#PC Mag article
23 messages in this thread
Just read an article in PC Magazine Apr 25 titled Animation's Next Frontier by
Carol Levin. The three key players are listed as Alias, Wavefront, and
Softimage, no mention of 3DS at all. Go figure!
-Ted Boardman
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>> Just read an article in PC Magazine Apr 25 titled Animation's Next Frontier
by Carol Levin. The three key players are listed as Alias, Wavefront, and
Softimage, no mention of 3DS at all. Go figure! <<
but Ted, it's PC Magazine. these are the same people who issue a "Best Choice"
award one month and then neglect the same product as a viable contender the
next. <g> -dave
Dave
Are you saying that PC Mag will print anything<BG>? I'm just a little
surprised an author can be so narrow minded.
Later
TedB
-Ted Boardman
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>> Are you saying that PC Mag will print anything<BG>? <<
opposite <ducking>
>> I'm just a little surprised an author can be so narrow minded. <<
aw come on Ted. <g> you get to act crazy, opinionated, short-sighted and
narrow-minded once a year. how come i don't? <gg> -dave
Dave, Dave
I was refering to Carol Levin as being narrow-minded, but you may be if you
like.<g>
TedB
-Ted Boardman
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Who cares about what a piece of trash like PC Magazine could say about 3D? I am
wondering who won the Editor's choice… wait, I remember now that Softimage
was purchased by Microsoft! hmmm, I see <bg>
ana /krazy images
Ana
Who cares indeed! However, plenty of people read it as gospel in the windows
world. Strange.
TedB
-Ted Boardman
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>> Who cares indeed! However, plenty of people read it as gospel in the windows
world. Strange. <<
a reading from the book of Armaments, chapter one. "and St. Attila raised the
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch upon high, and said…"
🙂 -dave
Ted,
It doesn't make sense for PCMag to publish an analysis of 3D software on the
SGI. It only will make sense if they include a one page box about MS plans for
3D or about how cool is the beta of Softimage on NT 🙂 Anyway, PC Magazine is a
business mag for business people using business machines so, as you say, who
cares?
ana /krazy images
Ana,
PMJI. Someone in the past week or so seems to have injected the notion into
various threads that there is something to look at regarding Microsoft's
announced intention to port Softimage to Windows-NT. I was told at NAB last
week that there is currently no Beta of Win-NT/Softimage. In fact, there will
at best only be a prototype on display at SIGGRAPH in August. I figure 12-18
months from now for a shipping product.
Bruce N. Goren
I really don't care about SI on NT. I was just trying to guess what
are the reasons for PC mag to publish a review on three SGI 3D
programs as the "future of animation". I don't know the content of
the article, but knowing past PCMag relations with MS and Intel, the
MS version of SI is the only reason I can find to the article. Sort
of "Hey people, we have everything! And now a 3D program! Aren't we
great?" approach from Microsoft PR department. BTW, I just saw a
double page ad about Microsoft Softimage 3.0 on Next Generation (a
game magazine).
Microsoft is running a huge campaign of double page ads in every
relevant magazine in the biz. The acquisition hobbled developement
for quite a few months, they've got some catching up to do . . .
hence the big price cut. Currently, Microsoft Softimage 3.0 runs
only on SGI. Like you said though, alot of this is for image
enhancement, gee-whiz , isn't Microsoft cool, they own Softimage
which is used by R Greenberg !
As for why PC magazine is talking about SGI, I think it's obvious. The
feature sets of yesterdays workstation graphics programs are now
running on your PC thanks to Gary's gang of mutants. What runs only
on todays SGIs is a glimpse into next years feature set of PC based
software. Besides, workstation hardware and software prices are
plummeting. We are not there yet, but buying an SGI MIPS will
eventually be just like buying any other high powered desktop
machine, be it Power PC, Alpha, or Pentium. Software availability and
price/performance should drive the hardware purchase decision, not
techno-lust (or hate/paranoia).
For now, 3DS plus a souped-up Pentium is still my "Editors Choice",
but there is plenty of room in the market for healthy competition to
keep everyone on thier toes. That's what I meant when I wrote that
Lightwave for Windows will give 3DSr4 a run for it's money. 3DS is
clearly better, but Lightwave has a strong following and good tools.
You may recall that up until 3 years ago or so, I felt Topas was
best. At the workstation price point, today I'd choose the full suite
of Wavefront products running on an Onyx. You may recall that 18
months ago I thought Softimage was on top, things change, my mind is
open.
Bruce, Romans, my friends,
I finally got a chance to read the article on page 29 of PC Mag. At
the top, a photo with a caption talking about MS bringing the
[supercool, exclusive, your best adjective here] professional 3D
tools that only exist on the [neat, one and only, you name it]
professional 3D platform, aka SGI, to the PC arena. How good is Billy
the Kid that will bring us his new 3D toy soon, so the mortals that
are playing with stupid games that doesn't deserve the nomination of
"key player" on the 3D arena, like 3D Studio, could get a peak of
what is the future of 3D animation and what the pros use. It is not
that 3DS is the top tool of choice by game developers accross the
world, has the biggest user base in the industry and the biggest
support from third parties ever, while having a cheap price tag at
the same time. It is not that they have the greatest technical
support on earth. And neither is that 3DS don't have one of the most
enthusiastic user base in the whole damn industry (not talking about
mac users, of course <g>). But hey, at last, we will be able to get
the chance to know what 3D animation is, coming from The King of
Multimedia and Operating Systems (obviously, not Howard Stern)
himself. Thank you. Thank you. Thaaaank you, Mr. Gates. And thank
you PC magazine editor, whoever you are, for such an accurate
representation of the 3D panorama. Let's get all our virtual Dom
Perignon bottles and celebrate this magnificient event with a toast.
The only thing interesting that I didn't know about (other than the
above <g>) is that Steve Jobs purchased Pixar some time ago (?)
As I remember, Steve Jobs unloaded alot of cash (and tax
responsibility) buying heavily into Pixar shortly after he left
Apple. As someone recently mentioned here, Rman was *supposed* to be
the "PostScript" of rendering engines (remember the light bulb
image?).
Then he promptly went to work convincing _other_ people to finance his
NEXT projects…
-Alan (Let's ALL vote for Mr. Perot!<g> At least he owns part of a
nice-looking OS!)
I haven't been around much latley, (freelance job eating ALL my time,
including my planned trip to NAB….) antway, thought I would drop
you a line to say hi.
So who's it going? Wanted to thank you again for your hospitality
upon my visit. Hope all's going well, and that you're still playing
that mean guitar..<g>
Anyway, hope all is going well down there in beautiful SD, and that
you're doing well. Us LW junkies are gonna be breathin' down your
neck! <g>
Take care, and I have an interesting storey to tell you, E-mail if
you wish..
Hiya Greg,
I was wonderin' what happened to you! How you can do all that work up at Amblin
and still find time to freelance is beyond me. Are you using 3DS for your
freelance work? Did you ever find a used PAR?
You would have enjoyed NAB, as there was lots of CG stuff to peruse and LW was
virtually everywhere. I talked to a few folks involved with SB/WaveFront/STNG,
and the CG Voyager y'all made seems to be quite a hit. Congratulations!
I'm glad you enjoyed your visit, and you are welcome here anytime you are in
the area. I actually haven't played much guitar 🙁 in the past few weeks due
to some nasty virus/HD/backup problems with my systems, but everything is cool
now and I'm gonna fix that soon.
Sure, drop me some mail and give me the scoop…I'm always up for a good story!
Take care Greg,
-Alan
Hey, I bet that you also have obscure fantasies about 3DS being ported to
NextStep! The postScript of 3D? hmmm? <g> Maybe what they need is to sell the
thing to Billy the Kid and get it included in Windoze 96.
ana /krazy images
He-he.
I'll let YOU do all the fantasizing when it comes to software/platform issues,
Ana. My fantasies are not appropriate for a family forum!<g>
-Alan
> Let's get all our virtual Dom Perignon bottles and celebrate this
magnificient event with a toast. <
Forgive me if I've lost my apetite! <BG> IOW, my sentiments exactly.
— James — Choreo Motion —
The question is: Are we taking this too seriously? I bet that Gary
doesn't care at all (after all, it is PC Magazine <g>)
ana /krazy images
> Are we taking this too seriously? <
Of course we are!! Anyone involved in producing imagary is bound to be a
perfectionist. And perfectionists take everything too seriously!! <BG>
— James — Choreo Motion —