#why 3ds
Man… all you'll get from anyone who's invested a fair amount of $$$
in a software package is biased, partisan gibberrish, so here's mine:
From what I've seen of it, Infini-D sucks. 3DS's renderer is the
nicest I've seen outside Pixar's full blown Renderman and a couple
other SGI based software packages'. I doubt 3DS' price will come
down, because it is not outdated technology (that's an easy slag –
get them to prove it), and it is the most powerful software for the
price. I don't see how you can compare Playmation to 3DS –
playmation is a toy. Promation is supposed to be a lot better, but
until I see solid proof (animations done by end users) I couldn't
say. The PC version of Real 3D (sounds like great vaporware, though)
is still in Beta, I believe, and I wouldn't buy an Amiga if you stuck
a gun to my head. The Screamer is a different story, but it's also
over $10K. One thing, though: if the PC Real 3D comes out as a
stable platform with spline based modeller and inverse kinematics and
a useable user interface, I'll seriously consider it as an addition
to my animation software library.
Ask your local Adesk multimedia dealer for a demo reel and a test
drive, then compare it to other packages (at similar prices).
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)