What compositing package do you use?

[Beamtracer]

I'm interested to know what is the most popular compositing package used by Lightwavers. The poll may give us an idea about which system Lightwave should be more integrated with.

I'm an Adobe After Effects user myself. I'd imagine it would be quite popular as it has traditionally been the lowest priced of the major packages.

However I wouldn't recommend A.E for use with Lightwave, as there is a lack of 16 bit-per-channel image formats that are compatible between the two.

If I had the money I'd use Shake, as you can composit your HDRI images straight out of Lightwave, without throwing away dynamic range or quality.

I included Final Cut Pro on the list, even though it's technically editing software. However FCPs new 32bpc renderer makes it a serious contender for compositing Lightwave animations.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: My apologies for not including Aura in the above list. I'm a Mac user so Aura wasn't in my head at the time.... sorry Newtek. Maybe Aura users or users of other packages should note in the thread what they use. The moderator should feel free to add Aura to the list if it is possible

[cresshead]

well i use combustion mainly because i also run max as well as lightwave and as you may guess the link from max to combustion is pretty tight...shame lightwave's link to rpf and rla seem so flaky...let's hope that is one of the things addressed in lightwave 8...other than that i render out to layers as well which doesn't need the rla or rpf format to work.

steve g

[problemchild]

Had to vote other:
didn't see Aura or Cold Fusion on the List

!!!!

-r

[policarpo]

well um....Digital Fusion needs to be on that list. :)

oh wait...never mind....you need this on the Mac...i'd suggest combustion then. :)

[Beamtracer]

It seems that so far After Effects is the winner, followed by the "others" (Digital Fusion + Aura?)

[WizCraker]

I use shake on windows.

[js33]

Well good luck because you won't get anymore updates.

[WizCraker]

I would like to move over to Nuke (http://www.d2software.com) from D2 software. It only costs $6000 about the same if I moved over to shake on a mac [I don't own a mac]. Also it is not as power hungry.

[Stranahan]

A few notes...

Digital Fusion is used by a lot of the top LightWave houses..

Aura isn't a compositor, really. It's a hybrid, and can do some compositing style stuff but it's compositing is severely limited by a lack of transfer modes..

After Effects used to be the most affordable - now, Combustion is a lot cheaper (New B&H has it for $900) Combustion also has the best tools and support for the RPF format...

[Beamtracer]

Even if the Digital Fusion users are clicking "others" they are still outnumbered by After Effects by about 2 to 1.

It's interesting that there are a few Shake users among us! I wish I was one!

Also interesting that nobody has yet said they're using Commotion. Then again, Commotion's big claim to fame is its superior rotoscoping ability, which may not be a big selling point among 3D users.