CompuServe Messages

I've been using Real 3D for a while so I'll give you some of my impressions. First, Real 3D is a ray tracer only. No scanline rendering here. :^) AS such it's got a reputation for being slow. While it is a bit slow when doing maximum quality renders so is Imagine. If you want to do test renders or a bit lower quality anims (scanline quality) the speed is quite reasonable. At the higher quality render settings the results are as good as anything I've seen from Imagine or LightWave and the images don't require the endless test renders that Imagine seems to require to get nice results. Now the bad news: There are a lot of very advanced features and that makes for a pretty steep learning curve. It does things a lot different than the competition so experienced animators will have to unlearn some things. New users may actually have an easier time with it because they're not used to doing things the way the other guys do them. The interface is a bit confusing and could use some work but the program can be easily configured by the user to suit your preferences. The manual contains a lot of information but it takes some effort to dig it out. (kind of like the Imagine manual) It could also use more tutorials but apparently the tech support fellow is working on some. The more advanced features like gravity and collision detection seem pretty confusing to me but I have to admit that I haven't put much time into learning them. I've been concentrating on learning how to do nice still renders. If you're willing to invest the time learning it Real 3D is an incredibly powerful program, but I'd recommend havine someone demo the program for you before you buy it. Any specific questions about it?