I would like to purchase a program for animation that works well with ZBrush. Well enough for me anyway. I have heard great things about Cinema 4D with their revamped animation and outstanding renderer. Lightwave has been around a while and also has a good rendering engine. It looks like more people are leaning towards Cinema 4d. Unfortunately, the lowest price I can get for the XL bundle is $1200. Lightwave I can get with Vue5 for $789. Not a bad deal, and that includes the free upgrade to ver9 when it releases. Any thoughts on this from the quorum would be appreciated. Thanks.
It is more than only a question of price but also how comfortable you are with these apps. The best is to try their demos and see what happens.
Lightwave with Vue5 for $789 seems a great price, but I for one can’t stand Lightwave interface. LW is also much smoother on PC than on Mac. I also prefer to have an integrated modeler like C4D.
I’ve never used anything but C4D, so I can’t attest to the other apps, although I’ve seen people work in them in instructional DVDs or demos, and all I can say is Cinema is just easy to use.
I always say I would probably be lost in something like Maya, especially after using Cinema.
Just my opinion…
Like you said, Cinema 4d has not-so-hot animation tools for characters compared to others but a kick arse render engine (if you get advanced renderer). I’m not a lightwaver but those I know that are love it and it’s supposed to have nice animation tools. I’d just say request a demo from Newtek and get the Cinema 4d 9.5 demo and see which one you like the best. Don’t limit yourself to just those two in your hunt though, try XSI and the rest if you’re shelling out that much money…make sure you get the right one for you. 
Neither! Get Softimage XSI 5.0 for 1$,995 for “All you want.” An outstanding program…
I second that smokebox!
Lemo
Yeah, you can get xsi Foundation for $495. Heck, that’s cheaper than photoshop and it even comes with a license of mental ray. Full blown animation package and a phenomenal modeler. Just can’t beat it man. XSI all the way.
If you want a good app for animation and rendering to teamup with Zbrush have a look at pmG’s messiah. Good luck on your hunt:)
I don’t even own XSI, but I have many video tutorials for it from when I was making decisions for softwares to purchase (and still am making those decisions). From what I’ve seen and experienced with the demo, if I were to buy a modeling/software package to accompany “my precious” ZBrush, I would definitely go for XSI. Feature rich, sturdy, and economical.
Messiah studio looks interesting and is definitely a software to consider, as are all, but I just haven’t heard or seen the praise for any similar app that I have for XSI…and it proves itself to the user.
I wouldn’t look twice at Lightwave (at least not the current version)–not to offend any of you Lightwave users out there. It may have been something great once, but so was Rome.
The only thing I wish the less pricey versions of XSI had that the Advanced version has is hair simulation.
Anyway…Happy Shopping!
Thanks for all the advice. I hadn’t thought of XSI. Looking into it. Straight forward to animate with? I will have to find some of those videos. Thanks to you all!!
Decisions…Decisions…
It has non-linear animation…so it can’t be bad…
XSI is a pro tool and a 3D solution platform rather than a point and click interface for cool pictures. I use it since a year and have not found a thing I could not aproach with it. The Ess version even comes with a compositor which allows total freedom. It’s a tool which has depth. So be aware of a learning curve. But at the end of the day it is the most standaradized from the lot. Scripting lang is VBasic or Jscript/Java or Python and not some wild brew. And the SDK is C++. So if you script, you can use that knowledge also for other apps and tasks. And yes, animation is the game. I have not faound a thing I cannot animate. And that includes the modeling departement whre you can use the animation capabilities to model cool structures. Wild stuff is possible. Try the demo! Also check out the new feature list in V5.1 which has been announced today. More goodies… And I did not even fight the endboss in the last level of 5.0 yet… sighhhh
Lemo
So if I got foundation, could I simulate grass without the XSI Dynamic Hair and Fur? I wanted to be able to use or create some stylized grass for some characters to be running through. Do you think this would be possible:qu:
Only if you bend over backwards. But you can help yourself easily using instanced grass and then have some larger stalks which you define as soft bodies so they can collide with your characters yielding quite some realism.
In any case, with geometry like that you will experience renderfarm worthy render times. Regardless which hair solution or simulation you chose. Simply the aliasing of the leaves is taking ages. I made a nice grass scene and with good lighting I ended up with about 35 minutes per frame. On my dual opteron 280 system. On my P4 it would take hours per frame. Not much with running through grass there… You will start to love the desert… with clear air… and ONE cactus hahaha.
Good Luck
Lemo
I have to give my shout out for XSI. I have only had it for 2 weeks now but I like it more and more. As for hair and grass keep a look out for Ornatrix. http://www.ephere.com/ornatrix/
Right now it is a Max plugin only for about $150.00, but a post on their forum states that a near future XSI plugin is in the works.
Welcome in the XSI Gang GottsBett! If you need hints with resources… let me know. By now I bet you know www.xsibase.com and edharris website… xsibase also has a great resource section. There is plenty of cool stuff out there. Also look for ‘Simbiont’. A procedural shader lib for which there are plenty of free shaders out there like car tire, potato skin and and and…
Lemo
Here is the type of grass I would like to make. This is actually one of the characters too. Do you think this type of grass is possible. I am not searching for realism, but cartoony 3D. What do you think? Thanks for the great discussion concerning this.
That would not be difficult to do in any 3d application that supports some level of Instancing. I’m not exactly 100% sure if XSI will do that but I really don’t think it wouldn’t…I’ll have to poke around in XSI and find out but insancing a cube with a good grass shader (that pic looks like a gradient of light to dark green, possibly with a touch of fresnel) and you’re all set.
Not sure if this is a hair solution for xsi foundation, just found it and I must get my butt off to work.
http://animus.brinkster.net/stuff/plg_muhhair/plg_muhhair.html
I think that’s an addon to Advanced’s hair system making it easier for users to create realistic hair renders. I could be wrong though but that’s what I remember being discussed at one point.