low and behold an alternative to Photoworks

Today i had the alias rep drop by and he showed me a new or not so new
product they were pushing

Alias image studio

i must admit i was much impressed by its ability to directly open and
render SW FILES no inbetween translator like okino polytrans needed

to top it off it rendered using mental ray

just thought id drop a quick link seems like a lot of folks including
myself are doing things long handed when it comes to finding an
alternative renderer

 

sorry

http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/imagestudio/index.shtml

ive been playing with the demo this evening

i wouldnt say its better than maya or max as they both have the mental
ray engine as a full blown release which is superb and i dont know much
about the lightwave product having only used it aqs a tester before
buying maya

but alias image studio has the same mental ray renderer as maya as its
a sister product so from my brief testing of it its pretty good and a
hell of a lot better than photoworks

i must admit being able to open a large cad data set straight in with
no translation is appealing to say the least

maxwell im not so sure about its supposed to offer a SW plugin and then
you just tweak and render but having said that if you already have a
scene set up in maya using a real world environment that works then you
just drop in the model apply materials then render

 

http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/imagestudio/index.shtml

sorry

 

the demo doesnt come with direct connect image styudio 2 i got my eval
from the rep who i have a preety good relationship with
also im basing my pricing on the fact that whilst its 500 gbp cheaper
than mayapeople who havent got okino already wont be laying out the 400
or so for a translator and then an extra 1500 or so for mental ray

 

On 20 May 2005 02:43:22 -0700, wrote:

Mike - who is the UK reseller who arranged the Alias DirectConnects
software for you? I've just downloaded the Image studio but will not
'kick in' the 30 day trial if it will not work with SW - I'll contact
the reseller to send through the Alias DirectConnects - as the website
says it is free .



Regards


Jonathan

 

Alias has just announced this week that DirectConnect for SolidWorks will
now be included free of charge in Image Studio 2.1. Should be available
about mid-June.

Check the below link to see the full announcement.

http://www.alias.com/eng/press/pres..._announces_directconnect_for_solidworks.shtml

 

Just wanted to throw my two cents in...

*One* way around the "no translator needed" issue is for software
(Alias?) to grab the OpenGL mesh from the frame buffer. This "becomes"
your new model. As such, be aware of your Image Quality settings. If
you want a low poly count model, keep the settings "low". The higher
the settings, the more accurate the mesh (more polys). However, this
will directly result in longer render times (more polys=higher render
times). Also, in most 3D renderers, the "hidden polys" (inside
surfaces, for instance) are handled in different ways. Some will
remove them, some calculate them (Lightwave "looks" at all poly's, and
figures out which are seen and which are not by the camera. Even if
they are not "seen", they are still considered, adding time to the
render). If possible, remove ALL poly's not seen by the camera.

A poly mesh reduction program goes a long way to improving render
times (check out Polygon Cruncher from Mootools - www.mootools.com).

Lightwaves renderer is very good (I prefer the images over Mental Ray,
but that's just an opinion). You can buy a seat of Lightwave for
$495.00 right now (with a valid license for Solidworks). I then
suggest 3D File Export (www.baren-boym.com), another $295.00. This
add-in allows you to save the SW part in a number of formats (obj,
lwo) with a simple "Save As...".

Maxwell is going to be the sh*t once ready, but that's a little way
off (they're saying beta by June, full release by October)...

Mike Tripoli

 

Anyone found a UK dealer who will sell Lightwave at this price, as
Newtek site only sells in USA.

TTFN


Jonathan