The Toolbox Mentality
Every artist needs a toolbox.
3D Studio Max is the best 3D Software available today. I like to use its modifier stack to iteratively create models non-destructively. It’s age isn’t a negative either; thousands of developers have created plugins and add-ons for Max that are still updated to this day. It’s flexibility is unparalleled; I’m able to use it for my video game side projects while paying the bills with it as a visualizer at an architecture firm. 3D Studio Max can’t be beat.
Modo is the tool that everyone should use, hands down. Have you seen how quickly Warren Marshall can make props on his YouTube channel? I love that I can easily jump between procedural tools and mix them up with direct cutting tools, and the beveling in Modo is the bees knees. It’s so quick with UV’s too, it’s absurd. You’re leaving a lot on the table if you aren’t using Modo. That’s what my college professor said anyway.
Maya is the king! It animates like a pro and only crashes once a day. If you spend the time to learn MASH, it’ll blow you away with what can be done. Plus, it’s easy to UV! Unfolding is automagic, and it’s so painless to lay everything out for texturing. It talks to Mudbox so easily too and that’s key.
BLENDER BLENDER BLENDER!! It’s free!
Generalized Quotes from every 3D Artist at some point in their career.
I work with generally inexperienced students when I’m teaching my college courses. Most of what I teach are introductory classes that aim to give students a baseline understanding how what 3D models are, how they function, and a basic set of the numerous tools and operations that most 3D modeling tools allow for. Since most are inexperienced, their minds are often blown away by how easy it is to change the shape of a simple cube, but because of how obtuse the interface of some of these tools can be, there is often a pause or hesitation before they allow themselves to dive in. Once they do, unless they take the time to branch out and try other tools out for themselves, they are almost certainly going to fall into the trap of creating what I call an Exclusionary Toolbox.
Yes, I am part of the problem and I hope to be a part of the solution.
The Exclusionary Toolbox, or ET for brevity, is a phenomenon where beginning 3D artist fall into the trap of working in exclusive tools. I typically see it as an aversion to learning a brand-new tool or workflow, especially if the changes are fairly alien to the student. While lower level classes can sometimes be overcome while using an ET, higher level courses and large projects often require students pick up new tools with potentially minimal guidance. This can lead to friction on the team, throwing the project into mayhem.
This issue isn’t unique to students, I and many others suffer from blind spots in our toolsets as well. This is often due to how careers unfold. In my case, I learned Unreal 3.0 and Zbrush early on and on my own. That biased my own software selection choices later on in my career; I focused mostly on Unreal Engine portfolio pieces and actively avoided learning too much of Mudbox when I first started teaching under the pretense of “Zbrush is the industry standard” (note that this was and still is correct). Those biases helped to some degree; Zbrush is now a core part of my curriculum and my entire Post WB Games career has generally revolved around the use of Unreal 4. While I have actively attempted to round out my toolbox in the last few years by learning Blender and diving deeper into Substance Designer, I still have a large set of tools that I don’t use, including the popular Quixel toolset consisting of Megascans and Mixer.
Correcting the tendency to employ an Exclusionary Toolbox isn’t terribly difficult. It first requires a shift in mindset from “these are my tools and I will use them for all tasks no matter the fit” to “what is the best tool for the task at hand”. Simply reframing your production process will open up your willingness to try something new.
As a personal example, I’m presently working on an Unreal 5 project. It’s a way to ramp up on the tool and play around with the new technology. Part of this project is finding ways to modify or adjust how I work, including what tools I use for what stage of production. Blender is still fairly new to me even after a few years, so I’m intentionally using it for most models. However, I’ve found that it’s selection tools make UV’ing dense, decimated meshes easier than I expected. It’s UV tools are also quite fast when working with models above 250K triangles. In comparison, Maya’s UV tools, which I often find superior to Blender’s overall, are usually not as robust on dense models. However, my speed with Maya’s modeling may mean that in a real production environment, Blender and Maya may swap roles for me.
For students or beginners, I would strongly encourage that you think about where image editing tools like Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, or others can argument your workflows. Texturing wholesale with Photoshop is very outdated in 2021, but using it as an augment to Substance or Mixer is exceptionally important. From generating alpha masks to placing text to using very specific processing tools and creating custom brushes, Photoshop and it’s relatives have a place as a texturing tool to this day.
Finally, know that it is rare for one tool to truly be better than another. 3D artist forums and Discord Channels are hot beds of tool trash talk, and it can be fun to engage in that from time to time. I enjoy letting others know how much fun I have in Blender these days! But, do not let it impact your choice of tools for a given job. While affording every 3D tool is out of the reach of most, and knowing how to use all of them effectively would frankly be a colossal undertaking, having a secondary tool like Blender, Mudbox, or any other alternative for your specific job is wise. I have a multitude of baking tools on hand and occasionally xNormal still comes in handy.
My dad’s toolbox in my family garage was often a mess. Between a hodgepodge of flat head screwdrivers, mismatched wrenches, and boutique tools that were purchased for very specific purposes, it was often hard to find the exact tool you were looking for when needing to change a simple light switch. But the tool was there, buried underneath all the ratchet sets and nut drivers you could imagine. He had a tool for nearly every situation in that toolbox, and while he mostly used screwdrivers and inch based sockets for most of his car repair needs, there were plenty of times that he broke out the millimeter based sockets or odd tool that I had never seen before. He didn’t debate which tool was best, nor did he say he would work with only imperial based socket sets. He used the tool that he needed to get the job done. So should we all.
Gametextures would like to thank Upsplash for the stock imagery used in this article. Artists include Todd Kent and Zachary Kadolph.
