Getting an iMac on Thursday, advice?

Justiceiro

I guess this should go in accesories, not quite sure...

So, this thursday, habing been duly authorized by the CFO, I am plonking down the coin neccessary to get an iMac. Here are the stats:

2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 128MB SDRAM
24 inch screen (Boo Yah!)

Here is what I want to do with it:

use an advanced photo editor to not only edit photos, but creat "digital artwork"- specifically, to integrate actual photos into pictures that are part photographs, and part created "ex nihilo"; specifically I am trying to make a series of illustrations for the Inferno, and as I can't photograph the various circles of hell, I want to use some sort of program or programs to creat absolutely realistic 3D environments to integrate photos of real people into. A few questions:

1- I have a bootleg PC copy of photoshop CS2 for windows, can I use the program that allows the mac to run OS and XP simultaneously (not "boot camp", the new one) and do my photoshop stuff with my PC program, or should I shell out the $600 to get photoshop CS2 for the mac? What's the difference between the $600 photoshop at B&H, and the $300 "academic license?"

2- What are the best programs to build 3D "worlds" with that don't look cheesy? Poser? Others? If I have photoshop for windows, and those other programs are Mac, can I move jpegs in between them? (it's obvious I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.)

3- Are the ssytem capabilities I have above sufficient to do what I am looking to do? Should I shell out more cash for the faster processor, or more RAM, or even a ebtter video card?

4- What are the other "must have" mac programs?

Thanks for the help.

DavidTO

Congrats on the new purchase!

Justiceiro wrote:

1- I have a bootleg PC copy of photoshop CS2 for windows, can I use the program that allows the mac to run OS and XP simultaneously (not "boot camp", the new one) and do my photoshop stuff with my PC program, or should I shell out the $600 to get photoshop CS2 for the mac? What's the difference between the $600 photoshop at B&H, and the $300 "academic license?"

We won't be discussing ways in which you can use a bootleg copy of software on dgrin, or any other illegal activity, for that matter.

To run Window and OSX concurrently, check out Parallels. You'd need more RAM, of course, than you would otherwise, and that's one area the iMac is limited, expansion-wise. As far as Mac versions, CS2 is running under emulation, as it was not written for Intel processors. CS3 is available in beta, and you could run the 30 day demo of it. CS2 runs fine, CS3 runs sweet. Academic license is not upgradable, so to buy the full version and an upgrade would be $749 and the educational discount, if you qualify would be $600 for the purchase/upgrade (which isn't really an upgrade).

2- What are the best programs to build 3D "worlds" with that don't look cheesy? Poser? Others? If I have photoshop for windows, and those other programs are Mac, can I move jpegs in between them? (it's obvious I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.)

A 3-D artist at work was using an app that was incredible and looked to be (relatively) easy to use. I'll find out what it was and post it in a day or two. He was freelance and ended his run last week.

3- Are the ssytem capabilities I have above sufficient to do what I am looking to do? Should I shell out more cash for the faster processor, or more RAM, or even a ebtter video card?

I don't KNOW, but I'd say you'd be a fool to do any 3-D work with anything less than a MacPro, specifically for the amount of RAM you can put in it. I'm not sure, since I don't know what you'll be using, but the 3-D portion of your question is going to be the determining factor here.

4- What are the other "must have" mac programs?

Oy. For what?

DavidTO

Oh, and if you can avoid it, don't run Windows on your Mac. Only cross that bridge if absolutely necessary.

Justiceiro

DavidTO wrote:

Oh, and if you can avoid it, don't run Windows on your Mac. Only cross that bridge if absolutely necessary.

Thanks D!

I meant to say "second hand.":D


Unfortunately, my budget just can't take a power Mac at this point. Particularly when I am looking at spending $600-900 on software. If I can't do it with these tools, I'll have to put it off, or approach it another way.

DavidTO

My buddy got back to me quickly.

hey!

without learning a bunch of new software, I would suggest photoshop, stitching together images to create environments, kinda like the website that I showed you. http://www.xrez.com. Or, multiplaning in a 2d environment goes A LONG way.

Next would be programs specifically for generating environments. The one that I was using is specifically for that and not much else. There are 2 others that are pretty cool and $500 bucks cheaper. Bryce is the most user friendly and it creates amazing images for only $99. http://www.daz3d.com The other one that does a good job, but a little harder to learn is terragen. http://www.planetside.co.uk They have a free version and a 300 dollar version.

The one that I was using costs $600 and I wouldn't have bought it if I knew that terragen 2.0 was out (I am also seriously looking at bryce too). I was using vue 6. It is the hardest to learn and doesn't have the flexibility or features that I was hoping for. The animation controls are non-existent! They really suck and one wouldn't be able to do a production level camera animation. They say that you just use your usual 3d program for camera animation, then export out of your 3d package, import into vue.

Anyhoo, there ya go! my thoughts in a nutshell.

CatOne

If you're going to think about running Aperture, you should upgrade the graphics card to the 7600GT. It makes a huge difference for Core Image enabled applications like Aperture and Motion.

cabbey

For heavy 3D rendering, especially if you want anything photo-realistic, you're going to need either lots of fast processors, OR, lots of time. Take a look at Digital Blasphemy. Ryan, the artist behind the site, lists what software he used in creating each render. He's also mentioned a few times in his various posts the hardware he's using. IIRC his current render machine is a wee bit more powerful than the iMac you mention, and he talks about 52 hour renders as being a good thing (fast).

Justiceiro

I'm planning on getting CS2, and I am currently trying to decide between Carrera, Bryce, Poser, etc. I don't plan to do "animation", but want to combine photographs of real models with a digital landscape that doesn't look cheesy.

Is aperture really worth the money for me? At the moment I don't really process large batches of RAW photos. I've been using RAWshooter, and that's saatisfied me up until now. Is aperture really that much better?

DavidTO

Justiceiro wrote:

I'm planning on getting CS2, and I am currently trying to decide between Carrera, Bryce, Poser, etc. I don't plan to do "animation", but want to combine photographs of real models with a digital landscape that doesn't look cheesy.

Is aperture really worth the money for me? At the moment I don't really process large batches of RAW photos. I've been using RAWshooter, and that's saatisfied me up until now. Is aperture really that much better?

Depends on who you ask. I don't think it's worth the money for anyone.

Justiceiro

My impression so far is that at this stage, given all the cash I'll have to shell out to switch systems, I would prefer to spend the money elsewhere and just put in more sweat on the RAW conversions.

Aperture is essentially a system for managing and converting large numbers of RAW files, right?

Got to go man, I'm off to get the gear

photocat

Maya works very well for 3 D stuff... You will need lots of DRAM for rendering and such, but I suppose with the dual processor it should be no problem! Congrats on your purchase. Welcome in lalaland... I love my mac!

Justiceiro

photocat wrote:

Maya works very well for 3 D stuff... You will need lots of DRAM for rendering and such, but I suppose with the dual processor it should be no problem! Congrats on your purchase. Welcome in lalaland... I love my mac!

Got it last night, set it up. So sweet, so smoooooth...

Of course, I haven't tried any actual photoediting on it, as I was up till 4 AM playing Civ 4.