Views on V10.5?

#1

I guess I have a fondness in my heart for Animation Master. I’d use it again in a second if it just did everything else as well as it does character setup and animation. I altogether stopped using it about a year ago after the V9 release left me jaded. Recently I’ve purchased Lightwave and Messiah.

The things that made me decide to switch were basically:

. I needed to know a professional app that would make me more marketable in the industry.
. I was able to create higher quality models more quickly with LW’s SubD’s that with AM’s splines and the models had no creases or wierdnesses going on.
. I needed to have the ability to do things like fur and grass.
. I needed better tools for non-organic modeling.
. Stability
. Better renderer

However, through it all, I’ve kept one foot in the AM community, hoping that it would change and also because I’m finding that I miss AM’s simplicity with doing things. It seems it takes me twice as long to do the same things in Messiah than in AM.

Over the past little while I’ve been hearing some encouraging things about V10.5 and I’ve contemplated upgrading. My question is, is it worth it?

-Brian

#2

With the reasons you mentioned for your switch, I kinda doubt it.

But at $99 a pop… since you can afford Messiah/and relatives, why not keep up with AM if it amuses you.

For me, serious hobbyist working on trying to make as good and professional a film as I can right now, AM works fine. I’m one person trying to do a 15 minute+ film, and I find AM’s work flow has so far made more things possible than it has made impossible.:shrug: Though that might not be saying much.

#3

Well, I would say that creasing is much less of a problem in 10.5. I have been making models in it that look just how I want them too:thumbsup: .

The renderer is looking much better now allthough it is still slow. I am pushing for this to change however.

I still get crashes here and there but the thing is much more complete now.

I say that you have three choices.

1 Wait untill 10.5 has come out of beta (I guess that won’t happen for a while yet as it is still in alpha).

2 Go for the plunge now and help us folks with sending in bug reports/suggestions so that it is fixed up sooner.

3 Wait untill you see realy good stuff bieng made by hashers with all the things that you need.

Just my thoughts.

#4

Y’know, I’ve been debating this for a while now. I’m having issues with Messiah because I hate morph targets (among other things). My boss (who knows nothing about 3D) keeps requesting changes to the characters. The problem with this is that if you make any changes, you have to go back and REDO ALL morph targets. It’s a real pain. I just keep wishing it was like AM’s poses where the morphs are saved as part of the object file. I may just upgrade for the heck of it, $99 isn’t toooo much of a stretch for me.

My main problem with the program is fur and grass. I think all of my other problems with the program could be worked around. If AM could just get good looking (and faster rendering) fur, things would be good for me. There haven’t been any improvements in this area since V9 have there?

Well, anyway, thanks for the advice!

-Brian

#5

Actually, hair is being re-written as we speak. There are now guide splines (v10.5).

I don’t know how grass would be dealt with though.

#6

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