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Lightwave 11.5


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Yep, saw this this morning. There's a lot of talk as to whether or not it's really, but to me it looks like those pages are a full site re-design.

If true, LW users are in for a treat. And yes, Genova will be a massive game changer, combining that with 3DC app link will be a massive workflow boost.

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While i can't comment on the authenticity of the website I can add that NewTek has possibly the best booth location at Siggraph this year. They will be the first booth many people see when they walk in the door, so I bet they'll have big things to show.

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I'm becoming more and more impressed with the job Rob Powers is doing there. Once they get LW into a unified environment, it's going to be hard to overlook, as an application.

I'm surprised you're more level headed than the ex lwvers at lux forum. Man they really hate lightwave over there. Lol!

They just can't see the software for what it is which is trying its best to improve even after the core thing.

Besides pixo and 3dcoat and particularly xsi, I don't see other software offering as much for so little money.

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I'm surprised you're more level headed than the ex lwvers at lux forum. Man they really hate lightwave over there. Lol!

They just can't see the software for what it is which is trying its best to improve even after the core thing.

Besides pixo and 3dcoat and particularly xsi, I don't see other software offering as much for so little money.

I totally agree. I have LW11, 3DCoat and LWCAD.... and with that you can do a hell of lot for relatively little money (compared to other packages).

Lux forum was always going to be like that, it's a them and us developer situation that has been going on since some NT developers jumped ship.

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I'm surprised you're more level headed than the ex lwvers at lux forum. Man they really hate lightwave over there. Lol!

They just can't see the software for what it is which is trying its best to improve even after the core thing.

Besides pixo and 3dcoat and particularly xsi, I don't see other software offering as much for so little money.

Well Modo 601 was pretty impressive, but I think Rob has done a remarkable job leading Newtek through some rough waters. It's really starting to take shape. I still don't like the separated nature of LW, but once they unify it, I think I may purchase a seat...again (sold mine a few years back and just stuck with 3ds Max).
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I totally agree. I have LW11, 3DCoat and LWCAD.... and with that you can do a hell of lot for relatively little money (compared to other packages).

Lux forum was always going to be like that, it's a them and us developer situation that has been going on since some NT developers jumped ship.

hmm the price diffenrence to the last version is about 66%

i saw the v 10 version before for 900$ and v11 is now at 1500$$$$

that difference is way too much in my eyes

to compare modo 501 (995$) and 601 (1200$), there its only 20% more to pay for release cycle

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hmm the price diffenrence to the last version is about 66%

i saw the v 10 version before for 900$ and v11 is now at 1500$$$$

that difference is way too much in my eyes

to compare modo 501 (995$) and 601 (1200$), there its only 20% more to pay for release cycle

The upgrade for existing lw users is 695USD. For lw 10 users its 395-495USD. I think that's fair price for a complete package.

When I say complete, I mean a studio can exist using only lw for all its projects from character animation, motion graphics, vizualization ,etc.

There are only AD soft, C4d, houdini, blender in this category. The price for upgrade and subscription or upgrade for these are very high except for blender which exists in its own world. Modo can't be included. Its not complete yet. You would still a main app to do most of the animation. I don't know any CG studio here using only modo. They would be limited to projects they do. Its all AD here but there are still lw based studios, not as many as before, but they can exist because lw is a full app.

If you check the recruiting page of CGworld japan, prerequisites of application is AD, lw. Not even c4d there.

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I've got to disagree here. Modo is most definitely a complete app. The fact is each application has tools that some other tool doesn't. LW has poor rigging, Modo doesn't, Maya most certainly doesn't either. Maya has the worst modeling tools ever, LW and Modo are exceptionally great. The list goes on. But where do we stop anyway? What do you consider complete? My complete is maybe different than your complete, and my complete is different then another persons, and so on. Modo has sculpting & texture painting, LW doesn't. Is LW incomplete? 3DC doesn't have any animation tools, ZB does, is 3DC incomplete? It's all relative.

Fact is, after using Modo for a few years now, I consider it a very worthy, competent tool. It does have animation tools, and easily on par in some parts and definitely above LWs in others. At least as of 501 and 601 this is true. It might not be adopted in many studios for this part of the tool, as it is still new. But I wouldn't discount it just based on that.

Anyway my point is there are so many factors. Different workflows, different fields (mograph, animation, illustration, conceptual design, graphic design, industrial design, feature film, television, advertising and so on), different opinions, different everything, one simply cannot pigeon hole an entire tool/application simply based off of their own usage to define "complete". There are always the Nth amount of other people/studios out there using the same tool you are for something completely different.

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I've got to disagree here. Modo is most definitely a complete app. The fact is each application has tools that some other tool doesn't. LW has poor rigging, Modo doesn't, Maya most certainly doesn't either. Maya has the worst modeling tools ever, LW and Modo are exceptionally great. The list goes on. But where do we stop anyway? What do you consider complete? My complete is maybe different than your complete, and my complete is different then another persons, and so on. Modo has sculpting & texture painting, LW doesn't. Is LW incomplete? 3DC doesn't have any animation tools, ZB does, is 3DC incomplete? It's all relative.

Fact is, after using Modo for a few years now, I consider it a very worthy, competent tool. It does have animation tools, and easily on par in some parts and definitely above LWs in others. At least as of 501 and 601 this is true. It might not be adopted in many studios for this part of the tool, as it is still new. But I wouldn't discount it just based on that.

Anyway my point is there are so many factors. Different workflows, different fields (mograph, animation, illustration, conceptual design, graphic design, industrial design, feature film, television, advertising and so on), different opinions, different everything, one simply cannot pigeon hole an entire tool/application simply based off of their own usage to define "complete". There are always the Nth amount of other people/studios out there using the same tool you are for something completely different.

In reply to your post at lux because I'm getting lazy to type.

I have Javis and one guy here is modo/maya artist who is converting to max because its a pain to work on file interchange. Majority wins so learn max till you die!! :p:

Is there now a way to import and retarget mocap like characterstudio and add animation layers on top? Manipulate point,polys similar to dponts dpkit which is not even as robust as c4d mograph but still pretty good? A fumefx,afterburn, krakatoa like plugin?

Because if its only the same level as lw then I don't see animation studios adapting to modo yet. Maybe in the future for sure. But we actually moved away from lw to 3dmax because of those needs that lw can do but others just do better. I'm not even mentioning xsi which is uber powerful.

Now about being complete. Complete is complete. Whether you put the software in different fields, print, tv, film, games, visualization, it should be capable to do the job. Lw, like the other AD soft, blender, c4d are capable of doing it. How good or how bad it is will be up to the production.

I know you're using messiah. Why not drop messiah now if modo is complete? Can you do everything now in modo that messiah is irrelevant?

Its not about being worthy or competent. Modo is indeed worthy and competent at what it does and better at modelling and content creation than others, but if it can't do mostly everything then ergo its not complete. Hah I used ergo. Just kidding Javis :D

Luxology doesn't even sell itself as a complete package.

Modo is an innovative 3D modeling, painting and rendering software designed to accelerate the creation of world-class models, associated color and normal ...

Autodesk 3ds Max is 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software for game developers, visual effects artists, motion graphics artists, and creative ...

Autodesk Maya 3D animation software offers a deep and flexible creative feature set with innovative tools for 3D animation, modeling, visual effects, rendering, ...

Autodesk Softimage animation, visual effects, and 3D game development software enables artists to create stunning character animation and visual effects.

LightWave 3D is a complete modeling, animation and rendering package from NewTek

Blender. model - shade - animate - render - composite - interactive 3d. Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating ...

CINEMA 4D Studio - Everything You Need for High-End 3D

If I'm a writer who only needs to type on a computer. Notepad would be considered complete? There's more to it than that.

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Good points raised above. I agree that I don't think Modo is a complete studio package, just as LightWave is no longer a complete Modelling package. We know who the leaders are, but for a small start up studio, they would not be able to just swap out LW for Modo and compete.

As for pricing, I was lucky to get the next 4 upgrades for 495, as I got hardcore membership when buying an extra seat of 9.6. And with what I've seen from the 'leak' it looks like we're going to get quite a lot for our money.

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Hehe sorry if I may have missed it but the point I got was that complete is relative. Semantics maybe. I still wont agree with it because completeness has to have a baseline. The major 3d apps are at that baseline.

Office suite is complete and any other suite without excel, powerpoint, etc can't sell themselves as a complete suite even if I only really need word.

This is all moot anyway. I'm more interested with output from artists than the software. Whatever artist use becomes irrelevant if the work sucks.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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The Genoma Rigging system. Imho this will be a very fast tool for freelance artists and low to medium budget projects. Its not going to compete with highend systems used in movies but it doesn't require a TD either. I've voiced already at newtek how it would be so good to have this tool in Layout. Nonetheless its useful now.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/24544371

Skip to 36min.

The next video is not yet up but its even better than this.

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With Autodesk offering less (3ds Max 13 had some decent features, but wasn't/isn't worth upgrading or renewing subscription) and supposedly about to charge more (they mention saving 15% by upgrading before Oct), I think it's about time for me to give LW another look, when 11.5 is released.

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We're not upgrading 3dmax as well unless we see something that's a must have. To be honest max 2009 has all the features we need to do commercials, game cinematics, etc. Just add vray, fume, rayfire, hairtrix. Its too bad no other software outside of AD offers the same power and functionality at production level. The monopoly they have with the top 3 software is going to keep their prices higher and higher.

Give lw a look again. Its a complete software at this low price point except maybe for blender is a consideration. The genoma system, flocking particles, bullet hard/soft dynamics are the big features that add really good value to lw 11 imho.

Outside of work, I think lw really fits my need. I'm not making Avatar or film quality stuff on the sidegigs budget and time anyway. Lw is pretty good for freelance clients that are looking for fast,cheap, ok quality. I'm seeing clients are also becoming aware of lw as of late. Unlike before its all max and maya. :D

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