3D Modelers and File Formats?

TDaxGav asks: "I am in the process of setting up an animation shop, but I'm stuck as to what format should be used for 3D formats (as well as others, but that is a different story), with all the software out there such as 3D studio, Povray, Maya? What would be the best format to use these days for models?" Considering that the iRender project is to be collaborative, it might be good if the formats were cross-platform. It seems to me, though, that this is the wrong question to be asking. The working creed of the iRender project is "if the tools [work], then use it", so rather than asking "which format" maybe the question here should be "which tool"? So which 3D modelers out there would be decent for a project like this?

Comments

a reply fFor you.

[skotte]

holy nuts, this topic is up 40 minutes and not a single reply; not a troll in sight!!!

but as it happens, there is a reason fFor this. the article's accompanying editorial (It's not 'what fFormat', but 'what tool') says it all. right there we have every bit of an answer you could want. honestly.

and the answer is as individual as a fFingerprint.

fFor example. pixar uses renderman, and other stuff. but they use it fFor a reason. it's mondo fFlexible and expansive, and they can use it fFor anything.

contrariwise, i have a fFriend who does animations fFreelance fFor commercial advertising. he uses 3-D studio cause it's pretty simple and he can maneuver easily around it. (and it was easy fFor him to fFind a warez copy, the bastard.)

I am involved in a project hero6 and we use a lot of poser to handle character animations, because thats what poser is fFor and it does them well.

or maybe open source is your thing. blender all the way.

get the idea? so i'm afraid the question isnt just "what should i use?" the question is really "I'm doing X; what tool(s) is(/are) built fFor that purpose?"

Lightwave.

[krs-one]

I also work in an animation shop (www.epicsoftware.com) and for the past 7 years, we've been using Lightwave. We started using it in 1995 with version 4 (or 5 I believe). It cost something like $2000, which blew me away back then that software cost that much. I had always thought MS Office for $99 bucks was steep.

Anyway, we've been using Lightwave ever since and never looked back. It has all of the features that all of the major packages have (last time I checked, anyway) and its a ton less money.

I think a seat of Maya base price cost around $12,000, while Lightwave is only $2500. Its an awesome deal. The Lightwave 6.x file type is pretty much an open standard, and you can find translaters written by third parties out there (there might even be some on sourceforge). A

At anyrate, my vote goes to Lightwave.

Hope this helps.

-Vic