#3D modeling
John,
I actually don't care which program is better in the future. I will
continue to use which ever better fits the particular project I am
working on. If r5 blows Lightwave away, great. Heck, if Real 3D
becomes the PC equivalent of Power Animator, fantastic. I will use
what ever program suits me best. One thing for sure is that the
release of Lightwave on the PC will better the entire market, and
possibly turn it on it's ear. Who knows what animation program will
reign supreme at the end of next year. Maybe we'll see an under
$1000 r5<g>. Actually that wouldn't suprise me a bit. For the near
future at least, the $600 Lightwave will be competing directly with
the $3000 3DS. If I had to pay for one of the programs out of my own
pocket I know which one I'd buy. I finally received my r4 upgrade
yesterday. With the exception of the IK, I am less than impressed.
Leaving out the patch modeler really hurts. If the Lightwave upgrade
is as good as I am hearing, things could get interesting. Do you
know if the r5 upgrade will be out after the standard 1 1/2 years?
If so, it will probably be competing with Lightwave 5.0, not 4.0, yet
another twist in this bizarre tale.
I disagree that 3DS has better color richness and depth. I know 3DS
uses a 64-bit color palatte, but I would never have known by looking
at the output. The only area I have noticed 3DS is better depth wise
is in black and white gradients. I usually only use procedurals for
water and to dirty up objects. The rest of the time I use image
maps. Image maps tend to actually be sharper and "deeper" in
Lightwave. Side by side comparisons talk, not memory. I'd wager
that If I had access to your dragon mesh and textures I could make
them look better in Lightwave without spending much more time than
you did. The lens flare IPAS module you referred to is meaningless.
If I can't put it on my hard drive it means nothing to me. Also I
don't doubt that 3DS can nearly match Renderman's output. I
completely agree that the programs output quality depends on the
skills of the animator. Off the top of my head I can think of 6
Lightwave users that combined couldn't animate sludge.
BTW thanks for responding to the guy who wanted to know about the 3DS
IPAS modeling enhancements. I lost the message and by the time I
retrieved it you'd answered him. You know alot more about modeling
in 3DS than I do, so it's probably better you answered him.