This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (100 messages)
Charlie, >>>TrueSpace for "flying Logo" work. I might be partial for TrueSpace, being their beta tester and all that… but I would say that TrueSpace should fill the gaps left by A:M in this area pretty well… Working with materials is a pure joy in TrueSpace. Not only you have…
Charlie, >>>>I have found it a little lacking for pure geometrics, but I knew it was better suited to amorphic shapes that move. Part of it might be a question how you approach the modeling. In addition to simply moving the control points, I've learned to use numerical input, grid…
>>>Animated displacement maps would be great, though, on top of A.M. patch surfaces. Is it something you think just "nice to have" or something very fundamental? Pawel
>>>May I add Soft edged shadows to the list? Or is there already a technique for this I don't know about? Yes, there is, but it is a bogus one. The shadow's edge is blured in post processing by the same amount regardless of how far from the source, or…
Jim, >>>Your suggestion of selecting and naming parts seems like a good solution. Steve is very quiet about this idea, though. Maybe they do like us work hard after all ;=) >>>it would be nice if some of the capabilities from one module where brought over into the others, saving…
Stanford, >>>I run Alias, Prisms, Strata, 3D Studio, Electric Image, Form Z, Imagine, Lightwave, and POV RAY. That's quite a list, on 3 different platforms! How did you get your hands on them all? Does any of those have displacement mapping? (I understand it is similar to bump mapping, except…
Jim, >>>The skin thing is a little wierd It seems we all agree on that… I suppose it is done that way because of the way the programs were evolving in the past (skin being a later addition)… I hope somebody will stop and rethink the method… I really think…
Joe, >>>I believe that I have been misquoted here and perhaps y'all are protesting a bit too much? Probably both are true. I am glad you are back to take the heat from people like me who do use and like the program… I hope you understand that AM was…
>>>The new two segments MUST have the same shape at the end where they match up. Doug, Don't forget to add that the splines _MUST_ continue from one segment to the other… A little detail that is never mentioned in the manual and can ensure you with endless hours of…
Joe, >>>So, possibly buy bundling some, or all, of the tapes, OR offering a cheaper price when purchasing them at the same time as purchasing the program, new users would get over the learning hump! When I upgraded from Playmation to Animation:Master there was a tape with the program; some…
Jim, >>>Unless the animators in the tapes are getting royalties, would you consider building the tapes with the product? I think the animators _should_ get royalties for their work… And I beleive one of the reason why there are so few A:M animations in public domain is that there are…
Kevin, >>>I haven't had the opportunity to add a decal to transparent objects, so I don't know the side effects, but I would assume the decaled area would be as transparent as the object it's on. What I've been doing (to avoid transparency on decals) is to create separate object…
>>> white (255,255,255) is the background color as far as A:M is concerned. It works for me every time. Kevin, White is just a default… I often use white in my cookecut as a part of the image. I prefer to use black (0,0,0), especially when the cookiecut has some…
>>>If I understand the example in the manual, if I map a maple leaf onto a square patch using the cookiecut function, when the square renders, it should knock out all of the square except where the image of the leaf is. I use CorelDraw! 5.0 to design all my…
Chris, Sorry for not getting back to you right away. I picked up your message on at my home and when I had the time in the office I din't have you Cis #… >>>I was wondering if you had any tips, formulas, etc.. regarding aspect ratios in relation to…
Steve, >>>in cookie cut mapping the background (ie:the part you want transparent) should be pure white (255) for totally transparent and black for opaque…. It sounds as if you are describing a transparency mapping not the cookiecut… My understanding (and experience) of cookecut is that it is a simple color…
>>>save as 24 bit instead of 32 bit and your problem will be solved! Steve, there is much more to that! I wish you could enlighten all of us to what the "background" color is… I never use 32 bit image maps but still get in trouble with both decals…
Grady, >>>I'm having the same problem with the cookiecut… unless I'm doing it wrong, even after I save as a tempate and modify it, it still trys to decal as a square. The problem is with what Animation:Master considers as "background" color. It creaps in in regular image maps as…
>>> Wow, my computer would have a stroke with such a file. What kind of work were you doing to produce such a monster ? It can only be described as "virtual photography"… I am one of those guys that uses A:M mostly for still images that will printed. I…
>>>And the shadow.tmp shows up regardless of whether or not I use the alpha channels. Shadow.tga shows up when you render the scene with the shadows. (-p switch in Render24) It is in TGA format on my PC, but than again, I almost always go pretty high rez… I suppose…
Steve, >>>the temp files you are referring to is where the renderer stores it's data while finishing/creating an image… the shadow.tmp is where the alpha channels are stored… these files should not be left behind after you close the render… Thank God they are left behind! (We are talking about…
>>Does anyone out there know of tool or program that converts Playmation to 3d Studio files? 3D STUDIO should be able to read the DXF files exported from Sculpture… (at least TrueSpace doesn't have any problems with them) Pawel
>>>I did have r=0 g=0 b=0 and transparancy even at 100%, but it still darkened the object behind the MagGlass. To control how dark the image appears through the lens you need to play with the Ambience value of the MagGlass… You have to be careful though because even the…
Jim, >>> My problem is that the glass still has color. I tried changing the RGB values of 10 to 0 then to 100 and finally 150. At 150 the tint matches the color of the object that is refracted, the the refracted object is ghosted. A real magGlass should…
Chris, I never had this problem… Is it possible that you still include one of the preset resolutions (-m -l -v) that would overwrite the -w and -h values? Here is what works for me: render24 -s1 -e1 -p -q -a -y -w3000 -h2000 steve:run Start with frame 1, end…
I think I would just make simple… all in Direction using the Channels for all movements. Put the bowl on a simple straight spline, linear movement, rotation using the "s" button on Figure Channel — Draw a straight line with 2 points going from the left top corner to right…
>>>Could it be that Charlie's problem is that all 3 points are in the same spline? It is possible… You never know what the DXF will bring in … Pawel
Steve, Remember my Johnpaul.fig. Here is a suggestion I got from David Jefferson. This is amazing! 2 step solution for creating multiple actors in one file without the need to recreate the characters. It works. No need to even touch the attributes file. The figures show corectly in Action and…
>>>Even though the face of the triangle has only three points it is still a hole. It probably has to do with the way the triangles are translated to splines… If the 3 points are not conected (try to drag each control point on your triangle and see if all…
Charlie, Playmation and AM are very sensitive to the directory structures… It seems that both problems you describe have to do with this… If you take the .cho files for rendering to another machine, you have to make sure that everything else is moved and addressed there as well… Spend…
David, >>>Now rename the segment path of one of these last two segs to the path of john.fig – for example c:\master\john\john.fig (or John:john.fig – both work). Woww! Load figure as a segment? Are you sure this will work? I have to check it out… this would be even simplier…
>>>Try attaching a ghost to John (at the foot is good) then attach Paul to the ghost as well, and you should get two characters that are one fig…. not realeasy to do but possible… I am still not clear on that. Do you do that by recreating Paul in…
>>>First of all this has been a great thread and I'm lovin' it…. Steve, Now that we have your attention, I have one idea for the next AM and a question. (Sorry can't change the name of the tread with my WinCis). >>>>>>>(Two guys can be a *single* "actor" –…
>>>Is there any sort of demo disk available that will show some of what this program can do and what its end results look like? John, I don't really know… you will have to ask Steve at Hash. I am far away from Vancouver, WA. Pawel
Tony,, >>>Still some confusion in terminology. I AM refering to a camera in Direction. Some programs allow you to place multiple cameras in the scene in order to capture (i.e. switch) the action from different angles, like movie editing. Ouch! Mr. Communicator I am not! ;=) AM doesn't need multiple…
Mike, It is great you come to this forum and speak so openly. They don't make those Presidents like that no more! It makes us, the guys using your programs, better appreciate what it is at the stake on the other side… I am curious if you ever look into…
>>>When I had asked if there was more than one camera, I meant whether you can place several cameras in a scene in order to view it for multiple camera angles simultaneously. OK. We were talking about different things. In Animation:Master the term CAMERA is used for the point of…
>>>I'm not sure I understand. Are there 2D and 3D primatives in A:M? I suppose this has to do with the "different animal" observation I made earlier… Yes, they are. No, there aren't any. Imagine a situation where to make a circle requires onlu 4 connected points… To make a…
Tony, >>>I've been hearing that it's hard to create basic 2D and 3D primatives in Playmation. This might be the case if you are _already_ experienced in modeling in a 3D polygon based program… The habits and expectations get on the way… If you don't have those and discover a…
Hi stranger! >>>I keep getting an application error in module when I try to delete control points in sculpture. Usually the address is IIgI4297:995DWIN386. I did have simillar problems in the past… since the latest update I got I haven't have a single crash… Even the DXF import works! (2.07…
Tony, I happen to have all three programs… I agree with you on Imagine's and TrueSpace interfaces and overall strengths of both of them… How Animation:Master fits into the picture? As a different kind of animal in my opinion — things that are hard to impossible in the two are…
Joe, I have played with Infiniti-3d only for about 10 minutes on a friend's Mac (I am a PC guy) and from what I can tell Animation:Master is really a diferent type of animal altogether… The special effects (wind, rain, snow, fire, particles, explosions and so on) don't exist at…
>>>where I can find a 3D software called TOPAS. I am told it is sold by AT&T. `I think it went back to it's original developers — Crystal Graphics… International sales number (in USA) is (617) 229-6900… Direct info: Crystal Graphics 3110 Patrick Henry Drive Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA…
Steve, (As I expected, WinCis dumped this message when I tried to create the new subject title, so here it is one more time under existing header. Sorry for that): I know you guys are working on future Animation:Master. I can only hope you will add some more modeling features…
John, >>preliminary modeling in Corel A word of advice: If you want to control where your spiline point will be located, create them manually (add points) on your courves in Corel, than convert it all to straigth lines before exporting to DXF… This way you only get the points you…
John, It sound as your friend is ready for an update… I just got the version 2.07 update and was trilled to be able to bring in Corel gernerated DXF. It is a snap! Boom, and it's there! Now you can do some of the preliminary modeling in Corel! I…
Congrats on the new forum! I see you really have your hands full now… Pretty soon you will have to start charge Impulse for all this great work you do ;=) Pawel
Steve, That's great that finally there will be a forum with you guys! I've been using Playmation and Animation:Master for quite a bit of time and will hang around here to learn and share… It is a different feeling to dial a local number and write notes off-line… I wish…
Geoff, What kind of file does it crash? I've done some output from Corel to Scitex and everything worked well. The way I do it is to create a postscript print file using one of the color laser postscript drivers (QMS Color Scripr, Tektronix Phaser II or something similar that…
I also got the "upgrade" from SPC (Harvard Draw), and I have to agree that the claims they make in their ads are far from truth. Thay even will not say that Harvard Draw will not even let you do color separation (neither does Publish Magazine who has such a…
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