buying old version of lightwave/cinema 4d...

richardanthony

I'm a blender user and i'm looking to expand my toolset to somehting more advaced.

problem is I don't have the money for a new pro app. I found a full complete copy of lightwave 7.5 for around $70 box, manuals,cds and all. also found a used copy of cinema 4d r9 studio w/full manuals,box cd's. for around same cost basicly. would it be a wise choice to pick one of these up? or are they too dated? would they be compatible with win7? I was on newteks sight and the basic upgrade to 09 is $99 but would that apply to version 7.5 -09? if so that's not a bad deal becasue i can learn LW7 for a while and et used to the ui and then upgrade to 09 later on.

what do you guys think? wise choice or just stick with mind blender3d?:( I mean i wanted to own a pro app since 1999 and i've been stuck with blender ever since due to cost.

Mechadus

Its near impossible to really tell you exactly what you need without knowing what direction your going in with 3d, but from personal experience LW is a MUCH more powerful app than C4D. Ive only used blender a little bit, but it seems like a pretty powerful app too, if you can get past how unusual its interface is.

Just my personal pref, Id go LW - theres huge new tools you wont have with 7.5, but the core app hasnt really changed much between 7.5 and 9.whatever. Im jaded tho, I did my entire 2003 demo reel in LW and fell completely in love with it.

-N

Ark

C4D rules the motion graphics department, has plenty of plugins and a great renderer.

Lightwave is still used a lot, but mainly in commercials/films. It's also a great modeler and renderer, but the animation tools aren't that great from what i hear. There also re-writing Lightwave, so if you buy it, you may be able to upgrade to the Lightwave Core beta.

You may need to contact the developer to ensure the licence gets transfers properly.
Iirc correctly, its free for LW transfer, but Maxon charge $50 for US customer transfers.

Id say just try out the trails from their respective sites and see which one you like the most, then go from there.

LW or C4D for $70 each is a real bargin imo, compared to what Autodesk charge for a lease of their software as they call it.

Sage

If you can get cinema 4d I would go with that because it has bodypaint built in. That alone is a great skill to learn. Just my two cents.

Before you do buy make sure it's legal and real and not some scam.

Make sure they are not selling the educational version some vendors will do that.

Lamont

Make sure LW comes with a dongle, it will be serial for 7.5 I think.

richardanthony

thanks for the advice. they both seem like awsome programs. both do seem to have a ton of training books/vis, tuts and resources. I think i'll download the trials and see which one feels rite. coming from blender.....i thing either ui will be a welcome change:poly124:

what do i want to do with 3d? I do use the unity game engine so a little indie game design, maybe make a short films and i'm working on a childrens book about autism and I plan to do all the artwork in 3d.

well, either way they both seem impressive.

Disco Stu

Not to shure if c4d has bodypaint in an version that old plus it depends what kind of bundle it is. C4d is pretty nice meanwhile but i cant really tell you how good 9 is its pretty
old.

richardanthony

actually it's cinema 4d studio r10.5. I think i'll go with c4d. it just seems like it had really gained in popularity recently. it strikes a good ballacne between game design, film vfx, animation and print. are there many c4d users on this forum? seems maya dominant

this video is what really sold me on c4d years ago but couldn't afford it. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNnRdOlrWs[/ame]

Disco Stu

10.5 is great. Where did you get a price that cheap? Also it really depends on which bundle it is. Advanced render module is definatly usefull.