For the simple sort of work you are suggesting, what I use is Vue (http://www.e-onsoftware.com). A glass ball with a cube and a reflection is extremely easy - that's 10 minutes of effort (not counting rendering time). Vue is on Mac and Windows. They have an Easel product distributed through e-frontier (a product my company helped them market) which is quite inexpensive.
Best regards, Lynn Fredricks President Proactive International, LLC - Because it is about who you know.(tm) http://www.proactive-intl.com -Software Destinations http://www.proactive-intl.com/blogs/ > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Aliacta > Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 1:52 AM > To: REALbasic NUG > Subject: [OT] 3D software - overview > > Here's the summary of what people recommended so far: > > I myself have been using Art Of Illusion > <http://artofillusion.org> lightly in the past but it's made > in Java and I find it clumsy to work with. It's open source > and free though. > > Two persons recommended Cheetah 3D <http:www.cheetah3D.com> > which costs $99 and is made for OS X only. I did the "Hello World" > tutorial but couldn't obtain the animation you're supposed to get. > (The earth globe didn't rotate and I couldn't figure out why. > For every frame that was rendered another angle was shown in > the field that shows the angle in degrees, but in the > finished animation all frames are shot from the same angle > and thus the planet doesn't > revolve.) I'll try again later from scratch. > > Blender 3D <http://blender.org> sounds promising on paper > (even if it seems hard to learn) but it didn't launch on my > system (PowerBook G4 17" 1.5 GHz, OS 10.4). I have no time > to figure out why. Blender is open source and free. > > I took a short look at <http://brlcad.org> but what I saw and > read didn't convince me to download it. This app is > developed by the military and seems to be free. > > POV-Ray <http://www.povray.org> does only the ray tracing and > isn't therefore exactly what I'm looking for even though I've > been told I should be able to build simple shapes from > scratch with it too. This > isn't exactly a GUI application either. I'm still mentioning it > since it's free and open source and seems to be highly > regarded as one of the best ray tracers around. Blender for > example has export scripts for it. > > Render-Boy <http://render-boy.com> is $39 shareware but it > seems like development has been stopped in February 2002. > It's for Mac Classic and it doesn't look like there's ever > going to be an OS X version. I didn't download it. > > Any other suggestions are still very welcome! > > Many thanks to those who responded so far, > > Marc > > >>Occasionally I set out to look for a 3D application for OS X that > >>doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is easy to learn. So far > I've never > >>found one. I feel the need for 3D only about twice a year > so I'm not > >>really looking for a high-end product. > >> > >>This time I'm taking the liberty of asking if anybody on > this list can > >>recommend such a GUI application. > >> > >>As a selection criterion: I want to make a transparent glass ball > >>with a solid cube inside and appropriate shadows and reflections. > >>The surface of the ball should also reflect and > appropriately distort > >>the image I have in a jpeg file. I'm looking for an > application that > >>allows me to build this from scratch and gives a > photo-realistic end > >>result, and I would ideally like to be able to learn how to do the > >>above in less than two hours by reading the application's > >>documentation. > >> > >>Any suggestions are welcome. > >> > >>Thanks, > >> > >>Marc > >> > >>PS: Feel free to respond off-list since this is OT. > _______________________________________________ > Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: > <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> > > Search the archives of this list here: > <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html> > _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
