whoah fast reply! Just look at the job postings on coroflot.com
The more CAD based solutions are proE and Solidworks and Rhino
The more freeform based solutions are Rhinoceros 4 and Autodesk StudioTools
Recently I have seen more designers using sub-div programs like Modo or Cinema 4D in...
I would not consider myself a Photoworks advocate. As such if something better comes along I will jump on it. Photoworks has 2 things going for it.
1)Mental Ray Render Engine is fast and realistic
2)It is full integrated into Solidworks and saves time.
Solidworks seems to have "detuned" it...
Well all the options listed above are good. However I think that you might want to look into 3DS Max/Maya and V-Ray or Brazil as they seem to be fast mainstream solutions for aimations.
Maxwell would suit you pretty well for stills.
I do have a seat of Maxwell, but have been able to get what...
In your Lights and camera folder, make a new Camera. Right click on the camera in tree and uncheck "Lock" THe camera will behave like a regular view with the advantage of flying through, but the disadvantage of not having "Normal To"
very naiice
Make a copy of te cutting surface. Then extend the edges, so that they are beyond those of the surface to be trimmed. Use the extended copy as a cutting tool. If there is a problem then extend edges of the surface to be cut as well.
Insert>Surface>Offset (0.050") all the surfaces that you would like the cut to go through
then Insert>Cut>Extrude[Until surface (pick the offset surface)]
This will allow a Cut Extrude through multiple faces)
Use a decal.
1) Create a jpg of the logo. Use this as the primary bitmap
2) In Photoshop select the inverse of the logo. Fill that with black. Save out a second jpg to use as a transparency channel
(image mask file)
Very easy to move around and similar to the pad print process.
