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Trav3D - Newtek offering free 30 day trial

J

jdegraff

SOC-10
For those of you interested in 3D, Newtek is now offering a 30 day free trial of Lightwave v9, and it is fully functional! The price has also come down, yet again. From Safe Harbor (sharbor.com) you can get it for under $600 USD. A far cry from the ~$2500 I originally paid, and it's WAAAAY more powerful now ;)

For anyone that wants to download LW and play with it, I'll put together a .zip file of my Sulieman and a basic space scene setup. Send me an e-mail to wyrwolff at yahoo dot com if you want the URL to that file when I get it assembled and posted.

Jesse
 
Wow. I've always wanted to dip my toes into 3D.

$600 is very reasonable.

Maybe if I start saving now, I can have it by this summer!
 
Finally installed my LW9 upgrade last night and I was REALLY impressed with the increase in rendering speed. The basic plate for the Fiery picture that's in the Traveller 2007 calendar took 33 minutes to render under version 8. It took 19 minutes with v9! The Donosev plate from the calendar took several HOURS because of the hypervoxel asteroids. It was on track to render in about 30 minutes when I left for work. Day-amn! Me like :D
 
The demo of the new version of Cinema 4d is at
Click to expand...
I was just looking at their website...it's too bad that things like particles, dynamics, hair, etc, are add-on modules. Are there simplified versions that ship with the base software?
 
Stupid question.

How does one get started with 3D modeling? I've looked at some of the other free programs, like Blender, but the UIs are so opaque, and I'm so skill free, that all I get is discouraged.

Does the quality of the tool make enough of a difference that a novice can produce something decent with enough "instant gratification" to make them want to move forward and deeper in to the tool, or is it simply a long, tough slog to get anything respectable out of these things?
 
That's a good question, whartung.

I've tried Blender, too, and had the same problem you did.

I'm hoping it might be different with Lightwave.

I hope I have enought time to play with the free trial on my vacation!
 
I know what you mean, some programs have an *awful* UI (that's not limited to just 3d apps, of course). Back when I started we had to hand code POV scenes...

LW used to have a pretty primitive UI, but I don't know what the current version is like.

C4d has a very intuitive UI, and IIRC 3DSMax is similar.
 
Hi there,

This is an expensive hobby if you don't go with the free stuff. I am using LW with a bunch of other software and have spent about $10K. I still don't have the post production software and DVD setup software that is probably another $700.

You will need sound software if you want sound. It is a lot of work to create objects so you will feel inclined to buy software that does a lot of work for you. I picked up Vue6 XTreem to create outdoor seines to give it a life like look.

Andrew I think you put out a couple vids a bit ago. You might want to check out TerraGen 2 at http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/tg2/tech_preview.shtml They will be releasing a free non-commercial version that looks to be excellent for Si-Fi.

Thank You,
Space Hamster
 
Ooh, TG2 looks interesting. I've played a bit with TG1 a few times.

As I've said in the past, check the cover discs of computer magazines - they often have old versions of software given away free, with discounted upgrades to the latest version.
 
Stupid question.

How does one get started with 3D modeling? I've looked at some of the other free programs, like Blender, but the UIs are so opaque, and I'm so skill free, that all I get is discouraged.

Does the quality of the tool make enough of a difference that a novice can produce something decent with enough "instant gratification" to make them want to move forward and deeper in to the tool, or is it simply a long, tough slog to get anything respectable out of these things?
Click to expand...
No such thing as a dumb question

I started out first in trueSpace, then in Lightwave, just downloading content from the web and rendering pictures with it after reading some tutorials in magazines or online. This taught me some of the basics of scene creation, etc, and allowed some near instant gratification in producing some nice pictures straight away! Once I was a little more comfortable playing around with other peoples Babylon 5, Star Wars, & Star Trek ships, I started to learn how to model things myself. The rest is history ;)

UI's are different depending on the program. Lightwave just labels the buttons. A lot of others tend to use obscure icons to represent what they do. The icons can be a little frustrating at first. I found it easier to learn in LW, but everybody's different.
 
I personally like Hex (from Daz3D) for modeling. Compared to other modelers it is inexpensive and quite powerful for the price. Of course it is just a modeler and once you are done with your creation you will need some other software to show it off. Silo is supposedly similar. Good buy and powerful for the price.

For starting out, render engines, Bryce (also from Daz3D) is good and inexpensive, but compared to higher end render engines a tad slow. Further, just because you can't get a handle on modeling in Blender doesn't mean you can't use it to render as an additional option.


Both Hex and Bryce do work on both Windows and Macs.
 
The Combination of Bryce and Hex2 is $178. (If you buy the Bryce first then go back and buy the cross grade to Hex.
) Cheaper if you have an old version of Bryce lying around or are a Daz Platinum Club Member.
 
I'm not a big fan of Bryce - the UI is a bit of a PITA, and it struggles when doing anything other than landscapes (which is what it was designed for), although the latest version is better.
 
If you are a total newcomer to 3D then I can't recommend the free version of Google's Sketchup highly enough. It's very, very simple and it's free. It doesn't have all the fancy whistles and bells of other packages but then if you're just beginning, you really don't need those yet.
It's also superb for knocking up floorplans (a few of our game designers use it)

Sketchup

Once you've gotten your head around the basics you could move on to something that has textures and lighting and then on to something with special effects. Then King of CGI! Mwahahahahahah!

Crow
 
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