pls tell me about 'imagine' 3d software

[rednova]

Dear Friends:

I have the latest lightwave 3d for my super pc.
I have a classic amiga 1200 with complete aladdin 4d.
I have been using both for many years.
Now I would like to get into 'imagine' for my amiga 1200.
I just got the complete imagine package for amiga, disks and manuals.
I am very excited...I think imagine will prove very valuable.
I have a question:
Can anyone tell me anything about imagine ?
Anyone ever used it for fun ?
I would love to learn imagine -amiga-...in addition to lightwave and aladdin.
Pls tell me about imagine !!!

rednova

[Amiduffer]

I've used Imagine quite often, both the PC and Amiga version. The learning curve is slightly high if you want to take the time and figure out its quirks. I've found that the PC version is better, due to the speed in rendering. What used to take all night is now done in just a few minutes.

What's to say? Its your average 3D program. Just take a look in the 3D area of Aminet and you'll see plenty of examples of what folks used to make with it.

http://www.imagine3d.org

[Crom00]

I had imagine back in the day. I wouldn't bother with i unless you get it for free and are seriously interested in studying the history of 3d software.

If you already like and use lightwave it's several magnitudes better than Imagine.

[marcfrick2112]

I agree with Crom00.... Imagine can make some impressive images, but on the whole I find it far less user-friendly than Lightwave... As an example, Imagine will happily let your render a scene without any lights...oooh, I just rendered a black screen.... :lol: Lightwave always has one light in the scene by default, but of course, you can edit, or delete it if you wish.... The thing I love about LW is the little 'status window' that comes up before rendering, helps to remind me of 'silly' little things like lights, image/animation saving, etc. ....

My .02 ... Find a 3D prog. that you are most comfortable with, then learn everything you can about it.. If any program feels like a 'chore' to use, you'll never spend enough time with it to produce decent images... IIRC, both Imagine and Lightwave had mailing lists with quite a bit of info....

Time to look thru my LightROM CD's , methinks....

[Manu]

I would go for Blender (you said you had a super PC)  if it mustn't be Amiga. Blender evolves all the time and it's pretty amazing what it already does. The learning curve is huge I guess but I'm sure it pays off in the end if you're in for serious rendering work too.
I played with it's sculpt tool a lot and it's just amazing. I've used imagine in the past too and it was good enough back then but today I wouldn't bother when there's alternatives.

[stefcep2]

IMO the best rendering software for Amiga is Cinema 4D version 4.  You'll be able to set up your first animation-not just scene but animation-complete with lights, textures, motion paths in half an hour.  It lacks some high end features like collision detection, but its key frame animation system lets you animate any object property you like eg size, speed, texture, texture, transparancy very very easily.  Stuff that takes weeks to learn in Imagine you can learn in a few days with Cinema 4D.

[fishy_fiz]

It's been a long, long time since Ive used it, but I used to like Imagine. Amiga Format ran a good multi part tutorial that I followed eagerly back in "the day". By the time Imagine 5 was released on the CU Amiga cover cd though Id moved on and started using Cinema4d. Although Ive also used it I never really liked Lightwave much. It didnt seem as intuitive to me as some of the other options.

[Ral-Clan]

I've been learning Amiga 3d rendering software this past year and have been really enjoying it.  I bought Aladdin4d and it's very powerful and runs well on the lastest Amiga OS (with RTG, etc).  The interface is a little "clinical" I find.  I've also been learning Lightwave 5.0 on the Amiga.  It's much more intuitive I find -- the interface is friendlier and I like the way keyframes are set up.

I've had Imagine on disk for a long time, but never had a manual for it - so I could never get my head around the workflow.  I've love to buy a manual if anyone has one for sale (just PM me).  I think the version I have was the latest one released on the coverdisk.

[Gulliver]

Imagine is really good, besides the difficult learning curve. I remember back then, it was once a tough competitor for the highly praised Lightwave.

As i see it, still Lightwave was difficult for me. I liked Cinema 4D and the incredible simplicity of Tornado 3D.

By the way, the last version of Imagine was 5.19, and it is still supported and sold by the developers.

On the other hand, you can get the PC version for free at the website mentioned above!

[Khephren]

I used to be a heavy Imagine user. mainly due to free cover disks
Imagine was powerfull, but clunky to use, had great procedural texture generation.
It got my work into Amiga format, and then into the games industry, so I can't complain!

I learnt to use Imagine from Articles in Amiga magazines, which you could get from here:

http://amr.abime.net/

And the only Imagine site I know of:

http://www.imagine3d.org

Sadly those happy days are gone, and I'm now a 3D studio MAX wage slave.

[robo-ant]

@rednova

I'm a dinosaur who loved Turbo Silver and only used Imagine a few times in the media labs at university.  At the time, Imagine seemed to generate amazing output, and without the stupid resolution limits of TS, but I never really grokked the Imagine interface.  It seemed very complex.  But I never encountered the manual and maybe that would have helped.

I did get Imagine on some magazine coverdisks but IIRC they didn't work on NTSC systems.  Or maybe I just didn't try hard enough.

I'd still be using Turbo Silver (as horribly primitive as it is) if it worked on my current system and could generate output at higher resolutions than old OCS modes.

There were a lot of Imagine tutorial articles in Amazing Computing, IIRC, and the images printed there always amazed me.

I now have Aladdin 4D but haven't taken the time to learn how to use it.  I'd prefer a ray tracer.  I'll try Blender when I manage to download it.

Is Imagine for Amiga still for sale somewhere?

[IslDreamer]

CAD Technologies is still selling Imagine 5.0 for Amiga and supposed to be developing version 6. http://imaginefa.com/

[Manu]

But there won't be a version 6 for Amiga, long ago I e-mailed and asked but the answer was negative.

[amigagr]

...Imagine 5 was released on the CU Amiga cover cd...

it was version 4.0 in cu amiga cover disk.


i used imagine from v2.0 with an a500/+2mb ram up to 4.0 in my a1200 and i had found the manual of 2.0 from a friend.
i made my avatar with v3.0 or 4.0 http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1318

[fishy_fiz]

Version 4 was on a cover disk (floppies). V5 was on a cover cd.