PresetCentral.com

I thought I’d put together a list for all of you still wondering what to ask for Christmas this year. I have ordered them in order of “coolness”. Comment welcome…

Please remember that I have excluded Lightwave 9.0 from the list as it won’t be available in time.

1. Dell 30″ Widescreen TFT 3007WFP
At the top of my list is Dell’s ‘recently’ announced 30″ widescreen TFT 3007WFP. Mostly because everyone should have a screen this big. Its technically better and cheaper than Apple’s 30″ Cinema display, although it will take a top of the line gfx card (DVI dual link) to use the display at its native resolution of 2560 x 1600.

2. Babylon 5 - The Complete Television Series
This simply has to be on your list! What else is going to remind you what you can achieve with Lightwave 3D, some late nights and a wild imagination. Initially the effects for the TV series used only 12 Pentium machines and 4 DEC Alphas. Thats probably the same as a couple of high end CPUs today! For more information on Babylon 5 and how Lightwave 3d helped created this amazing TV series read the following:

If you don’t like Babylon 5 or already have it. Why not try FireFly, also made with Lightwave 3d.

3. Canon EOS 20D Digital Camera
Lets face it, not many of us can be without a digital camera these days. Handy for taking reference photos, creating your own textures and backdrops. I’ve tried a number of digital cameras and nothing quite comes as close as the Canon EOS 20D. Don’t trust me thought! Read the dpreview.com review for yourself.

4. Worley’s FPrime plugin for Lightwave 3d
This is a plugin like no other. Steve Worley held the Lightwave 3d community in awe as he showed them the first videos of the new plugin back in 2004. Unfortunately, at $399, it still isn’t exactly cheap and I’m currently unaware of any Xmas specials. However I would argue its still amazingly good value. One can only dream that Lightwave 9.0 will ship with it included - yeah right!

5. Wacom Intuos3 Tablet
This one would be much higher up my list if it wasn’t for the fact that using it within Lightwave 3d is quite difficult. Its real strength is in Photoshop, where the tablet can pick up both tilt and pressure of the pen. An indispensible tool for all Photoshop fans!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 at 4:02 am and is filed under Computer Graphics, Lightwave3D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.