#Lenzfx
Aaron, I can say (from using the LenzFX beta) that your optics package is going
to be one of the most valuable tools a 3D Studio animator could have in their
toolbox. The flares package provides control and subtlety beyond what LW, EIAS
and even Alias (yup) offer, and the hilight and glows are going to push
people's creativity as far as it's ever been pushed with 3DS. But my favorite
part of the package is the depth of field control… I've had some experience
with the Wavefront Composer DOF system (this is the closest thing on the market
to the LenzFX DOF), and your way of doing autofocus is much more flexible.
There are always some inherent physical differences between doing things via
scanline rendering instead of with raytracing, but since raytracing takes about
an order of MAGNITUDE more time to compute, any production animator would take
the scanline method ANY DAY OF THE WEEK, or they'd starve while waiting for the
program to finish rendering.
I'm anxiously looking forward to your shipping the package, because I can't
wait to see the work coming back from 3DS animators using it! (I've got a
feeling that LenzFX-style effects are going to be a big assist for anyone
trying to get their work into the '95 3DS Siggraph reel.)
– G