#Wow….Metaballs
22 messages in this thread
WOW!!!
I' really looking forward to seeing the future of these metaballs!
Give me a call and let me know how the deal(s) turned out.
-R
Thanks,
I'll give you a call once things get straightened out.
Talk to you later,
Danny…
Nice metaball flic, Danny! Very blobby. <g>
– G
PS: I noticed that each frame of the flic has a unique palette. How did that
happen? (it plays havoc with 3DS's internal flic playback code, but I did a
One Palette on it in AAP and all's fine now)
Thanks Gary,
> I noticed that each frame of the flic has a unique palette. How did that
happen?
I don't have the keyframer version of the code working yet so I had to
use the PXP version.
I set up the standin objects in the editor and ran the metaball
generator for 17 frames, rendering each frame as a tga still. I then
brought all the stills into anipro, added a reversed copy to the tail
end (to get the ping-pong effect), joined and saved.
I completely forgot to do a One Palette! <grin>
TTYL,
Danny…
Ahhh… the pxp version.
Regardless, that flic is darn "attractive"… <g>
I want my blob TV!
– G
Thanks Gary.
Not only can I make it "attractive", I can also make it really "repulsive"! <g>
Danny…
Have to concur w/previous posters; looks like it'll be a great new
toy! Just wondering, could you drop a teaser or two on some of the
features of it? (if it'll take too much time away from getting it
finished, don't worry I can wait till till it's done and ready 🙂 )
Features. Hmmm…..
Well, basically it will allow the user to create "biological" and
"liquid" looking objects that interact with one another as well as
making character modeling and animation a good deal easier.
I don't want to go into too many details right now since I'm constantly adding
to the feature set.
TTYL,
Danny…
Hokay…:^) Good luck!
John Stetzer
JWS
Danny,
So, you hide out over here, too, huh? I finally got a company CIS
account, so feel freer to wander from GRAPHDEV. Saw a file
description for a Blob IPAS routine… that's your? Have you seen
Alphonso's Blob Sculptor yet? Besides writing POV-Ray, Polyray,
Rayshade, & RAW output, it also has DXF, so can be used with 3DS.
Alf's got blobby cylinders, cones, discs, & ellipsoids in the works,
too!
(I won't be checking in here very often, email might be best if you
chose to reply)
I noticed you were on the forum this afternoon and tryed to get your
attention through WinCim's Talk feature. I guess you were browsing
on automatic since I didn't get a reply. <g>
How are you? I haven't been around Graphdev much lately. I've been
too busy with a number of IPAS projects to do much more than check
into Asoft once a day or so.
I've got a copy of Blob Sculptor v1.0. I haven't had a chance to see
if there's been an update to it. It's a great program!
Steve Anger anfd I have been bouncing metaball code back and forth for
months now, trying to come up with the most efficient algorithms.
> Alf's got blobby cylinders, cones, discs, & ellipsoids in the works,
too!
Is that in an upcoming version of Blob Scluptor? I
think I'll have to give him
or Steve a call and ask them where they're getting the reference materials for
blobby primitives other than spheres.
Anyhow, glad you're hanging out here too now. I'm going to have to start
spending a bit more time over in Graphdev again. I get the feeling that I've
been missing A LOT!
How's POV? Any new releases/features lately?
TTYL,
Danny…
>>>Is that in an upcoming version of Blob Scluptor?
Seem to recall seeing a message that those would be included in the next
release…
John Stetzer
JWS
I don't use a mailer that lets me chat. Wouldn't want to chat online
anyway.
Alf does have a small update to Blob Sculptor, but the cylinders,
etc. aren't in there yet. He did add DXF output directly to the
program. Truman got ahold of the source from him and bulletproofed
the interface, too. Last word from Alf was that he had fixed a bug
with the smoothing normals. Really is a slick little utility.
POV-Ray 3.0 (or whatever) has been started, but progress is slow
right now. Chris Young is tearing out a few walls to make room for
all the new furniture that we've got waiting on the front porch, so
to speak. We have got MANY exciting new features waiting. If we
even get half of them into the next version, we'll have one heck of a
ray tracer. Proposed (that's like the "alleged" that you see in the
newspapers) new stuff includes a couple of speedups, a bunch of new
textures, Truetype fonts, focal blur, and a couple of really unique
"secret weapons". It'll probably be a year or so before we can get
it all done and tested, though.
As I mentioned before, don't count on me checking in here very often.
Just wanted to see what sort of neat stuff was going on over here.
Oh, BTW: If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest that you check
into the status of the word "Metaball". I believe it's a trademark.
(My suggestion for naming Blob Sculptor was "Meatball" <g>)
Hi Danny,
Please put my CIS address in your book and E-Mail me as soon as you have any of
your IPAS routines availble.
Bill
MEDIA MAGIC
Will do.
Regards,
Danny…
Hi Danny!
Most times I don`t download anything from the libarys (CIS it`s very expensive
in Germany…) but I can`t wait to see your metaballs.
I downloaded the flic and it`s really great!!!! I believe I`ll do a lot of
animations with waterblobs and any other liquid look-like objects asap.
Waterblobs will look great rendered with our RayMan.
Morphing is out, blobing is in…
Michael
> I downloaded the flic and it`s really great!!!!
Thanks! <g>
> Morphing is out, blobing is in…
Hmmm… Maybe a new Michael Jackson video gimick? <GRIN>
Danny…
I also downloaded your blob flic but I am having a problem. I am using PLAY
and it displays both .FLI and .FLC files just fine. It also displays your .FLC
but it bombs my computer every time. Since no one else has said that, it must
be on my end, right?
Aside from the problem, the flic looks very nice.
Hi Albert,
I forgot to post process the flic so that it used a single palette. If you
have Animator Pro, you can do this yourself using the "One Palette" function.
This may clear up your problem.
If that doesn't work, I don't know what the problem could be.
Regards,
Danny…
>> I forgot to post process the flic…
After a while, I decided to play it from within 3DS and it plays just fine
that way, even if some of the texturing is rather "colorful" <g>. I don't have
animator in any form.
I look forward to your end product.
Add me to your mailing list, too! I missed the first messages in
your thread. Can you tell me more about his and where the demo is?
I'm currently developing an IPAS Metaball Generator for 3DS. It will
allow animators to create models with a "biological" or "liquid" look
as well as making character modelling much easier.
There's a small demo metaball animation of two drops of mercury that
"interact" with one another in What's New (Lib 9) called BLOB.ZIP.
Stay tuned for more info and/or demos in the near future.