"...radiosity isn't necessary, and most procedural effects can be faked in Photoshop within a few hours." In a production environment a few hours is a lot of money spent... and in the event that it is an animation, post production with photoshop on every frame would take an eternity. Just do it right the first time ;) "I've never seen lights as all that important..." The entire purpose of a render engine is to simulate how light reacts with objects in the scene. Extreme attention to lighting is fundimental to a photoreal render. This is what separates the high end render engines from others; its ability to accurately similate real world light interactions in a 3D scene. ;) -Modulok-

Listen to the wise words of spike ;)

Attached Link: http://www.artbyfeng.com

Lighting, texturing and camera effects such as depth of field...ElectricAardvark is right on with his comment! We'd all love a "render photoreal" button, however this doesn't exist, because every aspect in every photo is different, the lights, the colors, the angles, the lense settings on the camera...getting a photoreal render takes a lot of work, and a lot of practice. Lighting alone will buy you alot in the line of realism, closely followed by textures ;) -Modulok-

:)

Thanks for the reply punkClown, As long as the patch fixed it I'm all for the upgrade :) Otherwise a crashing system everytime you browse a folder...I would have some choice words with adobe on that one ;P Thanks -Modulok-

Thanks a ton CIM! Great link! -Modulok-

I too did a ton of research before I got mine (also a sony F707)I'm totally satisfied with the 707, though it did cost a bit. A few things to watch for in a digital camera: Meagapixels - Very important, this directly relates to how much you can blow up your prints without getting that jaggie look. High quality lense - Carl Zeiss, Cannon, Nikon, be sure to get a good lense on it, if you skimp on quality here then no matter how good the rest of the camera is your pictues will not turn out well. Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom. Optical zoom doesn't sacrifise your image resolving power like a digital zoom does. Color - All digital cameras pick up color differently, some have more saturation than others, such as with a particular camera the color red for example, will appear stronger than it should be, while blue will be weak..some of this can be fixed with postwork, but its nice to have a decend color balance in the first place. Get a camera with as many white balance options as possible. Power - Be sure to get one with a rechargeable battery pack, if you don't you'll go through batteries like water...and that cost can add up in a hurry. I think over at tomshardware.com had some reviews on digital cameras a while back...read reviews, look at the pictues, test out the camera if you can, and then make your decision. Best of luck -Modulok-

I've tested out 3DS Max 4, Rhino 1.1, 2.0 extensively, and more recently have taken a dive into Maya 4.5 Rhino - Well, Teyon pretty much covered most of it. The thing I love about Rhino is that it is so direct; what you see is what you get, no tricks or oddities that the user has to work around or figure out. The learning curve is like taking a stroll in the park compared to some of the others. In the field of organics however I'm a firm believer in a poly modeler. Rhino does wonderful at things like organic car bodies and the like, however if you want richly detailed complex characters (Teyon excluded ;P) (ex: human facial features) then I believe another poly modeler is the way to go. Rhino doesn't have any real poly modeling tools, however it wasn't built as a poly modeler. For NURBS it's hard to beat. I highly reccomend rhino to anyone. 3DS Max - I'll have to be up front an honest, I really didn't get the chance to use max long enough to get a firm standing in my opinion of it. The general interfase I didn't care for much, in that everything was so burried, it takes more mouse clicks to get at stuff vs. other apps on the market today. I just kind of felt that it was "clunky" in a sense. Max is capable of great things (look at blizzard) and I don't doubt its power, but it just didn't seem intuitive enough for me. Maya - I'm very new to Maya, so again I can't vouch for all things Maya. The interfase is very fluid considering the number of tools that it must cover. Very similar to 3DS Max, but more fluid IMO. The tools are pretty well organised for the most part. The controls for moving around a viewport are second to none, you pick them up pretty fast. Maya's poly tools are very powerful, as well as its patch/Nurbs, and sub d's. I find it a faster program to pick up and use for a newer user vs Max. Maya's modeling tools, though not respected as the very best in the industry, are powerful indeed, enough to let you focus more on your creation, rather than having to d**k around in the program and solve problems that the program should worry about, and not the end user. I've talked to many users, and none of them have come across a project that couldn't be done in Maya. MEL is very powerful, if you find that a tool doesn't exist that you need...make it exist! Pick your tools well, you'll end up at the same place in the end...its just a matter of how well you travel ;) -Modulok-

click on his name and send him an IM, or email him at finch@dpix.com

I'll give it a shot, never done much poly modeling (I'ma nurbs guy)...but its something to try. Thanks man!

Attached Link: http://www.toybuilders.com

Only 30min per part, is that just a personal challenge, or whats the deal with that? Heck, I spend days on a single part sometimes. I'd maybe add some crap either hanging off, or built into, or vents or some shit like that to the back of the hand to break up the shape a bit. But thats just me. As far as the other hand goes...maybe some huge mega man/metroid gun? Just a thought.

I'd take the time to learn it, you'll be way better off in the end. Suck it up and take a few months of tuts and get a good book on it, other than the manual that comes with it.

Yeah, no biggie, was just a thought that came to mind. thanks -Modulok-