CompuServe Messages

Bruce, Wavefront, at least, is an SGI package that is very expensive. However, what you can do with far exceeds LW capability in certain areas. For example, there are optional "data capture" features tied to the invers kinematics system, so that you can simulate a physical system in a 3D model environment, change some load and spring constants, for example, the view an animation of the result while generating data from various watch points on a structure. (At least the president of WaveFront told me this was possible). Another demo I saw, the had a segment of race footage – an S turn in an indy car track. They were able to acutaully build a "ray gun blast" that caused one of the cars in the filmed footage to, in effect, disappear right out of the footage in near realtime by some very easy to use moving matte/compsositing techniques. Then, in near realtime rendering speed they composited a cartoon car into the same footage. If you need accurate physical action, or very high end FX on short notice, LW cannot stand up to these packages. This is not a cut to LW. LW is adequate for 95% of the everyday andimation you'll ever need, and that percentage grows with each release. But, LW is also a 1-2 man effort whereas these other programs have whole departments that work on one feature set or sub-package (like the renderer, the animator, the modeller, the material editor, the kinematic simulator, etc). So, near-realtime rendering, especially in "draft modes", high end physical simulations, easy WYSIWYG compositing, gases, particle fields, etc. are what you pay for. And like everything in life, if you have the time and talent, a little extra work and Lightwave can save you money and still give you 95% of what the 'big guy' have (except the speed). wmc – via Autopilot!