3d modeling and animation

Hey guys,

I m a new user who has just been transfered from windows platform to linux . Some might say LINUX is much more powerful than windows in 3d graphics production. i still didnt get it , i m a 3d studio max and maya user and i havent found a software on linux that has the capability of the two softwares (3dsmax and maya) i mentioned above.

I know linux has its own benefit as how inexpensive is it from windows and gotta tell u i really enjoyed using it but i cant find the right softwares for my work (i m looking for linux version of 3dsmax or maya).
Since each man has to try out himself first , i have tried out some of the softwares only in them i have found moonlight3d a little according to a studiomax prespective. otherwise a famous software POV-RAY was recommended from a friends but i cant understand it. where Blender takes to much time to learn( i wish i will learn somday). rightnow only moonlight3d is something( for those who hadnot checked out moonlight3d it is a software quite like a mixture of 3dstudiomax and lightwave3d and can be found at http://www.moonlight3d.net ).

So please any kind of reference or advice or any sort of tips from respected linux users is appreciated.
Also i want to know that which is the best linux distro. out there, till now i have found mandrake quite good. there is a pole in the end to check the best distro for graphics purposes( software bundles in them).

Thanks
Abdullah Tahir Khan
Pakistan

i doesn't really matter, but i would probably say gentoo, cuz as far as i know it is finely tuned and configure (by you of course) to run as good as possibly on your system. if you want something fast though without all the configuring, try yoper

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it doesn't really matter

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It will be the program you use that matters. Take a look at Blender. Its a good program. I use enlightenment on White box using Blender and Gimp. Take a look at this link, many programs http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/G...ng/index.shtml

There nothing in Linux that is the counterpart to 3D studio max and Maya. I have used Blender for several years and it's an amazing program but not really in the league as those 2.

The Gimp is a graphics editing program that is a good counterpart of Photoshop -- but that wasn't your question start with so..

Well gimp does have a animation pack so it does apply. Plus I can import some really cool things. Also on linux movies they have some really good links for you to check out.

Um... Maya has a native Linux port, why not just use it?
I said Gentoo, since if you do a stage 1 install, it'll be really fast, and the added customization means you could set more graphics related stuff.

im a new linux user.
i had been using 3ds Max in windows, and had the same problem when i moved to linux.
I now am learning to use Blender i must say it is very weird when you come from 3dsmax but if u get acquainted its real fast to model. (not as powerful though)
But then i found a maya version for linux. It even came in rpm and installed flawlesly in Suse 9.2. the only problem is that my linux distro uses alt key to move windows around, and so i cant use alt in maya which really sucks.
But besides that Maya 6 unlimited works perfectly in linux.

redhat has pretty good graphics, but ubuntu is in my top slot, it actually uses my SiS630 to its highest potential and i get 3D :)

I'm using the ubuntu live cd right now and I Absolutely love it. I also want to install programs like maya as well. How was the installation? If I can get maya to run on Ubuntu then, I know I've found the right distro for myself :D

How much does that linux version of maya cost?