Difference between combustion 2 and 3ds max?

[Anonymous]

I was just wondering. Stupid question, most likely. I think 3ds is for 3d animation, but then what exactly is combustion for? Has anyone worked with eather of them, and if so, what are they like?

[Matt]

3DS is indeed for 3D animation and rendering. Similar to Lightwave.

Combustion is more geered to adding particle effects. It is particularly good for fire, smoke, explosions etc.

You can do 3D work and particle stuff in either but they are better at certain things. I have used Combustion to add particle effects (smoke and fire) to footage edited in Adobe Premiere.

Hope this helps ...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for answering! So let me get this clear- Combustion is more geered to adding particle effects - is that the only thing you can do with it?

Also--

How hard is it to make a somewhat-realistic object and add it to regalur footage in 3ds studio max?

In some major films, I see little lights on bluescreens. Now, I'm guessing that's to make the background flow with the rest of the shot when the camera moves. Is there any software that'll do this for under $10,000? Heh.

Well, if you know the answers, thanks - if not, I'll look somewhere else

[Ornsack]

3D Studio Max, in the film sense, is more of an animation package. It'll do particles and what not... But it's designed to be used for making realistic looking objects, and animating them.

Combustion is a post production package, where you can do all the blue screen and colour balance gubbins...

The cheaper alternative to combustion would be to use Premiere (or other leading editing programs, although cheap ones like MGI Videowave will do) as it can do all that, but you don't get quite as much control as it's designed to be an editing package, not a post-production package.

[Anonymous]

Alright. I think I understand now. Thanks On Discreet's site, it says "Collaboration: Share data such as motion control or 3D camera tracking information between 3ds max 5, other 3D software and compositing packages". Anyone know what motion control is? It's probably something simple, but I'm lost.

[Anonymous]

Oh, one more thing. With 3ds Max, how easy is it it to combine a animation shot with a live action shot? It doesn't seem like it would be a prob... but I bet it could be tricky if the camera was moving or if they comp animation/live action people interacted.

[Adam]

Motion control is a way of predictably controlling the movement of a camera when moving or panning in a scene. This is useful when you are adding a SFX from a 3D program as you can duplicate the movement of the virtual camera to be the same as the real one.

Without this you will have to physically measure the distances that the camera moves.

[Ornsack]

If you think adding computer graphics on top of live action footage is gonna be easy, think again!

There's a couple of tutorial type things on my website which you may find useful (that'll be www.shosk.creators.co.uk )

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by Adam
Motion control is a way of predictably controlling the movement of a camera when moving or panning in a scene. This is useful when you are adding a SFX from a 3D program as you can duplicate the movement of the virtual camera to be the same as the real one.

Without this you will have to physically measure the distances that the camera moves.

Ah! That could be very useful. One last question. Would Combustion basically do everything After Effects can do, but more? I have a AE demo. Is there anything AE can do that Combustion can't?

[Ornsack]

The latest Combustion and After Effects are pretty much on par with each other. New versions of Combustion set the new standards, then Adobe just copy the new functions for their new version of AE

After Effects is pretty much the industry standard when it comes to desktop PC effectwork.

[Anonymous]

Hmm. I'm more impressed with what I see on Discreet's website then what I see with the AE demo. Like the smoke and fire effects - AE can't do that, can it? Maybe I'm just not looking closely enough at the demo.