Lightwave or 3D Studio Max 1

[Geronimo]

I'm a broadcast graphics designer for an educational satellite network and work with just about all of Adobe's<br>
software plus Avid NT Express. Up until now, believe it or not, I've had to make do with Caligari's trueSpace as my primary 3D software. It's capable of a lot and I've used the hell out of it for all sorts of stuff but it's still very limiting. Finally, the cheap bastards I work for are going to spring for a real 3D package and the vendor we deal with most often is recommending Lightwave 6. My question is which package is best...Lightwave or 3D Studio Max? Should I consider some other software instead (such as Maya or Softimage)? Whaddaya think?

 

[Horrid]

It all depends ob where your primary focus is. If trueSpace has done the job so far don't bother thinking about softimage, more power than is required and you will pay for it.<br>
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Maya is a great package with a lot of good features, if you are doing character animations Maya is a good bet, reasonable price with an amazing range of tools. Unfortunatly I haven't had a chance to use Maya but demos have looked very impressive.<br>
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As for the Max vs Lightwave...I'm not a big fan of lightwave, the modular system required a bit of getting use to but the render quality is excelent. Max is easier to use and flexible. You can go back and change an edit you made to a model 10 steps back without loosing subsequent changes. Considering you know trueSpace I think Max will have the shorter learning curve. <br>
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One thing to remember though, lightwave is designed for broadcast quality renders, Max is probably not as good in that department.<br>
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Sorry, don't think I have made any good arguments either way. My money is on Maya, but only because of what I have seen at demos, it could be the most difficult package in the world to learn.<br>
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