Blender Or Lightwave..This is the question

[danielHinton]

what do you want to make/do?

download a trial version and see if you like it. If you do, buy it.

Sorted.

[hvanderwegen]

I switched from C4d --> Lightwave a couple of years ago. And since half a year I slowly switched from Lightwave to Blender. Honestly, I use both LW and Blender. But lately Blender got more attention from me.

Both programs have their strengths and weaknesses. Lightwave has weak character animation tools in comparison with Blender. Rendering in Lightwave is very nice, arguably much better than Blender's internal render engine, but with so many alternative render engines for both programs (such as Lux, Indigo, Vray (almost out), Maxwell Render, Yafaray) that is a bit of a moot point these days.

Blender has a built-in compositor, which Lightwave lacks. Lightwave's texture material node editor is more powerful, but the uv texture tools in Blender are second to none. And the material node editor is good. Physics in Blender is quite powerful, which is why a lot of Lightwave users use Blender as a kind of plugin for those effects.

Modeling is great in both programs, but I do have to add that the fact that one has to work with a separate modeler and layout/animation program in Lightwave is its weak point (at least, I find it frustrating having to send my objects to Layout and vice versa). Blender is much more convenient and it allows you to switch to a single object editing mode easily too (numeric </>). The user interface of Blender might be strange at first, but is in my opinion terrific and much more customizable and flexible than LW's GUI - something that will only improve with the upcoming 2.5 version. Linking is another strength of Blender.

And did I mention that Blender has a built-in game engine too? That's right, you can design and create your own interactive world right inside Blender and export the whole thing as a runtime - for Windows, Mac and Linux. Check out Yo Frankie! to see what can be done.

Development of Blender is almost unbelievable. 2.49 can do stuff that quite incredible. The new Lightwave Core will probably NOT include all the features of the present Lightwave, but will take some more time to flesh out. The only thing I miss in Blender is the LWcad plugin (for architectural work) - which is the main reason why I still work in Lightwave at times.

Blender IS a new software model paradigm, and it is on par with all the other 3d apps. Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the others, but I find myself working in Blender more and more. Forget the price - if Blender cost as much as Lightwave, I would prefer Blender now as a user. The business model is completely different from the classic one.

The Blender Foundation improves Blender in giant steps by working on open source productions - the list of the to-be added functionality is incredible:

High detail multi-res modeling (sculpting) and render (micropolygons?)
Fire/smoke/volumetrics & explosions
Compositing using tiles/regions, so it becomes resolution independent
Crowd/massive simulation (fix animation system to allow duplicates) (!!!)
Improve library system for managing complex projects
Deliver in 4k digital cinema (depending agreement with sponsor)
Make the Blender 2.5x series fully production ready.
Try the Lightwave demo, and try Blender - see what works best for you. In the end it is not so much about the money, but about workflow and 'compatibility' with you as a person.

[hvanderwegen]

PS if you are interested in modeling, try getting your hands on the July(?) issue of 3dWorld, which comes with a free license of Hexagon 2.2 - quite a good modeling program.

[bugzilla]

I've been using Lightwave for a few years now. I recently started using Blender since it's character animation tools are better and it exports to Unity, the software I am using to create games for the iPhone. What I have found is that Lightwave and Blender actually work together great. I've posted several tutorials on moving animation data between these two programs on my Youtube site. Check it out and please subscribe.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bugzilla2001

This animation was modeled in Lightwave, animated in Blender, then rendered in Lightwave to show the techniques in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBBWeD03PNw

I have found that Lightwave's render engine is way faster and higher quality than Blender and the particle system is great in LW so it makes sense for me animate in Blender and render in LW.

[sundialsvc4]

I am never of the opinion, with regard to any software tool, that it is ever actually "an either/or choice." It is always wise to have some familiarity with all of the tools in any game ... and Blender is one of those tools. The days when Blender might have been thought of as an "also-ran" are long, long gone.

[nielsss]

Newtek/Lightwave is developing a new version of lw from the ground up: CORE.
> Modeler & Layout are combined / It has history /... / ... (Check it out on the Newtek website).
It should be available by the end of this year.

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