CompuServe Messages

Jim, I'm a fine artist and got the program to do stills as mock-ups for large paintings, ie architectural details that I need to make up and cast specific types of light on. It saves a lot of time. But I've become disastrously interested in making animations – disastrous because I am neglecting my painting and have tons of backed-up work. Right now I'm making a little joke film of an alien tourist throwing a can, and thus littering, onto another world from his dinky spaceship. He is pursued and destroyed by the local police. This little project has taken a fair ammount of time because the alien sheriff and the hand that comes from the ship are both done using the inverse kinematics – very lifelike and convinceing, but time consuming to assemble. The landscape was fun to build and I got a great distant water effect by just leaving holes in the landscape (where the water is) and letting the background color come through. I was interested in your question about water however, because I was just wondering about it myself the other day, and thinking the thing – making convincing water effects – would be fun in itself to create. I don't know about you but the only computer generated water effects I've seen have been pretty lousy. I'd love to have a library of different types of water: ocean, lake, windy day, etc. Also a good effects of boats cutting through water would be very useful. Thanks for writing back and do let me know if you get close. What do you use the program for? Douglas