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Unlikely new user
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Unlikely new user // New Users
Post by dbigers // Apr 4, 2009, 6:14pm
dbigers
Total Posts: 2
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Hi all. I know I am late to the game, but let me say "TrueSpace Rocks!!".
Ok, with that out of the way. As I said, I am new to TrueSpace. But I have been working in 3D for nearly 15 years. I started off with Infini-D on the Mac. Then I switched over to the PC side a couple of years later and switched to Lightwave. I still use Lightwave, but I also rediscovered Infini-D a few years ago through Carrara. Now I use both.
I do 3D animation and modeling projects on the side mainly. I live in a medium sized market and I produce animations for local TV advertisers through a couple of studios in the area. Mainly logo work, but some occasional architectural work and other more interesting stuff.
I was fond of Caligari back in the 80's when I saw their stuff for the Amiga. But I was young then and couldnt afford a computer, much less the software. But I never forgot the impression I got from the artwork I saw in magazines created with 3D software back then and the ads that adorned the mags back then. TurboSilver was another one I recall. Which later became Imagine I think.
Anyway, I tried TrueSpace several times over the years but always dismissed it because of the interface. The completely ironic thing is that I installed 7.6 last week and I have fallen in love with the interface. Very powerful and easy to set it the way you need individually. The link editor reminds me of the node editor for surfaces in Lightwave--but on steroids. There is a lot of power in their just waiting to be tapped. Procedural animation and all that comes with it interest me quite a bit. Being able to drive another objects' properties from any other object is quite powerful.
So far I have been sticking with the "Legacy" side. (TomG will like that I called it that)
I know that workspace has its merits as well, but the older 6.6 side seems to more closely match what I am used to seeing in other apps, as far as features are concerned.
I will admit that initially it wasnt easy to get into TrueSpace, even this time. Not just because of the foreign interface to me, but because of the dual layouts. That was very confusing. Despite that I was able to gain an appreciation for what TrueSpace is all about. I say that because a lot of users here are veteran users of TS, but since it went free I would imagine that there has been a deluge of new users. With that in mind I am trying to offer some insight as to what a new user is faced with upon first installing the program. Confusion. I have years of experience with other 3D programs so I am most certainly biased. In fact, it could be that a brand new person to 3D might get along quite easily with TS the first time. But those of us coming over from other software are probably having more trouble--not just because of the overall interface of TS, but because of the split personality.
Despite that, I really look forward to using TS when I get home each day. They say the grass is always greener on the other side, but I truly believe that TS has been completely overlooked by most people unfairly. Myself included. Ironically I first got the idea to try it out again when on the Lightwave forums. Blender comes up a lot there and there are always complaints about its interface. But a lot of people perservere and use Blender quite well. With that in mind I decided to truly give TS a chance this time. I am so glad that I did.
Releasing the video series for free was a work of genius in itself. I might have given up last week had I not gone through them. I enjoy reading the manual as well. I know that you cant get printed copies through Caligari due to the cost, but I would really like a complete "paper" manual. I learn alot through reading manuals and I like the feel of paper manuals. I know, save a tree.
Ok, looks like I wrote a small novel there. Sorry for the long intro. I really wanted to drop a few lines and welcome myself to the community here.
Donnie |
Post by Mr. 3d // Apr 4, 2009, 6:34pm
Mr. 3d
Total Posts: 747
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Welcome aboard !!!:cool:
I liked your novel ! |
Post by Jack Edwards // Apr 4, 2009, 7:07pm
Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Welcome Donnie! :D
There's definitely a lot to like about trueSpace. For game development trueSpace is almost overkill, but for illustration, movie, and visual FX work there's still a lot of features missing or not quite up to snuff on the new Workspace side.
We're also hurting on the render engine front since VRay was dopped, but that may end up a blessing in disguise since it prompted the community to create the YafaRay4tS add-on. Yafaray (free) is a lot more accessable for people than VRay for trueSpace ($299) was.
Also it looks like more users are starting to get the hang of the new plugin SDK, so hopefully we'll be seeing more plugins developed over the next few months as well. If we can get a thriving plugin development community going to pick up the slack where trueSpace falls just short, then we could see an explosion of interest and use like what happened back around the time of trueSpace 3.1.
Good post and welcome to the community! |
Post by noko // Apr 4, 2009, 9:56pm
noko
Total Posts: 684
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Very Cool! and welcome too! :banana: |
Post by robert // Apr 5, 2009, 4:01am
robert
Total Posts: 609
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Welcome (back, I guess).
I think the difficulty lies with the the work flow from other programs being retained while trying to learn the new soft.
Although, to be honest, I started with tS v. 5.2.
It was actually very easy to get the hang of when I started.
But, again, it is probably because there was only a model side.
To reiterate Jack's point trueSpace is quite powerful, just lacking a bit.
Frootee (Jason) made an importer to grab the fluid sims from blender.
Hopefully this summer I can start working on fluid simulation from scratch eventually implementing it into tS.
The link editor is very powerful, I have used it to simplify several complex relations between objects.
Others (Parva comes to mind) have used it for amazing real-time shaders.
Glad to have you here, and glad to see that at least some people still consider tS a viable option. |
Post by frootee // Apr 5, 2009, 5:50am
frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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welcome to the forums dbigers!
Froo |
Post by Dragneye // Apr 5, 2009, 5:23pm
Dragneye
Total Posts: 602
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Glad to have you aboard dbigers! |
Post by TomG // Apr 7, 2009, 4:24am
TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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There was a thread someplace on the forums that discussed alternatives for taking the PDF and turning it into print, via a few online services for this very thing. So it's still possible to get "the print manual on demand" in this way.
HTH!
Tom |
Post by Rafa // Apr 12, 2009, 12:25pm
Rafa
Total Posts: 95
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He, he, I'm in a similar position as I mentioned in my introduction (with a small gallery). And I'm pretty new in the forums too, but wellcome. Nice novel btw. (maybe you can show some images of your previous work) ;) |
Post by splinters // Apr 12, 2009, 12:31pm
splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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There was a thread someplace on the forums that discussed alternatives for taking the PDF and turning it into print, via a few online services for this very thing. So it's still possible to get "the print manual on demand" in this way.
HTH!
Tom
Anyone tried this at lulu.com |
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