** SOFTWARE Help / Advice **

Okay, few questions here:

1. I've been looking for an application and I've been impressed with poser 5 and 6, mainly 5 cuz it's cheaper, but 6 has got some goodies on it. I have NO experience in 3D art, just 2D. But I recently found this free download called DAZ/Studio. I was wondering if it was smarter to go and buy something, or to download the free one, cuz poser seems to have more on it. I'm looking for something to completely create my own pics and animate as well.

2. If I choose poser, would it be better to go with the cheaper 5, or go one step further and go with the more expensive 6?

3. Lastly, if I go with the free download does DAZ/Studio have those rooms to import pics of people's faces to map onto your figure?

 

Well, I just went ahead and downloaded blender. Man, that thing's confusing...

 

I have tryed to dowload the Republic Attack Cruiser EP3 (Venator) for max7 but when i try to import it or open it it says cant open file
and the file type is .ace so how can i open it

thanks Elias

 

.ace is similiar to a .rar
It a archieved file

Open it with winace

 

Anybody who has any experience with Animation:Master? I'm wondering how this compares to some of the more well-known softwares? Is it easy to use? How good is it? etc.

 

What version or what type of 3d max you guys use to make spaceships?

 

I started out with Animation: Master, and I have to say that I really hate it. It's not even as good as Blender which is free. It has bugs that are terrible, it can't do UVW mapping, just regulare projection mapping. Modeling is the slowest process ever(you have very few tools and generally have to place every single vertex yourself) Rendering is slower than any other program known to man. It has very few controls, Global Illumination is impossible Rendering looks terrible. For example, the shaded version of 3ds Max looks about as good as the renderings in A:M. The motion blur is completely messed up--In all I would have to say that the only thing good is the Lip Sync part, where you can just set up animation targets and name them the right names (Q,W and all that) and then it allows you to type in what words you want to say and it'll animate it for you. But everything else sucks. Save yourself some money and some grief, switch to 3ds Max or Blender.

 

You really don't want to buy Animation Master.
The bugs in the new versions take forever to eliminate.
The only support you get is from the forum that is managed by the owner, who happens to be a control freak!
Anything that doesn't follow the we love AM mantra is deleted, not to mention anything about bugs.

Customers are treated like parasites!!

AM users are very defensive about the software.

If I had it to do over again, I would have invested the hours and time in 3ds.
My mistake.

 

hey folks! I had a quick question and was hoping someone could help! In 3ds max 7, is there a tutorial somewhere where it tells you how to record video (like the project I am working on) or how to render a short clip of an animation you just made? I would use my 3ds max book that came with the software but my buddy has it at school and I can't get it back right now. Any help you all can give me would be appreciated. thx!!

 

Go to render, click Active Time Segment radio button. and then it'll be set to render out the entire timeline. Go down to Render Output to change the file type and where you want to save it to. You can also preview your animation (Without rendering, just as shaded or whatever) by going to Animation at the top and clicking Make Preview, then it'll just go through the timeline and make a file in the preview folder in the program folder that's called _scene.avi and once it's done with that it'll automatically open up the file.

Also, if you don't have the manual with you, there is the User Reference and Tutorials already installed on the computer, just go to the help menu.

 

thanks viper for the info! And i completely forgot about the "help" on the disc! it was all right there! thanks again!

 

Too bad I already bought Animation Master before I saw these answers.
I really haven't used it much until now. I'm considering switching to another 3D software. Isn't 3DS Max very expensive?

 

Yes----Unless you are a high school or college student, as a student you can get REALLY good pricing on 3ds Max (Even better on Maya).

3ds Max 8 Full License-$594.95
3ds Max 8 1 Year License-$154.95

Maya 7 Full License(Complete version=minus the cool plugins like hair, fluids and other stuff)-$288.95
Maya 7 Full License(Unlimited Version=Every single part of Maya included-for every computer platform)-$368.95

Those are prices from Studica.com all you have to do is give them proof that you are going to a High School or College and then you are elligible to get those prices. And--As you can see, you can save quite a good amount of money, especially on Maya, which regularly costs like $6,000 and 3ds Max which regularly costs like $3,500. That's why I thank GOD that I'm currently in High School and that even next year I'll be in college and still eligible, all I had to do was send them a scan of my student ID card and I was eligible.

 

That seems like very reasonable prices. I'm a student at a Norwegian University so I can only hope they accept me as a student. Thanks for the tip anyway.

btw
At student price are the programs full versions? (no features disabled?)

 

Yes, they are full versions---nothing disabled--although I don't think you can use it for comercial projects (Projects where you could make money--like for a movie studio). Since your in an international country, you should call them and see if it counts for international customers too.

Call 1-888-561-7521 and ask them or you can email them at support@studica.com.

 

Thanks!
I expected that they can't be used for commercial projects, so that's no problem. Would making animated short films and submitting to festivals be legal?

The price seems great, I mean Maya Unlimited for $368.95! The normal price for that is $6999! That's incredible!

The only question now is wether I should buy Maya or 3DS.
My main use will be to make animated short films (and maybe some pre-viz for other projects). Any suggestions? What is generally considered to be best?

 

There isn't really an absolute opinion on any 3D application that is considered the best, Maya is used in pretty much every Visual Effects studio in the world, including ILM. But I've had trouble with Maya as a person who works with 3ds Max, so it may be easier for you to do some stuff on 3ds Max than it would be to work with Maya, so basically the choice is yours, 3ds Max may be easier to learn especially with all of the tutorials on the internet, but if you want to go into the Visual Effects industry, you'll have to learn Maya anyway. If you just want to learn it as a hobby for a few projects, then I recommend 3ds Max. But also, if you were to go into Visual Effects, you could get 3ds Max now, and then later on get Maya for when you need to start learning it.

 

I've more or less decided to buy Maya Unlimited since it's so widely used and cost less than 3ds.
Unfortunately I found out that studica.com does not ship internationally.
I guess I'll have to find some other place to buy it.


EDIT: Found another place (www.journeyedeurope.com) that apparantly ships to Norway as well (it's a little more expensive than studica.com, but still affordable)!

 

Would making animated short films and submitting to festivals be legal?

Yes, Alias even used to have it's own student competition (don't know the status know that Autodesk bought them).

 

Oke i'm having a problem here

[image=http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9610/help5ab.jpg]

I want to make a IK Handle here from the thy to the foot...It works but not the way I want it to....

It creates an IK Handle that makes the leg go this:

[image=http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/395/help20wx.jpg]

I've tried many things but they didn't work.....

Please help!!!

Using Maya 6.5

 

The same thing happens in 3ds Max so I may be able to help.

Basically, when you make the bones--before using IK, you need to make sure that the bones are slightly bent in the direction that you want to bend them. So, just manually bend them at the knee and reposition them and then apply the IK again and it should work out (at least it does in 3ds Max).

Hope that helps.

 

so you're saying that I should detach the bones from the droid and bend them....then use IK ahndle and then reposition and atach to the body again???

 

mm it helped

Thanx

 

What blue-screening software should i use and does the blue screen have to be a solid blue?

For example i have a blue sheet but will the wrinkles make it not work?

 

This is a 3D forum, you would want to ask that question in the fanfilms forum. There are many Blue-Screen programs, Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and then all of the others, just do a little research. And yes, wrinkles would cause a problem. And it needs to be as blue as you can get it, not dark blue, and not light blue.