X-Dof 2.0 LightWave

Value:  Features:  Quality:  Overall:  Very intuitive interface. I liked the intuitive design of the interface. The rendering times were very reasonable. I was able to get a really good-looking microscopic feel on my first set up. The downloadable access to the program was also nice, instant gratification. Rich Jackson, Animation Works Reviewed on March 30, 2002 by rich@... from Rochester, Michigan.

Value:  Features:  Quality:  Overall:  For that photo real look and fast setup it has to be X-DOF There has been many times I have required a soft DOF, but X-DOF is beyond that, as it also adds blooms to the image creating very real looking renders, plus you can change the iris shape, some thing that no other DOF plugin can do. The setup is quick and easy too. Since buying I've used X-DOF on most of projects. There is a preview window too, saving a lot of time in setup. The Single License X-DOF will aslo work over a render farm at no extra cost to you. The support is very good too, not that you'll need it as it's realy reliable. Infact... it's never crashed once! Don't take my word for it, check out their web site images. Shaun Lee Bishop Nemesis CGI Ltd. Reviewed on January 15, 2002 by Shaun Bishop (shaun@...).

Value:  Features:  Quality:  Overall:  The world is a blur It’s like taking your glasses off and not seeing the world for the first time. Since first using X-Dof I haven’t rendered anything without it. This plugin has become an integral part of rendering, adding an extra level of realism and believability to any image. Even when used only subtly in a scene, the results are far superior to anything rendered without it. Some have reported problems with the auto-focus not working properly when a scene is reloaded but I haven’t had any problems. Reviewed on October 29, 2001 by Murray blanc (blancm@...).

Value:  Features:  Quality:  Overall:  Quick easy depth of field in Lightwave 6.X The feature I liked most about X-Dof is that you could assign any object as a reference focus object making it easy to do rack focus or just control depth of field in general. The image quality is superb. It gives a much softer depth of field out of focus effect, especially when you want to use a really narrow depth of field. The only draw backs I've found at the moment is that it doesn't work through transparent objects and the lack of documentation (only 1 html page). Reviewed on August 6, 2001 by Danai Chutinaton (danai_c@...).

Value:  Features:  Quality:  Overall:  the true icing on the cake, for the ultimate in realism The look X-DOF adds to a rendering was somthing I had been trying to mimic for years, with limited results and it does so with great ease. It truly add a photographically realistic looking DOF blur to a rendered image, in a 1/10 the time it takes LW to render if with antialiasing. Better results AND way faster! Plugin installed easily and quickly. My only annoyance with the install was I had to wait 24 hours to be sent a serial number that keys it to my dongle- not a problem usually, but nowhere ANYWHERE does it say you need to send them a code for the key, the extremely brief single html page manual makes it seem like you will install the plugin and be up in running in seconds. NOT TRUE! There are a few rough corners I noticed, that will most likely be fixed in an update, such as the target focus object does not seem to be tracked dynamically, and somwhow was lost when i added and deleted several items in my scene that didn't include the target object. Otherwise, a mighty fine addition to any pro lightwavers arsenal of tools! I would have given it 5's across the board if it had a better manual (2 pages?) and some sample scenes, as the settings don't initially make sense, —numerical entry goes from 0 - 100, but settings in the range of .2 - 1 worked best for me. Reviewed on May 21, 2001 by James Darknell (typeboy@...).