jsageheart Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 How similar, thus easy to learn, is 3DS Max to Lightwave? If someone is being trained in Lightwave, (like me for example...)is the transfer of those skills essentially straight forward given the concepts are the same and the programs present very simularly (except for words (Lightwave) vs. icons (3DS Max) with regards to the tools)? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lambros Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 as far as I know, lightwave has a major conceptual difference from max, the 2 different editing modes of scene and modeler. The words vs icons concept should not trouble you, max has drop down menus with lots of words! In general, one should use suits one more, so it is just a matter of getting used to a piece of software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Limbus Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 One of the biggest difference is probably the history stack and the concept of modifiers in max. In LW you work directly with Polys and point and in max you assign a modifier to a mesh to deform it. To work with a mesh like in LW you would first assign a mesh edit modifier. But you can pick that up pretty easy. I think the harder part will be the differences in the texture editor and setting up the renderer. Florian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nazcaLine Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 i tried the other way around...i'm using max and wanted to learn lightwave...they're SO different i gave up and now i'm just using max...limbus is right, the most difficult was the materials and texturing...besides the concept of layers did'nt make sense to me... well that's just my opinion, but i still hope i can learn lightwave someday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted March 23, 2006 Share Posted March 23, 2006 I used Max at first as I didn't know of any other options. Then I tried every demo I could get my hands on and liked the simplicity of LW so I stuck with that. Recently however I tried using Max again and didn't find the two as different as people say. Everything is geared towards the same result-its just how you get there that differs. It's all about familiarity and it's easy to give up when things don't flow as quickly as with your usual software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mean_pixel Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 Lightwave was the first 3d program I learned to use. I used it for about a year, and then transitioned to Max. Lightwave used to be very old-school (pretty much requiring you model in a quad viewport setup because there was no transform gizmo. Since then (circa V6.0?) they developed the gizmo, "interactive" tools, etc. The transition should be much easier now. I've always considered Lightwave the most "hands on" equivalent to real-world sculpting (until I found Z-brush....let there be light). The biggest challenge you will have will probably be navigating LW's stone-age interface. It's clunky (though very customizable now) but does take you back to it's Amiga-days roots. I have found (last version I used was 6.5) it seemed to be a little more work and cleanup to model cleanly in LW now, since the good old 5.0 days of point-point-point-point-POLY The LW renderer is really, really nice. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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