A:M - Much better than many will tell you.... - Kerwin Rabbitroo

And now for the counterpoint. I made a serious attempt to use AM for over 6 years on a Mac. It is a PC program that has been *ported* to the Mac, not designed for it. It heavily relied on libraries from Microsoft that even Microsoft abandoned. When it became totally unstable, all Hash could see was "get a PC." Is that support from your vendor want?

Support for Tiger? A year late. This meant they couldn't even run stabily on Apple's latest hardware. Hash's answer, "Get a PC."

Don't like their modelling tools? Fuchur put it best--their attitude: "Stick to Poser." (Never mind that tools like Luxology's Modo, Z-Brush, C4D, Maya, all run better on a Mac with more tools.)

Probelm with the way the implement something that causes it to crash under OSX? Their answer "Apple put us through hell." (Again, never mind that other vendors have long solved the same problems.)

Friendly User Community? Hash A:M has a very loyal fan-base. They will be happy to tell you why Hash is better than everything else, yet they're always short on naming real studios doing real production on A:M. Sure, they'll tell you all about the three or four Hash alumi who of made it into "The Industry", but they don't mention the thousands of others who will have *nothing* to do with A:M. By they way, if you mention that Hash A:M on a Mac doesn't run so hot, that "friendly community" will be happy to tell you "Get a PC" and if you don't like that answer, they'll be happy to tell you you're *stupid* for using a Mac to do animation. (True story.)

"Clean inteface?" Well, if you mean you can't find a function and that it isn't well documented when you find it, then yes, A:M is "clean." Some of us prefer fully customizable interfaces such as C4D's and Modo's.

"Cheap?" Yes, A:M is the lowest cost out there. You get what you pay for, caveate empor, etc., etc. How much is your time worth to you? How much is your frustration worth? How much does it matter when you trip across an A:M bug that destroys your work. Get used to saving a lot and often if you live with Hash.

I've used all of the major 3D apps on a Mac. That includes, Lightwave, C4D, Maya, Modo, Hexagon, SIlo, BodyPaint, Blender, Cararra, Strata, InfiiniD, RayDream, Hash. On PCs I've used XSI and 3DS Max. I've been coding and doing 3D art since my first short film in 1979 which was programmed on Textronics terminal.

A:M was once an intersting program. It's time has past and it simply has not moved with times. If you value your money and your time, STAY AWAY FROM ANIMATION MASTER. Any other program will likely be a better use of your time. If you want to be in the mainstream, invest in Maya. If you want a good basic system, start with the lower end C4D and work your way up. If you want to focus on modeling, look at Modo with it's new rendering engine. If you're a texture artist, then BodyPaint on the mac is a way to go.

Even Lightwave9, which, though it has a rocky history on the Mac, is an outstanding bargain at its current price.

A:M is not the only way to work in 3D. And if you outgrow A:M, you're screwed because it's modeling process and models are virtually impossible to import/export in a usable fashion to any other package (despite their "new" claims to the contray that they're now "compatible" with polygon-based approaches.)

Don't fall for A:M hype and definitely don't trust the A:M fanclub because they will defend their club chairman at all costs. Don't trust Hash and the speed of their fixes. I've waited over two years for fixes to Mac funcitons in A:M on the Mac that was working fine on the PC version.

Feel free to contact me on CGTalk (user "Rabbitroo") if you want the insight of someone who's been doing 3D on Macs for more than 10 years and has been using and developing 3D software for over 20.

Cheers and Happy 3D'ing,
Kerwin Rabbitroo

Reply to This

Thursday, July 13 2006 @ 08:14 AM PDT

A:M - Much better than many will tell you.... - Kerwin Rabbitroo

And now for the counterpoint. I made a serious attempt to use AM for over 6 years on a Mac. It is a PC program that has been *ported* to the Mac, not designed for it. It heavily relied on libraries from Microsoft that even Microsoft abandoned. When it became totally unstable, all Hash could see was "get a PC." Is that support from your vendor want?

Support for Tiger? A year late. This meant they couldn't even run stabily on Apple's latest hardware. Hash's answer, "Get a PC."

Don't like their modelling tools? Fuchur put it best--their attitude: "Stick to Poser." (Never mind that tools like Luxology's Modo, Z-Brush, C4D, Maya, all run better on a Mac with more tools.)

Probelm with the way the implement something that causes it to crash under OSX? Their answer "Apple put us through hell." (Again, never mind that other vendors have long solved the same problems.)

Friendly User Community? Hash A:M has a very loyal fan-base. They will be happy to tell you why Hash is better than everything else, yet they're always short on naming real studios doing real production on A:M. Sure, they'll tell you all about the three or four Hash alumi who of made it into "The Industry", but they don't mention the thousands of others who will have *nothing* to do with A:M. By they way, if you mention that Hash A:M on a Mac doesn't run so hot, that "friendly community" will be happy to tell you "Get a PC" and if you don't like that answer, they'll be happy to tell you you're *stupid* for using a Mac to do animation. (True story.)

"Clean inteface?" Well, if you mean you can't find a function and that it isn't well documented when you find it, then yes, A:M is "clean." Some of us prefer fully customizable interfaces such as C4D's and Modo's.

"Cheap?" Yes, A:M is the lowest cost out there. You get what you pay for, caveate empor, etc., etc. How much is your time worth to you? How much is your frustration worth? How much does it matter when you trip across an A:M bug that destroys your work. Get used to saving a lot and often if you live with Hash.

I've used all of the major 3D apps on a Mac. That includes, Lightwave, C4D, Maya, Modo, Hexagon, SIlo, BodyPaint, Blender, Cararra, Strata, InfiiniD, RayDream, Hash. On PCs I've used XSI and 3DS Max. I've been coding and doing 3D art since my first short film in 1979 which was programmed on Textronics terminal.

A:M was once an intersting program. It's time has past and it simply has not moved with times. If you value your money and your time, STAY AWAY FROM ANIMATION MASTER. Any other program will likely be a better use of your time. If you want to be in the mainstream, invest in Maya. If you want a good basic system, start with the lower end C4D and work your way up. If you want to focus on modeling, look at Modo with it's new rendering engine. If you're a texture artist, then BodyPaint on the mac is a way to go.

Even Lightwave9, which, though it has a rocky history on the Mac, is an outstanding bargain at its current price.

A:M is not the only way to work in 3D. And if you outgrow A:M, you're screwed because it's modeling process and models are virtually impossible to import/export in a usable fashion to any other package (despite their "new" claims to the contray that they're now "compatible" with polygon-based approaches.)

Don't fall for A:M hype and definitely don't trust the A:M fanclub because they will defend their club chairman at all costs. Don't trust Hash and the speed of their fixes. I've waited over two years for fixes to Mac funcitons in A:M on the Mac that was working fine on the PC version.

Feel free to contact me on CGTalk (user "Rabbitroo") if you want the insight of someone who's been doing 3D on Macs for more than 10 years and has been using and developing 3D software for over 20.

Cheers and Happy 3D'ing,
Kerwin Rabbitroo

Reply to This

Thursday, July 13 2006 @ 08:18 AM PDT