Hi.

I decided finally to learn to make 3D art for the sake of my IE modding (yes I know none of my mods ever hit release but hey it's still great hobby for me ). I'm interested in area art creation, from furniture to houses, from city buildings to caves... the thing is, I know nothing about 3D modelling so at this point I had to choose what software will I learn to use. There's that 3DMax stuff which is apparently used by majority here, and there's Lightwave, which might be harder to master but have a remarkable charm of a software vanilla BG was created with. Don't think I had a time to learn both of them so I'd like to ask you an advice - which utility should I stick with for IE area creation?

3ds all the way. there is not much it cant do 3 types of modeling, lighting, materials, animation. I'd recommend max 6,7, or 8
I think bg1 was made in 3ds (at least parts were rendered in 3ds)

Here's how I know about Lightwave in the first place

well what do ya know some modeling was done in lightwave cool.
I am not sure but could lightwave texture at that time or just make the models.


sounds like you are leaning towards lightwave, pick whatever ya want but no one here can help you with lightwave.

if you are still undecided look for tree plugins, look for the best tree plugin and see what you need for using that plugin

Not quite so I would rather pick 3ds as I know it would be ten times easier for me to master, it's just that I'm asking myself: "Hey, they were real developers, surely they were aware what was better for they game to draw in and made they choice based on some educated conclusions, even if they're unknown to me!"

I am not sure why you would think you could master 3ds, let alone 10 times faster. no offense but I have been at it for a number of years and I have not 'mastered" it yet.

Hey, I wasn't saying that I could just pass by and became modelling grandmaster!
On the opposite, I meant that mastering Lightwave would be even more harder than mastering 3ds for me, as hard as it is, given lack of easily available to D/L tutorials and scanned books

ah I see.
well the recommendation still stands, 3ds is a complete package, many tuts out there, speedtree the best* tree plugin works with 3ds, and we can help if you get stuck.

or
there is lightwave
actually if you go with something other than 3ds look at maya

*one of the better looking tree modeling programs with the fewest poly count.