Dino Rider - update in P6

[Mike Bailey]

Looks great Maya, the P6 version appears to have better detail. I had some problems with my primary HD, haven't had time to explore P6 yet.
I'll post some images as soon as I can cook something up.

[Crow Haven]

Thanks Mike! Yeah, P6 does produce more of a crisp look and better detail I've found you can get out of it.

Get that HD going and try P6 out (try to get the patches for its content at Content Paradise first).

There's a very interesting Texture Extractor2 by Biomekk over at Renderosity -- can be used with any 3D app to gather up all textures used with models and scenes and put into a file to use in any other 3d app. Can save a lot of hassel running them down in a big Runtime and keeps the transparency, etc. with the textures which Poser often forgets to include on export.

I took advantage of the Lightwave8 competitive upgrade offer at NewTek -- there's many apps you can use for it (liked the fact of the renderer quality being good, and so many other items included that other 3d apps only offer as pricey plugins -- like for hair and fur and cloth, etc...and so far Lightwave has been giving free updates for their software. Anyway it's on it's way here.

Then I also got the freebie copy of "Maya PLE" with a book of tutes on using it and registered over at Alias -- just so I can learn a bit about how it works too, in case I ever have need of knowledge of it's system sometime in the future.

We're waiting to see your next creations!

[Soquili]

Hi Maya,

Been awhile since I've had much time to looks around. I like the update, the colours seem more vibrant.

The Maya PLE has some hardware requirements that may make it not work. I ordered it about a year ago and it will not work with my video system. The program opens and I can do modeling, but when I try to open anything associated with colour or texture the program locks up my system. Ctl-Alt-Del will not work, the only way to recover is to pull the plug (hit the power button and hold it till it shuts down).

[Crow Haven]

Hi Soquili and thanks!!

All I can do is try the new MAYA PLE and see. I won't be losing much if it doesn't work completely since it's a free app. My computer is pretty new (Alienware Aurora custom system with AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 and the card being ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Ed. 256MB DDR3, and 2 GB DDR SDRAM. I'm using a NEC LCD 19" monitor.) so I hope it will be compatible. I think Lightwave8+ will be just fine at least. I wouldn't need MAYA except I thought it might be fun to see how it works and maybe get familiar with it. I'll let you guys know if I can run MAYA PLE and what happens with that too.
---Maya

[Soquili]

Hi Maya,

Looks like a very powerful system you have there. Although your ATI Radeon isn't supported by any of the Maya versions.
Maya PLE video cards

I love the modeling capability in Maya and would very much like to make it my primary 3D program, but I can't afford the video hardware at this time. $1500.00 seems to be the average price for one of the cards listed on the page the URL above points to.

[Crow Haven]

Yep, I've read through the listing...I'll try mine on it, it's the newest version of the ATI Radeon X series and has worked really very well with everything else, but the MAYA app is pretty particular it seems and I wouldn't consider buying this app without trying it out first, (I'm also using XP Pro SP2 -- but although I expected all sorts of problems with that I haven't had any - I have used the adjustment/exception setting which can conflict with some apps though)so this will be a test to see if the configuration I have will be compatible enough to let me do something with it (thank goodness there's a free version for trial! lol ). I'd just like some familiarity with the app if possible...(that MentalRay renderer in the full versions would be nice to explore!)the ATI card I've got now is around $500-700 = this was/is a very scarce card from last year when I first ordered my puter (there's yet an even newer version the XT850 which is a just a bit faster now)and I don't need anything better to run any other app I want to use so I wouldn't be interested in spending more on it just for this one app unless I had a job that required use of MAYA. From what I understand this card really hasn't been tested with MAYA and there's quite some interest over at HighEnd3d about finding out how it might work. Guess I'll sort of be one of the first people testing it out.
It'll be interesting to see if my configuration will work with this app (the current PLE version I understand is 6, that may make some difference too as it seems many cards run with 6 but not 6.5 or with the PLE but not with MAYA complete or Unlimited) -- will let ya know!

[Soquili]

I hope it works for you. It is an excellent program, from the portions I can get to function on my hardware.

This time next year I should be able to get a professional graphics workstation and be able to push Maya to my limits

[Crow Haven]

YAHOOOO!!!! Hey Soquili, guess what!!! I got my copy of MAYA PLE today that comes with a book called "Maya at a Glance" and this is version 6.0 of the PLE and it installed just perfectly! I've been playing with this app all afternoon and IT'S REALLY FUN!!! I was expecting it to be hard to understand and a bear to use, but it hasn't crashed my system at all and seems to be running as well as any other app I've got -- I'll have to do a lot more with it to really be sure what it will do with more complicated scenes/texturing and animation, but so far it's accepting textures and everything I've piled on to objects and they render out fine...that's a good start at least. The floating watermark isn't so bad, it's rather transparent so you can certainly see what you've done through it and the space is plenty large enough to model/render in. I'm rather shocked and delighted after so many others I've read having major problems using MAYA with whatever cards they've got. Looks like it's gonna work for me after all (at least so far so good). My card isn't on their list, they haven't tested it, it's pretty new and there were very few actually released before ATI went on to the next version X850 XT, but this Platinum Ed. X800 XT version is really about the same except for a slight increase in speed.

I can certainly see why you like this app -- I'm going to have fun comparing it with Lightwave8 when that gets here next week....In a way I hope I don't prefer MAYA as then if that happens I'm going to crave the full version........ah well, but this will be very fun to learn with.
I hope you get great new dream computer and can finally use MAYA in the near future.
---Maya

[jens g.r. benthien]

Maya,

I just stumbled into this thread and I must say: congratulations! Five thumbs up - I **love** the image, especially because it features this beautful macaw!

Now my question: did you model all the plants and characters in Poser? I've had Poser 4 looong time ago and just abandoned it after I had shifted my focus.

[Crow Haven]

Hi jens, thanks for viewing and giving your comments. I'm new with the 3d programs, so jumping into portions of it with Poser6 seemed one way to learn about lighting scenes and textures and how to use 3d in different ways. It's very fun also. I do enjoy the beautiful macaw model, too, and ways of exploring settings that I could also use in developing works in media like paints on canvas which I still do also. Parts of the scene are Poser models and parts are painting = as in the waterfall, some foliage and parts of background (call it postwork and there you can use any 2d app like PS, or Xara or Painter to further get the right effects)I have a great deal to learn about 3d works, I am starting to learn more techniques in all the areas required. I am having a lot of fun with it as another art tool to work with. I'm enjoying learning from it and what I learn benefits even my work in more traditional media. My modeling is at a simple stage to begin with presently, and I just got Lightwave 8 to concentrate on, and the free MAYA PLE just for fun on the side so as to get some experience with the program since it's so commonly used. Poser can be used so many ways -- like having models and jungles and settings from any where on earth or even some alien planet right at your fingertips to explore with instantly (it would be nice if I could just hop on a plane every time I wanted a taste of the jungle, but I can't).

What you do with any app. or get out of it is up to your imagination.

BTW I love your very 3d-ish Xara avatar -- Xara can get very excellent results for many things, but there are some things in 3d animation where these other apps have advantages so I've decided to explore them also.

Thanks jens! I bet you are loving life in Spain.
---Maya