FrameForge
3D Studio is a fun program. This phrase carries a lot
of weight when you consider that most of what I do is
because I enjoy it. I was able to quickly lose myself
in the program.
In
the real-world I help develop user-guide publications,
and one of the criteria I use in testing a program is
the ease of use without referring to the documentation.
I know this seems like a "man" thing to do
in 'not reading the instructions,' but how else does
one determine the intuitive aspects of a product? With
FF3D Studio 2, I was able to jump in and get started
with a minimal amount of effort. Controls tend to be
where one would naturally assume they would be, and
there are few surprises waiting for the user in terms
of hidden commands or hard-to-find functions. All in
all the interface is very straightforward, though a
little cumbersome with slower computers (I have a 2GHZ
processor with 1 gig of memory and it did bog me down
a bit until I turned off the hardware acceleration enhancement).
I
would like to issue one caveat for this product, and
this stems more from a realization of the way things
tend to work in the world rather than from any fault
in the product: This product may be capable of doing
too much. I realize that may stymie a few of you, but
allow me to explain. I spent 2 and-a-half hours tweaking
the facial expressions and the particular placement
of a cigarette with one of my characters. The fingers
had to be just so, and the angle just right…..
do you see the issue? It's easy to get caught up with
detail in what essentially is seen a visual outline
of your work. FF3D Studio 2 can do so much and it is
very tempting to go overboard and do way more than is
needed because of the ease of use. Again this adheres
to the whole time-is-money adage, and you may wish to
give specific instructions to your artists to not spend
180 hours working on something for which you only have
60 hours budgeted…….because it would be very
easy to do!
