As
a graphics professional, one of the most appealing aspects
of this program to me is that most of the available options
are no more than 2 or 3 mouse clicks away. The interface
is friendly, easy to understand and right out in front
where the user can easily tweak camera views and object
locations on the fly.
This
is not to say that there aren't some things to work on
for ease of use.
In
my opinion, one thing that could be tweaked is the Web
Grab software (which updates your FF3DS2 software) for
special needs users. By special needs, I mean people who
are using this program on a non-internet based computer.
As it stands right now, if you install the program on
an internet based computer, it will use the internet to
authorize your program and then, in the future, will use
Web Grabs to update the software to keep you completely
up to date. This chain of updates works great. Plus it
will give you the option to put new updates on an installable
CD for a non-internet computer. However, if anything screws
up with the burning process or where it caches these installable
files, you have to wade through a list of updates that
stretch back to the '80's. (Most of the updates are much
newer than that, of course, though I did see one update
with a creation date of 1980.) What makes this so complex,
in this situation, is that each file is largely separate,
with a few updates that are meant to be installed as a
packet. This means that figuring out which are the correct
updates for your non-connected workstation is a bit confusing
after FF3DS2 has already installed the updates on the
connected computer.
One
way to simplify this problem would be to post updates
in sizeable clumps with 'only install if your original
program is older than:' such and such a date beside each
one. Another thing that would make this simpler would
be to have a stand-alone update downloading program that
could be taken on a thumb drive with you. Many folks have
work computers with broad-band connections, yet most companies
don't want you installing your full copy of Frame Forge
3D Studio 2 so that you can download updates for a non-internet
connected workstation at home. However, a thumb drive
with a standalone updater would be just the ticket.
Aside
from special update issues, ease of use would be improved
if there were more poses that come automatically with
the program. While you can download many new poses from
user forums, I would like to see a few more basic poses
that are commonly used in films included with the basic
software package. Poses like kneeling, crawling, or jumping
are noticeably absent.
Some
extra relationships for each object would also make things
easier, though this is a sticky wicket because of how
many objects and relationships are already included. Sure,
there may only be two or three basic relationships for
each item, but when you factor each of these relationships
for adult males, adult females, and children, then you're
already in thousands and thousands of relationships.
Another
thing that would be nice to see polished for an update
is an improved ability to select only one item with the
mouse, especially if that item is touching other items.
The shift key in conjunction with your mouse allows you
to accomplish this, but I would like to see it made more
sensitive to mouse input alone. If you click very carefully
on only person, it would be nice to just have that person
become selected, rather than all the things in a five
foot proximity.
Depth
of Options
Innoventive has packed a slew of new options into FF3DS2,
as we mentioned earlier. Top of the list, of course, is
the PreViz rendering engine which yields much more customizable
body types with a much less manequin-like look. To make
them even more customizable, they allow you to create
decals in your favorite photo programs, like Photoshop,
and import them into FF3DS2. This is really
cool, though the decals can get stretched a lot due to
the way Innoventive has set up their actor 'skins', which
resembles the 'skin' set up in games like Quake 3.
Nonetheless, with a little experimentation, you can come
up with some pretty cool looks.
To
complement these cool looks are a variety of new clothing
options for both men and women. Women can now wear dresses
and men can wear shorts and t-shirts (rather than a perpetual
jacket and tie!). Additionally, decals can be applied
to these clothing choices to further customize them with
everything from metal weave to transform a turtleneck
into chainmail, to Looney Tunes to turn t-shirts into
screen printed apparel, to bullet wounds to turn a jacket
into a death shroud. Despite the ways to customize the
clothing's look, the clothing choices could stand to be
a bit more prolific, especially in terms of men's footwear,
as could the number of choices for hair styles. While
these will undoubtedly be taken care of by enterprising
3D creators in the bulletin boards, it would be nice to
have a greater selection in the initial download.
