A few Strata and other 3D program questions.

Is Strata pro worth it? Not just for ships.

Is Animation Master good? What kind of stuff can it do?

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"There is enough life on earth to fill fifty planets. Be prepared for anything."
K-Pax
(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.f2s.com")Adventure Dog(/url)

i have strata 3D 3.0.2 (not base, the older midrange) and it's goof, but what it lacks is made up for in pro. It's quite elite, and if you can get it cheap it'll be worth it. It can do pretty much everything, except terrains are harder (possible, i've seen some nice ones, but I think bryce is a better choice for that).
dont know about animation master...

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=Spread the Chaos=

Isn't Animation Master the program that Meowx uses?

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
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Try Strata Vision insted. Slug makes quite nice stuff with it.Strata products dont suit my work style so I dont use any of them though.
Animation Master has lots of a good reviews on the 3D sites. Mostly they say the quality of animation is just great for such a low price (300$ Ithink).But David (Meowx) used it and were saying that he had a lot of problems with various bugs.(Though he made cool stuff with it).

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StrataVision has a better modeler than S3D (similar but not as good as strata pro), but it lacks other features. One big loss is the incredible renderer.

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=Spread the Chaos=

Any free/cheap program that does at least the basic 3D stuff is ok, as long as you aren't looking to make the best possible stuff with it (take a look at my ships for examples :p). I've been using mechanisto for all of my stuff, and I haven't gotten too many complaints yet. But usually cheap stuff involve high learning curves, although I have yet to use Strata 3D.

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I already use Strata, I want to know if it's worth the upgrade to pro.

I also wanted to know what people's experiences were w/ A:M.

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"There is enough life on earth to fill fifty planets. Be prepared for anything."
K-Pax
(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.f2s.com")Adventure Dog(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Evil Penguin:
**Is Strata pro worth it? Not just for ships.

Is Animation Master good? What kind of stuff can it do?

**

I bought it, in one of the cheap upgrade deals from base that they keep coming up with.

I don't know why people keep on comparing Vision to Strata3d (the predecessor to base). 3d has tonnes more tools than Vision, and is much, much faster. This is largely because it runs on OpenGL rather than 3dmf (for Vision 5) or the proprietary renderer (for Vision 4). Some of the 3d enhancements were blurring and focussing, metaballs, properly implemented sweeping, multi-angle lathing, caustics and multi-texturing. The multi-texturing alone is worth it.

As far as Pro is concerned, if you can afford it and not really miss the cash, then it's definitely worth it. However, it isn't quite a standalone package - you will need Photoshop or an equivalent for image editing, Poser if you want to work with human figures, and, as someone else mentioned, nothing really touches Bryce for landscapes.

The really nice features that make Pro worth it are the additional procedural textures, plus some nice booleans and a few other cool tools. As far as the modelling is concerned, don't buy Pro if that's all you want - there are free versions of Pixels3d out there which have more powerful modelling. It's in the area of texturing and rendering that StrataPro really excels.

Oh, and Flash for the web, with the new version. I've not upgraded yet, as I don't do a lot of web design.

The other thing you might want to think about is developing a library of dirt, rust and grime. DVGarage sells a CD of these kind of textures, but you can make your own with a digital camera or even a decent scanner. They add far more realism than any number of extra features.

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M A R T I N • T U R N E R

Yeah, I really wanted booleans, clouds, and some of the other stuff that S3D pro offers. The texturing is really that much better? I have the texture plug in.

I have Pixals3d, I don't like it. I have a demo of Cinema 4d, and i love it, but i love the XL version so much more than GO.

Textures aren't a problem, I use PS to make those all the time, and I have access to Poser at school.

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"There is enough life on earth to fill fifty planets. Be prepared for anything."
K-Pax
(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.f2s.com")Adventure Dog(/url)

I have Studio Pro (pretty much the same thing as regualr pro) and (url="http://"http://www.meteorarts.com/gallery/kyle/titan.jpg")here(/url) is something I made entirely in it. It's not much, but strata has it's stong points (not sure if it is making space ships though :p). I don't think there is a "best" modler, it all depends on what you are used to modeling with... Anyway, yeah, in my opinion Strata Pro is worth it.

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-Kyle "Vader" Blessing
-May the force be with you
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I have StrataVision 3d and I want to know if I should get Strata3d instead.

Oh yeah, are there any manuals for StrataVision 3d? Mine did not come with any.(yes, i am very new at making plugs)

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Die, Cruiser, die!
--Last log from Scoutship 4299--

Well, now that there is base, plus and pro, you might lose some features in the process, unless you can find an old version of Strata 3d 3.0.2 or whatever it was.
(url="http://"http://works.3d.com/onlinemanuals/index.html")http://works.3d.com/...uals/index.html(/url) <----- A manual for Strata3d.

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"There is enough life on earth to fill fifty planets. Be prepared for anything."
K-Pax
(url="http://"http://www.adventuredog.f2s.com")Adventure Dog(/url)

(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/evoazdgari/FileSharing1.html")http://homepage.mac....leSharing1.html(/url)

thats got strata3d 3.0.2 on there, the one before base (IE the good free one).

The copy up there has no libraries installed, but i might upload mine soon to the same page. This doesn't make much of a difference except that until I upload them you have to download/make your textures.

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=Spread the Chaos=
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Here is a ship I made in Strata 3D 3.0.2 free. I think it shows off the better aspects of what you can do with Strata 3D: (url="http://"http://www.ewanc.f2s.com/kelan/destroyer.html")http://www.ewanc.f2s.../destroyer.html(/url)

I am working on my biggest project ever at the moment so I will post that once I have finished it.

ewan

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may contain nuts

The reason I ask is StrataVision is quite confusing and I lack the time to figure it out and if Strata3d was easier to use. Thanks for the manual link I will look at it soon.

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Die, Cruiser, die!
--Last log from Scoutship 4299--

You can do a whole bunch with primitives modelling -- booleans are a huge help, there.

But I do like what can be done with splines... (url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~nomuse/speardock.JPG")http://home.earthlin...e/speardock.JPG(/url) , originally built it in Ray Dream Designer for use in a Bryce image.... (url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~nomuse/x-16.JPG")http://home.earthlin...nomuse/x-16.JPG(/url) (yeah, the mono-wheel robot was also built in Ray Dream. BTW -- the fuel tanks and those access stairs are all built from primitives. Probably a hundred cylinders in the railings alone.)

I thought it might be fun to make a sprite out of that model -- and what do you know, I ended up here! :}

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"