This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (572 messages)
David, I wish you all the best luck. Funny thing about IPAS's….most of the customers in L.A. want particle stuff and photo-real cloud and electricity effects. The market here seems to want all the cool stuff and they don't much ask for logos ( from me.) Maybe because I don't…
#176639-
#FaceHugger/Bugs/Rooster
Message #176810
Kyle, I will bring a tape of a bug (roach) and a mouse (rat?) fighting over a piece of cheese done with Bones Pro. I am also working with some of the older particle IPAS's to do some surrealistic insects. Things like Spurt are a bit hard to control so…
David, Have no fear. I'm happy to move non-IPAS discussion to take-5. I hope to see some cool IPAS animation from you this year at Siggraph. Sanford
Kyle, I will be at Siggraph. Any chance you might bring a vhs tape showing some of the animations you have done with different IPAS's? I'd like to see some more of the work you have done with Skin, Metareys, etc. Sanford
Kyle, How's it going? Done moving yet? I'm still cranking away on a commercial. I like your hugger. Did you do an animation of it attacking anybody? What is it like to do creature animation with the metaballs? I assume you go to a surface mesh and use Bones. Or…
John, God, can you stand up on a skate board? I nearly killed myself on one. I never learned the trick of stopping while still standing….you just dive off, right? Animal animaton > Actually, I would like to specialize in animals eventually. I really love animal and insect behavior, not…
John, Tall blond girls on rollerblades on the beach….Oh yeah! Sometimes I eat lunch at Venice Beach. Its a kind of therapy, you know. Animal animation….. I have found it to be very tough to do well. Bones Pro is actually quite difficult to get right for things like lip…
John, I will second that. I'm animating 7 days a week now, and I wish I had another day available. It gets in the blood. When I finally get my par and a huge hard drive, look for a looooong animated .FLC. Have you thought about doing something like Noah's…
John, < the appearance of my first article in Byte magazine.> Great news. I hope you can revitalize the Byte content a little. I am tired of reading articles centered around data management and net servers. There is more to life! Sanford
Jack, The Nurbs Modeler IPAS comes from Germany. There is a sample flower done with it in the IPAS library. I havn't purchased it yet, but I have run the demo version. It is quite interesting. The people who sell it made an annoucement about 6 or 8 weeks ago…
David, 3D Studio takes a different approach to modeling from FormZ. 3DS only uses 2d bezier curves to build profiles that are then lofted into shapes. The deform-fit function is very powerful 3dimentional lofter, but to get nurbs surfaces, you must buy the Nurbs IPAS plugin..Actually, with plugins you can…
Will, Electric Image does not have a modeler. I use FORM-Z, which is a great modeler on the Mac. Actually I have stopped using E. Image since version 3 of 3D Studio came out. 8K is too much! Electric Image has some acceptance among Mac-ophiles in Hollywood. They are actually…
David, I have both programs. Electric image runs fast on simple images, as does 3D Studio. But when things get big and complicated with lots of reflections, shadows and lights and motion blur, then OOPS! every program slows down drastically. 3D Studio is a very fast renderer on a 100mhz…
Jack, Tape Disk… Thanks for the number. Ed Harvey has also mentioned his HP tape drive. I assume the tape disk program manufacturer has a list of compatible dat drives.
Ed, Jetstore….great! I have considered a number of alternatives to the very slow and cumbersome Colorado quic-80 tape backup. You waste a temendous amount of time trying to save and restore with it. I wanted to get my own Exabite, but the drive goes for over $2K plus the drivers.…
Ed, Thanks much. All my hard drives are loaded. I have no room for animations now. Time to buy more equipment! Sanford
Jack, Tape Disk….. Could you please let me know who handles this product and what the model name or number is so I can look into getting one. Your recommendation gives me insentive to find out if this is something I need. Thanks, Sanford
Chase, Perhaps we should all sue Microsoft considering that running 3DS on Windows NT effectively will cause us all to have to dig in our pockets for more money to buy ram. (not to mention deep pockets) Sanford
Jonas, Working on the Strat…. Sanford
Jonas, Sounds OK. I can do a very cool Strat, and you can use it for your animation. Of course, I will retain the rights to resell the mesh after Siggraph. I hope you like it. My Strat has a locking string nut and a pro dive bar tremolo.. It…
#167424-
Scripts/Particle flows
Message #167502
Ed, I have not yet purchased TSE. I am still studying and planning. I am working on a Desert scene where sand gets pushed around and flows, exploded and blows in the wind. I am doing morfs, and melt, along with IPAS particles. The idea of scripting this is a…
Jonas, I will do a test guitar for you to see if you can use it. If you want mesh frets and strings, it will take more faces. If you are going to animate fingers over the frets and strings, they should be part of the mesh, not a texture…
John, I think a Dusenberg would have lasted about a week in the desert. I have been going through books on Rommel in North Africa. Lots of dust storms, land mines, and other hazzards. Sanford
#Duesenburgs
Message #167264
Jonas, What kind of a guitar do you like? I might be able to get you a Stratocaster type…..How many faces can you handle? Got any 1941 British Churchill tanks or German Mercedes convertable command cars? Man, cars are a pain and I picked a doozie! I hope we both…
Dave, Back to C….. Well, I have a lot of scripting to do before I need to write C, so I will be satisfied to take a break during calculation for now. Thanks. ` Sanford
Jonas, The KUB men…..thanks for the list. Are you doing any more diving girls? Special scripts? Sanford
David, Boy, my shopping list is starting to bulge! Can the TSE scripts be reverse compiled back to C so they run fast? Someone mentioned that the more complicated scripts are sluggish and should have an option to convert to C code. Who is the main TSE contact man? Writer?…
Larry, I am about to try a script for my WWII battle scene. Placing and timeing explosions and disintegrating objects on a Vistapro generated landscape. I also want to do impact reaction with tank shells hitting vehicles. I found this great book on "famous battles of history." It goes back…
#Learning C
Message #166925
David, Yes, this "fun" is expensive…but not as costly as a Ferrari. I guess I'm incureable. I was hoping to avoid learning C for a while, but I guess I may as well take the plunge and get an IPAS development kit, the Gem books, etc. Sanford
Michael, Glad you liked Pro Cgi…the next issue will be stand alone, and if all goes as planned it will be placed in the envelope with 3D Artist magazine, along with subscription information. Don't look for it with issue #19, however. Most likely it will start for real around Siggraph…
Michael, I have spent the last month using my AT Vista with R4 and have not had your problem. The color is fine.. But, I did have that problem when I first used it with R2 and tried to capture pictures. When I captured from video, the red, blue, green…
Peter, I would be interested in price information on your NURBS modeler. Thanks, Sanford
Larry, I found the whole set of GEMs books today. $49 a pop. Lots of math. I assume it is all in C for the SGI. I just bought Lenix (Unix) for my 486, so I should be abe to run the examples. Looks like this is going to get…
Jonas, I will download the Gem file and look it over. Thanks. Sanford
Jonas, I havn't run through all the keyscript examples. Using AXP's in a script ….it opens up a number of possibilities. I am planning to re-enact a battle, but if I can write GOSUBS to unhide and explode objects at a particular coordinate position and time, I don't have to…
Larry, I ran the "pool" that comes with 3DS. All the colition reactions seem to lag quite far behind the impact events…I will run pool1 tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion of the books "Graphic Gems" but I confess I have not heard of them. Where are they available? Someplace I…
David, Vector mathematics. Well, that reminds me of my electrical engineering days. I will check out the books. I am waiding through the exercises in the 3DS book. I already know basic a little, so I can write scripts to move objects. But generating particles? I assume that one of…
Murph, Go for it. I have a ton of studyin' to do. Sanford
Larry, I already mutter incoherently at 3am, and I fear that scripting is going to add a new dimension to that dubious activity, but how else do you get from here to "there?" I would appreciate any help in understanding how to set up scripts for purposes not covered by…
James, Art? It seems neglected in today's pragmatic political climate. Oh, yes….I have a degree in Art, but never sold many paintings. (sigh) A dream put on hold until I discovered 3D Studio! Putting Beardsly in 3D would certainly challenge anyone. The fine line work and high contrast style are…
Martin, Thanks for the thoughtful answer. Yes, I am attempting to do my war scene all on the computer. I have already discovered how much time it takes to render a dense cloud of Vapor. Even tornados take a long time when you max out the particle count. My plan…
Jonas, I will look at the pool ball script. It would be a good place to start. Thanks. Sanford
John, Thanks for the idea. I am reading and downloading things this week to become more familiar with Ed's projects. Sanford
Martin, I will look into what has been previously discussed in this forum about Ed's particle system setup. I have only recently gotten into the scripting area. I'm trying to recreate naturalistic liquid and particle flows. Also sand…I'm working on a scene from my version of Rommel' North Aftica campaign…command…
#Aubrey Beardsley
Message #165314
James, Aubrey Beardsley? Yes, very elegant use of graphic elements on a very graphic theme. His drawing would be outrageous animated. Love to see something. Sanford
I don't have Metareys yet, but I have played with it at work. I have only seen the first version. I need to combine particles and metaballs. what would be really great is to have impact detection, which the Scripting language is supposed to be able to do…but I havn't…
Ed, I am interested in scripting particles to make some special shaped particle flows. I have tried the stock spurt, vapor, turbo, dust, etc. and they are all too chaotic to fit into a flowing shape. Can the KUB scripting extensions help create something like a laminar liquid flow of…
Mike, I will check out the Scripts section. Thanks for the lead on KUB. Sanford
Alan, Metaballs…..it might be good for spit. I havn't seen the new version. The one I tried at Metrolight ended up looking like plastic no matter what material you applied to it. Most of the particle systems will not conform to a shape, so you can't really make what you…
Alan, Did you see Danny Mercurio's Spline Modeling IPAS at the Digimation booth? He said it might be there. Also, do you know anyone who has mastered writing particle programs using the KUB script extensions? I want to do some naturalistic liquid sprays, sort of like a squirting blob that…
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