Blender vs Lightwave vs C4D

#1

I am in the enviable but difficult position of having to choose a 3D tool to do Motion Design for me and my colleagues. This is a new group we gave just formed. One is a Lightwave fan, one is a C4D fan and one is a Blender fan (me). I want us all to use the same tool so we can exchange files.

I just dont know whether there is enough difference between the three to say one is clearly better than others. Lightwave has been around and has lots of fans, and C4D seems to be one of the primary choices for Motion Design studios.

But I love Blender and feel it can do it all.

Does anyone have an opinion or experience? Thanks!

#2

I don’t know what your definition of Motion Design is, but if you’re talking motion graphics, C4D is THE tool for the job. Everything I’ve heard regarding mograph, C4D excels at it. You can also look at something like Polytrans for transferring scenes and files between applications.

#3

Im a LWer and I’ve been messing with C4D for a while. C4D is by far the best. Way more modern and intuitive than LW. Im still using LW because I’m good at it but I wish I could be as good in C4D. (Im a motion designer too by the way.)

As for blender, I have absolutly no idea.

#4

You should not have a problem with the files/data, as both Blender and Cinema4D can open the Lightwave Objects and Scenes, Blender can even pick up the Skelegons, and turn into Armatures and handles the Surfaces pretty well and… can also read the mdd data.

#5

didn’t know that!
Is there an internal import for that in Blender or is it a 3rd party script / plugin?

#6

comes with it, just have to activate in the Blender User Prefs, Add Ons, Input/Output… there are many to activate including mdd, lwo, obj, you name it! Be sure to save.

#7

Also, another thought…

Autodesk Softimage Mod Tool, is given freely to use without cost, and it has Point Oven included for Lightwave Objects and Lightwave mdds…

It is being provided for gaming especially, and is in essense Softimage Version 7.5. Might be better to use than Blender.

#8

did not know that either, though hte mod had been discontinued along with foundation.
A while back I did play a bit with it and must admit, liked it quite a bit once I started to wrap my head around it.
Think I may have to download this. :slight_smile:

#9

well LW is for far the best modeller, and many amazing tools, but talking about render… hmmm

Blender is a nice option to use Vray, or to transfer the 3ds to Sketchup through blender to render again in Vray, however C4D have Vray now so even if the model is crapy, looks real in few steps and even newbies can achieve it … so

Why not Vray for LW and stand in front of all those little apps?

#10

Many Lightwave users tout Modo as being a better modeler and use it for modeling and LW for rendering. LW modeler as had virtually NO updates in YEARS. I like it, but I like Modo better. It’s a good modeler, but not the best. You need to try many other applications first. And for the record, I’ve been using LW since version 3.

#11

Nice, we are about the same then, I use know it since Amiga… and Modo, is just ok, some people like it, some preffer LW.

So why not Vray for LW?

#12

Yup, I’ve got at least half a dozen Amiga 4000 computers in my attic - I know one of them has LW3 with the dongle - we used them at the last place I worked and they outgrew the Amigas and I ended up with them and the monitors. Occasionally I still fire up LW3 to use a few plugins that use Arrex.

I don’t need it. I’d rather have Arnold. Everything I’ve heard and seen about Arnold blows away Vray in speed and simplicity. So if we had Vray for LW, I certainly wouldn’t buy it. I would sooner buy SI just to get Arnold. :slight_smile: (Well… when I can afford it.) :slight_smile:

#13

I understand you don’t need it, however you have an alternative… so we agree on we need something better than the native render or the plugins already around.

I wish you could get your Arnold, and hope we could get Vray there… but as usual LW stick with small packages only, maybe my problem is not seeking for Vray, I guess is sticking in Lw. Time to move on!

#14

Simply, look at and pick up Kray, it is simply amazing, and pretty easy to use and rivals Vray.

#15

Well, I’ve always liked LW’s native renderer, but it is slow using radiosity and you’ve got to use straight Monte Carlo in order to eliminate flickering. Arnold is supposed to by incredibly fast with GI and the results are great.

As soon as I can get a decent amount of cash coming in regularly again, SI is on my list. As much as I don’t like the evil empire of Autodesk, Newtek has turned from decent company into “greedy little company” and it probably won’t be long until Newtek is worse than AD. Newtek screwed us over with CORE and after being a customer for a LONG time they bit that hand that fed them because of greed - I don’t want to “feed” them anymore. And since SI is far more feature-rich for the cost…

#16

I try Kray before Vray… Is not that good, is just infront of LW native radiosity… how ever Linear lights and IES get broken and you need to re work your materials setting to get them look similar than Fprime or F9… And the render is slow.

However in Vray the time for rendering is really short even when you have reflections everywhere (blurry reflections instead of glossy materials for example), even if caustics active, displacements, micro displacement, hair etc… plus the fact you can use Color mapping and tone mapping makes possible getting those ultra white escenes. I just uninstaled Kray and started seeking for Vray

#17

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.