New to 3d, need some info and opinions

[Evan Warner]

Hi everybody,
I'm a student and over the last couple years i've really gotten into video editing with FCP. Now, somehow i'm getting tons of people who actauuly want to pay me for doing somthing that i really enjoy. great ehh? (I'm canadian sorry =) Anyway, my lastest project is a fair trade coffee video that I get to go to Mexico to shoot. Part of the script for it involes 3d animation of a coffee cup and such.

Now I've always been very interested in 3D but have never had the mony to really invest in anything. But now my " clients" you can call them are willing to buy me some equpiment and software in order to do this video. Ive been looking around and it seems as though Maya and Lightwave seem to be the 2 most repecteed 3D programs on the mac.

From what i've read, it seems as though maya is slightly ahead of the game but at the same time there is no studnet version ( maya PLE doesn't count cause it leaves a watermark) so it would coast me $2000 as opposed to Lightwaves $400 eduacational price. We can't afford $2000 but what I want to know is what do all of you thinka about lightwave? I know you all use it or you wouldn't be here but can you recomend it to me for what im doing? I've learned FCP and photoshop by myself andIi really like the process. Also i've tried out strata 3d as another option but I realize that its a step down. I thought it was quite cool what I was able to acomplish with it. Anyway, I just what soem opinions and while i'm at it ill say hi to all of you in the community.

[js33]

Well either program would suite your needs. However even though the Educational version is only $400 it is not suppossed to be used for commercial purposes. So if you are making money it is commercial. So with that said you need to fork out $1595 and get the full version of LW. But if you buy now you get LW 7.5 full version with a free copy of DFX and a free upgrade to LW 8 when it comes out (due out sometime between now and the end of the year). The only problem is DFX only runs on Windows. However you get the duo dongle and the Windows version of Lightwave as well. So if you have a PC you can run LW and DFX there and run Lightwave on the Mac.

Cheers,
JS

[toby]

LW is the best choice for the Mac - Maya is a limited version on the Mac, and it's much more complicated, harder to learn and use, and harder to do an entire project by yourself. LW is a more complete package and better suited to small businesses or freelance; it's also very video friendly, it's used more than the other packages for tv and commercials.

other plusses -
It's known for having the best built-in renderer, it's a joy to use; best interface I know of, great work flow, buttons in english instead of cryptic icons, great modeler, more plug-ins available than for Maya, and great community here at the forum

[mlinde]

Actually, the buy for you right now is the Mac Lightwave 7.5 promotion. If you own any of the following software, you get Lightwave 7.5 for half-price. This is the full retail version.
Photoshop
Illustrator
Quark Xpress
InDesign
Pagemaker
Freehand

Check it out:
http://www.newtek.com/print/index.php

[Evan Warner]

wow,
Thansk for all of the responses. I don't completely understand all the ins and outs of the lisence here but i'm not actually getting payed here. What the deal is that I do this video for them and they supply me with the equipement to do it. I don't actually get a dime but i get to keep the equipement. Also this is not a comercial. it is going to be part of a museum which will not charge admission to individuals but only to large groups. This a tiny business way up here in Nova Scotia Canada. I don't consider it a comercail enterprise. Therefore I don't see the problem with the lisence here but i'm welcome to your opinion because I do try and do the right thing.

I do own Photoshop and Freehand so that deal looks very enticing too however I don't know if they can afford $750 (remeber I'm in canadian dollars so its quite a bit more) and it doesn't have the free upgrade to 8 but still, thank you very much for the link. I may decide to do it.

It's good to hear that Lightwave is what I'm looking for though. I read some more reviews and lightwave does seem to do quite well. I'd like to hear some more opinions...
Thansk everybody!