This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (585 messages)
#visual file manager
Message #185916
Hi, I have uploaded a program to COMANIM Forum called MOM.ZIP. It's a visual file manager for some 3D objects including 3ds format. Commands like Copy, Rename, Erase… are available. It's really great to get all your objects in order. It's shareware so you can check it out before you…
Anne, no problem. So far the response hasn't been that much, tho. -David
animation programs
Message #173511
Hi all animators, Every day there are at least three people asking for advice on what PC based animation program to buy. I have used quite a few and always try to help, but my knowledge is of course limited. Thats why I'm now trying to compile a text file…
>> Yeek ! What type of scenes was he rendering ? What type of thing do >> you model ? He is running an SGI Onyx and Alias. He has uploaded some images in Graphdev and some anims in Comanim Forum. >> Perhaps you could rent a PowerMac, Yes there…
>> 1 – big screen, ie 20/21". I have a good 17" that works on a Mac, too, so I could use it. >> 3 – RAM. Loads of RAM. Obscenely H U G E amounts of RAM in fact I know a guy who has 1gb of RAM and…
Hi David, thanks very much for your detailed reply! A company offered me some modelling jobs. They would give me Sketch, but I would need to buy a Mac since I only have a PC. Would Sketch make sense on a 80 or even 66 mHz PPC? -David
>> I believe that's one of the new features in that other program psst! we are in the Imagine GU here -David
>> With all the discussion I'm really curious as what this thing looks >> like! pretty boring! 🙂 It's a small screw that goes into the spinal column. I spent three full days modelling it and the result will be a very profane looking animation (for a medical film). That's…
Took me several tries, but finally understood what you mean Yes this would create several edges for the rounded edge. In the beginning I also thought about first creating only all edges (maby even as paths) that have to be rounded and extrude a small rounded shape (edge) along all…
Imagine is defiantely very "fussy" about memory. With the Windows version this will be completely different, … I hope! 🙂 -David
Hi David, just saw that you use Alias Sketch. Can you tell me something about it? How good is it for modelling? I've heard it does NURBS, but no trimmed surfaces. I'm mostly interested in the modelling tools. -David
>> Sorry if I misunderstood what you needed, David. I'll send you an object anyway. Just want to see what this IPAS does. What I *real* would like to have it something I saw in Alias: filets. Just click on the edge and make it rounded 🙂 -David
Sam, I had many many crashed lately, too. I didn't bother since I had not much work to do, but now I got a job and I needed a running system. Since Imagine crashed every 10 minutes I knew I had to find a solution. I tried different configs, different…
Greg, thanks! duplicating the edge is exactly what I'm doing right now. I thought there is an easy, automatic way… Right now I'm doing at lot by hand, and it works ok (even tho it could look better). I wish I had Alias. Just click on the edge and enter…
Oh, you have a smooth IPAS. Just out of couriosity I'd like to send you an object and see what it does and how good it works. Basiacally what I need is: take a sphere, and slice it with a plane. The edges are now sharp. What I want is…
#avoid slice errors
Message #12206
Hi everyone, the slice feature is a very powerful tool for modelling, but sometimes it can be one of the most frustrating things in Imagine. Especially when trying to slice one object many times: "error splitting faces". Sometimes it helps to move one the the objects just a little, but…
#rounded edges
Message #12205
Hi, I have to model and animate a screw. Sounds simple, but you haven't seen the screw's head. It's a sphere cout in many different way, two wholes with threads inside, complex fluting, … All this is not impossible to do. I used slice a lot and it worked, but…
Hi Tim, I haven't been gone really, just doing something else than computers. 🙂 First time I had this trouble was when I boned a dino. I made some mistakes and thought that they caused the trouble. So I started from scratch again avaoiding all the mistakes, but exactly the…
Escom bought Commodore
Message #11990
Hi, just read that the german company Escom has bought everything that's left from Commodore. Escom is a large computer distributer with houndreds of shops in Germany and in the UK. They said they want to built Amigas and use some of the patents to develop their own (PC) hardware…
>> Do you consider Wavefront and Softimage to be low/mid end? Yes absolutely low end! 🙂 Seriously, trianlges have their advantages in some cases and sometimes it's important to have control over them. In realtime games the number of trinalges must be optimized. -David
#11423-
3D Exchange Standard
Message #11505
As far as I know Autodesk is trying to make .3ds format the standard exchange file format for 3d programs. I'm not an Autodesk fan and I don't know what information can be stored in 3ds format, but from my point of view it's a better solution than extending DXF,…
Heidi, good idea to use the offset filter in Photoshop this way. Didn't think of it, but now that you said it, it's so obvious! -David 🙂
>> I think John might be focusing a little too much on the current >> difficulties in translations, many of which could be addressed in a >> good standard. Well what is this new standard for if not for data exchange which means converting. Since all the available 3D programs…
I think the interest if definately there as you say and it's more than just a feature that sounds cool without real use. I think collision detection for primitives like spheres wouldn't be as hard as for "real" polygon objects. -David
#11047-
#gumballs
Message #11210
This would be very esay with collision detection. Just drop the spheres into the container and that's it 🙂 Collision detection is not only for animation! Of course this is not available in Imagine (yet), but if many users suggest it Impulse might consider it. (I'm sure they already consider…
>> Oh no! Did you get it cleared up? Last time I got both PC *and* the Amiga version and I told Mike about it. Maybe he got it wrong and put me on the Amiga list. Sent a fax right away. I hope I'll get it soon. -David
Hi Gary, thanks for the detailed help. I will have to try a lot the next days. 🙂 -David …later just tried it, WOW this works better than I expected! It looks great, exactly what I wanted. thanks again! The only problem is that it takes very long to render,…
Hi Greg, thanks for the help. I'll try it. -David
>> In the current version of imagine there is a bug with one of the shift >> keys, so I'd suggest trying the other shift key. fortunately there are two shift key on each keyboard! 🙂
Never tried it with Alchemy. I usually make my textures in Windows anyway and I use GWS to convert them to "Imagine-friendly". -David
>> Have you ever thought about moving to the U.S.? Because of Imagine??? That's really a very strong reason Usually it doesn't take that long to ship. When I sent leters to the US they usually take a week (air mail), but I guess Impulse is using a bulk rate…
#spiral nebula?
Message #9390
Hi, I need some advice or suggestions in general. I have to do a logo animation where the letters come out of a "nebula" (the Andromeda) and a starfield background. The nebula doesn't have to look real, but cool 🙂 Actally it should just be a spiral nebula. Since I'm…
#GUITAR.JPG
Message #9315
>> Metaballs are what they used in the Dino's in Jurrasic Park. As far as I know they scanned real models and did additional modeling in Alias. But the example in ASOFT is almost as good as Jurassic Park. -David
#Imagine conversions.
Message #9313
Gary, Alchemy is a great program. The current version is 1.8 (I think). -David
#GUITAR.JPG
Message #9312
>> Is 3.3 going to be on time? I don't even have my copy of 3.2 yet and you are talking about 3.3? -David
Just found out that Imagine accepted the FLC when made with VFD, but not the one from DTA. -David
Damn :-\ Who's is the other account? -David
#unfinished FLC
Message #4110
What does it mean if I get the error message "unfinished FLC" when using a flc as map? It plays find with all players I have. -David
Mike, Oberland is not in Munich, they are in Kronberg. I wish they were in Munich (were I am) 🙂 -David
Mike, did you get "my" order for my friend? I sent it to the Impulse ID not yours. Is the other one still valid? -David
Tim, I'm wondering about the same thing, but I haven't tried it yet. As I already said to Greg, there are just too many things you could check out. You can spend a year only checking out things But I think the DOF feature might work quite good for reflection…
#Radiosity
Message #3496
Tim, just looked through some images I have here on my HD. Maybe, I really don't know, but maybe it would work for the reflection blur if the same method was used that the depth of field is using. Mike, would this work? -David
Tim, A friend wrote/writes it's own anim program with tracer and renderer. He managed to combine both ways. Don't know if that would be easy or hard to do in Imagine. -David
Sam, I had exactly the same problem and came up with the same idea. Maike said he will consider it in the furute (what ever this means ). -David
I agree, the raytrace way would definately be the better one for this problem. I think with the faster CPUs today raytracing will become more and more acceptable and will be more used in general.
Tim, no doubt, shadow mapping is not the only and best solution, and you can do alot to make them look wrong or ruine the effect. But this can easyly be done with anything in 3D animation, just place one triangle wrong and the object will look bad. What I…
You mean shadow mapping or raytraced soft shadows? While raytraced soft shadows look cool (no doubt) they take very long. I vote for shadow mapping in scanline. This is really missing. -David
From that point of view scanline renderers have an advantage. They can just blur the reflection map that they create to fake relfections. Shadow mapping is one of the things I'm really missing in Imagine. Shadows give a scene a much better 3D effect, but at the moment I have…
Lee, I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you are saying. What kind of spots? Spot lights with different colors? Please explain. -David
Tim, I know the difference between relection and reflectivity. I will try your method. So far I just blured the global map in a paint program before using it. Sure it only blurs the reflection from the global map, not the real reflection from tracing. Do you know any renderer/tracer…
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