oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Sad Max said:
I hope this is sarcasm...
It was a sad day when Autodesk bought Maya, but I'm switching to C4D anyway...I'll miss Mental Ray though...
Lightwave kicks over Maya, any comments
- Thread starter eureka
- Start date
I hope this is sarcasm...
It was a sad day when Autodesk bought Maya, but I'm switching to C4D anyway...I'll miss Mental Ray though...
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
Just making sure...
Now that C4D is getting VRAY support, should make it something worth looking at.
Might make up for losing Mental Ray.
At least I'm interested now that they will be offering that as a 3rd party option.
The new character animation tools look awesome, but they didn't say if they were animatable in the tutorial.
Joe C.
Might make up for losing Mental Ray.
At least I'm interested now that they will be offering that as a 3rd party option.
The new character animation tools look awesome, but they didn't say if they were animatable in the tutorial.
Joe C.
I use LW9 for occasional 3D needs. Alot of discontent lately among posters on Newtek's LW forum. If I was going to switch it would probably be Maya. More job opportunities.
I have C4D 8.5 Studio but it's so rediculously expensive to upgrade that I might as well spend a little more and get into Maya.
I have C4D 8.5 Studio but it's so rediculously expensive to upgrade that I might as well spend a little more and get into Maya.
Gord.T
Still "Senior Member"
I've just been playing around with C4d the past day and am seeing pretty fast results. Seems quite intuitive to me. Used 3dsmax till now ( 1/2 yr) . Tried Maya for several hours with no printable results. May look at lightwave when I get a chance.
Here's a link I found from a c4d artist. He's good with light. (real good)
http://www.3dluvr.com/carles/images.htm
Here's a link I found from a c4d artist. He's good with light. (real good)
http://www.3dluvr.com/carles/images.htm
Primary exception: television visual effects.
Maya's deep pipeline and programmability are great when you have a $12 million VFX budget, and six months to get it done.
Not so good when you have four weeks to turn out an episode, or need to build a five million polygon spacecraft.
Capt Quirk
Veteran
My first introduction to Maya, was in 3D design and animation class, and we watched the animated short Bingo the Clowno . I was blown away by the sheer coolness of it. That, and the fact that it totally creeped out my instructor. But we never learned Maya, just Metacreation's Infinty 3D... a program that was already dead. So much for a good education.
Lightwave still has a strong presence in film, as well as tv work. While max has had some penetration into tv, it's still primarily a game tool.
On 'Avatar' a great deal of work was being done in Rhino (followed by Maya, followed by AutoCad, followed by Lightwave and FormZ; max was nowhere to be seen, of course) - Rhino and Sketchup are the 3D tools I'm making an effort to learn, now. Well, Rhino requires some effort; Sketchup is practically self-explanatory.
On 'Avatar' a great deal of work was being done in Rhino (followed by Maya, followed by AutoCad, followed by Lightwave and FormZ; max was nowhere to be seen, of course) - Rhino and Sketchup are the 3D tools I'm making an effort to learn, now. Well, Rhino requires some effort; Sketchup is practically self-explanatory.
I had to drop my $.02 in here....
rogar-Thinking(DBG
I use Max, Maya, Autocad, Zbrush, Mudbox and an array of other 3D apps every week in the studio. If you have the talent, you will get the same result+/- in LW, Max, XSI, Maya or whatever 3D app your using.
There is no holy grail of 3D software. They all have advantages and disadvantages.
LW uses a brute force approach to modeling, which is good sometimes, and horrible others. LW was once the king of TV effects. It has a really clean renderer that processes lighting well. I like LW, but I dont know what the future holds for it.
Maya is great for the foundation of a custom UI. The big FX houses make their own tools this way. Turning out a project in Maya is slower than LW or Max. The default interface feels thrown together at best. The polygon modeling tools are poor compared to other apps. I think Maya has held on because of its foothold from the SGI days. Things are changing......
Max is the middle ground of 3D apps. I work with other studios and companies and Max is by far the most common/widely used app of the bunch. It has out of the box tools for TV, Film, DV and games.
The Max workflow is quick and straight forward (similar to LW).
It's my app of preference right now.... especially after the Maya buy-out.....but we will see what happens with that whole story.
The general opinion on C4D is that it is just a toy. I haven't been a part of any projects that use it.
Sketchup is becoming huge in the architectural field. Easy to learn and exports fairly clean models.
It's just software. If you want to have an edge, learn them all.
rogar-Thinking(DBGI use Max, Maya, Autocad, Zbrush, Mudbox and an array of other 3D apps every week in the studio. If you have the talent, you will get the same result+/- in LW, Max, XSI, Maya or whatever 3D app your using.
There is no holy grail of 3D software. They all have advantages and disadvantages.
LW uses a brute force approach to modeling, which is good sometimes, and horrible others. LW was once the king of TV effects. It has a really clean renderer that processes lighting well. I like LW, but I dont know what the future holds for it.
Maya is great for the foundation of a custom UI. The big FX houses make their own tools this way. Turning out a project in Maya is slower than LW or Max. The default interface feels thrown together at best. The polygon modeling tools are poor compared to other apps. I think Maya has held on because of its foothold from the SGI days. Things are changing......
Max is the middle ground of 3D apps. I work with other studios and companies and Max is by far the most common/widely used app of the bunch. It has out of the box tools for TV, Film, DV and games.
The Max workflow is quick and straight forward (similar to LW).
It's my app of preference right now.... especially after the Maya buy-out.....but we will see what happens with that whole story.
The general opinion on C4D is that it is just a toy. I haven't been a part of any projects that use it.
Sketchup is becoming huge in the architectural field. Easy to learn and exports fairly clean models.
It's just software. If you want to have an edge, learn them all.
I agree with most of the above.
Sketchup is also increasingly popular in production art departments, for its utility in rapidly laying out sets, dressing, props, etc and turning out both working drawings and nice, illustrative-looking renders (the illustrators around me are getting nervous...). If Sketchup was better at file interchange, it would be a much more useful tool; as it is going back and forth between LW and Sketchup or AutoCad and Sketchup or Rhino and Sketchup, is a minor nightmare. Since I'm joining the Technology Committee in a month or two, I'm gonna lean on those guys but hard, to make it more multiple-platform-friendly.
The observation that the same results +/- obtain, with adequate user skill level, across these platforms is mostly accurate. Especially since you can mix and match renderers to your heart's content (and your wallet's capacity) regardless of where you do your modeling.
but my heart belongs to Lightwave
Sketchup is also increasingly popular in production art departments, for its utility in rapidly laying out sets, dressing, props, etc and turning out both working drawings and nice, illustrative-looking renders (the illustrators around me are getting nervous...). If Sketchup was better at file interchange, it would be a much more useful tool; as it is going back and forth between LW and Sketchup or AutoCad and Sketchup or Rhino and Sketchup, is a minor nightmare. Since I'm joining the Technology Committee in a month or two, I'm gonna lean on those guys but hard, to make it more multiple-platform-friendly.
The observation that the same results +/- obtain, with adequate user skill level, across these platforms is mostly accurate. Especially since you can mix and match renderers to your heart's content (and your wallet's capacity) regardless of where you do your modeling.
but my heart belongs to Lightwave
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
This amuses me...I love how hardcore 3d artists in general like to pan software that doesn't measure up to purist needs (I'm not referring to you, Anim8, just making a general statement in response to your post, I understand you've never used it)
Anyhow, in my opinion, it's about the results and tools are just a way to get there. I cut my teeth on Maya, messed with Lightwave a little, and I'm now on C4D, which is my tool of choice for many reasons. I'd love to dive into XSI, but no Mac version keeps me away.
Capt Quirk
Veteran
And I just built a retro PC so that I can play with Infinity again 
If by "purist needs" you mean, the needs of people who are expected to deliver the requested product on the imposed schedule, then it seems to me that "purist needs" are worth taking seriously. That is, if you happen to be a person who is expected to deliver product according to a schedule, anyway.
Whatever "purist" means, anyway. The professionals I know have all mastered at least two, usually more 3D packages, not to mention the ancillary software that you also have to know, in order to be productive. Hard to be a "purist" while using multiple competing applications...
Yeah, and there's the proof of it.
I first saw a friend using C4D in what must have been one of its earliest iterations, several years ago, and I was very impressed with what he was doing with it. But it's true that - for whatever reason - it has not yet come to be widely recognized as a useful tool in the houses around here.
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
My "purist" definition doesn't really apply to the production world...I was thinking more along the lines of people who pan one software because it doesn't have some feature that their current software has. It's like the people who say Macs are better just because, that whole thing.
Anyhow, I definately understand the production aspect and that certain packages lend themselves better to that. Like I said, I started on Maya and I know where it's strengths are compared to C4D. I mean, C4D just started using a joint based rigging system whereas Maya has had that for a while. I'm no 3D expert by any means, I just use it to make what I need in the fastest, most creative manner.
Each has there on niche anyways, like it or not, C4D has been heavily adopted by the motion graphics crowd and it also enjoys the success of Bodypaint. I agree with your statement regarding multiple apps, depending on how Maya shapes up with Autodesk, I might dive back in that some day and I would LOVE for XSI to come on to the Mac platform, I've been itching to learn that. Same as Houdini, but that mostly out of curiousity.
oh, and I definately meant no offense to anyone in the production world, I use this stuff to make a living and I know what it's like.
Anyhow, I definately understand the production aspect and that certain packages lend themselves better to that. Like I said, I started on Maya and I know where it's strengths are compared to C4D. I mean, C4D just started using a joint based rigging system whereas Maya has had that for a while. I'm no 3D expert by any means, I just use it to make what I need in the fastest, most creative manner.
Each has there on niche anyways, like it or not, C4D has been heavily adopted by the motion graphics crowd and it also enjoys the success of Bodypaint. I agree with your statement regarding multiple apps, depending on how Maya shapes up with Autodesk, I might dive back in that some day and I would LOVE for XSI to come on to the Mac platform, I've been itching to learn that. Same as Houdini, but that mostly out of curiousity.
oh, and I definately meant no offense to anyone in the production world, I use this stuff to make a living and I know what it's like.