#Particle FX
Jim,
>>>On the networking, does Lantastic connect to Macs?
In the company I work for, (for another 3 months <g>) they also have a
Lantastic network. Plus a Cannon Laser copier w/Fiery. The funny thing with
Fiery is that it connects _ONLY_ to Macs… and they have none. So the solution
was fool the Fiery that it connects to one by installing two networks on one of
the machines: regular lantastic that connects to everything else (no servers
involved), plus Lan for Mac (I think it also is Artisoft, but will have to
check). That second piece of software does translation of PC files to Mac and
vice versa (we use it only one way). So I suppose this is one way to connect
Macs and PCs into a single workgroup.
>>>So, until he adds the ability to have the rendering app dominate the
machine, the PCs are a better value, for rendering.
There might be an exception to it… It is Windows that can see more than 32
megs of Ram and I did have some high rez projects that my image maps exceeded
that. When this happens Dos renderer stips the maps down — Windows keeps on
going having access to all 128 megs and although slower it finishes the picture
(who cares if it takes 10 or 12 hours anyway) <g>
>>>I just like the Mac environment better! >>>> fluid interchange of graphics
from program to program…
You should think twice about this, since it is Corel that beats all the Mac
programs in this area — imports full resolution (I tried up to 90 megs) CMYK
Tifs, exports great cookie cuts, can save any shape as AI, DXF, TrueType or ATM
font character and so on… No 3D program can match the kind of control you
have in Corel for creating shapes. Via DXF, you can use it effectively as a
basic shape modeler. Neither Illustrator or FreeHand can do that. If you add
TrueSpace's interactive mapping and lighting features you can test a lot of
"what-ifs" in a very short time.
I do understand what you mean by "better environment" though — it is one of
those preferences that is almost impossible to see as subjective. I have
something simillar with Corel — tried hard to work with Designer,
ProfessionalDraw, Harvard Draw, FreeHand, Illustrator and Canvas — they just
don't cut it for me.
Pawel