I thought it was super cute and pretty good for a Studio animation. Animation is tough all around, and there's a few tools for Studio to help, but few that really work well in a production environment. I say this with experience mind you, and it can be done with A LOT of work (as I'm sure you know!) All-in-all, job well done!

When you get a bit more advanced with your video editing, Lightworks is a professional tool but not exactly easy in the UI department save for NLE experts, but it is free at the basic level. There's also a program called Hitman that's a little bit of Adobe-style AE with pretty slick animation doodads and particle sims. Not quite free, but a veritable bargain compared to After Effects. 

My little diddy that took around four months, mostly render time (exporting from Studio's animation parts to Luxrender): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSal_ah0Iag

Doing more modeling and character sculpts lately. Side effect: not as active in the render department, but here's a fun one. Max Payne inspired! (picked up the game over black friday for $10. woo hoo!) 

Having spent quite a bit of time on a Lux animation run, I can tell you its doable, but much agreed, 1-2 per month won't be happening without a studio and lots (and lots!) of processing power. 

Your idea looks solid and you've done your research, but your success will depend on how crazy you want to get with your scenes. 

My vid here using straight CPU in Lux took four months to set up, render and edit, working one guy eighteen to 20 hours a day some weeks (I about killed my marriage to 'chase the dream').

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSal_ah0Iag

I wanted bigger and better, but I didn't have the requisite processing power. I even started putting together a 32-core CPU render farm, but it's still on the back burner for monetary reasons. 

Anyway, back to the GPU debate. Both programs can do the job, but Lux is far more finicky in the stability department. If you want to do hardcore GPU animations, get familiar with how game designers set up their characters (lower poly characters, normal maps, and downright tiny texture maps). Texture atlas and decimator in studio can be good tools with judicial use. 

There's a lot more to it than the basics I've noted, but it you like huge scenes, full res. textures and lots of ooh and ahh, CPU is the only way to get it done without an Nvidia Grid K1 card. 

Quote - Question is 1.3 RC fixed to use with Reality yet?

I've been using 1.3 for quite awhile (the previous beta anyway). Just FYI, it shows up as 1.2.1 or some such in the Lux about screen. 

Quote - Another Deus Ex fan I see :)

Indeed! Tuning  up my modeling skills on the cast. A certain figure with the initials 'LB' is giving my all kinds of issues. I'll get him straightened out, save it, then all my weight maps disappear. I've redone them soooo many times now that I'm ready to abandone him... 

Sorry for the frustration rant! Like your new avatar Paolo; kinda looks like a Super Paolo emblem =D

(And yes, I haven't gotten updates in forever either. x<  )

Keeping things moving again! My latest obsession, reborn: 

http://fav.me/d6m7vee

Depends on your sick puppy mode, Doc! No human gore this time ;-)  

I'm beginning to think you want to see a Hunter with boobs 

Lil bit of AVP goodness =D

http://fav.me/d6ls6qj

Sharky, or anyone else who has used the GPU's Hybrid function, have you had issues with Lux failing to close when aborting a render, which then crashes Studio?  I'm on 1.2.1 of Lux's release (or 1.3 on the official record). I've been getting some impressive runs but wondered if anyone else was seeing the same. 

I think Act III will be more to your approval, doc

Well Doc, here's that 'toned down' character test. Can't wait to get to work on some AVP-style mayhem! Forgive the background prop. A quickly textured stand-in for something better =D 

http://fav.me/d6l9jpe

I would have posted a preview image Doc, but I'm thinking the mods might not appreciate some of the 'visual' elements. The next will be toned down, as it bothered me a bit too. Weird, huh! 

Just staying in shape. My first use with Swidhelm's 'Hunter' (a.k.a. Predator) figure.

(medium gore warning) http://fav.me/d6l08ks

Edit: The is scale accurate, by the way just in a rather massive warehouse set that I'd planned to use in a slightly different shot. The light came out pretty nice on this test render, so I kept it ;-)  

It's been a good year for Sci-Fi! Oblivion was much better than I had anticipated, and just watched the newish Star Trek. All these freebies and new gadgets that have come out in their 3D counterparts finally look familiar! 

Looking forward to that copter, Erik!! 

Quote - I wanted to keep making this bigger and bigger, but didn't want to kill my computer.  If I had the ultimate machine there would have been 20 fighters in this scene.  

Snow was added in Photoshop.  If Daz would add particles I would love it forever and ignore all it's other problems. 

Texture Atlas, and for characters a bit further from the camera, lower the LOD and you can squeeze in 15 without choking the average system too much. Lux could care less about figure geometry, its the textures that eat up RAM.  If you can get away with it (distant characters), mapping each character's 29 or so textures all on one with TA will net you a full scene quite handily. I've gotten 18 characters in one shot before things got slow and crash happy--and that was before I learned to switch over to solid shaders in the preview window ;-) 

There's a snow-tool also (forgot where) that is kind of a cross between true particles and repeat geometry. i'll see if I can find it for ya.