Lightwave kicks over Maya, any comments

In one of my earlier posts, I gave a link to a 5-10 minute short done in Maya. If you have never seen Bingo the Clowno, I recommend it.
 
Me, a LW guy, and I haven't even seen it yet! Maybe I'll hit the rentals this weekend...

I usually don't comment in these "this vs. that" package threads. I've only used Bryce and LightWave so I can only comment on those. All I know is you use the tools you need to use get the job done; within the deadline, budget, and quality. (You'd never know my day job is in the public sector, would ya?)

Another recent movie that was mostly LW is "Sin City".
 
Raptor365 said:
Being a noob I need to know what areas I can make a buck in, where
I'm wasting my time and what these apps can really do.
And everytime I hear that a certain program was used to do a movie I cringe because that does not mean anything. Unless something like the article provided by Greggl accompanies it.
Or at least an explanation of what role the program played.
Some are used just to model for example.
Click to expand...

I agree with Raptor totally here. In no way was my previous post trying to contradict what he's saying. I just wanted to show that LW has some real power under the hood. Especially for $799 USD!

EDIT: I just looked up HD Instance, the plugin the dude mentioned for doing crowds? $149.00 USD.
 
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Greggl said:
hehe... 'mostly lw' :)
Click to expand...

Yeah? So what's your point? Do you have a point?

Never used Photoshop to create a texture? You haven't used After Effects or similar to composite several elements together? 'Spose you've never needed Avid or FCP to put your shots together in one show? Well I guess your movies don't have sound then since 3D apps do it all?

Gimme a break. Just thought I'd part your hair for ya. I read the artice you linked to about the Miller Man commercial. Great spot, but let's see... Maya, Massive, live action, motion capture, proprietary code, Flame, and those are just what they mention.

Kinda funny how they used mo-cap to animate the Miller Man as well. Seein' as how character animation is one thing Maya is supposed to be famous for. Hmmm... Oh well.

And now, to quote oneinfiniteloop... to each his own... and I'm done.:beer:
 
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Err... you kinda made the same point I did.. only with more words :)


'Mostly' is way misleading... tons of applications get used on projects. But lets
also be honest here, we're talking about an app with a RAPIDLY shrinking
market share and dwindling user base. Apps come and go, I've buried more
than my fair share... Softimage (Creative Environment through 3.9), Vertigo,
Gig3d, Wavefront's Advanced Visualizer, Alias PowerAnimator...got my start
with Explore, right before TDI bought em. Spent a lot of years
using Lightwave and was on the SGI beta for it.

Its a great app for the money and a decet tool for a project studio... still,
its a bad career move to spend too much energy there unless you really
want to limit your options.
 
well, at fxguide.com you can read articles about making vfx in the biggest productions right now, and about tools and techniques. I usually find maya as a tool, but lw is not common there...
 
One of our illustrators here just picked up a copy of Modo, which might (might) be described as Lightwave Done Right - it's produced by the some of the same people who created Lightwave for NewTek, then got fed up with NewTek and went out to develop it themselves.

Chris is very impressed with it (he's primarily a Rhino driver) and at some point when there's time I gotta sit down and have a look, myself...

Arguments over which app is better, in a production process, is kind of like draftsmen arguing over which tool in their kit is the best - Triangles! Triangles rule! No, you heathen, Drafting Machines rule! What? No! Protractors are where it's at! etc etc etc
 
I would equate it more to musical instrument... one can play 'Johnny B Good' on
a piano or an oboe or a guitar... lots more work for the piano and guitar players
out there :)
 
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