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Autodesk Impression 3
by ben922
I had a few problems installing Autodesk impression 3 at first. This was because it requires a graphics card that can support pixel shader 2.0 or higher. In the end I had to get a new graphics card at the office.
Impression 3 is the latest piece of software from Autodesk (the people who make AutoCAD) that allows the user to ... create a more of a sketch like drawing.
I personally have been trying it out to see if it can make a working drawing look more like a hand drawn drawing.
The number of styles you can choose from is remarkable. You can choose from a pencil type style (all different types of pencil too like HB etc) to marker pens.
There is a textures style that can incorporate pictures of bricks and things but I personally think that it looks bad.
As in AutoCAD the user can insert blocks onto the canvas. this works extremely well because as I found, if you import a plan from AutoCAD into impression, impression will recognise all the trees etc as blocks, therefore if you insert a coloured tree block it will replace all the imported line drawings of trees and scale to the size of the original.
This feature alone is worth its weight in gold.
Overall it is a great piece of software. it takes a day or so to get to grips with it but once that's done then there are a great deal of possibilities, whether it be a plan of elevation or anything.
As an added bonus this software is free to anyone with an Autodesk subscription (also free for a year to students)
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Autodesk Maya Complete 7.0
by AnyMinuteNow
Autodesk Maya Complete is an Academy Award winning 3D animation, modelling and rendering tool. The version listed on this site is version 7, but in my review I will concentrate on Maya in general since version 7 is a few years out of date - the current version is Maya 2009 (effectively corresponding to version 10).
I think of ... Maya as the old work-horse of 3D animation packages. It's a bit like a big old Clydesdale, which is strong, reliable and hardworking even if it can't always quite keep up with the pace of some the younger upstart ponies. New features are added with every release, although lately these have tended to be more or less limited to the addition of some off-the-shelf 3rd party plug-ins into the main programme, along with minor cosmetic changes to the user interface.
Maya is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, so no matter which operating system you work with you should be able to use it. It is also now available in 32 bit and 64 bit editions - the 64 bit version produces better performance thanks to the greater available memory.
One of Maya's greatest strengths, and the thing that probably most sets it apart from other packages such as 3D Studio Max, is its open-endedness and degree of customisability. Thanks to its own scripting language, MEL, it can be tailored to suit virtually any production needs. In the hands of a talented developer, it can be customised with extra tools, features, and functionalities to ease even the most complex tasks. Newer versions (8.5 onwards) also support Python scripting, adding even greater customisation and pipeline-integration possibilities.
The animation tools in Maya are quite powerful, in particular the graph editor provides animators with a great deal of control over their work. There are both IK and FK settings in Maya's rigging tools, allowing for great control over a character's range of motion. Modellers may work with polygons, NURBS and Subdiv surfaces and the modelling tools are very intuitive. There is a hardware renderer, a software renderer and the mental ray plug-in, although I would have to say that rendering is one of Maya's weaker points, particularly the software renderer has some limitations. However there are so many plug-ins available, including RenderMan and MayaMan, that this is hardly an issue.
There are many dynamic effects in Maya including particle systems, and both rigid and soft body physics. Some of the more powerful effects tools, including nCloth, Fluid Effects, Fur, and Hair, are not available in the "Complete" version and only come as standard with the more expensive "Unlimited" version.
Maya is a really powerful production tool for 3D artists, which is in use in many FX and animation studios all over the world. It is extremely accesible and user friendly. I would recommend it for use in all your 3D animation, modelling, and rendering needs.
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Bunkspeed Hypershot Web Mac Licence
by Gatito2611
Good, fast and mac-compatible rendering software isn't easy come by, and when you think 'affordable', it's even more difficult.
My 3D background is Rhino, which I learned to use on a PC, but being a Mac user I obviously welcomed the fact that the Mac version is currently under development. The only thing missing now was a ... program that would turn those carefully built 3D models into shiny, mind-blowing illustrations that would give my designs the missing professional edge. Being a designer means I am familiar with industry standards and the persuasive power of a good rendering, however, many of my projects are of personal nature without the financial backing of a commercial enterprise.
Bunkspeed's Hypershot came across as the perfect solution to the problem, and their 3 step system meant I could start rendering for less than 100 pounds provided I am happy with the rendering size restricted to 800 x 450 pixels. Professional users can upgrade to higher resolutions, but hey! this is just the beginning... I also appreciate the fairness of Bunkspeed, as they recommend that companies with restricted budgets should consider buying only one pro version and a few web versions, so that the designers can set up their renderings in the web version and have the pro version do the rendering over night.
But let's see the product itself: Hypershot is used by various car manufacturers, and I believe we all came across those images somewhere on the web or in some magazine and believed they would be real photography. I suggest having a look at their website's gallery to get an idea.
However, the best thing of Hypershot is that with very little learning you can achieve those results too (depending of course on the 3D model). Bring your model from Rhino, Lightwave or even Sketchup (the list of compatible software is of course much longer), start navigating around, apply materials, chose a background... with a little bit of practice you'll soon be amazed by the results.
Stop moving around for a moment and Hypershot keeps rendering in the working window, quite often you just have to wait a little and in a few minutes you can save a perfectly presentable rendering in jpg or tiff format. Sometimes of course that means that, especially with more complex geometries, you have to wait a few seconds before doing what you want to do, navigate or apply materials, because the image can be quite pixelated in the beginning.
The secret of Hypershot's speed is, that compared to more sophisticated (and much more expensive) software, it's practically cheating. No radiosity, so fiddling with light sources, Hypershot is using the HDRI background images as light maps. I found that this is a bit restrictive when you want to render interiors (like a room), where it would be easier if you could place a light source exactly where you want it to be, but for everything else there is nothing more you could ask for. You can adjust the behavior of every material, do decals, adjust brightness of image and background, gamma control, rotate the light map around the object... there are endless options for creative control. Want to have a car model where you can open and close the doors? Import the doors as separate 3D geometries and you can move and rotate them independently.
New software to me is, apart from a means of achieving the desired results, always a journey into the unknown. With Hypershot, expanding your creative abilities and deliver top class renderings really is like a game that you'd get hooked on, and it definitely has the wow-factor!
Make sure your modeling skills will keep up! And go getting the trial version!
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