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I've been doing a bit of research of late, looking to revise and streamline my EIAS workflow. I have been increasingly involved in VFX for feature work, and am a bit concerned my current workflow isn't capable enough to deal with some of the projects that have been flagged by clients. For creation of models, my current setup has been relying on the antiquated, yet still functional, ElectricImage Modeller. I have been running this on an older PPC G5 Mac. EIAS Animator and Camera run on a shiny new Intel MacPro tower running under OS-X Lion (which can't run older apps such as EIM). Given a lot of my work was such where the need for modelling was never great, finding an alternative for EIM was never a high priority - it worked, it imported EPS files for conversion to 3D logos etc, and it exported FACT files for EIAS. It wasn't broken, so there wasn't any need to fix it. Neat! Recently however there has been an increasing need to address 3D modelling that's more than simple logos. Now I'm being asked to recreate a Great War battlefield c.1916, or a contoured and detailed map for an adventure documentary, or a train or a spaceship or a car. A few weeks ago the G5 suffered a power supply failure (complete with "pop" and thin stream of evil-smelling smoke). I managed to replace the power supply thanks to a seller on eBay, so the machine's lifespan has been extended, but it's obvious I need to move on from the G5 and hence EIM (given it appears it's never coming back) to something that functions well and integrates with the EI pipeline. I'm loathe to move to a different animator/renderer - I've been using EI for 15 years now and have been delighted with the results - so it's about finding something that works well, has the sort of tool range (or better) EIM had, and doesn't require re-learning entire workflows and interfaces, or costing vast wads of cash to make it compatible with EIAS. I've had a look at Moi3D, which certainly appears friendly and straightforward. I'm wondering though what's required to take what it creates and make it compatible with EIAS, since I can't see any reference to FACT files. I'm also wondering where the tool might be that is similar to EIM's UberNurbs. Aside from lofting a number of profiles, I'm wondering how one might quickly create the shape of - say - a cushion or pillow (or sandbag for my Great War project). Is Moi3D limited in that way? Or am I not seeing the toolset for that? Before EIM came along I was using FormZ - is perhaps that the recommended alternative? Something else? Is there an application that folks recommend that works well as a modeller under OSX Lion (and beyond), and can provide files to EIAS with as little drama as possible? What packages are people using that they love using? I'm not doing biological modelling - not characters or otherwise. Most of my modelling revolves around logos, along with planes, trains and automobiles, but I can't rule out doing beasties and the like in the future. Any suggestions of which path to take would be greatly appreciated. David