Well, I'm seriously reaching a point where I want to make a major jump in my art! I want to learn more about modeling, making props and particularly clothes. I'm running MAC OSX on a PowerBook G4 with 1 GB Ram. I'd love to get Rhino but they're too stubborn to make a Mac Version. So, All you modelers, what are your suggestions? Last I've looked at was Lightwave. A bit pricey but maybe worth the investment!

No, no, nu-be!! He MUST spend all of his money and get 3D Studio Max 5 or Maya Unlimited or he's not a real modeler! ;)

Hmmmm....BeatYourSoul, are you getting kickbacks? Get out of my wallet! That's for my wife! : ) Thanks Nu-Be. I'll check it out! Sorry to be a pain. Just downloaded Wings. Really weird after playing with AmapiPro, but then Amapi is a bit weird too!

OK, granted, I need to work with AMAPI more! My problem is that AMAPI doesn't work too well in OSX Classic Mode. So I have to reboot, etc., etc.,. Plus Amapi isn't the most stable program in the world. I am looking at Cinema 4D and Lightwave 7. Is Lightwave worth the extra $1000.00?

I have C4D XL R7, C4D R8 XL Bundle, and LightWave 7.5. The Basic C4D would be very good for just modelling, simple rendering, and can be expanded with modules as you need. On the other hand, LightWave comes with a ton of features, some not available with C4D even with all of the modules (hair/fur/grass modelling, for instance). C4D's interface is easier to configure and more configurable. C4D has a shallower learning curve. Both accept plugins. But, for the price, LightWave does alot that the more expensive 3D apps do (3DSMax, Maya, SoftImage) and has a very large user base with more books and tutorials available. Also remember that LightWave will run on either Mac OS or Windows without requiring a new purchase to transfer (just a re-registration). This is why I ended up with both C4D XL and LightWave; couldn't really decide which I liked better! :) The default suggestion in this case is to get the demos of both and see which you prefer better.

I'm just starting out myself, but please check out Phil-C 's clothing creations in the free-stuff area... I believe he uses Truespace. That's what I am learning to use now, and its not very expensive. The folks at Caligari are very generous and helpful also. I bought into Truespace 3.4 for $49 and got a FREE,... yup "FREE" upgrade to version 4.3 within 6 months. Just my $.02. Good luck in your modeling ventures. By the way, folks in 'rosity are wonderful at helping you through things. Hope to see your models here. Mike

OK Beat, if you had a choice between the two, not both, for modeling primarily, rendering secondary, ease of learning, support, etc., what would it be? C4D or LW?

mjonesboy, I jumped over to Caligari (why does that name belong with Marinara sauce) website and as I thought, Truespace is for Windows only. So that drops my options back down to C4D and LW. Thanks though. I'll probably be hanging out at PhilC's site later to learn conforming!

No question in my opinion, Wings3d is free and one of the best modellers available. It doesn't have a renderer (though free ones are available) but if you're modelling for Poser you already have one! You'll need to be running OS10.2 to use the latest version (the older ones won't import poser figures)but it's worth upgrading if you're on 10.1 I can't tell you how great this app is, you've GOT to try it before you splash out on Lightwave or similar commercial app. Baz

Takin' me to task, are ya? ;) Although you'll pay more, LightWave has the better modeling resources. And, in the event that you eventually want to do more work in LightWave, such as rendering, boning, animation, there will be nothing more needed to do so. It comes default with caustics, radiosity, volumetrics, paricle fx, boning and IK, hypervoxels, metaballs, distributed rendering, UV map editing, (I think) HDRI support, and the ubiquitous "much, much more." :)

You might also like to check out Carrara 2, www.eovia.com. It is available for Mac and has a variety of modelers. Oh, and by the way I too have have performance problems with Amapi 5.2 on my PC--it might have something to do with my Grapphire 2 Tablet, but I'm not sure.

Lightwave. You'll never regret it. I promise.

If you're new to modeling, start with anim8or(if there is a mac) version. Wings is a good modeler, but if you want to make clothes it will be difficult since wings doesn't allow you to have holes in your mesh. Then you should download the demos of the non-free modelers that are available for your system and see which app has a workflow that you like. If you a student you can get heavy discounts on all of the apps mentioned above (www.journeyed.com) -Mark

In Wings if you assign the 'hole material to faces where you want a hole the faces are deleted on export. So modelling clothes isn't a problem! Baz