Switching or not switching?

[claudio]

Hello. I'm an indipendent cg filmaker-artist, recently graduated.

To produce my (3d) shorts I used till now 3ds max (character studio let even a single person be able to produce a nice animation, taking much less time to configure rigging, and animation itself of several characters at the same time).

Since my budget isn't big,and i'm not a student anymore, I was considering switching to something like a:m..... the animation I've seen are really cool, comunity seems very friendly and responsive... but... well... It is there out any tool like character studio that will make my life easier? even a script, or something like that with a footsteep editor, some levels etc?

Or is necessary to rig and animate everything "by hand"??(that would make very tedious to create my stuff by myself)

My choice, for my current budget I have, would be beetween A:M , carrara, or lightwave.

Anyone here could compare a:m to those other softwARES?

I read somewhere that a:m haves only spline modeling: that means no polygonal modeling ? (cut-select, extrude)???? I usually start from a box to create everything! That would be bad...

Thank You!

Hope to be able to make the "switch", with Your help!!!

 

You can check some of my works here:

http://www.kurageart.com

 

Ciao!

Claudio

[KenH]

With the way you're thinking, you may have a hard time picking up AM. It doesn't work by starting with a box. Instead you build up your model with splines. The modelling tools are less cluttered than max.

 

Instead of a foot step editor, AM has canned movements where you can save your movments and use them again and again. For example, animate one step and put it on a path and you have a walk.

 

I don't know if AM is for you, but I'd urge you to at least try it for 30 days.

[Gene]

Ciao Claudio...come stai?

 

I think once you overcome the Polygonal thinking in Max, you will wonder why you didn't get started earlier with AM.

 

The reason I say this is that AM is very fast when you want to put together a quick animation or small video clip. All the tools are there for your animation needs and the workflow is seemless because it is all incorporated into one package. You don't need to purchase an extra plugin or import from other software...it's all there for you.

 

Basically for the independant artist, AM beats all other major 3D software, hands down.

 

One word of caution and that is that if you are looking to use your Max models in AM, it just doesn't work that well.

 

Cheers,

 

Eugene

[jon]

claudio,

 

specifically to the ease of animation, you can rig everything by hand, but there are also other 'standard' animation rigs that will make the job much easier.

 

-jon

[claudio]

mmm.. for what I understoode from video tutorials this software really have great potentials , specially for character animation, it's really pretty amazing.

Also modeling , after all, with a bit of efforts can be learned (even if for my kind of works, polygonal modeling it is

much quicker).BUT THE WAY IS POSSIBLE TO BRING IN TEXTURES IT'S SIMPLY AMAZING. Also the way to apply motions to characters won't make me miss character studio.

One thing that keeps me from immediately getting immediately a copy it's maybe the render... I felt it's really slow.... (I have a dual xeon)

Can anyone help me with that? I mean.. It is there any setting that will produce a nice and soft global light rendering in short time?

Also, I know that with some efforts patch modeling can be better than polygonal modeling... but, if you see my works, you'll see that I don't use polys only cuz i feel confy with them... but actually cuz i love how they look like!

So, my question it is also if anyone can suggest me a low priced polygonal modeler (like silo, or stuff like that) that would perfectly integrate in A:M , and, possibly , if there's any way to use an external render (or anyone can suggest me some good settings to obtain a nice and quick npr like global light look).

I really wish to join the comunity!

ciao

claudio

www.kurageart.com

[Fuchur]

One answer to your problems is this:

Anzovin's SetupMachine 2

That will help you to rig your characters...

 

The Modelling has to be done by hand of course...

And, as others told you before:

A:M doesnt use polygon-box-modelling but Patches+Splines which is more like drawing your character...

 

I used 3ds as well as A:M and I can say:

A:M has a much better interface than 3ds has, it is much more easy to handle...

I've got first A:M and than had to work with 3ds at work, so i came the other way round than you will...

I think you will have to learn the new modelling-techniques, but you wont be sorry that you did learn them when you are through the process...

 

The other question: Polygones -> A:M... that is quite hard job to do... if you anyhow am able to stay in A:M, you really should stay in A:M.

There are some freeware-modelling-tools(wings3d, for example) which can produce *.mdls for A:M, but it wont make you very happy...

It would be great, if there was any plugin which would for example calculate a spline+patch which could replace several polygones, but as far as i

know, there is no plugin which does that. So you will have to handle many polygones, which will be converted to patches, which makes A:M slow(because it wasnt created for so many patches, because you dont need them...) and you sooner or later crazy .

 

Some got good results out of Polygon-models, but most often you will run into difficulties...

 

*Fuchur*

[luckbat]

So, my question it is also if anyone can suggest me a low priced polygonal modeler (like silo, or stuff like that) that would perfectly integrate in A:M , and, possibly , if there's any way to use an external render

Impossible, sorry. Polys and patches don't mix.

 

(or anyone can suggest me some good settings to obtain a nice and quick npr like global light look).

That we can do. Check out Ambient Occlusion.