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Steven Simply · 03-13-2008, 06:16 PM

Thanks everyone,

I had actually planned on posting something else before this as my first post here, but I guess I'll get around to that when that's finished

To clarify, the camera is moving away from the car while zooming in, to show perspective and foreshortening and ultimately to show how much the car can distort in the same amount of screen space, but the car never changes or moves. The point being, with all these different people taking spy pictures with so many different types of cameras, camera phones, etc, the car will almost always look somewhat different, giving the impression that things are or aren't what they seem, if that makes sense

Hey gtahvit,

I use Lightwave 3D for the bulk of my work, then follow that up with Adobes After Effects and of course the standard Photoshop. The reason why I got into Lightwave as opposed to any of the other 3D programs, is because I had read a lot, and I mean A LOT, of different things on message boards and different articles and what not, to find what was the easiest program to learn and use. Now this was all several years ago now and at that time Lightwave turned out to be what I was looking for. If I were to do all that reading today I would almost certainly end up with Maya or 3dsMax. Maya is used widely in the film industry, and 3dsMax is used a lot for gaming and then Lightwave is used all over the place. The reality is they can all just about do the same things, and are all used in all areas. Maya is the most popular, and I think a lot of that is because of melscripts, which makes it easy for you to write your own tools. Lightwave has been known for its renderer, and 3dsMax, I don't really know why it's so popular, maybe just because it's been around for so long. I will say about 3dsMax, Autodesk, the now owner of, has recently split 3dsMax into 2 different programs, one for the gamer types and the other for Arch Viz. I've heard a lot of complaints about that, as with any change, but that may be something to consider there, because now you may need 2 programs to get the tools you want or need. Autodesk also owns Maya, and so there's been speculation that maybe at some point Maya and 3dsMax would be merged into one program, but as far as I know that's only just speculation right now. There's also a free program called Blender, which actually gets some good reviews, the biggest complaint I hear about it is the user interface. And of course, there are plenty of other programs out there. I'm not familiar with all of them, I've been using Lightwave for years now and am comfortable with it. I have tried Maya recently and with the exception of it working my computer a little harder than I would have liked, I didn't have any real problems with it, but then again I am familiar with 3D now so I was kinda familiar with certain terms and functions. One big difference between Lightwave and all the rest is, Lightwave has 2 separate programs, one is for modeling and the other for animation. I have days where I love this and hate it, but ultimately the way the OpenGL works, makes it easier on my computer, especially once the models start to get heavy. Like with a car, Lightwave doesn't bog down on me like Maya did in OpenGL, so I am able to model faster in Lightwave. I didn't become as proficient with Maya as I am in Lightwave, but these are the only two programs I can really speak for at all, the rest is hearsay, so I strongly recommend that you read, read and then read some more if your seriously considering getting into 3D. There is a lot to learn and the first program will almost certainly be the one you compare everything against in the future, like I've done here. Once you learn one though, it is a lot easier to learn others. One other HUGE thing to consider is, price. We're talking thousands of dollars here, just to buy the program, then when there's updates, some companies tend to charge heavily for the updates, almost just as much the orignal program, so that's something you should definitely read about and consider. Lightwave is very good about this and is definitely one of the most affordable of all the programs.
Ultimately though, it's up to you to read about them all and decide for yourself which one you think is right for you. Be sure however, to not base your decision entirely on everything you see, I know that may sound odd since we're talking about visual imagery, but it really comes down to the artist and how comfortable they feel with the tools they're using, and not so much what the tools themselves can do. I have some links here to get you started, in case you haven't seen some of these already.

CGTalk- Huge community here about the most common used programs. If you've never been here before, it's free to join and then you can browse around and you will find all kinds of stuff to inspire you and help make your decisions. Be careful ,however, of starting a thread asking which is the best program, because that almost always ends up in an argument, but there are already several of those threads in there as well as tons of extra stuff to read through.

Newtek Lightwave - What I use, Can Do A Lot, Used Everywhere In General Free Trial
Autodesk Maya - Most Widely Used In Film Industry Free Personal Learning Edition
Autodesk 3dsMax - Used A Lot For Games Free 30-Day Trial
Softimage XSI - Becoming More Popular All The Time Free 30-Day Trial
Luxology Modo - Somewhat New, Started By Former Lightwave Employees $25 30-Day Trial With Tutorial Videos
Maxon Cinema 4D - Very Loyal Fan Base Seems Like Download Demo
Blender - FREE Download

And there are others, these are the more common ones and probably have the best communities, which will always help to have around when you need them. If you should decide to go with Lightwave by chance, you can always get in touch with me and I will gladly help you in any way that I can, I love to help and teach. Here's another link with 24 hours of free Lightwave tutorial videos that I go to from time to time to pick up new tricks or as a refresher for Lightwave, this will give you some idea of what to expect in Lightwave. If I had links to sites like this for the other programs I would link them too but I don't unfortunately. If you do download any of the free trial programs, I have plenty of 3D models I can give you to play around with, and they should open in all the programs, not just Lightwave, although, some models and other various settings translate better from one program to another, so that can be hit and miss sometimes. Like with textures, they don't always import correctly from one program to another, or polygons can be flipped inside out for some reason, then you just have to flip them back out, as well as other various managebale oddities.

Of course, don't let any one person convince you which program is right for you, read everything you can, try the free trials and then decide which one you think fits your needs, but also, keep your computer in mind, not all these programs run exactly the same so make sure the computer you have now meets the requirements, or at least if you are planning on getting a new computer soon keep that in mind too. Even if the computer you have now doesn't meet the requiremnts, sometimes they will work well enough to learn on until you upgrade to a new computer. Hope I could help, and don't be afraid to ask me any other questions, I'll do my best to help you out. My email is TheAbNatural@gmail.com if you would prefer to get in touch with me that way.

Also, I have been getting into Autodesk Alias Studio, which I was told by someone who worked on the actual Camaro concept, that this is the program GM, as well as most if not all car manufacturers, use to design their car surfaces with, but that's a completely different beast altogether

Will this overhead shot work for you?

There is supposed to be a transparency layer. I don't know if that saved when I uploaded it, if not I can send you the original so you don't have to trace it out.

03-13-2008, 06:16 PM	#9
Steven Simply Drives: 1967 Camaro Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Milky Way Posts: 21	Thanks everyone, I had actually planned on posting something else before this as my first post here, but I guess I'll get around to that when that's finished To clarify, the camera is moving away from the car while zooming in, to show perspective and foreshortening and ultimately to show how much the car can distort in the same amount of screen space, but the car never changes or moves. The point being, with all these different people taking spy pictures with so many different types of cameras, camera phones, etc, the car will almost always look somewhat different, giving the impression that things are or aren't what they seem, if that makes sense Hey gtahvit, I use Lightwave 3D for the bulk of my work, then follow that up with Adobes After Effects and of course the standard Photoshop. The reason why I got into Lightwave as opposed to any of the other 3D programs, is because I had read a lot, and I mean A LOT, of different things on message boards and different articles and what not, to find what was the easiest program to learn and use. Now this was all several years ago now and at that time Lightwave turned out to be what I was looking for. If I were to do all that reading today I would almost certainly end up with Maya or 3dsMax. Maya is used widely in the film industry, and 3dsMax is used a lot for gaming and then Lightwave is used all over the place. The reality is they can all just about do the same things, and are all used in all areas. Maya is the most popular, and I think a lot of that is because of melscripts, which makes it easy for you to write your own tools. Lightwave has been known for its renderer, and 3dsMax, I don't really know why it's so popular, maybe just because it's been around for so long. I will say about 3dsMax, Autodesk, the now owner of, has recently split 3dsMax into 2 different programs, one for the gamer types and the other for Arch Viz. I've heard a lot of complaints about that, as with any change, but that may be something to consider there, because now you may need 2 programs to get the tools you want or need. Autodesk also owns Maya, and so there's been speculation that maybe at some point Maya and 3dsMax would be merged into one program, but as far as I know that's only just speculation right now. There's also a free program called Blender, which actually gets some good reviews, the biggest complaint I hear about it is the user interface. And of course, there are plenty of other programs out there. I'm not familiar with all of them, I've been using Lightwave for years now and am comfortable with it. I have tried Maya recently and with the exception of it working my computer a little harder than I would have liked, I didn't have any real problems with it, but then again I am familiar with 3D now so I was kinda familiar with certain terms and functions. One big difference between Lightwave and all the rest is, Lightwave has 2 separate programs, one is for modeling and the other for animation. I have days where I love this and hate it, but ultimately the way the OpenGL works, makes it easier on my computer, especially once the models start to get heavy. Like with a car, Lightwave doesn't bog down on me like Maya did in OpenGL, so I am able to model faster in Lightwave. I didn't become as proficient with Maya as I am in Lightwave, but these are the only two programs I can really speak for at all, the rest is hearsay, so I strongly recommend that you read, read and then read some more if your seriously considering getting into 3D. There is a lot to learn and the first program will almost certainly be the one you compare everything against in the future, like I've done here. Once you learn one though, it is a lot easier to learn others. One other HUGE thing to consider is, price. We're talking thousands of dollars here, just to buy the program, then when there's updates, some companies tend to charge heavily for the updates, almost just as much the orignal program, so that's something you should definitely read about and consider. Lightwave is very good about this and is definitely one of the most affordable of all the programs. Ultimately though, it's up to you to read about them all and decide for yourself which one you think is right for you. Be sure however, to not base your decision entirely on everything you see, I know that may sound odd since we're talking about visual imagery, but it really comes down to the artist and how comfortable they feel with the tools they're using, and not so much what the tools themselves can do. I have some links here to get you started, in case you haven't seen some of these already. CGTalk- Huge community here about the most common used programs. If you've never been here before, it's free to join and then you can browse around and you will find all kinds of stuff to inspire you and help make your decisions. Be careful ,however, of starting a thread asking which is the best program, because that almost always ends up in an argument, but there are already several of those threads in there as well as tons of extra stuff to read through. Newtek Lightwave - What I use, Can Do A Lot, Used Everywhere In General Free Trial Autodesk Maya - Most Widely Used In Film Industry Free Personal Learning Edition Autodesk 3dsMax - Used A Lot For Games Free 30-Day Trial Softimage XSI - Becoming More Popular All The Time Free 30-Day Trial Luxology Modo - Somewhat New, Started By Former Lightwave Employees $25 30-Day Trial With Tutorial Videos Maxon Cinema 4D - Very Loyal Fan Base Seems Like Download Demo Blender - FREE Download And there are others, these are the more common ones and probably have the best communities, which will always help to have around when you need them. If you should decide to go with Lightwave by chance, you can always get in touch with me and I will gladly help you in any way that I can, I love to help and teach. Here's another link with 24 hours of free Lightwave tutorial videos that I go to from time to time to pick up new tricks or as a refresher for Lightwave, this will give you some idea of what to expect in Lightwave. If I had links to sites like this for the other programs I would link them too but I don't unfortunately. If you do download any of the free trial programs, I have plenty of 3D models I can give you to play around with, and they should open in all the programs, not just Lightwave, although, some models and other various settings translate better from one program to another, so that can be hit and miss sometimes. Like with textures, they don't always import correctly from one program to another, or polygons can be flipped inside out for some reason, then you just have to flip them back out, as well as other various managebale oddities. Of course, don't let any one person convince you which program is right for you, read everything you can, try the free trials and then decide which one you think fits your needs, but also, keep your computer in mind, not all these programs run exactly the same so make sure the computer you have now meets the requirements, or at least if you are planning on getting a new computer soon keep that in mind too. Even if the computer you have now doesn't meet the requiremnts, sometimes they will work well enough to learn on until you upgrade to a new computer. Hope I could help, and don't be afraid to ask me any other questions, I'll do my best to help you out. My email is TheAbNatural@gmail.com if you would prefer to get in touch with me that way. Also, I have been getting into Autodesk Alias Studio, which I was told by someone who worked on the actual Camaro concept, that this is the program GM, as well as most if not all car manufacturers, use to design their car surfaces with, but that's a completely different beast altogether Will this overhead shot work for you? There is supposed to be a transparency layer. I don't know if that saved when I uploaded it, if not I can send you the original so you don't have to trace it out.