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What programs do you use???

Discussion in 'Formats & External Tools' started by luhjgh, Jul 11, 2011.

  1. luhjgh

    luhjgh

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2011
    Posts:
    128
    I am wondering what programs people use.

    I use Zbrush (or maya occasionally)
    And GIMP.
     
  2. sawfish

    sawfish

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Posts:
    314
    Unity 3

    :p
     
  3. U7Games

    U7Games

    Joined:
    May 21, 2011
    Posts:
    943
    you could do a poll :p

    I´m entirely free software, blender, gimp, unity free, audacity, lmms... i have no money :)
     
  4. luhjgh

    luhjgh

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2011
    Posts:
    128
    I also use Audacity.
     
  5. U7Games

    U7Games

    Joined:
    May 21, 2011
    Posts:
    943
    Is very good, has some good filters and easy to use.. :)
     
  6. luhjgh

    luhjgh

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2011
    Posts:
    128
    Yeah.
     
  7. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    I use:

    Photoshop CS5 64-bit
    Carrara 8 Pro 64-bit
    Blender 2.58a 64-bit
    Visual Studio 2010 Pro
    Poser Pro 2010
    Sculptris Alpha 6 (although currently eyeing Mudbox 2012 or ZBrush 4 at this point).
    Unity 3.3 Standard Edition

    My budget for software licenses is approx. $700/mo., so realistically, a Maya or Max license would have been out of the question for me, so I went to DAZ and Smith Micro for some of the software, although I also do have Bryce 7 Pro, Hexagon 2.5, and DAZ Studio 3 Advanced, I still feel that Carrara 8 Pro and Poser Pro 2010 have the right features for Unity asset creation in and of themselves. We shall see how these tools go as I move along.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2011
  8. Don-Gray

    Don-Gray

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2009
    Posts:
    2,278
    Wow, with that kind of a budget you could probably save about $500 a month for long enough to buy a Max license,
    I would think. But, you would know your own situation.

    I use Adobe Master Collection CS 5 (mostly Photoshop and After Effects)
    Max 2012
    And Unity 3.3
    All 64 bit but, Unity.
    (hint, hint)
     
  9. makan

    makan

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2011
    Posts:
    342
    Didn't heard of GIMP what's that?
    i use max, zbrush, mudbox, revit, motion builder, face gen,... photoshop, after effect,...
     
  10. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    Well, I would have thought about a Max or Maya license eventually, but since I was looking at getting into modeling in the short term, the tools I posted were good for getting my hands dirty right away. Also, there are professional tutorials on Carrara from Infinite Skills, I believe, and 3D Buzz was also working on Blender tutorials, and Photoshop CS5 hasn't changed THAT much since the 3D Buzz vids on those...so I'm pretty much set on getting into this.
     
  11. EISOBAX

    EISOBAX

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2011
    Posts:
    641
    3ds max, its expensive, but its worth every penny
     
  12. Son Kim

    Son Kim

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2008
    Posts:
    22
    I use:

    Modo 501 - for modeling,painting/textures,baking and sculpting
    3DCoat - retopology(mostly)
    Sculptris - sculpting 3D concept
     
  13. Don-Gray

    Don-Gray

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2009
    Posts:
    2,278
    There's a 30 day free trial (most likely Maya too) so be sure to run that first,
    don't spend that kind of money just because others (like me) like it.
     
  14. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    The only time I used Maya was when Alias was still around, and they were still offering the Personal Learning Edition. Now that Autodesk swallowed up Alias, and kissed the PLE goodbye, I decided for a cheaper alternative in Carrara 8 Pro, and I also have Hexagon and Bryce 7 Pro, and those do integrate well into each other, and DAZ guaranteed native support for Unity, so I believed them, and haven't had TOO much trouble yet, but we'll see.

    Of course, I always have Blender 2.58a on the side as a precaution, in case something doesn't work well under Carrara, but I doubt that would be a problem.
     
  15. Caffrey

    Caffrey

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2011
    Posts:
    22
    I use Max 2011, Photoshop, After Effects (for certain things like 2D fire effects eg), Audacity and of course Unity :). Nice to see someone who also uses Poser. Although I do find the interface a tad clunky, the sheer diversity of the characters you can create and the huge variety of quality assets you can obtain at a decent price from the Daz3D site, make it a really worthwhile tool and I think it's underrated.

    Wedgebob, how do you find Daz3D to use? I downloaded the basic framework from the site but haven't got around to using it yet, largely because (as far as I'm aware), there is no decent plug-in for export into Max and, despite being slightly unstable, PoserFusion handles that job for me nicely. I've not actually tried anything with Poser and Unity yet because of the huge polycounts on characters, but how does Daz work for you?
     
  16. U7Games

    U7Games

    Joined:
    May 21, 2011
    Posts:
    943
    i can imagine the videogame production is really expensive since we must to buy a good computer, (better if a mac?), then softwares are really expensives,.. well friends.. i have a simple notebook and all my soft are free, ... and if unity becomes available for linux.. i can get ubuntu again on my machine hehe;D

    so, my game production cost is only US$ 400 how is it ? ;)
     
  17. Tysoe

    Tysoe

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2009
    Posts:
    577
    You don't need that good a computer these days, though it does help for baking advanced lighting solutions. I have a 6 year old Mobo, 5 year old CPU, 4 year old GPU and Audio card. Most expensive parts are probably the fancy case and bluetooth keyboard and mouse lol.

    I Use 3ds Max 32 bit
    Photoshop CS5 32 bit with Wacom Intuos2
    Win7 Ultimate 32bit
    Unity 3
    Ofusion Pro for Ogre3d (Commercial Exporter)
    OgreMax (Commercial Exporter)
     
  18. Redbeer

    Redbeer

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2009
    Posts:
    402
    I "have" a lot of software.
    However, what I've come to actually use is pretty limited for 99% of what I'm actually working on.

    Unity 3 with just the built in Mono Editor and so far just Strumpy Shader Editor as the only plugin I've used more than just to test it out. I may add the blender metamorph plugin to this soon.
    Adobe Photoshop for simple drawings and concepts and "maybe" some texturing or a fix here and there.
    Adobe Illustrator if I feel I need 2D orthographic references to model something.
    Blender for modeling, texturing, rigging, animating and export.
    ZBrush if I need special alphas, or for high resolution sculpting (this doesn't happen much for what I'm actually working on, but I do like to go in and create something now and then, mostly for fun).
    Xcode to dump to the iPhone.

    I haven't decided what I'm doing for sound quite yet, the choices are:
    Use royalty free.
    Pay someone.
    Cobble something together in Garageband on my Mac.
    I'll probably end up with a combination of all three.

    Realistically I could get by with just Blender, Unity, XCode, and royalty free music online, but the other stuff adds some convenience.
     
  19. the_motionblur

    the_motionblur

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2008
    Posts:
    1,774
    Photoshop CS5 64Bit
    Unity 3.3 Free Version
    Cinema4D R12 Visualize
    ZBrush 4
    Topogun

    Sometimes:
    Blender
    Illustrator

    I have a few more but I don't use them on a real regular basis. Those are my main tools of trade. The rest is either open source, old or bundeled software.
     
  20. Z31NA2T

    Z31NA2T

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2011
    Posts:
    43
    Unity 3.4
    audacity
    Blender
    Paint.NET
     
  21. darek

    darek

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2011
    Posts:
    9
    Gimp, Blender, Audacity, Mac: Xcode, Linux: Kate (standard KDE notepad), actually whats the point to mention about Unity3d ;) It's obvious (?)
     
  22. ivanzu

    ivanzu

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2010
    Posts:
    2,065
    Audacity
    Unity3D
    Blender
    Gimp
    Genetica texture editor
    UnityScript editor
     
  23. Ryoni

    Ryoni

    Joined:
    Nov 16, 2010
    Posts:
    11
    Unity3D
    Maya 2012
    ZBrush 4
     
  24. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    Unity3D Basic 3.4.1
    Photoshop CS5 Extended
    Carrara 8 Pro
    Blender 2.59
    Sculptris Alpha 6
    Visual Studio 2010 Professional w/ ReSharper 6
    Poser Pro 2012 and DAZ Studio 4 Pro (yes, both)
    UVMapper Professional

    Keep in mind that I listed these as an update to what I was using over two months ago, since there have been changes in versions and/or editions of the same software. You can also add DAZ Studio 4 Professional to the mix, since there are things in this that Poser Pro 2012 doesn't do in terms of exports and/or animation features.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2011
  25. Akta

    Akta

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2010
    Posts:
    119
    C4D R13
    Unity3D Pro 3.4
    Adobe Photoshop CS5
    Adobe After Effect CS5
    Audacity
    XCode 4.2
    CrazyBump

    That's pretty much it on my Mac Pro dual quad-core with 8GB of RAM and 1GB of VRAM.
     
  26. CoatlGames

    CoatlGames

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2008
    Posts:
    773
    for game dev related stuff i use my mac book pro so everything i use is for OSX

    this is my toolset

    unity(obviously haha)
    monodevelop
    idraw
    pixelmator
    sketchbook pro
    cheetah3d
    soundstudio 4
    garage band

    cheetah 3d doesnt seem to be mentioned much , but it deserves more attention.. it works flawlessly with unity

    overall less than $300 dollars worth of software :)
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2011
  27. TehWut

    TehWut

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2011
    Posts:
    1,577
    Unity 3.4

    Blender 2.59

    Gimp 2.6
     
  28. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    Yeah, I'm working on hopefully dumping Sculptris for a full-blown Zbrush 4R2 license by Christmas, don't worry...
     
  29. QFS

    QFS

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2009
    Posts:
    302
    Modo 401
    Lightwave 10
    ZBrush 4
    xNormal
    Photoshop CS2
    And unity of course ..

    I might start delving into the freeware like Blender/GIMP/etc over time, seeing how very pricey upgrades add up over time for software.
    But its hard making the switch since I'm used to using all of these tools for so long ... so I'll probably wimp out and end upgrading the tools I have. LOL
     
  30. donzen

    donzen

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2009
    Posts:
    54
    3ds max
    Photoshop
    NDo (a must have Photoshop plugin)
    Zbrush
    Sculptries for prototyping
    xNormal
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2011
  31. CoatlGames

    CoatlGames

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2008
    Posts:
    773
    or people over here have loads of spare money to spend it on $3000 dollar software or more than one in here is using pirate versions hehehehe
     
  32. donzen

    donzen

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2009
    Posts:
    54
    What programs do you use???
    Stay on that question. :D
     
  33. Farfarer

    Farfarer

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2010
    Posts:
    2,249
    modo 501 - Modeling, unwrapping, retopology, baking, texturing, sculpting.
    Photoshop CS5 - Texturing, GUI.
    3DSMax 2011/2012 - Animation, FBX exporting.
    ZBrush4 - Sculpting.
     
  34. McDev02

    McDev02

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2010
    Posts:
    664
    Aren´t there enought Topics like this in the World (Wide Web) ? :)

    Adobe CS 5 Production Premium (Student)
    - Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth
    Maxon Cinema4D R11.5 Modelling, UVing + Textureing (Bodypaint)
    xNormal Texture Bakeing and Photoshop Filters
    Unity 3 Free
    MeshLab Topology reduction and other functions

    Microsoft Visual C# Express

    I am also messing around with Autodesk PLE Versions like Maya and Mudbox
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2011
  35. saymoo

    saymoo

    Joined:
    May 19, 2009
    Posts:
    850
    Missing a few things here.. e.g. in what do you make the animations? how to optimize your zbrush mesh to be import ready into unity?

    etc etc....


    Anyway, my main list:

    Blender (anims, modeling, baking, sculpting)
    Gimp, Fireworks (webgraphics), inkscape (texturing, gui designing/painting, etc etc)
    Audacity (sound editing)
    Cubase5 (with diverse plugins and libraries) music composing/producing/arranging
    Windows7 64bit (for running cubase and fireworks and Unity)
    Fedora 15 (for running the rest, plus some more non game related stuff) as VM
     
  36. Polymer T.Bolder

    Polymer T.Bolder

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2011
    Posts:
    7
    besides Unity we use consistently:

    Adobe Illustrator (for all cartoon artwork)
    We use the artsheets for fastt texture-export into unity. The textures keep vectors until they are exported into unity. So we keep a lot of flexibility.

    Adobe Photoshop (for fast edits and detail)
    Highly detailed textures e.g. for detailed skinned meshes.

    Adobe Bridge

    Mantis Bug Report

    Blender 2.5
    Sometimes it is hard to find a certain button, a setting or a good answer, but in the end blender was always a very handy tool. It was great for Django West.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2011
  37. g00niebird

    g00niebird

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2010
    Posts:
    281
    Unity 3.41
    Blender 2.59
    Pixelmator 1.6.7
    MonoDevelop
    OS X Lion

    I always wonder about people who expect the software they produce to be paid for, when they use stolen software to produce it.
     
  38. kashhatton

    kashhatton

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2011
    Posts:
    13
    On OS X
    Unity 3.4.1 Pro with iOS Pro
    Cheetah3D for modeling, animation etc
    Photoshop CS5.5 Extended
    Autodesk FBX converter
    Illustrator CS5
    Blender for the occasional task

    On Windows (via VMWare Fusion)
    Urban PAD
     
  39. terminal205

    terminal205

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2011
    Posts:
    259
    Maya / MotionBuilder (Max when I can't avoid it)
    ZBrush
    Unity (free)
    Photoshop
    After Effects
     
  40. sasha001

    sasha001

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2011
    Posts:
    4
    I use 3D Max and Maya for animation, they got the best tools....
     
  41. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    Going to add Zbrush 4 R2 at the end of my list by this time next week, hopefully, if things work out right.
     
  42. SaltSlasher

    SaltSlasher

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2011
    Posts:
    43
    I am a starter game maker:

    Built PC- 965BE, 560 Ti, Vertex 2 and 8gb 1600 c7

    Unity 4.2(latest)
    CS5 Master with Student Discount- I use Photoshop, Fireworks and After Effects so far
    For my website MS Expression, Flash and Dreamweaver

    *Maya
    *3DS Max

    Daz Studio 4-They had it for free, the 50$ version about a week ago.
    Blender-Just got it and I like it

    *MS Visual Studio and Expression

    *If your a student, Autodesk offers their entire lineup for free, and so does Microsoft. Adobe has great deals, but not free.

    https://www.dreamspark.com/Default.aspx

    http://students.autodesk.com/


    For those who are using free software, if you had a choice, would you use Maya and 3DS Max over the others, if it weren't for the money?

    Also, what music programs is everybody using??

    I got Ableton Live with Novation LaunchPad and Novation SL Mk2 49 Key, and Line 6 UX2 and BX5a Studio Monitors
     
  43. JohnPapiomitis

    JohnPapiomitis

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2011
    Posts:
    21
    you cant use the autodesk student versions for anything commercial, so its a matter of if your going to end up buying or not. If you dont ever plan on doing that then might as well go with blender from the start
     
  44. ivanzu

    ivanzu

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2010
    Posts:
    2,065
  45. WedgeBob

    WedgeBob

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    Posts:
    122
    This is true. While I do have the student version of Maya, Max, Motionbuilder, etc... I usually only use these until I can afford the commercial license, which may be at least a good two years worth of saving up, if I'm good about it. Otherwise, ones that were in my budget come from DAZ 3D (Hexagon, Carrara 8 Pro, Bryce 7 Pro, DS4 Pro, etc...), which may hold me until I am ready for 3ds Max (my ultimate goal). However, I do have Photoshop CS5 Extended and Zbrush 4 R2 which were in my budget, so can't complain on the sculpting and texturing end of things. Could I have went with Modo or Lightwave over the Carrara/Hexagon combo? Perhaps, at least Modo and Lightwave don't require that $500 fee to use content made through those for commercial use in games...but to each their own.
     
  46. athomield

    athomield

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2011
    Posts:
    119
    Maya
    Zbrush
    PS CS5
    Unity 3
     
  47. athomield

    athomield

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2011
    Posts:
    119
    thats exactly mine xD
     
  48. SaltSlasher

    SaltSlasher

    Joined:
    Sep 11, 2011
    Posts:
    43
    I do understand what you are saying, and I chose the Maya and 3ds Max because the University Teachers told me that is what we will be using. Plus my research says that they are the best tools money can buy, which is a good and bad thing.

    Also if I decide to build a game company, I would assume that I would make more than enough to buy all the products that I use to build it. Obviously I would need buy them before I publish, but that is why I am making a complete business plan with in the pre-production of my games. So i know exactly what I am going to do and how I am going to do it.

    I am still in a pre-production/Learning process, for all i know, I will love Blender more and use it on all my games.


    For music I am looking into Pro Tools or Logic(if i decide to get an Mac Computer).
     
  49. Sir-Tiddlesworth

    Sir-Tiddlesworth

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2011
    Posts:
    908
    I use:
    -Blender
    -Gimp
    -Open MPT

    Free software for the win!