Moving from Blender, need advice

#1

I have been using Blender for 2 or 3 years before entering a comic producing career. The boss saw some of my 3D work helps drawing scenes and props, so now the company is reforming its process by including 3D models and going digital.

When I was introducing 3D works, my workflow was like modeling in Blender -> export to .lwo -> open it in LW to save and close (for file structure reason) -> import the .lwo into Manga Studio (which supports only .lwo file).

So my boss wants me to cut off the blender part off and learn LW from the start :frowning: because the company will have to purchase LW anyway. I’m not a good at negotiating so I have to make up my mind into using LW.

Is there anyone here worked in both LW and Blender? I want more ideas for transferring fast workflow because I’m feeling frustrated using it. The skill I need for this job is purely modeling. Commands I often use are Scale, Rotate, Grab, Extrude, Face.

Also I often focus on precision, so using mouse to click each values in Numeric Box and typing them is slower to me. I want keystrokes for this if any exists.

That’s all I need for now, and thanks for reading my story.

#2

http://forums.newtek.com/showthread.php?t=77002

You’ll love modelling directly in Lightwave’s Modeller, it’s fast and intuitive :slight_smile: Check out the link above for tutorials.

You should also visit the Newtek forum if you need help.

#3

Why couldn’t you just model in Blender and use Polytrans or AccuTrans 3D to change the file type?

Polytrans http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm at $395 is cheaper than LW.

AccuTrans 3D http://www.micromouse.ca/index.html is ONLY $20.

Considering that LW Modeler hasn’t been seriously updated for YEARS and probably won’t be anytime soon, it seems like overkill to buy it for modeling. Especially when you can model fine in Blender and just convert the file format. I’m pretty sure that both of the programs above have demo’s. Personally I would go for AccuTrans 3D - it’s cheap and works great! I would test it out - your boss would/should appreciate saving him $1500 when you really don’t need it. IMO of course. :slight_smile:

#4

I appreciate your list, bobakabob. It’s hard to find workflow tutorials around. It may take really long time to get used to a workflow with former speed.

About those conversion apps DSW showed me, thank you for your time. But Manga Studio seems to accept .lwo files directly from LW only, so I don’t think my boss would accept those alternatives too. I tried exporting from Blender and Manga Studio can’t use it until I open it with LW and save it again.

I talked to the boss, and it appears some of co-workers are already trying to use LW. He said I can use Blender if we’re short of time, but I have to teach LW, because I have more experience with modeling (and because I can understand English tutorials). But you know how it’s like. My experience is close to nothing when I have to start learning it again :frowning:

#5

I just loaded an OBJ file that was exported from Poser into Manga Studio EX4 - came in no problem. I took that same OBJ and passed it through AccuTrans3D converting it to LWO2 - came into Manga Studio no problem. Now I haven’t played around with Manga Studio so I don’t know what you’re looking for, but these 3D objects import without any errors. As long as you can import models into Manga Studio, I don’t see that it matter what software you use to model with.

If you have a file that’s giving you problems, I can check it here to see if it loads after converting it to LWO via AccuTrans.

#6

How about this one? Exported .lwo directly from Blender, and it crashes my Manga Studio.

About trying to make my boss change his mind into using Blender and those conversion apps, I think I should give up. The company is going that far into LW already.

#7

Interesting. Loading it doesn’t crash Manga Studio here - just that nothing loads. I take the lwo in your file and pass it through AccuTrans and save it out again as an lwo file - loads into Manga Studio just fine. But… Accutrans says that there is something wrong with the file. I am betting that the lwo exporter in your Blender is not working too well. I haven’t gotten into Blender and just loaded 2.61 - no lwo export that I can find.

I’m betting that there is also something wrong with that model - unless everything you export from Blender doesn’t work. I loaded the blend file into Blender and exported THAT file as an lwo and obj - neither loaded into Manga Studio. After passing both though Accutrans, both loaded fine without incident. How many models have you tried exporting as lwo from Blender and importing into Manga Studio?

Regardless, Accutrans does a great job and the files can load into Manga Studio just fine. Right now I’m still modeling in LW, but I’ll be learning modo soon since so many prefer modeling in that program as opposed to LW. I say model in whatever program you want to - importing/exporting works just fine. If you get Accutrans - trying it out before you buy it at $20 - see how different the files look coming from Blender > Accutrans > Manga Studio and how they look from Blender > LW > Manga Studio. And then just from LW > Manga Studio. A quick set of testing should prove to you/your boss what would work best. Taking time to learn a new software… is money - unless your boss expects you to learn on your own time. I don’t relish taking the time to learn modo, but it will be interesting. :slight_smile:

Good Luck either way!

#8

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.