davidlgood

People will pirate software no matter what. But I remember 3D Studio Max being one of the most pirated software programs a long time ago. All the kids that pirated it learned to use it, and when they went on to do more professional work what did they end up buying? The software they were most comfortable using -- 3D Studio Max. I don't approve or pirating, but it doesn't mean a lost sale forever. Sometimes it gives someone an opportunity to use it until the day they can afford to purchase a real copy (which usually happens when they get a real client/job). That's a good question. If you can, maybe that's what I need to do. It would at least give me a backup if I lost one again (I've had my old one since they moved to the blue dongles -- I even have a few old versions with the old gray dongles -- so it's not like I lose them often).

I wish there was a dongle-free version of Animator. In transit I seem to have misplaced my old blue dongle -- and need to order another but have had to use other applications until then. It's an absolute pain. As much as I have loved EIAS over the years, it's not very flexible -- I can't go from my various machines without remembering the dongle, and if it gets lost I'm screwed. I do remember several people who used cracked versions of EIAS back in the day, but after they learned to use the software they all purchased valid copies (the cracks were not good, I think, but were enough to learn on). I know they have demo versions now that don't require a dongle -- just wish my paid version was similar.

In the interview, under the question "Did you use EI for that website?" Wu states, "All the exterior shots were done with Max, Vray, and later modo while everything interior were done with EI." And to the right of that is an "exterior" shot. I'm just curious why you would post an "exterior shot" which was "done with max, Vray, or modo" instead of posting a shot rendered with EI. Or, was this exterior shot actually rendered with EI but unfortunately placed next to text that would have me believe otherwise?

I haven't run any extensive tests... but EIAS seems to open projects and render just fine on my Mavericks machine. So far, no issues to report. Again -- nothing extensive tested. (EDIT -- This is in reference to EIAS 9.1 -- I overlooked your request for EIAS 8 originally, so I wanted to clarify).

I had my worries about the Creative Cloud (subscription-based model) at first... but I've been a subscriber for a year now, and I have to say I really like it. Keep in mind that I use a LOT of their applications, so having all of their "creative" applications to work with at a low monthly cost is a real "win" for me. Updates come out often, and being able to get (or reject -- my choice) updates as they come along is very nice. The additional tools available only to CC subscribers is also nice (but these are mostly for those who deal with online creation -- such as websites, online fonts, etc.). About once a month you are asked to enter your username and password to verify that you are up-to-date on your subscription. I've run into this while traveling for work -- where I was no connected to the internet. It allowed me to continue to work with the applications even though I could not "verify" my credentials due to a lack of internet access. I believe they have a pretty lengthy 'window' of time that you are allowed to work without verification before the applications actually stop. When I originally asked about this I believe they said that the applications would run another month without access before they stopped working and required internet verification. I'm not typically void of internet access for an entire month, so this is not an issue for me.

That's odd. I get almost zero eMails from them -- and I even signed up for notifications. Maybe I should be thankful. Then again, maybe they used to spam me with "offers" and I unsubscribed a long time ago. Hard to remember. Silo was something I was really getting into -- until the updates started to slow down and any kind of a response from the developers was getting more and more spaced out. To me, that's a "red flag" -- if the developers can't even acknowledge a forum post it's time to move on. That's why it's important for EIAS staff to remain active, even if it's just to say "hi" or participate in various posts (Tomas does a good job of this). When I see a product on the death bed I seriously start looking for replacements. Final Cut Pro 7, for example, has almost no hope of ever surfacing... so, while I still love it, and while it still works wonderfully for me, I made the decision less than a year ago to switch all my NLE projects over to Adobe Premiere Pro. If you can see the writing on the wall... might as well move on while you can, because you never know when that next wave of processors or that next OS update will kill the end-of-life application you've been using. If Silo was still being worked on, I'd probably still use it today. It was a very simple, fun, and fast way to model. But, as I said -- my time is better spent learning new applications that I feel will be around for years to come, and that's why I made the switch (otherwise I'd still be using EI Modeler, which was my favorite second to FormZ). As far as the price for the ViaCAD product dropping -- I wouldn't consider it "devalued"... it's just that over time, and with a growing competitive market, technology will continue to get cheaper and cheaper. Anyone here remember forking out $8,000 on EIAS back in "the day"? I wouldn't say that EIAS has "devalued" -- at the time EIAS was THE application to have if you wanted to do any serious animation quickly (unless you wanted to spend even more money on SGI boxes and render farms). EIAS has always been a great value, even when it was multiple thousands of dollars, as it seems to pay for itself quickly. The first version of EIAS I worked on paid for itself in one project -- as the client was being charged $1,000 per finished second of animation. With a more competitive market today you might not be able to get that kind of money for a simple transitional motion graphic... but EIAS also doesn't cost as much as it used to... so it all evens out in the end.

Always nice to see improvements. I know how much work can be involved in the various updates, so I'm not expecting anything "over night", but every step forward is a good step. :)

I have a suggestion that is more for the website than for any actual product. It would be nice if things on the site were given more information. For example -- there are a lot of tutorial videos and samples on the site, but it's difficult to tell just by browsing if the videos are current, what version of EIAS they apply to, and what product(s) were used in the video. I often times have to go to Vimeo for each video just to see when it was posted, and hope that date is an accurate reflection of how old the actual content of the video is. Another example are the shaders and plug-ins -- we'll just pick the Konkeptoine page for this example. Where, on this page (http://www.konkeptoine.com/2nav/htm/2priceandorder.htm) is the VERSION of EIAS mentioned?? "Released, Porting, and Not Yet" don't tell me anything... as those could have been posted on that page years ago. I have no idea if the page was updated yesterday, or last year. I can see the "System and Host", which I guess means that these those shaders released for Mac Intel machines are only capable of being used in EIAS 5.5... except for Mr. Revolver which states EIAS 6 and is set to "Released" (with a price of "Price Below"... wherever "below" is, I don't know. So, I guess Mr. Revolver doesn't work with EIAS 7, 8, or 9? Same with ReUnion Shader, except that is has "Not Yet" been ported. Blobmaker states that it's only available for Universe 5.x - EIAS 6.x.... yet it clearly states that it has not been ported. Yet I remember getting an update for it to work with EIAS 9 just last week. Is this the same Blobmaker? I have no idea -- as there are no dates and no version numbers to give me any indication as to where, in TIME, these pages stand. So I'm a bit confused here (mostly wondering how new EIAS potential clients might feel if I'm somewhat confused). So, I decide to check the forums for updates. I go to the user Forums, click on EIAS Plug-ins and Shaders, as that is the ONLY logical place to find information on "plug-ins" and "shaders"... but I get little information there. While randomly checking other forum areas I noticed that there are updates for plug-ins and shaders... in the "News" area. uhhh... okay. Then, a quick trip to the "Downloads" page and I can clearly see EIAS 9, the demo, sIBL files, the SDK... and then right under that a bunch of Free EIAS Plugins... but they're all from 2008. They do show a version number, which is nice, but I grow a bit suspicious of plug-ins that are five years old.... so.... on a page that shows nothing but EIAS 9 downloads, do these plug-ins have any relevance at all? or is it just a confusing trap for an unsuspecting user? I was wanting to update my inventory for EIAS, as I've upgraded to 9.x.... but I'm finding the task a bit more complex than I originally thought it would be. I think it might be a good idea to update and organize the website. It's just too difficult to find the information I need in a speedy manner. Have one place for all products (including plug-ins)... showing version number, date of release, and exactly what versions of EIAS the downloadable items will work with, and on what platforms. Also, revising the tutorials/videos to give an indication of release date, I can't say I'm upset with everything right now, as I've been around long enough to know where to go for most things... but a few things take a bit of hunting around for me... so I'm making this suggest in the hopes that it will be more helpful for those looking at EIAS as a new 3D tool.

I'm pretty happy with EIAS 9. I've always loved EIAS (been using it since version 1.X). I would like to see some additional enhancements to add to camera projection workflows. Maybe something that allows for the perspective of an imported photo to be calculated (similar to the way SketchUp works, or C4D, and now Blender with a user-created add-on)... where you have control lines that you can move over the image that will calculate the camera. This would make camera projection setups move much faster. It would also be nice to have a better workflow between EIAS and AfterEffects... C4D has made some great improvements in this area (and from a recent post it seems that Adobe and Maxon are going to do more in this area: http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2013/03/and-now-for-something-slightly-different-ae-and-cinema-4d.html). Although simple to make requests like this, I can imagine the work involved would be pretty extensive, but maybe something to consider one bit at a time.

Excellent!!! I'm VERY happy to hear that Northern Lights is alive and well. Can't wait for the updates!! Hopefully this is also a sign that Northern Lights will be ramping up the development of new tools?!

I don't know about everyone else here, but the "aging interface" noted towards the end of the revue is actually something I like. It's clean and simple and does exactly what I need it to do. I don't like the interface for many of the more "popular" 3D applications, as the GUI eats up valuable real estate or is "pretty" for the sake of being pretty... but otherwise does nothing more than eat up space.

I've given up on Silo, as I do enjoy keeping my Macintosh current and don't prefer working on buggy software that the developers just decided to ignore. I prefer to model on a Mac, rather than on one of my Windows machines, so that does limit my choices. I used to be a Form•Z guy -- LOVED Form•Z. I moved away from commercial work for a while and Form•Z was just too expensive to maintain. When I eventually got back into 3D modeling and animation (more focused on 'corporate' and less 'commercial') I decided to go with Punch!CAD's ViaCAD Pro. I have to say, I have been VERY happy with the product. It's very technical, which I like (it reminds me of Form•Z). I'm not a big "organic" modeler -- solid models is more my thing, and I have to have my models very accurate (not always because of the client, but because I will not be able to go to sleep knowing that I created inaccurate models of something. It's a problem, I know.... I'm sure there's a group out there I should join to help me). For $350 it's not a bad price. They have coupons and discounts all the time... I picked up my copy for about $170 due to some promotion they were running a long time ago. It's solid, accurate, and exports .FACT just fine for everything I've worked on. MOI is another application that I thought was pretty slick (and inexpensive)... although I hesitated to invest the time to learn the application, as I wasn't sure it it would stick around for the long haul or end up like Silo. And... I also have Blender... which was a pain to learn, as it is very different than anything else out there... but once you get into the tools it can really be very helpful for a LOT of different things. The new Cycles render engine is also very nice -- it's one of those "push button" setups that just works -- perfect for quick and dirty renders. Not sure I would risk a high-poly project (especially an animation) on Blender (that's where EIAS shines) but it's there if you need to fill a hole. Can't beat the price.

Tom -- although I plan to upgrade to EIAS 9, it's nice to know that the "demo" version will cover the loss of Transporter for those who choose to stay with EIAS 8. Good thinking!!

In Mac OS X 10.7 all my windows would "freeze" when I tried to move a window (in other words, I can not see the outline of the window I'm moving until I let go of the mouse button). In Mac OS X 10.8 my screen simply turns black when I try to move a window. Very odd.

Thomas -- you said that you solved this for Lion. What is the solution?