Hey everyone. I’m conducting a poll to find out what your favorite EI plugins are. I can’t list everything…but I will put up the big ones. If your favorite plugin isn’t on the list, mark down “other” and tell us which you think is best. I’ll also put up a favorite shader poll soon.
Brian
Thats such a tough question, but i guess LightRig, i know with the advent of illuminator gel’s and GI sky maps somewhat detracts from its “must have” status, but its still a usefull plugin and the one i probably use most apart from Ubershape 
Reuben
Well… I wanted to make it hard. 
Multiple choice makes it too easy. Besides, there’s a method to my madness.
I know I realy haven’t worked yet with most of the mentioned plugs. But not only because it was one of my first used EI-plugs at all I realy love Zeus because with Lightnings like this evrybody knows the movie is becoming more than just realistic but fantastic in a magical sense.
Steffen
I love MForge. It is a great multi-purpose shading system (for metals, car paint, and many other multi-layer materials), but also a nice way to set up reactive masks.
Oops, I just saw there was a separate poll for shaders. Sorry…
I have done quite a bit of architectural stuff in the past… so I’d have to say Onyx TreePro and Storm top my list. I guess for the average person, these are not as much of a ‘core’ type plugin. In my toolkit, I’d have to give that award to Mrs Bebel as well… very useful for just about anyone who does 3D work.
-Steve
Ok this one is harder to answer than shaders. First there’s a lot of plugs that arent listed. Moreso, there’s plugs that aren’t for sale anymore that I still love. There’s also plugs that I haven’t repurchased since the OSX upgraded that really took a bite out of which I can use without switching back to OS9. I won’t mention the plugs that are in development that I use (NDA). Then there’s plugs that have funtionality essential to my pipeline but not really eyecandy.
My vote is…Undecided, non-Party. :love:
And let us not forget Image2Mesh. Been using it since before it became free. Indispensable. Just hope future changes to EI won’t break it. It would be great if some sort of preview ability like in Cybermesh could be in I2M.
Well, it just had to be Encage for me. It’s far from perfect and I hope EITG will integrate sub-d’s in EIAS 7, but until then, Encage plugs the gap.
I’d post a poll but this is more of an open-ended question.
What sort of plugin do you need that doesn’t already exist?
(John Knoll buttons don’t count 
)
Hey Blair,
I’d like to see something like Setup Machine or Final Rig 2 for EI. Some type of plugin that assists in the character/skeleton rigging process.
Here’s one off the top of my head :wise:
A “bridge” plugin, like the connection plug between Treestorm and EI that allows you to use any modeler that supports .Fact, so you can model-save and have a one-click update in EI.
Or i guess the other option would be to have a “refresh” button in the project window for each group, it would be so much better than having re-load the whole project.
Reuben
This is more of a feature request for ubershape, but I would like it to be able to create random arrays of shapes (cubes for example for a cityscape).
I’d find it useful for my arch vis work (home made ref maps etc). I think there is a plug-in like this for C4D but i forget its name… So perhaps a one trick pony plug that only does this with cubes…
anyhoo,
Ian