Lightwave 7 vs 3d studio max 5

[ibby]

Guys i have a prob, i need a program to make my profolio for my university. I need a power full tool. Wats better ? im trying to make faces. I will by the tutorial book of amazon. but which software!!!!????

Plz help.

Remember im making a 3d models of faces(and animals)

[phenious]

Ive been using Lightwave with the help of DPA (a member here) and I have to say I like it, its been fairly easy to learn as far as 3D applications go. I can recomend some good books for lightwave if you want

-: phenious :-

[DPA]

ill just lay it out nice and clean:

Lightwave 7 = extremely high control and detail to skinning. 3 port meshing w/ a 3d view--great customer support and wonderful books (i suggest Dan Ablan myself). Comes with many many plugins that do a fantastic job, radiosity, caustics, hair engine (although not suggested for a full head of hair). .lwo format for your initial meshes is somewhat compatible with other softwares--becoming more widely recognized by 3rd party software companies.

3DS MAX = very fast mesh builds in a 1 view 3d window--but not very good control, when you crank the point/polygon count in the initial build, it becomes a disaster to manage. Horrible customer support, you are a number to them, you are a pawn, you have been owned by discreet, and you can never sell your software. ever. Does not include a very good radiosity engine (real lighting) and does not have a caustics engine (light bounce and penetration/refraction) Lots of add ons to buy. .3ds format is very well known and is industry standard--should work with everything.

scope for prices and for more replies by other users--make your choice, good luck!

[ibby]

wow thx for ur help

but im not sure about the priceswat costs more? cuz im nealrybroke, but i need this sooooooooo bad1

So price wise wats better?

[phenious]

Need to be a student to buy the following software @ the student prices.

http://www.journeyed.com

Lightwave 7.5 $395.00

Discreet 3ds max 6 Student w/ChStudio&Reactor 1-Yr $ 179.98

Discreet 3ds max 6 w/Character Studio&Reactor Win $ 599.98

Discreet 3ds max 6 School Copy Win $ 679.98

BOOKS

Inside Lightwave 7 (With CD-Rom)$29.50 USED $41.99 NEW

Lightwave 3D 7.5 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) $15.15 USED $15.39 NEW

I recomend Lightwave and for Lightwave books the above 2 are my favorite. I used The Visual quickstart guide to help me get a grip on using the tools in Lightwave and how to work with the interface and then moved to the more advanced book Inside Lightwave 7 by Dan Alba and have been playing with that for a while. Im sure there are other places to order the software from. I would try the websites of the programs to see what other student discounts you can get. Also try E-bay. Be warned though, I have read that it is illegal to re-sell 3D Max so you should be carefull when ordering.

-: phenious :-

[ibby]

thx dude, man the only prob is that i live in Uk i deal in £ no $. thx anyway

Its my fault i shoulda told ya.

[phenious]

http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

Have fun it uses up to date exchange prices so it should be fairly accurate. I updated my last post with my favorite lightwave books

-: phenious :-

[MDS]

Modeling in Lightwave by Shamms Mortier is also a great book and includes a tutorial disk that has step by step video clips and samples. It was one of the first books I picked up during my lightwave trip I worked on it for about 4 months then got side tracked, I should install it again.

[Whitehawk]

to be honest with you lightwave and 3dstudio max are both excellent...but what i have heard is that the best for modelling faces is SoftImage

3dstudio max generates a 'smoother image' while lightwave generates realism. but both are capable of photorealism...it just depends on the extent of your abilities.

Also maya is good (if youve seen the final fantasy movie- it was made using maya) but very difficult