This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (148 messages)
Tim, It sure beats $3000 for 3D Studio! Michael
Steve, That's kind of what I figured. As far as Warp, I can't really see the point of buying one OS to operate another. The only reason I would try NT would be because if I can get a job this year, I would look at buying a DEC Alpha.…
Richard, It depends on if you want 8 or 24 bit color. At this time, I don't know of any 2D animation software under $15,000 that does 24 bit color. Azeena Technologies Animation Paintbox does full screen at 256 colors, but if you don't have a ton of RAM, (like…
Russ, No Problem. Michael
#OS Upgrade
Message #4254
Steve, I just found out that there is no upgrade from Windows 3.11 to Windows NT; I have to cough up about $290 which I'm not sure I want to do. I would like to take advantage of a 32 bit OS, but I'm not so sure that Warp is…
Russ, I am sure that quite a few are. I can't remember if I referred you to the file RODLOW.ZIP in the Hash, Inc. Library. The description is "photorealistic head". This was done by a guy named Rod Havrick Altschul, it is a still from a lipsync anim he did…
Tim, The creases and folds can probably be removed by a dexterous use of Amplitude, Gamma, and Magnitude. With a little practice, you can start to get a pretty good feel for the types os settings to use. The drawback for me is that the click-on-the-radar-botton-drag-across-the-screen approach is not accurate…
Tim, I am an AM user and I do the type of modeling that you would normally expect to be done with polys; spacecraft, architecture, that sort of thing, and have found that modeling is still easier with splines than polys. At first, before I really decided that I was…
Michael, Unfortunately, AM has not caught on enough for companies to make models for it. You could try Viewpoint – I think I heard a rumor that they were making some models for AM, but I don't know for sure. Michael S. Flynn
Peter, I wrote you a reply to e-mail, but it disappeared from my HD when I saved it. This isn't the first time this has happened with CIS. I tried sending all mail anyway, and it looked like something was sent, but I don't know what it was. Let me…
Grady, Hash has a place on AOL that is what this area should be. Michael S. Flynn
Steve, I don't like using CIS. I think they are very inconsistant, and do not follow their own policies. If it weren't for the fact that almost everyone that uses Playmation or AM hangs out here, I wouldn't be here. AOL costs less, has higher speed access at no extra…
A:M Promotion for FREE!!
Message #3984
Andrew, I checked out prftab.jpg. That's a really nice piece of work. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that would like your settings for the glass; it's some of the best I've seen. Most of the stuff I do doesn't call for glass like that, so I haven't…
Manfred, There is an individual named Harmut Wagner who frequents this area. Look up his ID and he should be able to help you out. Michael S. Flynn
Michael, I almost decided to switch to Lightwave 3D when it was available for Windows because I wanted some effects that Animation: Master doesn't offer. I do mostly the type of stuff that you would see in Babylon 5 , Star Trek or Star Wars. However, since it is a…
Ewan, I'm not familiar with Visual Reality; I've never seen their product(s). For your landscaping needs, I would recommend Vistapro ($90-120) with the add-on modules Makepath Flight Director ($50), and Vistamorph ($50-70). You could create the changing seasons, but as for animating storms, you'd have to use a 2D animation…
Wayne, First of all, a good 90%+ of doing 3D modeling and animation is problem solving. The learning curve will be what almost anyone would consider high when it comes to doing 3D modeling and animation with any of the popular packages used by professionals. Good looking final renderings depend…
Andrew, I suppose you'd have to call it hobby since no one wants to actually pay me. Michael S. Flynn
Andrew, That's me again. It sure didn't take long – I uploaded it Thursday night. I have had a couple of conversations with Bruce about the copyright policy. From what I understand, each forum applies whatever rules they see fit. The folks who run the SF Fantasy Media Forum apply…
Andrew, A lens flare is an effect that you apply in an image editor like Photoshop. It simulates the glare and prismatic effects of taking a photo with the sun in front of the camera. The "satellite photography" fill in Corel just makes a graphic that looks like land masses…
Chuck, When I refer to units, I mean whatever the units are that are used in SCULPTURE and DIRECTION, whatever appears in the X, Y, Z translation windows. 1 grid unit = 1 measurement unit. So if you have Grid Spacing set to 35, there are 35 units in each…
#A-Wings
Message #3758
Andrew, Thanks for the compliment; those models were a lot of work, although much eaiser than the TIEs. I realize that I am overdoing the backgrounds, but I want to show others that there is more that can be done in a space background than some starfield, a planet or…
Chuck, It sounds as if you don't understand how to add points in the channel window. Skip this part if you do. There are three boxes that you can enter values in. One at the top above all the buttons, and two at the bottom below all the buttons. The…
#Cookie Cutting
Message #3721
Steve, I am using AM 2.08, and am having a cookiecut mapping problem. The percentage setting doesn't seem to have any effect on the rendered segment – it is cutting fine, but is rendering the segment color with the image map data. I am working on a way to use…
Chris, There is one 300k decal used in about 3-4 places, and 11 different 10-30k decals used in a number of places. So there are about 20-30 decals pasted on. I think it would be pointless to try and create an engine glow with AM; it would involve some creative…
Kemal, You're welcome! Michael S. Flynn
Chris, (ala Homer – DOH!) That should have been obvious. The A-Wings rendered in 2 hours 43 min. That may seem excessive, but they are so detailed that 16meg RAM wasn't enough to render two of them in one scene, so I had to use 36000 in the Prefs memory.…
Lee, That must help out in picking up the women who tell you they've heard you make movies for HBO. Michael S. Flynn
Adam, Hopefully you guys can work something out. A Playmation/Imagine collaboration should be interesting. I've never heard of Norwescon, where and when is it held? Michael S. Flynn
Lee, First, click on the light that you want to channel, then chose "Light" from the "Channel" menu. The box above the 9 letter selections is used to display a default number for the function of each of the nine keys, ands displays this number as soon as you select…
Lee, I was an accomplished artist before I started on the computer 4 years ago. I've got tons of scrap paper all over the place of sketches and scribbled down ideas. Sometimes I go through it to see how far I've come, sometimes just for a good laugh, and sometimes…
Adam, I do original stuff too. The reason I'm doing a lot of Star Wars right now is for Star Fighter Command Magazine. It seems like one of the first things people do with a 3D app is to create a TIE fighter, and most of the examples I saw…
Lee, There is an icon in the menu bar of a bulb with 2 lines angling upward. Click on that and then the light cones should appear on screen. Michael S. Flynn
Adam, I know you weren't serious. Michael S. Flynn
Adam, I would never consider trying to make money off of someone else's hard work. But it pains me to see some of the stuff people try to pass off as "detailed Star Wars" models. It's either laziness and/or lack of skill. Lack of skill is something we all have…
#A-Wings
Message #3480
If anyone is interested, I've uploaded an image of my new A-Wing model in the SF Fantasy Forum. I still don't understand the copyright deal about not letting me post the image here – Bruce had told me a month or more ago that the copyright holders of Star Trek…
Kemal, There are about a dozen or that you could get or order at a local video store. The best of the Genre are the 3 Mind's Eye videos: The Mind's Eye, Beyond the Mind's Eye, and The Gate to the Mind's Eye. All of these have professional recording artists…
Kevin, The only description for Mirror appears on page 226 and it's in the ACTION module. When I see "Flip" and "Mirror" they mean two different things. "Flip" to me always meant the same as a 180 degree rotation around the selected axis. Now I feel kinda stupid; I knew…
#More Features
Message #3309
Steve, Here are some things that I have found that would help me with certain projects: JPEG file format for mapping and backgrounds. SCULPTURE Translating or rotating a group of selected points by any single control point in the selected group. For example, if I wanted to move a cube…
Lee, I don't have a problem with the way it looks except for the fact that it is lacking in any real detail, but that is true of almost all of the shows. The stupidly pointless scene transitions show that the story sucks so bad that they have to take…
Richard, I don't know how polygon-to-spline conversion works, but it appears that a point-to-point basis is used. I wonder if it would be practicle instead to do an Object A-to-Object B conversion of the surface that is represented by the points in a polygon model to the minimum number of…
#Splines vs. Polys
Message #2909
Grady, I plan on uploading my objects into the Hash library, unless Steve wants set up an area just for objects and motions. I wouldn't worry too much about the skill level used for creating stuff. It's sort of like playing Gin Rummy. You can toss out a card, but…
Robb, Thanks for the obvious answer. I knew I had to be missing something too easy to see. Michael S. Flynn
Jim, Yes, that's what I'm looking for. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I knew I was missing something simple. Michael S. Flynn
#Splines vs. Polys
Message #2787
Richard, I used to think the same thing until I tried to work on some Viewpoint models. If you want anything with a lot of detail or realism, trying to work on a polygon model that has been converted to splines in AM is pointless. (I should say "pointed", considering…
#Sequential Actions
Message #2748
I'm having a problem with some actions in DIRECTION. As an example, let's say I have two figures, both of the same class so they can share actions. The action is 30 frames long, and I want one figure to perform the action, then the other figure perform the same…
Skeletal Movment
Message #2677
Steve, I figured out a way to get acceptable movement, but I did come across something that was a little weird. I went back and re-created the separate cube figures by using a ghost as the parent for each one. So in the figure substitution used in creating the Big…
Danny, There are three packages that I know off the top of my head that fit your price range: TrueSpace – Calagari Imagine – Impulse Animation: Master – Hash, Inc. There is also supposed to be a Windows version of Lightwave 3D available in a couple of months, the price…
Jim, Transformers is shown on one of the local Portalnd area networks. For your area, I would check whatever channel shows stuff like Exo Squad, Conan, and the Disney afternoon shows. Yes, I've seen Reboot a couple of times now. For what they are doing, its pretty well done although…
#Action
Message #2660
Steve, I'm having a small problem with ACTION. Did you ever see a car advertisement a year or so ago that showed a giant Rubic's-type cube with a video playing on all sides, where each side had nine different pieces of scrambled video, and then the cube unscrambled itself and…
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