#Pruned Forest
15 messages in this thread
Gary,
Which file should I be looking for to send you? If this thing's abnormal, is
there some way to get a replacement?
On another note, I caught Babylon 5 on a rebroadcast here tonight. Caught
myself saying to my wife, I can do that, more than once. I know a couple of
guys with Amigas who don't have some of those special effects. Are those guys
getting special software or something?
I also got my February ITVA Video Systems magazine. 3DStudio was mentioned in
a sidebar article on computer graphics for having stereoscopic capabilities.
Where do I find that one? Also, later in that article, in their listing of
software packages there was this quote:
"3D Studio ($2,995) is the undisputed market-share leader in 3-D animation. Its
feature set is robust, and the links to CAD are impressive. However, the
quality of video output is weak. Users report some problems with artifacts and
aliasing."
I don't recall ever having any problems with artifacts. I do wish my edges
were a little sharper, but going to a Sony LVR3000N Video LaserDisk recorder
should help that, shouldn't it?
Roger D.
Send me a .3DS file with the camera view clearly showing a couple of the 2D
trees with the missing faces.
Regading the ITVA note that "some users report some problems with artifacts and
aliasing"… there are probably two reasons for this: 1) The 3DSr1 renderer
wasn't very advanced, and didn't include any texture filtering; 2) In order to
use the 3DSr2 renderer to get OPTIMAL antialiasing with video, you've GOT to
render on fields. (as you know) Many people who aren't used to doing this are
getting caught with less-than-optimal results when they render to frames
instead of fields. (Note that we're going to eliminate this requirement for r3
so you can get just as good antialiasing on frames as you can on fields.)
– G
Gary,
I zipped up a representative small grouping of trees and emailed it to you. Let
me know what you find out. Thanks.
Roger D.
Got it. I'm going to send it up to Rolf and have him take a look at it.
– G
Roger:
PMJI, but I have heard that Newtek/Hastings _have_ written custom shaders for
the effects in B5. Decent production values but the plot was even more
contrived than Star Trek<g>!
-Alan
Yes, but all the custom programming that was done for B5 will be included in an
upcoming release of Lightwave 3D. So, for $2000, you get a Toaster and a pretty
fair 3D renderer. 3DS costs $3000, and you still have to spring for hardware.
Since I have both PCs and Amigas, I'm still not sure which way to
go……Comparing B5 to Space Rangers (which is done with 3DS), B5 blows SR
away……
Paul,
First, I in no way meant to detract from Lightwave, Hastings, Newtek, or the
Amiga community in general by mentioning that the developers were supporting
Ron Thorton & company's efforts to bring low-cost animation to the forefront in
prime-time network TV. In fact, on reviewing the message, I clearly stated that
I thought the production values to be very good.
Second, I am in no position to compare LightWave/Amiga/Toaster with the PC/3DS
platform as I haven't had any hands-on experience with the Amiga-based setup,
and probably won't in the near future. If you decide to go with the Amiga,
please let us know how it compares, as I'm sure many of us here on the forum
would be interested.
Third, according to a recent article (CGW January, 1993) the ILM animators used
"Swivel 3-D, Electric Image and Adobe PhotoShop software running on
Macintoshes" to develop the effects for SR. That being as it may, the stills
look very good to me and I will wait until I see an actual broadcast before
comparing the quality of animation between B5 and SR and if one really "blows
away" the other.
Finally, as a free-lance 3D animator, the advent of personal computer-based 3D
graphics and animation becoming accepted by the television industry can only
make me feel great about the future of our business — no matter which platform
breaks the ice.
Regards,
Alan Iglesias
You can count the good points of B5 on one hand. The bad points just go on and
on and on and…. (How about those Alien Living Quarters that look more like a
zoo, since everyone's apartment has a giant picture window — how come the
Commander's apt didn't have one?)
To say that it was better than S.R. isn't saying much — I couldn't make it
through 15 min of S.R.
The graphics — well, some scenes were good, others blatantly computer-ish, and
others mis-conceived — I lost count of the number of shots using a lens flare
— they're awfully proud of that effect.
Dave
David,
I'm seriously bummed that they're wearing out the lens flare effect. Last week
I wowed a client with that IPAS routine. They thought it was great. It's
really important not to overuse those shiny little tricks.
Roger D.
Yeah, it's important to be subtle, I think. It's better to have a client like
(or be wowed) by an image and not be able to put their finger on exactly what
it is that excites them, rather than to have them saying, "okay, this next part
comming up here, where that light thing happens — that's neat." After all,
often it's the overall content they're supposed to be looking at, not all the
little elements that make it up. That's _our_ job <g>.
Dave
Paul,
As it usually always seems to be with these format wars kind of issues, here
again it's impossible to compare oranges with oranges. I believe that
everything I saw as far as rendered animation in B5 can be accomplished in
3DStudio. I've seen it done, and done some myself. So what we're really
comparing is Amiga vaporware/betaware to a production product. Now let's also
take a look at how much other equipment has to be purchased to bring a Toaster
up to the kind of specs required. Someone once told me the Toaster as a frame
buffer wasn't even equal to a Targa, much less Vista. I don't know, and I
guess I really don't want to argue that particular point. One thing I can tell
you, if you're going to try to model what you render, you want to do it in a
competent modeler with a high res noninterlaced display, not what I saw some of
my friends using with their Toasters. I wouldn't be able to stand 15 minutes
in front of the display they were working with. Maybe there are better main
displays available. I don't know. Yeah, I've got a lot more than $3000
invested in my setup, probably 10 times that now, and I'm about to spend
$14,000 on a laser disk recorder, but what I can tell you is that I've been
able to model, render, and otherwise produce a product that somebody's willing
to pay for with 3DS. I don't feel as confident that I would have been able to
do the same things with an Amiga/Toaster.
Roger D.
i would agree with you with most of your points, i too also use 3ds for mosr
most) of my work. i also use topas, digital arts (a dying dragon finally) and
an amiga. i use the amiga for the digital effects it offers over 3ds. i do not
use it for rendering at all. but then again the music awards were done with it
, but i don't know what software they were using. but i do know they went to d1
or 2 directly from the amiga( might have something to do with the quality) the
post group is some where around here and i think i'm quoting from what they
said if not i am soory. i find though that a mix of software is sometimes a
good thing for most animations because if you can't get it with one you can get
the effect eith another package. anyway its late and i'm babbing and miss
spelling …..
sherwood
Hey, Sherwood… you're always talking about buying CPUs and equipment to the
tune of many, many $K. How do you afford all that stuff?
David (nosy and too far away to punch in the nose) Taffet
work, work and more work…. the more computers i have the more work i can do
and the more money i can make <g> i'm up to my ears in work right now and a
dual processing machine work speed things up a great deal.
Tres cool! More power to ya!
D {no blood on nose} T