Just make it in Maya and then export it to one of the many, many, MANY formats Milkshape supports (I model with Rhino3D and GMAX, for example, and export in OBJ and MD3).

MS3D is the *only* program that will allow us to export models to FL's CMP format at this time... but almost nobody actually use it to make their models, as it's rather crude. So you must have MS3D... but as it imports lots of formats, you can model/section/skin with whatever you want to.

hmmmm,

I do almost all of my modelling in ms3d.. and dont find it cumbersome at all, I guess immersion has taught me something, it's not even primitive.. and I do wish ppl would stop bagging it.. in terms of purchase price - 'bang for your buck' it more than fulfils, I have been told that the interface is cumbersome .. but I learnt to model using it.. and after all we create 3 dimensional objects in 2 dimensional space, a polygon is a polygon and can be bent, folded, divided, mutilated etc.. and milkshape does all these things.. and is generally a low polygon modeller.

Now I also am 'learning' Max5 and at times I find that while Iachieve what I set out to I have to learn a whole new series of commands and I find I go back to 'comfortable 'ol milkshape' to finish it off.

Harrier


Retreat[![! ---- I'm too badly messed up now[![!

I find Milkshape's interface cumbersome and counterintuitive. I can't believe that you still still can still only barely manipulate the mesh in the 3d view, there's no threshold vertex join and selecting specific vertices it way more difficult than it needs to be.

If it wasn't for the fact that it's the only way to exort .cmp's I wouldn't use it at all.

That said it does cover a wide range of gaming formats so in that respect it's a great tool and many swear by it (I suspect they haven't tried anything else though).

I use Metasequoia to build my models then 3ds Max for the UV maping and polishing and once the model is complete I export to .ms3d then export to FL

Metasequoia is a brilliant modelling program. Manipulating the mesh is a breeze and the interface becomes intuive in a very short time. Once you master it though you can easily pick up a lot of other modelling progs so as a learning tool it's excellent. In addition it can handle very large models (I've handled models in excess of 100,000 polys but there is some slowdown) and it rarely crashes.

The main drawback is that all the documentation is in Japanese and the export options are limited (i use a plugin for Max to import the native .mqo format).

It all comes down to what you're comfortable with though .


Edited by - PantherX on 3/9/2005 8:18:04 AM

Then I got you all beat by using Max 7 for all my work
EDIT: Welcome to the community

Photoshopper / Render Artist / 3d Modeller / CGI / Animation / Sig Creation

Edited by - Alpha_Leader on 3/9/2005 9:59:49 AM

Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that MS3D sucks. It doesn't suck- I use it for all sorts've things, mainly file-conversion and low-level model fixing (the mesh cleaning tools are very welcome). And it allows me to do some texture work that's hard to do with my other software, such as really big tilesets (I have a tileset that's 256X256 @2048 in WOS).

At any rate... whatever you're good with is whatever you're good with. MS3D is often what people who're into modding get good with, and my comments weren't meant as a diss- I should've just said that I prefer something different