3d Studio max trial cd....

Does this Cd watermark images? and does anyone know how long the trial version lasts?

Also any good 3D max newbie tutorials?

I was thinking about ordering the trial Cd because there is no way I can fork up the cost for this program right now.

Cheers....

i don't think the trial is very functional from what i've heard. any reason why max tho? lightwave offers the discovery edition that's pretty usable, maya has a personal learning edition that's functional but has ugly watermarks, and softimage just released the XSI experience that is very functional and only has a subtle watermark it its renders.

chris

Maybe I will look into the Lightwave disc. I just thought studio 3dMax was the 3d prog to get.

--- another question - What does the watermarking look like? Could you use the renders for anything or are they useless with the watermarks?

everyone has their own preferences, personally i've never been a big fan of 3dsmax, i find the workflow awkward. just because its heavily warezed doesn't mean its good ;)

lightwave's watermark is a light checkerboard pattern across the image, really not bad at all. uploaded a quick render if you want to check it out (not my image, rendered from a scene by meni included on the cd). test render from the softimage experience here, not bad at all either.

Part of it is I am working on a site for someone and I wanted to take the interface and see what I would be able to do with it in some 3d program. So its kind of like a one time use, or learn it quickly and do something to it. I like the way 3d software adds a texture(?) to the image. I guess I am kind of tired of the general 2d render and wanted to tweak something to make it more unique looking - even if its only text. So maybe the light version of Maya is good? Can you actually use it to create work?

(edit) to get a better idea, I have this sandstone like interface that I am working with. What i wanted to do is make it more 3d looking -
http://www.merrellart.com

I was thinking of starting with just text and use the texture to create some 3d text, eg.

No this is not warez.com...

thats a no no koomann, /me throws stone

hehe.... he gone dun a very bad ting....

I hear cinema 4d is nice

I wish 3d programs werent so costly. I checked out some of the free ones - Blender ,etc. and they were ok. I got that Maya personal learning edition, but it is almost useless, except to practice on. sigh....