You can purchase models through a variety of venues.
They can be sent to you on CD, or can be purchased per piece online.
Just do a search on 3D models with your favorite search engine, and a multitude of sites appears.
Besides purchasing options, model exchanges exist where folks can contribute the models that they have created and download other models that others have made.
Still other sites are simply model depositories where you can download the models at will.
Each model site has its own set of rules and legal restrictions, so be sure to read the fine print.
The key is, downloading a free model can save you hours of time.
Some diehards insist on modeling everything from scratch, and when working on a commercial project, this is probably a good idea.
However, if the point of an animation is the wooden dummy walking across the table and not the scissors in the background, it makes sense to spend your modeling time on the most important objects, and drop in the others like clip art.
When you begin modeling in a 3D application, the application stores the information in a special proprietary (special to that application) format.
Usually, these proprietary formats are optimized for the application you are using, which helps the model remain flexible as you mold and change it within that application.
However, this also means that you probably cannot open that proprietary model in other applications.
Most applications allow you to import certain model formats that were created in other applications, but there are a few formats that are fairly universal.
3DS files are 3D Studio files usually created by Kinetix's 3D StudioMax or some variation of that software..
3DS files are usually easily imported into most any 3D application.
DXF files are another format that is fairly universally accepted.
So, as you are looking around for stock models, keep an eye out for the file format, or you will spend hours downloading a file that your application cannot understand.
They can be sent to you on CD, or can be purchased per piece online.
Just do a search on 3D models with your favorite search engine, and a multitude of sites appears.
Besides purchasing options, model exchanges exist where folks can contribute the models that they have created and download other models that others have made.
Still other sites are simply model depositories where you can download the models at will.
Each model site has its own set of rules and legal restrictions, so be sure to read the fine print.
The key is, downloading a free model can save you hours of time.
Some diehards insist on modeling everything from scratch, and when working on a commercial project, this is probably a good idea.
However, if the point of an animation is the wooden dummy walking across the table and not the scissors in the background, it makes sense to spend your modeling time on the most important objects, and drop in the others like clip art.
When you begin modeling in a 3D application, the application stores the information in a special proprietary (special to that application) format.
Usually, these proprietary formats are optimized for the application you are using, which helps the model remain flexible as you mold and change it within that application.
However, this also means that you probably cannot open that proprietary model in other applications.
Most applications allow you to import certain model formats that were created in other applications, but there are a few formats that are fairly universal.
3DS files are 3D Studio files usually created by Kinetix's 3D StudioMax or some variation of that software..
3DS files are usually easily imported into most any 3D application.
DXF files are another format that is fairly universally accepted.
So, as you are looking around for stock models, keep an eye out for the file format, or you will spend hours downloading a file that your application cannot understand.
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