For ID4, the plane were computer modelled... whether they were ray-traced,
path-traced, or photon-traced, I do not know. But most big-time raytracing
productions (like Babylon 5) use a commercial package called Lightwave.
Although IMHO Lightwave users generally do not turn out scenes quite as
realistic as POV, it is much faster, and has somewhat better modelling
techniques available to it. It is, however, VERY expensive, and requires
an ungodly amount of power to run. With a little creativity, and some luck
besides, I think POV can turn out better stuff. (I refer you to a user known
as Taura Learfox)
                                             Just my three cents. =)
                                             Blue.

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Well, actually Lightwave is more for the mid-range. Also, it's less
expensive than most others, and runs fine on most recent PC's (Pentium
90 perhaps).

For a lot of work done with Macs, Electric Image is used. Then there's
Alias and Wavefront.

BTW, Bab5 is more of a small-time production comparatively. Their budget
used to be half of Star Trek episodes.


blu### [at] junocom wrote:
> 
>  For ID4, the plane were computer modelled... whether they were ray-traced,
> path-traced, or photon-traced, I do not know. But most big-time raytracing
> productions (like Babylon 5) use a commercial package called Lightwave.
> Although IMHO Lightwave users generally do not turn out scenes quite as
> realistic as POV, it is much faster, and has somewhat better modelling
> techniques available to it. It is, however, VERY expensive, and requires
> an ungodly amount of power to run. With a little creativity, and some luck
> besides, I think POV can turn out better stuff. (I refer you to a user known
> as Taura Learfox)
>                                              Just my three cents. =)
>                                              Blue.

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Macs are going out.

Don't forget SoftImage and PRMan by Pixar.  By far these are the 2 most used
by the big special effects houses in H wood.

And Blue Moon just happens to run RIBS which is PRMan compliant.  Its free
for non-commercial use.

Just some info.

Mike Norton

Jon A. Cruz wrote in message <3543B4AF.77937287@geocities.com>...
>Well, actually Lightwave is more for the mid-range. Also, it's less
>expensive than most others, and runs fine on most recent PC's (Pentium
>90 perhaps).
>
>For a lot of work done with Macs, Electric Image is used. Then there's
>Alias and Wavefront.
>
>BTW, Bab5 is more of a small-time production comparatively. Their budget
>used to be half of Star Trek episodes.
>
>
>blu### [at] junocom wrote:
>>
>>  For ID4, the plane were computer modelled... whether they were
ray-traced,
>> path-traced, or photon-traced, I do not know. But most big-time
raytracing
>> productions (like Babylon 5) use a commercial package called Lightwave.
>> Although IMHO Lightwave users generally do not turn out scenes quite as
>> realistic as POV, it is much faster, and has somewhat better modelling
>> techniques available to it. It is, however, VERY expensive, and requires
>> an ungodly amount of power to run. With a little creativity, and some
luck
>> besides, I think POV can turn out better stuff. (I refer you to a user
known
>> as Taura Learfox)
>>                                              Just my three cents. =)
>>                                              Blue.

Post a reply to this message

generated films have been done using the RenderMan interface developed
by Pixar.

The freely available "Blue Moon Rendering Tools" (BMRT) which are
RenderMan compatible can be found at http://www.bmrt.org/

BMRT offer more features than POV-Ray but in my opinion the latter is
much easier to use.

Roy Schulz

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