Credo is giving away version 3.5 of their lifeforms studio in one of the magazines. When will I learn? Marque

Which one? And how long ago had you bought it? Tom

The Mag was 3D World July issue No 27 Hope that helped Blur

Its nice to get a free program and it sux to see the value of our paid software go down hill so fast. Guess the only saving grace is that the freewares are almost always non commercial and the paid ones are commercial. That doesn't help us hobbyists, but its something. (now to find cyber cops to enforce those deals). Personally, I think giving away a demo is vital to helping us decide if we want it or not, but giving away the entire program without watermark saves or the like cheapens the industry. I for one loose respect for those who gouge the people who help build the company then give the freebie to the ones who probably already have a warez version. You wouldn't want your real estate going down in value cuz the folks down the block are giving their house away for free, would you?

Boy did you ever hit the nail on the head Erico...lol I just get frustrated, just upgraded to the newest version, better anyway. I don't mean to be a dog in the manger, I'm glad people get to check out the software, just sucks when you pay so much and it's now free. Oh well, now I can kick the free copy to my friend who couldn't afford it and we don't do warez so she didn't get to use it til now. 8^) Enjoy it peeps! Should be in Borders or Barnes and Nobles, I got mine at Borders. Marque

I know that feeling. I paid $2500 for Lightwave 6.0 witch never worked right crashing unusably. Then patch 6.0a, a replacement disk, patch 6.0b, four changes in computers, and, an upgrade to 6.5 and failed to work. (Correct OS and SP included.) They never would do more than a walk through the installation. Jerks. Finally 6.5b and OMG it finally works two years later and now Lightwave 7.5 is out at $1800. $1800 now for 7.5! Life sucks. :(

what does lightwave even do considering you paid 2500 for it!!!!

Guess not. Looks like todays 7.5 version has an RMA program but way back then nothin but cranky techs.

If you wait long enough the prices always come down - but then you're not getting the use out of it. You might wait a year for something and the price comes down $200 - but then you didn't get to use it for a year! If you paid $500 for lifeforms a couple years ago, and used it daily. Then you did all right. If you just used it a few times and put it away - then you blew it. Of course we can't always tell how useful something will be till we get it, but that's the challenge. Don't buy until there is absolutely no way else around the problem without it.

Bongo makes a good point. I've become extremely cautious about spending money on 3d apps anymore until I know I have to have it and nothing else cheaper will work. Poser 5, e.g. is a must have and there's no way I'm waiting 2 years to get the freebie. I fumed when I saw the Lifeforms 3.5 giveaway too. They've done Amapi 4, Truespace 3 and even Poser 3. And they even offer special upgrade prices!! AAARGH! :)

Don't pay... certain people that I know use p2p applications... wink, wink

Well, I think free older versions are a good thing.

See, I got Poser 3 with an old 3D World mag. Later I purchased the update to Poser 4, Poser ProPack, Bryce, Vue d'Esprit, Rhino, Cinema 4D and Pyrocluster. On top of this I spend over $2500 on Poser models.

Umm, maybe free 3D programs are not a good thing. ;P

The first fix is free.

'I know that feeling. I paid $2500 for Lightwave 6.0 witch never worked right crashing unusably. Then patch 6.0a, a replacement disk, patch 6.0b, four changes in computers, and, an upgrade to 6.5 and failed to work. (Correct OS and SP included.) They never would do more than a walk through the installation. Jerks. Finally 6.5b and OMG it finally works two years later and now Lightwave 7.5 is out at $1800. $1800 now for 7.5! Life sucks. :(' Well its less than that now, and places like sharbor currently sell it for 1250 and ALSO include a great learnng set which on its own sold for around $500. 3D Companies are doing this due to the fact the market is squeezing and things are changing (unless you name is Discreet and you dont give a damn about your users that is). Most of the older products that are given away free on the mags, can be picked up 'legitily' on ebay for 1/4 going price, stuff like truespace 3 was available direct from Caligari for $99 (think still is), granted there sales idea is all geared to you buying a older vesion, liking it and upgrading to the newest which there is nothing wrong with.

@GODspeed: Actually Poser 5 is the only 3D program I know of which increases the price. Most of the middle/high level programs (Maya, SoftImage, Lightwave, ...) are way less expensive then 6 month ago.

heh I paid $800 for d-sculptor its free now go figure :P BT

Newtek just gave away Aura DV on Digit, Wildform gave away Flix on Computer Arts. Then there's Strata Studio Pro and Video Shop 4 to look forward too...

Eric, these are full commercial versions...

I got Lifeforms 3.5 for free off a magazine too, no way would I have bought it tho, it doesn't work for me. Rob

Persevere, it grows on you. The browser is useful and the mocap files, when converted for Poser are really rather good...

I'll reinstall it & try again then :) silly question how do you get the mocaps to work with poser?

Open them in a text editor and convert pelvis to hip and (I think I remember right) back to chest. Those particular mocaps don't have data for the abdomen which makes them a tiny bit stiff but it's easy to remedy...

thanks saxon, I'll try that :)

Ooopsl, 'course you need to convert them to bvh files in Lifeforms first...

hehe sort of guessed that one :) poser sometimes likes bvh files & lifeforms saves bvh so I put 2 & 2 together and got 42 which is the answer to the ultimate question ;)

Remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard ...

Is that the one about the nun and the great dane?

I alwas start on older programs that I pick up dirt cheap or free... and I will play around with it for awhile and see if I like it or not. Then when I decide that I like it and really like it, that's when I realize the one feature I want is always the feature only available in the newest version. That always pisses me off. The one thing I enjoy is adobe Premiere. I always get a free copy (Latest version) included when I upgrade my video capture hardware. That way I don't have to spend moeny seperatly on it.

aww Discrete, Autodesk ( who own Discrete ) and Mcneel all have thier heads in thier a$$e$. max and rhino may be great apps, for M$ crashware, but they are extremely overpriced. maya isn't to bad, but thier ple isn't available for linux so I'm not to impressed with that, even though thier linux version is reputed to be better than either of thier other versions. there are some decent free apps out there, you just have to look for them. and some decent extremely low end ( price wise ) apps as well. AC3D I beleive is only around 50. though I'm not impressed with the demo of it...no saving and watermarking images makes the demo useless.