PC Imagine?
John,
Jonathan sums it up pretty clearly, Journeyman is a spline-based
package as compared to polygon based modelers we're more familar with.
High end programs that run on Silicon Graphics machines generaly are sline
based. The advantage is that objects are built around "control splines"
that allow objects to be squashed, streatched, or deformed and still keep
the basic integraty of the form intact. A practical example would be the
flapping of a birds wing, which would be able to flex and bend in a more
natural way than with polygon based modelers and be easier to generate.
The downside is that spline modelers are computationaly intensive, and even
a 68030 bogs down on the rendering. You'd need at least an '040, and I'm
not even sure that would produce acceptable rendering times. One of the
reasons that I hear Martin Hash developed the 486 version was to offload
the computation and use the 486 a straight rendering engine. The other
drawback, as Johnathan mentioned, is that compared to the image quality of
Lightwave or Imagine, Journeyman's looked weak. I had heard that the new
release would have a substantialy improved rendering, which I'm glad to
hear from Jonathan appears to be true. Martin's produced a phenominal
program in Journyman, it deserves a serious look. Unfortunetly it's not
that easy to come by, you have to order it direct from Hash Enterprises,
which I don't have an address for. Anyone? That's the nickel tour of
Journeyman, (in am Impulse forum yet- sorry guys), I'm sure it doesn't do
the program justice, if you can find someone with a copy check it out.
Dave