I've used Lightwave for the last five years. 3D applications can be a steep learning curve, and often frustrating if you think 'easy' before diving in.

Go here:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d

Loads of cool models for purchase there. You might be able to contact some of the builders there and farm out your needs, (i.e. "for a little more, can you rotate this over x time?"). Never know until you ask.

Depending on your NLE/Application you'd probably want 32bit TGA's or TIFF's image sequences with alpha. More flexibility, as I never render to AVI's.

Forgot to mention that if you want a full featured package that will cost you nothing, you should take a look at Blender.

http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

It's open source and been under development for many years. In fact, their 10 year aniversary happens tommorrow.

Just wanted to add that this has been a very informative thread, thanks.

For my part I use Cinema4D because of the slightly more gentle learning curve (and because it has the word 'cinema' in its name, which is nice). For my modest requirements (at this time anyway) it's got more than enough. Also, its integration with After Effects seems to be better than any other 3d software.

I hope that the folks over at the SD Vegas forum get a chance to see this thread because I don't think this is a HD specific topic.

Have a great weekend.

Ian . . .

Oh, I meant to also concur with an earlier poster that 3dcafe is a fantastic source of free 3d models, all categorised and available in several formats. Well worth a look.

Blender is amazing ...
 

I decided to check out Blender and I have to say that while the learning curve is steep, this is some of the most impressive free software I have ever used. Thanks to all who have mentioned this software.

Speaking of very impressive free software, NASA's World Wind is another that is astounding.

Finally, (I hope this isn't too far off topic) is it possible to briefly explain how After Effects differs from a 3d modler? What do you typically do with After Effects and what products compete directly with After Effects?

Thanks, Shawn

what is this nasa world wind you speak of

NASA's World Wind is an amazing interactive globe of the Earth (and the Moon) that uses data from so many satellite sources. If you need a video of a spinning globe or a specific location on Earth, you can use World Wind and a video capture free plug-in to create some very impressive video. I haven't seen anything better if you need this sort of thing - Shawn

NASA World Wind (Free)
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

Movie Recorder (plugin) for World Wind (also free)
http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki...r_%28plugin%29

Helpful Site for Learning World Wind
http://www.worldwindcentral.com/

Discussion of Hi-Res Earth Video
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=51933

i dl'ed the nasa program and movie corder but can't seem to figure out how to record and export with those scripts they have any suggestions

Hey Tom,

I had played around with the default script that comes with WorldWind and I figured out that you're looking at two things. 1) There is a number (like 0 or 300) followed by a semi-colin (;) and 2) this is followed by WorldWind command. Here's what they mean. 1) The number is the total number of frames that you want to capture during your move. 2) The WorldWind command is a location that includes at least a Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude. If you click EDIT->COPY in worldwind, you can record a location, so if you copy what's inside the brackets [worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=-2.88117&lon=37.53695&alt=976384&dir=0&tilt=0] and click EDIT->PASTE in WorldWind, you end up right over Kilimajaro at an altitude high enough to see the entire southern Kenya/Tanzania border.

So if you run the default Script, you'll generate 300 frames or 10 seconds of video footage (at whatever pixel size you specify). If you run my script (shown below), you'll generate 1440 frames which becomes 48 seconds of footage. The main difference is that if you click PLAY on the Movie Recorder plug-in, it will play about 4x slower (on my computer) than having the 1440 images imported into Vegas and running at 30fps. My script creates a slow turning globe that slowly approaches to fill the screen. Hope this helps, Shawn

-------------------------------------------
DEFAULT SCRIPT
-------------------------------------------
0;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=19.70193&lon=9.55600&alt=12756393&bank=-10
90;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=37.85826&lon=10.58513&alt=123416&dir=90.4&tilt=74.9&bank=10
170;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=38.45829&lon=22.88853&alt=21294&dir=45.3&tilt=74.9&bank=10
240;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=42.09693&lon=24.62960&alt=17107&dir=2.0&tilt=74.9&bank=-10
300;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=45.61319&lon=24.53764&alt=15275&dir=43.1&tilt=74.9&bank=10

-----------------------------------------------
SHAWN'S SCRIPT
-----------------------------------------------
0;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=0.00000&alt=16e6
360;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-90.00&alt=14e6
720;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-180.00&alt=12e6
1080;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=-270.00&alt=10e6
1440;worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=0.00000&lon=0.00000&alt=8e6

yeah i got that far shawn. but will vegas run a script file . i mean when i put my coordinates in the notepad and have movie recorder play that script file. what can i do with the script after that... how do i import to vegas

It's not a Vegas script - you can only use that script for Worldwind. You just run the Script in WorldWind by clicking SAVE and the PNG files are saved to a directory on your hard drive. The one glitch I noticed is that the script doesn't always seem to choose the same directory as the script, so if it's not where the Script is, check the WorldWind directory. Once all the PNG files are created, import them into Vegas using FILE->IMPORT->MEDIA (then click on the first file and hit CTRL-A), then check the option at the bottom that says "Open Still Image Sequence" and click OPEN. Then a "Properties" window will appear, and you can typically click OK at this point. Finally, you'll get a warning, and you can click OK as well. Now look in the Project Media tab and you should find a new PNG Image sequence that you can add to the timeline.

damb man i must be stupid becuase everything i do and i still can't get this crap to work. lol. when i try to import the png files vegas does not unshade the import image sequence box. i am confused about running and saving the script. i can save screen shots and they come out as png files then i can import them but after that i am stuck...sorry i have been trying...it looks very promising though

ok i am getting closer i found all the files now i still can't get vegas to unshade the import image sequnece box

i did it lol. nice....yeah i will have to make experiament now. cool...thanks a bunch man...

now the only other problem i have is i have a big tiff file blue marble earth phto 26 mb. vegas is having a hard time with this file. when i pan and crop it chokes. should i try to change format for an easier to work with file. what do you do