Alias Wavefront -- fabulous. I should have guessed. There was a time I was into designing 3d modeling techniques and animation and visualization although when then steady paycheque came with more mundane things I ended up not pursuing that career line (although there are days I still regret that .. oh well).
I was watching Cars on the weekend and in the opening there was "Pixar - Celebrating 20 Years" and suddenly I realized-- Oh my God-- I'm old.
The problem with Pixar is that they make all other animation films look .. well .. bad.
They are awesome. And Alias makes awesome tools. There was a time I would have gone to work for them .... oh well, water under the bridge now!!
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Anyhow, as far as less light making it to the front of the tank, I didn't really notice that myself. Mostly the shadow that's cast by the socket goes out horizontally anyhow, so no concerns about a dark spot in the tank or anything like that. Also you usually don't have anything right up to the front glass anyhow since that's your viewing pane, so I don't think it's a huge concern. Maybe try it both ways and see if you notice a difference but my guess is that you wouldn't really notice.