CompuServe Messages

I agree with much of your "rambling". Playmation was really plagued with bugs and crashes.. I was fortunate enough to complain to the right person, and get a free $25 bug fix/update. 3DS has always been very stable.. even an old 1.0 Beta version I saw years ago was solid. Have you actually used A:M or are you speaking from past playmation experience/ discussion? I'm very interested in someone doing a fair test of it in the "real world". There seems to be a real interest in it's proclaimed capabilities.. is anyone going to step forward and try it? Or will we just continue "what if"? I think it's around $800. About 1/4th the cash spent on 3DS and stuff, and probably 1/100th the cost of any other IK program around. I don't see this as a 3DS vs. Animation:Master thing, but more like buying two different types of hammers. Each one for a different purpose. There is some overlap, but really- they're different. Animation:Master is best suited for character animation, and 3DS really doesn't seem to do that as well. 3DS has industrial animation, architechture/manmade objects/logos/etc. down pat. Animation:Master is pale in comparison with those things. Some can be done with the other, but it takes more work. The question I wonder is if Animation:Master is good in what it proclaims in the real market. Is it worth the money to buy it, and the time to aptly learn something different? It's definately cheaper than any "competing" SGI software (which blows it away in price and performance), and I don't know of any other programs for the PC that claims to do good/easy/cost effective character animation. Basically, one must ask "Do I want to do character animation?" If so, how badly? And will A:M do it right? I don't doubt there is a market for it. (Please correct me if I've unfairly summarized 3DS' character animation ablilties. I know quality works like "Call Waiting" have been done, but I also think that it took a *ton* of work to do it and I don't think it would be very cost effective to do that alot.) Well, enough going's on. I'll step down and wait for someone to take a swing at it for the rest of the curious lurkers. Or will I have to do it first? I'm sure someone else's words would hold more weight.