Ah, I didn't mean to downplay POV-Ray either.

POV-Ray, as a renderer, is excellent.  It's what I started out on before I
got to MAX and I appreciate its power as a raytracer (in terms of speed as a
raytracer, and considering the number of features that it boasts, it's one
of the best in the world IMO).

> better at the output? Is it the productivity issue? or are these
commercial
> packages forced on the artist (thanks for joining our graphics team, we
use
> productX, go get 'em.)?

> compete. The article I found reinforced that idea too. So, the heart of
what
> I am curious about is why would someone be motivated to pay a sum of
money,
> for a App that the same imagery can be done in a freeware program. I guess
> it's an issue of "bang for the buck".

The main reason that people use MAX is due to its ability as a modeller.  In
MAX it's possible to create something exactly the way you want it to look,
extremely quickly, because it has a wonderful modelling architecture.

POV-Ray, for most professional artists, isn't an option because it takes a
long time to get the right results as there aren't many modellers for it
that are easy and quick enough to use.

A production house might use several different 3D renderers and modellers, I
know of at least two places that have MAX and another renderer, such as Maya
in one place, and Softimage in another.

Usually not about a favourite program, it's what gets the job done quickly.
Time's money.  For example, if you had the choice between Softimage and MAX
to do character animation, you'd take Softimage because its modeller is
designer for it.  Some programs do things better, and MAX is a good
all-round modeller and renderer, and for the price in comparison to
Softimage and Maya it's definitely worth it.

So, in conclusion to all that chattering, it's basically all about
productivity, support, time constraints, and modelling power.

I just get kinda sick of people around the place saying that MAX's output
isn't high quality and it's not that great blah blah blah... because it's
not true.  It's the artist that really matters in the end, and due to the
piracy of MAX, there are a *lot* of bad MAX users that produce really bad
results.  It's no use having a multi-thousand dollar program if the person
using it doesn't know what they're doing.

Gilles Trans is a perfect example of a great artist who really knows what
he's doing.  He can produce far better results with POV-Ray than a lot of
people can with MAX (including me).

> My comment about the middle ball, "being a blob", was to indicate how it
> could be made in POV.

You're right, it would look good and would do a fair job at recreating it.
The kewl thing about MAX's support for displacement maps is that it's part
of the material, so you can animate waves and phases of it etc.

--
Lance

The Zone
http://come.to/the.zone

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