I'm not a 3D modeler by trade, but I do occasionally need to render a 3D illustration or animation for work. We do electric utility training, and it's useful to be able to do things like illustrate the flow of electricity from a power station, through a switchyard, along transmission lines, into a substation, and finally to the distribution network. I've used Blender to make some of these things (where the most advanced tools I've used are the smoke simulation to create the effect of smoke out of the power station, and perhaps particle effects to illustrate electricity moving along a conductor).
But as powerful as Blender is, the interface is frustrating to use. Plus, there doesn't seem to be much developer interest in really pushing it for the Mac. I read somewhere on the (fairly Apple averse) forums that there's really just one guy doing the Mac ports, and he's leaving soon and passing it on to someone else. So I doubt there'd be much interest in optimizing it for Metal in the future.
The other consideration is that while my company can afford as much as ~$800 for modeling software, we certainly can't afford something like a $3500 Cinema 4D package or anything. There don't seem to be a lot of options, especially options committed to using Metal to take advantage of the GPU in upcoming releases of the OS. It's a shame that the only folks promising support for Metal are the ones that charge the biggest buck.
So what do you guys use?
I can find Cheetah 3D, Silo, and Strata. The only one that seems to come close to Blender's "whole package" (modeling + Bullet physics + lighting + rendering & animation) is Cheetah 3D. I've used Cheetah a *little* bit and think I could get used to it, but I'm concerned for its future since it's developed by just one guy. Any thoughts?
But as powerful as Blender is, the interface is frustrating to use. Plus, there doesn't seem to be much developer interest in really pushing it for the Mac. I read somewhere on the (fairly Apple averse) forums that there's really just one guy doing the Mac ports, and he's leaving soon and passing it on to someone else. So I doubt there'd be much interest in optimizing it for Metal in the future.
The other consideration is that while my company can afford as much as ~$800 for modeling software, we certainly can't afford something like a $3500 Cinema 4D package or anything. There don't seem to be a lot of options, especially options committed to using Metal to take advantage of the GPU in upcoming releases of the OS. It's a shame that the only folks promising support for Metal are the ones that charge the biggest buck.
So what do you guys use?
I can find Cheetah 3D, Silo, and Strata. The only one that seems to come close to Blender's "whole package" (modeling + Bullet physics + lighting + rendering & animation) is Cheetah 3D. I've used Cheetah a *little* bit and think I could get used to it, but I'm concerned for its future since it's developed by just one guy. Any thoughts?