I often hear LW has the best modeler.. Why is that, some particular feature(s) or just all around good work environment?


I really agree with gregs's comment of 'You have to choose your own. Each person works differently.'

Fwiw, my (limited) experience with Maya6 has shown that you can customize pretty much anything about it.. Still, always something worth while to check out however!

gMax is like MayaPLE (I think anyway) in that it is provided for learning purposes only, well except when used to build models for the game it comes with or something like. But that said gmax is a great way to have an idea what the 3dsmax way of doing things is like.

Neat thread :)

If I may add yet another annoying voice to the 'give Blender a go' crowd:

1) Sure, they may be tweaking the interface, but no-one's forcing you to upgrade. You can stay with whichever version you like best for as long as you like.

2) The interface is actually very logically laid out, and quite intuitive once you 'get' it. However, it is totally different from anything else I've seen or used, so if you have a passing acquaintance with any other modelling tool, it may be harder to learn.

I'm a Blender newbie myself. I started on Sunday, and I spent about two hours fighting with the interface and reading tutorials before it 'clicked'. Possibly the simplest piece of advice (and one I wish someone had told me) is to think of Blender as a graphical equivalent to vi. You have two modes, edit and command mode, which you can switch between, and each mode is more suited to doing a specific thing. I'm using v2.33, and the tutorials I worked through were for v2.00, so I'm guessing the basics haven't changed much since then. :)

Of course, I'm a programmer, so maybe I'm just backing up the 'it's intuitive if you think like a programmer' viewpoint. :)

Wow.. I finely heard back from NewTek Customer Service ... they said (and I quote)

Quote:
Thank you for your interest in LightWave. Unfortunately, we do not offer a demo CD or download. If you would like to see a demonstration, you can contact a local dealer. For a list of re-sellers in your area go to www.newtek.com. Have a Great Day!

Well, better late than never I guess.

For giggles I looked at just how close the resellers were to me. Needless to say I doubt I would have driven to one just to get a hands on idea of what the program is anyway.