CompuServe Thread

Hi Dwane, do you know some Plug ins for 3DS, most help i need is the modeling. I worked some years on high modified Amigas, with Imagine the modeling tools there are real good. But im think in 3DS are not enugh, or should i use AutoCad build my models. Or do you know a real good prog. to build models. Sorry my misserable english but i started to learn it 8 weeks ago. Thomas

>>I stated that I was surprised by the number of people who use 3DS that put down Lightwave but have _never_ used it Perhaps my statement was more of a gripe than I'd origionally thought. My 'anitiChrist' reference was a bit extreme, but but I had intended it to be an illustration of the amount of disbelief shown towards me when I state my preference to Lightwave users. I posted that because I did feel it was a valid counter to your above statement, and to show that the prejudice is not limited to the 3ds side of the camp. Perhaps it would have been less offensive and less 'touchy' sounding if I had said (insert Homer Simpson's voice here when he was Are these the types of productivity limitations you are refering to?describing how low his snow plow rates were),'they look at me as if I was suffering from brain damage' with a :^) on my face. >>Are these the types of productivity limitations you are refering to? No; when I had the opportunity to regularly use both, Lightwave was on an accerated '030, and 3ds was on a 386-40; fairly closely equivelent in terms of power to me then. I was most easily able to bring a project through from start to completion, in almost all design phases (modelling, lighting, materials, etc.) in 3ds than in Lightwave. I made my purchase decision some time later, and it was based on what I was more productive with. >>Did you model the dragon entirely in 3DS? All save the head; I was unable to get an acceptable head (your statements regarding 3ds and organics are quite correct :^), and used Winblob to model half the head, and then brought it in as a dxf for final editing/tweaking. >>I'd be interested in hearing how it was modeled (I'd guess with Fit to Shape) Actually, no (although I did do that for my second dragon, this being the third). I'm in the process of creating a tutorial for some people who've asked. Basically put, I set up a path 'spine' divided into the correct # of points for the neck, tail, and body sections, created a base body shape cross section (containing two seperate polygons for the upper and lower body parts), switched back and forth 'tween the shaper and the lofter, and basically scaled/shaped the body sections based on sight. I then lofted a low path count/low shape count object, and used thee slice.pxp to create a hierarchically linkable skeleton, and then used the skin.axp w/the Catmull-Rom spine option (as opposed to B-Spline option) to create the smooth skin. >>how do you have the lighting set up in the TRBLDR.JPG file? That was a fairly simple setup. Had a spotlight above, a attenuated yellow-orange omni w/a 3* for the fireblast, and two attenuated peach colored omnis w/a .4* beneath to simulate light reflected from th planet; the fire omni tended to wash out the others. The cliff/lighting dragon was more complex; it had 5 omnis, 5 spots, and used all lighting options including projector and negative lights (except traced shadows). The lighting isn't perfect, but I prefered that version to the 'perfect' one. >>I am fairly young for this profession, only 20. Gosh, your making me feel old :^) (27).I started 3d after a couple of years freelance illustrating in Jan. '92, so I'm also fairly new at this myself. The job I mentioned/described is my first in 3d; had it for about a year now. >>Where do you feel is the best place to post them? I'd guess in the Gfx Users Group forum (I think it's GO GUSGRA; someone correct me if I'm wrong); they have a Lightwave section that should pick up substantially when 4.0 is released. John Stetzer JWS