lightwave , bryce , 3d studio max

[Burning Phoenix]

Does anyone use any of these. What are their differences. WHich is better? Would any of these be useful for me in doing nice 3d graphics on web pages? Give me all the info you know because their descriptions on thier respective web sites don't mean anything to me since i don't do 3d stuff yet!

[Ebola]

bryce=$200
3d studio max=$4000
lightwave=$7000

ouch. unless your a student you should stick with bryce. 3d programs are too expensive. i own poser 4. thats a pretty cool program.

[Burning Phoenix]

i knew they were expensive but not that much. I thought a few hundred $'s maybe at the most.

[Ebola]

if your a student then they are much more affordable but still arround $500-700 for the good stuff.

try out bryce. its the only affordable one and i think theres a free demo on corels page.

[Tbone1]

There is a demo for bryce just go to corel's website, And it's the easyiest one out of the 3 IMO.My works graphics dept has 3d studioMax and I sat down one day to mess with it and it takes a long time just to get around all the differant menus and buttons and stuff. Don't know much about Lightwave,but I here its good
Almost like Maya another 3d program but are also pretty tough
to get going.

[Cooler666]

3d studio max is the best by far, most professionals use it

[h20link]

well........I've got Lightwave but my machine won't really run it, not to mention the fact that its pretty confusing as there are two separate programs: the modeler and the animator.

Basically you build your stuff in the modeler and animate it in the animator.(duh) but there's so much stuff in the menu that it can be confusing.

you might try www.discreet.com for their free version of 3ds max.. it's called gmax. It doesn't have all the stuff 3ds max has but games are starting to ship with gmax support (hopefully the ghost recon add on pack will) so you can build your own planes/weapons/levels/etc in gmax and export them to your game. I know the new command and conquer as well as flight simulator support it. I haven't used the actual 3ds max yet so I can't comment on how difficult it is. gmax seemed intimidating at first but once i ran through a tutorial on weapon-modeling the interface seemed much less intimidating. Once you understand what each icon means it seems intuitive and easier to use.

I haven't used bryce either.....and (correct me if i'm wrong guys) i've heard it's mostly used to create "earth objects" meaning mountain ranges/land scapes/ etc instead of buildings or whatever.

There's also a free version of Strata3d pro available at www.strata.com (i think) I have it, it's okay, not great but it works. It's kind of the red-headed step child of 3d programs. I think if you've got no money right now, go with gmax as its interface will bring you up to speed on the way things are done in 3ds max and when you finally make the switch to it things will be much easier.

You should also look into getting electric rain swift 3d which lets you import your 3d files into flash. flash is a 2d program but with ERS3D you can import your stuff and turn it into 3d vector files. This will give you a sharper resolution/smaller file size 3d graphic to apply to your websites.

try going to www.strata.com then click on 3d product line
then go to the devlabs.swift.com link on the right hand side of the screen for a good example of 3d exported to flash.

that's my $.02 and my info on bryce may be incorrect......
hope it helps.

[PhoenixMDM]

I've got Bryce5 and it is just for earth-objects and lighting effects. I haven't messed with it much, but i can't stand the interface, i'd rather have a window than some weird fullscreen thinger.

I have a freind in the graphics biz who bought 3dmax4, so he might be giving me his 3dmax3 discs. I'd love to learn at least one 3d program, lol...

My advice: stay away from bryce if u can. I've heard alot of good stuff about gmax too, so that's worth a look.

[SteenkyBastage]

Price:

Bryce $ few hundred

Lightwave $ 2200
Lighwave academic $under 1000

3ds4 $3500
3ds4 academic $995


Learning curve:

Bryce is low because it's mainly only a terrain/landscape generator.

Lightwave is a PAIN because it was designed by Newtek (the old amiga/toaster people) and has the amiga layout.

3ds4 originated for pc, and has a layout that makes sense. while it still has a high learning curve like lightwave, it is much simpler to make "common sense" judgements as to where to do things and why.

power wise... bryce is low end, its not designed to be in the same category as the other two. lightwave and 3ds are both exteremely powerful (think film quality...) altho once again, i prefer 3ds due to its numerous plugins and scripting abilities.

if you're looking for a cheap (sub $1000) way to get into 3d, you can get the academic version (provided you're a student) or usually you can purchase used older versions via ebay or whatnot at a cheap price. ::hint hint... i have an old copy of lightwave i dont use anymore ;) ::

fyi: 3d is time consuming, has a high learning curve, but is extremely addictive and fun!

[Ice_Gargoylle]

if ur lookn for 3d for web..dont get any of these programs...

they are way hard and way overkill..

look into the web programs, adobe has golive, and adobe has something new i saw today just for 3d..probably will drag and drop right in to golive.

director u can do 3d, with some scritping, and then create a shockwave file, so its not really an integrated web graphic really.

oooh. oooh.

listen.. basically all an animation is, is a bunch of stills put together, right? So check out rhino3d.

this is one easy program, i make all my stuff for max in this, and u can render out your stills in it, then...well crap, ud still need flash to make a loop, then u'd need to know flash for that. lol
what web program do u use right now?
if i knew that, i cud tell ya the best route to take.
i do this stuff all the time, but i have all these programs, so im at a slight advantage when it comes to maken stuff.

chk for free dl's of programs also, ive seen a few in my day, granted they werent the best in the word, but they might get the job done.

[CrackedSKull]

I'm a student studing 3d,(in high school), anyways bryce is easy to use, and lets you do a lot for the price, but for more complex things, 3dsmax will allow you to basically do anything, but of course it's very expensive. I think you can get a demo(on-cd) from discreet.

One other thing, if you want bryce, bryce 4 & 5 are very similar, and if you can find 4 cheaper, it would be a better deal.

Haven't used lightwave

[Paul -The Mad Hatter]

I use maya 4 and I like it, hard to learn but you get used to it after awhile. good interface too. Lightwave is pretty confusing for me so i never really got into using it. I've never tried 3d max but i here that its as/better then maya4. I also have milkshape(20$) but thats really just for modeling.

[Burning Phoenix]

I have to say i got hold of lightwave 7.0 and i think it is awesome. I can't write in words how much i like 3d rendering now that i've tried it. I have pretty well mastered Paint Shop Pro over the years and needed to go to the next level in graphics. I did a lot of exploring information on this product before getting hold of a copy of this. I have been up all night for the past 2 nights trying tutorials off web sites. I stayed up all monday night went to sleep at around 8am to 11am(tuesday morning) then last night (tuesday) didn't got to sleep until the next day afternoon then got up at 4pm. I'm so addicted to i can't really sleep. Good thing Construction is slow i'd be tired all day. I don't sleep much anyways. Well back to some rendering!

[SteenkyBastage]

LOL, 3d animating can be more addictive than crack!

welcome to our madness.

btw a really impressive up-and-coming 3d site is www.3dbuzz.com. they've got tons of tutorials and forums and articles and whatnot to help out :D

enjoy...and post back with some of your 3d adventures... let us see your progress.

[Burning Phoenix]

This is my wish to make once i get good at this program. I have a story line or animation already sketched in my head i'd like to do. Little wild but different. I'd like to animate my Phoenix logo to start and the following would follow later on.
Make a starfield in a 3d world with a sun (star) in the distance.
Camera would head towards the star and pan off backwards and to the right to show what is heading towards. It was the star that it was looking through the perspective of. It would be a giant looking egg of a wild texture of some unearthly type. Now the camera watching from the side view as this egg and star crashes into the star. A small pause then out the other side my Phoenix would fly out and away.
Hope i can do it. Might take awhile.
By the way that site you linked is pretty cool. Another to my list of Lightwave sites.

[SteenkyBastage]

in 3d ANYTHING is possible! if you have the time and patience.

i'd offer to help in lightwave, but i'd probably confuse you (as i myself get confused with lightwave's wacky layout). but general 3d stuff (non-program specific) i'd be glad to help out with anything i can!

also, your idea reminds me of one of the beginners tutorials that 3ds comes with. they have an asteroid impacting into a planet, which then bursts into flame... of course, your idea has a lot more to it than that...

i personally find the modeling (making the 3d geometry) the most challengeing aspect. i can animate stuff real good and quick, but have yet to master the art of modeling (well, at least in not much time).

[h20link]

you could also try downloading blender at www.blender3d.com i think. If not just run a google search for blender 3d it's free and it's supposed to be ok.