever dreamed of doing their own customized models but is kind of afraid of even asking how it is made. " Review of a happy customer