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- first off let me qualify by saying that I am one of the bigger Lightwave
- advocates around. in fact, i am currently putting together a proposal for
- for the Miami branch of Univision, a large national Latin network, which
- consists basically of P90's and Lightwave. Their department is all Mac
- currently and they are inclined to buy PowerMacs along with Electric Image and
- Alias Sketch. thankfully, they like my work enough that they are willing to
- listen to what i have to say and hopefully i can convince them to buy
- hardware around the software I suggest they use (i.e. Lightwave). BTW, Lee S.
- if u know something about a PowerMac version of Lightwave that has yet to be
- disclosed I could really use the info as there are Lightwave sales resting on
- it. You have my word as a professional that I'll zip it up.
-
- Anyways.... With all that said I want to say that I have no platform bias,
- whether that refers to hardware or software. I obviously have my own taste and
- opnions as to what is better or worse, but that won't keep me from using a
- tool that i find essential to my work. With all THAT said, i want to relate
- that i saw a comprehensive demo of 3ds4 at a friend's studio a couple of days
- ago. now mind you that my proggy of choice is lightwave cuz i have never used
- a 3d proggy that is anywhere near as accessible, logically laid out, or
- productive to work with than Lightwave, but 3ds4, as almost every other 3d
- proggy, has its own merits.
-
- Since i've been so long-winded so far, i'll not go into heavy details. we can
- leave that for follow ups. i was very impressed with the IK module. not only
- is it logical and complete, but all the while u are working on a shaded preview
- of u're object and in darn near real time (on a P90 with an 2mb Vram Mach64).
- in the "layout" portion of the program u can assign different colors to the
- wireframes of different objects which helps a ton when trying to visualize
- complex scenes. u can also run the "layout" in phong, gourad, and flat-shaded
- modes, at reasonable speeds. the "surfaces panel" is a dream. in lightwave u
- pick a limited region adjust parameters and render. in 3ds4 there is a row of
- about 6-8 spheres at the top (or cubes if u like) and all the surface options
- are underneath. adjust a parameter and the ball updates. having a bunch of
- spheres next to each other is absolutely fantastic for comparing different
- surface settings.
-
- in summary (whew, u all still there?!), i would never recommend 3ds4 over
- lightwave 4, but i have to admit that there are some things which are very well
- implemented in 3ds4 and i can only hope that lightwave 4 brings them to my
- screen as well-implemented or somehow better than they exist in 3ds4.
-
- Angel Freire
- Digital Artists Guild
- Founding Member
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