CompuServe Messages

<< The shaper/lofter is very frustrating. If I want to make something like a whale or dinosaur (that I can mold quite easily in clay, for example) somehow I have to precisely draw a series of cross sections and figure out where all the parts fit together.>> I think once you've learned to animate at Disney or on index cards or whatever, the most difficult part of making the 3D transition is learning to think in 3-D space; namely, recognizing the TOP for the top only, and any modifications to it will effect the model in limited ways. Before I used 3DS I was a stop-motion animator and did quite a bit in sculpting clay myself. It took a LONG time for me to learn to visualize objects in cross-sections and deformation shapes, and I still have a nasty habit of plotting everything on graph paper before entering the 2D Shaper. Have you tried (or heard of) Caligari's modeler for Windows, TrueSpace? It has the advantage of letting you model in "real space," that is, not limited to separate two-dimensional views. This is not a product I own, but I've played with it a bit and became accustomed to it much more quickly. I don't recommend you put too much faith in tugging on vertices in the 3D Editor. The result, unless it's a very subtle correction, is usually far too "deformed" looking to be convincing for any object. In any case, just hang tight until r5, I guess, or get ready to shell out another $300 for a release on a future IPAS disk.