CompuServe Thread

#New IPAS Announced!

9 messages in this thread
#40828From: Apr 19, 1993 3:05 AM
III PPPPPPP A SSSSSS !! I P P A A S S !! I P P A A S !! I P P A A S !! I PPPPPPP AAAAAAAAA SSSSSS !! I P A A S !! I P A A S !! I P A A S S III P A A SSSSSS !! To all 3D Studio Users: The Pyros Partnership is proud to officially announce the immediate shipping of our "Action IPAS" extensions to 3D Studio 2.0 and later! These routines add tremendiously to the power and flexibility of 3D Studio. The packages add everything from a true Sun and planet locator and animator for shadow studies to four Libraries of five routines each for image processing effects such as painting, line drawings, surrealistic effects, and incredible transitions impossible to create before now within 3D Studio! Also uploaded at this time are six files into the forum files section. They are: IPAS.ZIP, a text file explaining all the routines in detail with ordering information. (7k) ACTION.ZIP, a 640×480 flic file showing all the dialogue boxes for every routine to show the flexibility and options available within each one. ACTION.ZIP also has screen captures of the Sun Location program and sample output. (170k) EFFECT.ZIP is a 320×240 flic showing sample output of the Effects Library, which consists of LIne Drawing, Brick, Crack, Drip, and Plaque. (349k) MEDIAS.ZIP is a 320×240 flic of the Medias Library, with programs such as Old Movie, Color Negative, Pixelation, BitMask, and Grays. (270k) PAINTS.ZIP is a 320×240 flic showing the Paints Library, which includes Oil Painting, Rough Brush, Smudge, Van Gogh, and Puntilinea, a pointilism painting technique. (363k) TRANS.ZIP shows the Transition Library as a 320×240 flic, featuring DVE (Digital Video Effects) routines like Page Flip, Rotate, Squash, Swirl, and Quatro. (263k) All the effects have animation capabilities, and utilize the Alpha Channel of 3D Studio for precise control of which areas to act upon. Download these files to see why every library is indispensable for your day-to-day 3D Studio work! Give your animations and stills that extra pizzazz that was only available in expensive post-production houses before! Greg Pyros (714) 833-0334
#40865From: Don LandisApr 19, 1993 3:50 PM
Great! I developed a page flip animation 3 months ago. Wish I had your IPAS then. Can you rotoscope to the pages? Need to develop a wire mesh to create a scroll effect. Like a roll of paper towels unrolling continuously from the top down and off the bottom of the screen. Got any IPAS to do this or you can add this to the wish list. Starting points for this idea have gone down dead end streets.
#40890From: Apr 19, 1993 9:18 PM
Don: Yes, you can rotoscope or use you own animations with any of our routines! Could you be a bit more explicit on your scroll? Maybe there is something we can do or at least fake it for you! <g> Greg Pyros
#40896From: Don LandisApr 19, 1993 11:29 PM
Greg: The scroll concept is to create a mesh that can be used for any of the following with appropriate texture maps: 1. Scrolling credits that look like a roll of paper towels unrolling. 2. A spool of film with frames one after the other that unrolls. 3. A roll of toilet paper. 4. Unrolling a carpet onto a floor I think you get the idea. This is for animation so faking it would be more difficult than with still which would be easy. I've been playing with paths, helix, height set to 0, etc. but everything I do is too time consuming to modify for different end results. Like a feed reel and take up reel on a movie projector became a nightmare to coordinate. If an IPAS could work like taking a very long, thin, narrow rectangle and roll it up. Then, be able to be unrolled by moving the end of the rectangle to a new key frame. Greg, this is a fundamental physical movement that has many applications and should be reduced to an IPAS routine.
#40904From: Apr 20, 1993 1:23 AM
Don: I hear you! Let me think about a way to do it and get back to you… How many people out there would be interested in such a routine? I actually had to create something like this myself – have you downloaded the file called "FLMROL.ZIP" that I uploaded to library 9? Greg Pyros
#40972From: Steven LeeApr 20, 1993 5:06 PM
Well, for one, I'd sure be interested in that sort of an IPAS routine! <g> Yeah, I'd think it could be used in a great variety of places. Thinking of how an architectural drawing paper could unroll into a flat piece of paper or something too and then have the building morph out of the paper..? The "unrolling" film or paper towels effect would be a nice plus as well! BTW, I'm not talking about a simple morph from a "bend" object to a flat object (like in the wrapper.3ds demo on the 3dsr2) but an actual _real_ unraveling of a paper. Well, I don't know if it's possible but it's a thought. (Great work btw Greg with the new IPAS routines!.. that SWIRL is fantastic!) — Steve
#40933From: David TaffetApr 20, 1993 10:18 AM
Don – Couldn't this be done with a couple of cylinders and/or disks and a long rectangle mapped with opacity and animated maps? I'm no 3DS expert, but I'm beginning to see how such things could be done. Are these the "too time consuming" methods you've used? David Taffet
#40950From: Don LandisApr 20, 1993 12:38 PM
No. I tried to use helix path then try to unroll it using many, many morph key frames. labor-labor. I gave up thinking there must be a better way. ie In the Lofter select path/helix and set for SD100,ED75,H0,Turns4. Remember, I want to create a basic mesh to adapt to many applications. I did a similar abreviated move representing a magazine cover being opened and folded back. Now that was easy.
#40975From: MARTIN G FOSTERApr 20, 1993 5:10 PM
Don, all that you described could be done with morphing but would be very tedious to do pure without a few tricks. I recently did a movie reel animation for MCA/Universal Studios where the film unrolls off the reel towards the camera and bends and flexes to fill up the screen. I used a combination of morphing and "faking-it" to achieve the effect. I actually hid the excess film that was going to come towards the camera by surrounding it with a matte object to make it invisible – what a cheat! <g> The bends and flexes I created by moving the vertices manually on the morph objects. I also needed to use a very long thin map with the film frames on it – the map size was 8000 x 162 and was basically the same image of a frame of film repeated many times (one on top of the next) in a long stream. Martin