Help on starting how to make abstact/renders What programs ?

Hi, I want to be able to design digital images and more but i have no idea what programs are used. Any input would be very much appreciated

Well, if your just starting out I would go with Photoshop CS or any of the Photoshops. If money is not a problem for you, Maya 6.0 or 6.5 would be a great choice too.

I think bryce does some pretty good things with abstract renders, and is much cheaper than paying $7000 for maya

Maya = EEK! If you don't have 60 hours a day to play with Maya and don't plan on taking a class then you will NEVER learn it. Well, that is my opinion anywho...considering in 3 hours I learned how to open and close the program and access the help menu....well I think you get the idea.

Adobe just released PhotoShop CS2 and if you have any sort of relation to schools then you can get a FAT discount on it. Look around on Adobe.com for it !

Also, once you get the program I suggest visiting pixel2life.com and looking through tutorials to learn how to use it!

Good luck!

thanks for the help guys

3ds max is good for nice digital 3D renders as well.

Yea, I know a lot of people learned on 3dstudio. I don't really do 3D work so I don't really bother with it...althought I would rather start with it over maya!

I love max, It is probably the best starting point, although I have nothing really to compare it to except for Rhino and (eek) blender.

Blender is a real good program, but I definately wouldn't start with it unless you have a punching bag handy.

Id like to try Maya one day, but for now max gets me by

I would recommend blender, as you can get a script for importing with maya files and more, if you are making models of humans then I would also recommend that you get make human as well. Blender also has a torque import function for use with the torque game engine and this can be found at the garage games site.

Blender ftw in my case.

A punch bag might be needed as this software seems to be put together by an artist and not a pure programmer. What I am saying is that some of the functionality is not intuitive. Other thatn that go for it.