What are some good programs for graphics design? I don't have the budget for Lightwave, but can somebody suggest a good program? It would be really appreciated.

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"Two wrongs don't make a
right, but three lefts do."

A search on this would turn up about 3*10^14 topics on this question. But to simplify your life, Strata 3D still has a free version, and I've seen people do some amazing things with it. Mechanisto is also free, but not as highly recommended. Infini-D seems to be abandonware, so you could probably pick that up cheap to free. I'm not an artist, though, so I don't really keep up.

Of course, you could always just use straight POV-Ray like I do

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Masamune:
**Of course, you could always just use straight POV-Ray like I do;)
**

I've tried to use POV-Ray, but for some reason it doesn't clean up its own windows. I was always going through a cycle of; program an object; render it; quit POV-Ray; (repeat until either satisfied or frustrated. So my questions are: do you have any problems using POV-Ray and what MacOS are you using it under?

Thanks.

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"There are no bugs in my code, ... only undocumented features." - corollary #3
Please use the (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro&default;=9")SEARCH(/url) feature before posting a new question. For EV:Nova development questions, please read the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=guides&display;=name&file;=bible_and_tmpls.sit.bin")EV Nova Resource Bible(/url) first.
Provided by bit-banger Arturo: a (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=utilities&display;=name&file;=ResourceInterdependence.hqx")Resource Interdependence table(/url) and the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=plugins&display;=name&file;=ShieldBubbles1.0.hqx")Shield Bubbles 1.0 plug(/url)

I personally have never had any problems with Strata, I'm not a specialist artist but I can do some stuff. Strata is available for free from (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan")http://www.evula.org/ewan(/url) along with some stuff for it including tutorials, textures, backgrounds and models. It runs fine under 8.6, 9.0 and 10.1. I haven't tried it with any others so I'm not sure. It is also pretty easy to get used to. i picked up the gist of it in a little under two hours though thats definately not to say I'm an expert, for starters I still can't figure out how to use lights properly...

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Hey! If I want cheesey poofs, I'll get cheesey poofs!
-Eric Cartman Law Enforcer
"Respect my Authorita!"

What lighting problems, are you haveing?

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A life, ohhhh, that a new plug-in right?
"Borb II of V.S.S Hellfire."

If you're a student, most of the big developers, like Newtek (Lightwave) or Maxon (Cinema 4D) have student discounts. They rarely advertise it, but if you call them or email them, you should be able to get a substantial price-cut. But then you cannot use it for commercial production. Obviously, you have to be a student.

Denb

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But, oh, what a wicked world it was that drove a man to sin.

Quote

Originally posted by Borb II:
**What lighting problems, are you haveing?

**

I can't control the brightness

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Hey! If I want cheesey poofs, I'll get cheesey poofs!
-Eric Cartman Law Enforcer
"Respect my Authorita!"

Quote

Originally posted by Starbridge42:
I can't control the brightness

What type of lights are you using? If its just ambient lights (which you shouldnt be using - ever) then its just in the "Lights" tab of the "Environment" pallet. However, if you are being sensible and using spot or fill lights, then it is in the "Object" tab of the "Object Properties" pallet.

These settings will not be visible if you are using 3.5 base, but if you are using the version on my site (3.0.2 free) then it will be there.

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")Ewan's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://dreamwave.evula.net")Dreamwave(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.northernswamp.com")Northern Swamp(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com")EVula's Lair(/url)
"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!"

Quote

Originally posted by Arturo:
I've tried to use POV-Ray, but for some reason it doesn't clean up its own windows. I was always going through a cycle of; program an object; render it; quit POV-Ray; (repeat until either satisfied or frustrated. So my questions are: do you have any problems using POV-Ray and what MacOS are you using it under?

When I used version 3 under classic, I never had any problems whatsoever. I've switched to the newest version under 10.2, and the only problem I have is that now it chokes if I try to do an animation over 5 frames long. It's a small problem, but so annoying that I've decided to try and learn Strata!

(Off-topic) Thanks Ewan! Your tutorials really got me started. How do I do an intersection though? (I guess Strata calls it a boolean) I can't make antimatter objects work.(Off-topic)

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)