What are the advantages of Lightwave?

ghall

I'm thinking of switching from Carrara Pro to Lightwave, what are some of the advantages to Lightwave against other 3D apps? By the way, I use a Mac.

gpdesigner

Good post . . . you are going to get a lot of feedback on this.
I use lightwave myself, I think it is a good program . . . but the truth is any program will do you right, you just have to pick which one is right for you.
here is a thread you can skim through: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/general-discussion/17366-switching-lightwave-max.html

The only thing I could possibly suggest to you is try to browse as many 3d proggy's as possible and descide what interface is more intuitive to you. You can nit pick about this and that / pros and cons / native and 3rd party, but in the end you will have to go with something that will work best for you.

Max costs almost $3,500 . . .
Maya is worse . . .
Lightwave is about $900 or there abouts
the rest aren't as expensive but they aren't in the same league as the above 3

anyway that is my 2 cents . . .
gp

fluxfire

I would have to agree with that statement there realy isn't much difference with any 3D program they all do generaly the same just have to figure out which one Cost wise or interface wise you want.

Andrew March

It really is going to come down to how you personally find working with it. I would honestly recommend you visit: NewTek and download the LW9 trial version.

ghall

Okay, so I downloaded the trial. It's very different than what I'm used to. I should probably look at others as well. Does anyone know of any other Mac compatible programs I could try (besides Blender or Animation Master).

gpdesigner

Maya is Mac platform as well, but alas . . 3d studio max is PC only . . .
I am a Mac person also . . . I organized a PC from a 3d friend of mine who was a 3d Max head . . . this was the only way I could think of to start learning Max . . . "got friends?"
gp

Larsen

I have MAX... And to be honest I've noticed people who use LW have some advantages over me:( sadly...

I seem to have noticed that LW can handle more polys than MAX! plus some other stuff. As I see it - and that's just my personal oppinion - LW is stronger for modeling, where MAX rules when it comes to animating! Again this is just how I've come to understand it, not necessarely true however!

In the end, it comes down to personal preferences I guess... you can't however get your personal prefs before you've worked intensly with one or more of the apps! I think someone said something about there not really beeing that much difference, and I tend to agree. Both LW and MAX can def produce the same qualety of work!

If I had to choose to day, I'd go with LightWave... It appeares more professional and no nonsens to me! But please don't take my word for it!

fluxfire

Also keep in mind with LW that it was used to create the space scenes in the following, Star Trek series(not sure which one),The last few Star Trek Movies,The Babylon 5 Series, And last but certainly not least The Entire Battlestar Galactica Seires 2004 version.

That should give you an idea of what you can do in LW.

IRML

firefly, and everything apart from a single smoke effect in serenity

Andrew March

All of the top end programmes have their pros and cons, lightwave has always been a strong force in TV production, max has always been favoured by the games industry, maya is strong in film and TV.

It's going to come down to a couple of factors, price and how you feel using it.

Lightwave is very different but I guarentee you'll get used to it and as I said to fluxfire, if you have any questions just ask.

ghall

Thanks for all the advice. If I do decide to change 3D apps, I will definitaly go with Lightwave.

gpdesigner

ghall wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. If I do decide to change 3D apps, I will definitaly go with Lightwave.

No . . . . don't let all the Lightwavers here persuade you . . .
try out as many apps as you can before you decide
gp

Samurai

^ I agree, and that's coming from a LightWave user.

Try as many demo versions as possible, and remember not to rush your decision. LightWave definitely has cost on its side, when considered against other applications, but thats false economy if you're not happy with the interface, or some such.

As far as Mac 3D goes, you've got Blender, Vue, AM, LW, Maya and Cinema4D- there are probably a few more out there, but those are the ones that spring to mind. Of those, Cinema4D, LightWave and Maya are the ones that have seen most success with professional outfits. Chances are you've seen something on TV or in the Cinema made with one of those three programs.

JeffrySG

Yes, I've recently been thinking of adding another 3d app to my workflow. I use Strata3d at work and it's been time to step up a bit. I'm working on the Mac as well.

I would have though about Max but it's not available for the Mac. Maya is just too expensive for me now. For me it came down to Cinema4D and Lightwave. By the time you add a few modules to C4D it is quite a bit more expensive than Lightwave. Also if you own some other 3d apps or Photoshop you can do a competitive upgrade to LW and save a lot of money.

Download both of the demos and see what you like better!!! Give them a try for the full demo period. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

One more thing... NewTek is now offering a great free Training Bundle if you buy now through April 30th...

Also, I would recommend joining a few user forums for each app. you are considering and ask questions in those forums. A really friendly community can help shorten your learning curve as well.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do!!
Jeff

mattc

Jeff: The LW Universal Binary is now in beta.

M.

mattc

IRML wrote: »

firefly, and everything apart from a single smoke effect in serenity

Most of what you see in 9/9.2 is a result of requests from the Serenity mob.

The new motion blur is so damned nice....

M.

JeffrySG

mattc wrote: »

Jeff: The LW Universal Binary is now in beta.

M.

Yeah, I saw that 9.2LW is now in open beta!! the 9.2 image gallery over on the NT forums have some really nice renders with all the real lens effects, dof, GI, SSS, etc...

I'm still using the 30day trial, but will prob. be placing my order soon to take advantage of the training bundle! :thumb:

mattc

9.2 is a fairly massive point update.....

new motionblur, new GI, new material nodes, etc...

Andrew March

mattc wrote: »

The new motion blur is so damned nice....

Amen Brother Matt.

The results are stunning and radiosity is a lot faster, not just a bit faster bit a whole lot faster.

mattc

Or as my old mate Kyle so eloquently puts it, NT is finally FTFS (Fixing their f***ing s**t).

The new material nodes are pretty snazzy as well. There's some images of a dragon floating about with the new stuff applied. It's very very nice.

M.

Andrew March

Yeah, I've seen those. The SSS node shaders are looking pretty cool.

Samurai

*heads off to download the UB Beta for the MacBook*

mattc

Lightwave 9.2 new features demos... - NewTek Discussions

Also shows off motion blur and the new DoF as well.

M

[Deleted User]

JeffrySG wrote: »

I would have though about Max but it's not available for the Mac. Maya is just too expensive for me now. For me it came down to Cinema4D and Lightwave. By the time you add a few modules to C4D it is quite a bit more expensive than Lightwave. Also if you own some other 3d apps or Photoshop you can do a competitive upgrade to LW and save a lot of money.

I'm glad to see someone mentioned Cinema 4D, it seems to frequently be left out of these discussion's.

I use Cinema 4D but I learnt 3D on Lightwave, both are great programs and it raelly is incredible what can be done in Lightwave, 9.2 sounds like it's alot better and of course Lightwave is alot cheaper than the other main 3D apps.
My only gripe with Lightwave is that they really need to rebuild the whole core architecture of the program, it just seems like all the new stuff is just 3rd party plugins that have been bundled with the program, which IMO makes some of the features unnecessarily difficult to use.

The thing I love about Cinema is the incredibly fast workflow, it's great because I can model, texture, animate and render all without leaving the program. Also the renderer is incredibly fast and powerful, although you need the Advanced Render module to use GI. Which is the other good thing with modules, if you don't need something, don't buy the module. I just find it a very easy program to use.
And it's on Mac too.

Please don't kill me Lightwave users :shiner:
I'm just voicing my experience with Cinema 4D that's all

mattc

Pyrocitor wrote: »

My only gripe with Lightwave is that they really need to rebuild the whole core architecture of the program, it just seems like all the new stuff is just 3rd party plugins that have been bundled with the program, which IMO makes some of the features unnecessarily difficult to use.

They are.

M.

al3d

i'm a waver myself, but the questions is to large for a simple answer realy. are you gonna keep doing this as a hobby only?...if yes, then any soft will do realy. Are you trying to get a career moving?...if yes..then MAYA is your best choice. Maya is the MASTER in the industry as Max is in the Game Industry. don't care what anyone said, that's a fact. XSi is gaining ground, but not enough to justify going for it right now. i'm learnin Maya myself these days, and trust me, i love LW, but Maya is in a league of it's own.

THere's a Budjet issue as well. are you actually buying a software?..no one dares to mentionn it, but it's a fact. Maya will run you 1995$ for the unlimited version and 6995$ for Complete, but LW will run you 800$ and about 1000$ in plug-ins to be usable. so it's actually not such a strech in prices.

Both have a free trial and educationnal version if you're in school.

count23

But LW is what all the major TV production houses use, hell, even cinema based production houses use it too. Look at "Day After Tomorrow" or "Sky Captain et al..."

al3d

Nadesico wrote: »

But LW is what all the major TV production houses use, hell, even cinema based production houses use it too. Look at "Day After Tomorrow" or "Sky Captain et al..."

yes, they do. but Maya is still considered the "top gun" not that many TV shows uses FX compared to the amount of movies and people using it for the big-screem

mattc

That's because it's a pain in the ass to use in a tv production environment given time and budgetry pressures.

M.

Dann-O

Well there are other things to consider. You could get Electric image it comes with Silo as the modeler. Electric image is a rendering animation package that does little or no modeling but they do package it with silo. Just to think of something else. There are a few small cool programs on the mac that can do some things too that are dirt cheap like Chettah 3d and Pixels animation studio.

Cheetah3D - the amazingly powerful 3D modelling, rendering and animation solution for Mac OS X
PiXELS 3D for OSX
EI Technology Group - 3D Software

Just a few things to keep in mind. Have fun try some demos. :thumb:

al3d

My former employer Used to own Electric image in the mid-90's, it was at the time, the only Mac software realy. We used Form-Z to model. at the time, both soft were 15 000$ US..heheh. At one time EI had a modeler, don't know what happened to it. i know a few guys that are stull using it for fun, but Ei is 4 to 5 years behind most 3D soft right now. so for it's price, I'de check out LW for mac instead.