However, Inspire contains much of the animation control finesse of LightWave, except in one vital area: Simple motion animations can be as easy as dragging an object around and setting keyframes. Present is the same extremely high-quality (but rather slow) raytracing engine, but animation output resolution is limited to 640 x 480 pixels, making this suitable only for web-based and multimedia projects. Inspire's Layout module contains the animation and texturing controls. What is missing is Spline Patching (although MetaNURBS can make this redundant), the very useful Knife tool for adding extra geometry to fine up models, and, bizarrely, the ability to turn off Grid Snap. Other modelling tools include a full set of very robust Boolean operators and a full set of LightWave's Deformation tools. It's possible to produce remarkably fluid and detailed creations with little effort. Modelling in Inspire is extremely easy, since the package supports an easy-to-use implementation of NURBS modelling, MetaNURBS, which allows you to rough out your creation as a polygon mesh and then turn it into a super-smooth NURBS model with a tap of the Tab key.

Apart from the interface colours, at first glance both programs appear identical. Modeller and Layout, where rendering and animation are carried out. Like LightWave, Inspire is split into two separate applications: Inspire 3D is a new product from NewTek, maker of LightWave 3D, the world's most popular 3D package, and it shares many features with the senior program. The first product under review here, Inspire 3D, is one that misses the price points we've set, but gets in due to its wealth of high-end features. NewTek Inspire 3D (£349) Win 95/98, NT MacOS Finally, the idea here is not to tell a prospective purchaser which program they 'should' buy or to announce a winner at the end rather it's meant to be a distillation of facts about the programs, with inevitable comparisons being made between programs which are going after the same area of the market, or which claim to offer similar solutions.

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