Electric Image Animation system - Polyloop

tonymax · 1st June 2007, 20:37

Hi,

anybody have any experience of EIAS..

they got a good deal on atm...

not sure about this as you dont hear a lot about it...

would appreciate some insider knowledge...

thanks in advance..

Tony

juanmanuel · 2nd June 2007, 00:10

The only thing I know is that it comes bundled with Silo as a polygon modeller, as EIAS does not model natively

rickei · 2nd June 2007, 02:39

I bought it last week but have only had time to install it. I only launched the app once, but it looks the same as it did 10 years ago, so i should be able to fall right back into using it. they still claim it to be the fastest renderer in the world. and it will handle an ungodly amount of polys.

there is talk of the upcoming version 7 being a revamp of the app, but I don't know.

I asked the same question as you in another thread
http://forums.polyloop.net/2d-3d-eve...tml#post131287

BTW: it did come with Silo, though I already had it

tonymax · 2nd June 2007, 09:39

hi,

yeah i got silo... but they have a competitive upgrade for $399, only availalbe for a few days...

ive played with the demo... old non standard interface.

think ill stilll go with XSi...and would love maxwell.... moremodern and robust...

rickei · 2nd June 2007, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonymax

but they have a competitive upgrade for $399, only availalbe for a few days...

that's the one i bought... I couldn't pass it up.

it said the 399 upgrade was through May only but, It's still on the site.
BTW they didn't even ask what software I was sidegradeing from.

I plan on using it mostly for architectural work.
It handles nurbs especially well... As soon as we can get the new Amapi, I think this will be a good pair.

XSI would be nice, but there are so many options I would never use

juanmanuel · 2nd June 2007, 18:41

Maxwell is superb quality wise, but is probably the slowest renderer in the known universe

tonymax · 2nd June 2007, 19:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by juanmanuel

Maxwell is superb quality wise, but is probably the slowest renderer in the known universe

finding this out with the demo, tho you can 'set' the time for render, havent tried anything less than the default atm... currently 5 minutes, but what you get in 5 minutes is superb... but $995 ouch...

i think EIAS is good for architectural work, and there are some good examples of other stuff done with it, check out the star wars vid on the main page...

but i want to concentrate on some character animation and photo realistic renderings... hence maxwell...

gotta say modo is looking good as well... so much to choose from and so little time....

Nichod · 3rd June 2007, 16:32

EIAS has an excellent rendering engine. And I wouldn't consider Maxwell the end all as far a realism. The same quality or similar renders can be done in EI or other rendering engines in a much shorter render time.

tonymax · 3rd June 2007, 20:32

@nichod

have you got any examples of good renderings with EIAS to compare with maxwell...

i didnt see anythng that was as good as maxwell on the EIAS site... would like to see...

Nichod · 3rd June 2007, 20:49

Take a look throughout the gallery. Plenty look pretty comparable to me.

Not to mention this:

Quote:

but i want to concentrate on some character animation and photo realistic renderings... hence maxwell...

Rendering any animation in Maxwell is not a very realistic goal, even with network rendering. Don't believe me? Read some of what others say here.

tonymax · 3rd June 2007, 23:34

hi,

thanks for the heads up nichod..

maxwell is painfully slow... but for a single photo real image...

but are there particles in maxwell....??

animation id leave to something like xsi's mental ray...

ive been playing with maxwell and 3ds demo and is looking really great... so easy to setup a great render... but i guess not a lot that cant be done in mental ray... tho its early days... i do appreciate your views...

EIAS...nice arch viz again... some other stuff there but nothing i havent seen in other apps... (i mean that in a nice way)...

what a bout fryrender... lookin cool... any experience with this.. i know its new..

wih modo 301 soon out, things are looking better... i love the render quality of modo, and now with basic animation coming...

im still not sure about EIAS... the demo left me cold.. the interface was not condusive to my creation pathway.. I do appreciate it seems to have a great render engine...what is the future of EIAS...and no modelling (tho i use hex and silo and soon xsi FND and not forgetting carrara...)

just a few thoughts...

thanks for you input...

Nichod · 3rd June 2007, 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonymax

hi,

thanks for the heads up nichod..

maxwell is painfully slow... but for a single photo real image...

but are there particles in maxwell....??

animation id leave to something like xsi's mental ray...

ive been playing with maxwell and 3ds demo and is looking really great... so easy to setup a great render... but i guess not a lot that cant be done in mental ray... tho its early days... i do appreciate your views...

EIAS...nice arch viz again... some other stuff there but nothing i havent seen in other apps... (i mean that in a nice way)...

what a bout fryrender... lookin cool... any experience with this.. i know its new..

wih modo 301 soon out, things are looking better... i love the render quality of modo, and now with basic animation coming...

im still not sure about EIAS... the demo left me cold.. the interface was not condusive to my creation pathway.. I do appreciate it seems to have a great render engine...what is the future of EIAS...and no modelling (tho i use hex and silo and soon xsi FND and not forgetting carrara...)

just a few thoughts...

thanks for you input...

Modo is nice. Though I'm not happy with how optimized it is for modeling. The interface, as great as it is, seems to hog resources. I can get triple the polycount in Silo that I can in Modo. I was planning on purchasing Modo myself, but due to finances had to delay it. And I've come to the conclusion that I won't be purchasing it period.

Remember that EIAS includes Silo. If you have interest or own Lightwave, you might consider Kray. Its a super fast GI renderer. Find it here: http://www.kraytracing.com/
I've seen some incredible renders in Kray and its rendering speed is impressive.

tonymax · 3rd June 2007, 23:49

hi,

dont have LW yet.. on my list... love the new features and shaders... the new glass and metal shaders look fantastic...can get a competitive upgrade with carrara too... would like something with decent subsurface scattering tools too...

modo is expensive... but looking better all the time...will wait for v3 b and trial it before i buy..

Nichod · 4th June 2007, 00:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonymax

hi,

dont have LW yet.. on my list... love the new features and shaders... the new glass and metal shaders look fantastic...can get a competitive upgrade with carrara too... would like something with decent subsurface scattering tools too...

modo is expensive... but looking better all the time...will wait for v3 b and trial it before i buy..

Goodluck on your decision. Just be careful not to buy everything, focus and learn.

tonymax · 4th June 2007, 00:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nichod

Goodluck on your decision. Just be careful not to buy everything, focus and learn.

thanks nichod.. this is why im taking so long to decide what i want... most available software isn comparable on price... liking xsi more and more i play with it... getting in a few weeks.. (payday)... can focus then...

and with silo 2 nearly in the RC stage... only better...

thanks for your help

tony

boblog · 2nd July 2007, 20:03

Moi aussi j'ai achete EIAS, et j'en suis fort content et decu en meme temps.
Les plug ins sont tres chers.
Les resultats sans plugins sont tres bons. Les shaders sont ok.
Les temps de rendus avec GI, sont geniaux... radiosity aussi.
La qualite est bonne rien a dire. En anime c'est assez bien. Mais peut faire mieux. Networking excellent (peut faire network entre mac et pc... cool)

A plus

Nicolas

tonymax · 2nd July 2007, 21:20

hi boblog,

thanks for the reply. do you need plugins to do anything serious in EIAS.?

I have now got XSI and lovin it. Digital tutors training vids are great and comprehensive. although i am trying to model a car and finding xsi modelling tools a little limiting, although there seems to be thousands of them :-)

im thinking of rhino or amapi to model the car...

but mental ray is great.

jbshorty · 10th July 2007, 16:53

Hi Tony. If you were thinking of Maxwell, consider Fryrender instead. It is an unbiased engine and reportedly faster than Maxwell. They claim it is fast enough to do animation. Also it will be coupled with their new real-time engine, and they just announced the addition of a very good toon rendering core. the price right now is about $540 US, but will jump to around $1080 when v1 is released (expected VERY soon). but they have cut off the beta trials now, so you'd have to buy it untested. Many people seem to like it though. And the renders look great. But i'm not sure if it's a stand-alone engine or requires a plug-in to certain programs. Currently supported are Rhino, Max, Maya, C4D, and Lightwave..

Also, on the Modo front - any purchase of 203 now includes 301 upgrade. And they expect to release during this summer. the overall feeling is it might be just after Siggraph. that would give you enough time to play with 203 demo now and see if you like it or not. But it's not a major risk to wait for the 301 demo, if the price jumps at all i expect it will not be a huge increase...

I wanted to start using Fryrender beta yesterday, but then found out the beta period is expired

. But no worries, now i have a very good reason to start using Modo's renderer

...

shorty

tonymax · 10th July 2007, 20:24

Hi jb,

ive plumbed and gone for XSi.. love this package, tho i am finding that there are not many online tutorials... bought the digital tutors and got on so easy with it...

fryrender looks good but does not support XSi...

modo is a definate must have for me and will get that soon... love the look of v301...

funny after getting XSi i wanted to create my own car... and find XSi a little difficult to get exact geometry.. but good for subd's and organics and made up geometry.. but its early days yet... hence also looking at amapi... but not always technically accurate..

strange how your tastes change when you try and do something in 1 package...

modo seems al ittle more exact in precision...

but we will see...:-)

jbshorty · 10th July 2007, 21:35

sounds good tony, always nice when you find a software which fits you...

shorty

1st June 2007, 20:37	#1 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	Electric Image Animation system Hi, anybody have any experience of EIAS.. they got a good deal on atm... not sure about this as you dont hear a lot about it... would appreciate some insider knowledge... thanks in advance.. Tony

2nd June 2007, 00:10	#2 (permalink)
juanmanuel Madly in love Join Date: May 2006 Location: Puebla, Mexico Posts: 241	The only thing I know is that it comes bundled with Silo as a polygon modeller, as EIAS does not model natively __________________ passionately alive This is my blog This is my portfolio

2nd June 2007, 18:41	#6 (permalink)
juanmanuel Madly in love Join Date: May 2006 Location: Puebla, Mexico Posts: 241	Maxwell is superb quality wise, but is probably the slowest renderer in the known universe __________________ passionately alive This is my blog This is my portfolio

3rd June 2007, 16:32	#8 (permalink)
Nichod Moderator Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 612	EIAS has an excellent rendering engine. And I wouldn't consider Maxwell the end all as far a realism. The same quality or similar renders can be done in EI or other rendering engines in a much shorter render time. __________________ Email Me. Visit my blog! Get hundreds of shader presets! Get Art of Shaders! And a preview for Art of Skin is now available. AMD Turion(TM) 64 ML-40 (2.2GHz/1MB L2 Cache) 1280 MB DDR 333mHz RAM 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM) 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800) I use. Last edited by Nichod; 3rd June 2007 at 21:36.

2nd July 2007, 20:03	#16 (permalink)
boblog Box modeling Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 276	Youps Youps 2 le retour ! Moi aussi j'ai achete EIAS, et j'en suis fort content et decu en meme temps. Les plug ins sont tres chers. Les resultats sans plugins sont tres bons. Les shaders sont ok. Les temps de rendus avec GI, sont geniaux... radiosity aussi. La qualite est bonne rien a dire. En anime c'est assez bien. Mais peut faire mieux. Networking excellent (peut faire network entre mac et pc... cool) A plus Nicolas

2nd June 2007, 02:39	#3 (permalink)
rickei Respect the Dawg! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: USA - Conway, South Carolina Posts: 791	I bought it last week but have only had time to install it. I only launched the app once, but it looks the same as it did 10 years ago, so i should be able to fall right back into using it. they still claim it to be the fastest renderer in the world. and it will handle an ungodly amount of polys. there is talk of the upcoming version 7 being a revamp of the app, but I don't know. I asked the same question as you in another thread http://forums.polyloop.net/2d-3d-eve...tml#post131287 BTW: it did come with Silo, though I already had it

2nd June 2007, 09:39	#4 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	hi, yeah i got silo... but they have a competitive upgrade for $399, only availalbe for a few days... ive played with the demo... old non standard interface. think ill stilll go with XSi...and would love maxwell.... moremodern and robust...

3rd June 2007, 20:32	#9 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	@nichod have you got any examples of good renderings with EIAS to compare with maxwell... i didnt see anythng that was as good as maxwell on the EIAS site... would like to see...

3rd June 2007, 23:34	#11 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	hi, thanks for the heads up nichod.. maxwell is painfully slow... but for a single photo real image... but are there particles in maxwell....?? animation id leave to something like xsi's mental ray... ive been playing with maxwell and 3ds demo and is looking really great... so easy to setup a great render... but i guess not a lot that cant be done in mental ray... tho its early days... i do appreciate your views... EIAS...nice arch viz again... some other stuff there but nothing i havent seen in other apps... (i mean that in a nice way)... what a bout fryrender... lookin cool... any experience with this.. i know its new.. wih modo 301 soon out, things are looking better... i love the render quality of modo, and now with basic animation coming... im still not sure about EIAS... the demo left me cold.. the interface was not condusive to my creation pathway.. I do appreciate it seems to have a great render engine...what is the future of EIAS...and no modelling (tho i use hex and silo and soon xsi FND and not forgetting carrara...) just a few thoughts... thanks for you input...

3rd June 2007, 23:49	#13 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	hi, dont have LW yet.. on my list... love the new features and shaders... the new glass and metal shaders look fantastic...can get a competitive upgrade with carrara too... would like something with decent subsurface scattering tools too... modo is expensive... but looking better all the time...will wait for v3 b and trial it before i buy..

2nd July 2007, 21:20	#17 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	hi boblog, thanks for the reply. do you need plugins to do anything serious in EIAS.? I have now got XSI and lovin it. Digital tutors training vids are great and comprehensive. although i am trying to model a car and finding xsi modelling tools a little limiting, although there seems to be thousands of them :-) im thinking of rhino or amapi to model the car... but mental ray is great.

10th July 2007, 16:53	#18 (permalink)
jbshorty proud to be a nurb Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: only in your mind Posts: 1,362	Hi Tony. If you were thinking of Maxwell, consider Fryrender instead. It is an unbiased engine and reportedly faster than Maxwell. They claim it is fast enough to do animation. Also it will be coupled with their new real-time engine, and they just announced the addition of a very good toon rendering core. the price right now is about $540 US, but will jump to around $1080 when v1 is released (expected VERY soon). but they have cut off the beta trials now, so you'd have to buy it untested. Many people seem to like it though. And the renders look great. But i'm not sure if it's a stand-alone engine or requires a plug-in to certain programs. Currently supported are Rhino, Max, Maya, C4D, and Lightwave.. Also, on the Modo front - any purchase of 203 now includes 301 upgrade. And they expect to release during this summer. the overall feeling is it might be just after Siggraph. that would give you enough time to play with 203 demo now and see if you like it or not. But it's not a major risk to wait for the 301 demo, if the price jumps at all i expect it will not be a huge increase... I wanted to start using Fryrender beta yesterday, but then found out the beta period is expired . But no worries, now i have a very good reason to start using Modo's renderer ... shorty

10th July 2007, 20:24	#19 (permalink)
tonymax NURBS Booleans are your friend Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 122	Hi jb, ive plumbed and gone for XSi.. love this package, tho i am finding that there are not many online tutorials... bought the digital tutors and got on so easy with it... fryrender looks good but does not support XSi... modo is a definate must have for me and will get that soon... love the look of v301... funny after getting XSi i wanted to create my own car... and find XSi a little difficult to get exact geometry.. but good for subd's and organics and made up geometry.. but its early days yet... hence also looking at amapi... but not always technically accurate.. strange how your tastes change when you try and do something in 1 package... modo seems al ittle more exact in precision... but we will see...:-)

10th July 2007, 21:35	#20 (permalink)
jbshorty proud to be a nurb Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: only in your mind Posts: 1,362	sounds good tony, always nice when you find a software which fits you... shorty

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